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I recently needed a portable computing device so that I could do revision while I was away from home. I spent about £70 on an old 11" eMachines netbook (plus another £5 for a replacement CPU fan because the one it had was rattling like a bitch) Formatted it and stuck a light Debian install on there, and it's... adequate. It doesn't run fast, but it's perfectly capable of office tasks and a bit of web browsing. But yes, 1024x600 is a horrible resolution.
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Oct 24, 2019 11:16
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Buttcoin purse posted:
I found out about it from Facebook vintage computing groups. Supposedly this is the first kind of auction that auction house has done, outside of the occasional arcade machine in the man cave themed auctions. That said, it was a feeding frenzy at this auction and I would hate to see what the prices would be like at similar auctions in the future
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Oct 24, 2019 12:22
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Mr.Radar posted:The other day I was at Walmart getting an oil change so I wandered over to the electronics section to marvel at their selection of horrible computers. One of the only ones that had a working display model was a Windows 10 tablet with a 32 GB eMMC drive. On the display model only 700 megs of that was free I have one of those, an Acer Spin. I usually have 8 gigs or so free. It’s only purpose in life is to watch Netflix/Prime Video/YouTube TV/Plex and internet browsing when I travel for work. It’s absolutely perfect in that regard, the battery is insane and the screen flips flat so I can pretend it’s a tablet on the plane.
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Oct 24, 2019 12:31
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I hope whoever buys that thing doesn't need to install any applications or store any local files.
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I don't miss OS origami with my EEE PC. It has a 4gb drive unless you get clever and mod it. Had to get a larger SD card to put into the side slot then force XP to reposition all of the temp and My folders there. Granted it was a perfect study laptop, or occasional media box, but that was about it. About a year later the iPads came in and sunk that market so fast.
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Oct 24, 2019 13:35
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GI_Clutch posted:I ended up formatting my Eee PC netbook and installing FreeDOS on it. It boots up into Word 6.0 to let my wife write distraction free. There's a little 8GB USB nub plugged in so she can transfer to her laptop when she's done. Well, that was the plan, but after two uses it's just been collecting dust. The most basic truth about most writers is that they would much rather post endlessly on writing forums and Twitter about writing than actually do the deed. Once the inaugural blog post about your distraction-free writing device has been posted, the netbook can be safely put aside. I say this as someone who owns one of those Alphasmart Neo things... BogDew posted:I don't miss OS origami with my EEE PC. They started tweaking the formula after a year or two. I got a later eeePC and while it still had a terrible resolution, the keyboard was better and I think it had a 32GB spinning rust drive. Even circa 2010 it was barely suitable for web browsing, but I installed a tiling window manager to maximize screen use, tweaked fonts and poo poo in emacs and xterm, and had an acceptable device for student-level development work.
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Oct 24, 2019 15:18
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The weirdest use for the EEE was discovering it has a very old T&L rendering mode in its GPU that allows some games like Klingon Academy to run. That game was quite a relic on release. It was rushed by Interplay and forced to use code from the Starfleet academy engine the that was poorly coded and incomplete. The game was pretty much a beta on release. They used a hack to force up it's resolution by tying it to the desktop as the old code locked it at 640x480.
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Oct 24, 2019 15:37
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I have an Acer netbook around here that was a bit underpowered but at least has a rational aspect ratio on the screen - I think it's 1152x768. It's based off an AMD dual-core, and the difference in the screen between it and the slightly smaller Atom-based version of it was more than enough to make me opt for it. I just charged it up for the first time in a long time because I need to test my internet speed from the modem and it is the only device I have handy which has a built-in ethernet port.
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Oct 24, 2019 18:45
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Netbooks were an exercise in pain and tribulation. I'm glad their dead
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Oct 24, 2019 20:51
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Last time I saw an Eee PC was when I transferred into real college 5 years ago. They handed out a mixed batch of them so everyone would have something to build their schedule on.
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Oct 24, 2019 21:08
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In 2008, Amazon used to do a thing where Prime members could enter for a slim chance to "win" the opportunity to buy products at a steep discount (and I think even after you were selected, you still had to beat the rush to claim it once it went live?). I don't think they ran that program very many times before deciding it was a dumb idea. Anyway I was "lucky" and was able to purchase an Eee PC for $140, discounted from $430. It was kind of nice to take around in college where there was Wifi everywhere, but it ran XP and felt mostly useless after a couple years. Also, Eee PC was the dumbest name ever.
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Oct 24, 2019 21:31
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I really wanted one at one point. Mostly for imaginary JC Denton scenarios that I haven't found myself a part of.
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Oct 24, 2019 21:40
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Casimir Radon posted:I really wanted one at one point. Mostly for imaginary JC Denton scenarios that I haven't found myself a part of. That's my biggest draw for a tiny computer. I never need to hack the Gibson but I want to be able to.
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Oct 24, 2019 21:58
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Buy the phone from W57CH_D8GS you can hack chicago by pressing X
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Oct 25, 2019 00:59
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Every single person in this thread would have killed for an Atari Portfolio after watching T2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cfQKxUffqA
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Oct 25, 2019 01:47
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RandomFerret posted:Every single person in this thread would have killed for an Atari Portfolio after watching T2 This scene and the fact that I had an atari lynx at the time, made me flip the gently caress out.
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Oct 25, 2019 02:15
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My friend had one of those vacuum florescent display toughbooks or whatever they were that they used to control the sentry guns in Aliens. I don't think he ever used it for anything other than showing the animation from the movie.
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Oct 25, 2019 02:51
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The closest thing to a netbook I've had is an X61s Thinkpad. It still fucken rules.
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Oct 25, 2019 09:39
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RandomFerret posted:Every single person in this thread would have killed for an Atari Portfolio after watching T2 Even at the time, the use of 'PIN IDENTIFICATION NUMBER' triggered me.
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Oct 25, 2019 09:49
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RandomFerret posted:Every single person in this thread would have killed for an Atari Portfolio after watching T2 I actually bought one used some years ago. It was extremely underwhelming.
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Oct 25, 2019 11:42
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KozmoNaut posted:I actually bought one used some years ago. It was extremely underwhelming. I still have a LPT port adaptor for one somewhere if you want it.
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Oct 25, 2019 14:11
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Thanks, but I already had a bunch of gear for it, it actually sort of worked as a serial terminal. Got rid of the whole thing a couple of years ago
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Oct 25, 2019 14:17
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Re: Tablets, Surface tablets of all models are hot right now, and probably will be for a while. Microsoft really nailed how a Windows 10 tablet should work and look. Its all the best parts of an iPad and a laptop combined. I have a surface pro 4 and a handful of pro and non-pro surface 3's and I'm never going back to ipads and laptops. The surfaces have the power of a laptop with the portability of an iPad, and often have fantastic screens to boot. There were a rush of mini tablets a couple years back. All powered by Atom processors and having 32gb of storage and usually 2gb of RAM. The then current version of Windows 10 (creators update) ran horribly on them. It hogged all the RAM and filled the drive up within days. I bought a NuVision TM800W610L, notorious at the time for being the cheapest windows 10 tablet on the market, $60 from Amazon. It ran windows terribly. For all the above mentioned reasons. It did however have one saving grace, a very nice 1920x1200 display that looks fantastic, and at 8 inches, had a really nice ppi. At the time, I threw it in a drawer and forgot about it due to how horrible windows ran Until this past week, I came across it, charged it up and put the may 2019 version of win10 on it, and what a difference it made!! It runs fantastic now, snappy, responsive, and really feels like a tiny surface 3, my gold standard for cheap windows tablets. I don't know what Microsoft changed, but it made a world of difference for these underpowered devices. Tl;Dr, I have lots of opinions on windows 10 tablets
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Oct 25, 2019 15:21
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Is there an affordable spot to get in on the win tablet space where performance is decent? I like the idea of having a mobile jackbox machine with hdmi out
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Oct 25, 2019 15:53
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A non-pro Surface 3 is the sweet spot of price and performance right now, from my research. It won't break the bank but its modern enough that everything supports it and windows 10 still has updated drivers They have mini display port which you can convert to HDMI audio included Beve Stuscemi has a new favorite as of 16:50 on Oct 25, 2019 |
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Oct 25, 2019 16:45
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Shut up Meg posted:Even at the time, the use of 'PIN IDENTIFICATION NUMBER' triggered me. ATM Machine
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Oct 25, 2019 17:12
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I prefer automated ATM machines.
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Oct 25, 2019 17:18
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Is PIN Identification Number better or worse than PIN Number?
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Oct 25, 2019 17:48
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Personal PIN Identification Number
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Oct 25, 2019 17:50
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I like to enter my Personal PIN Identification Number into Automated Teller ATM Machines.
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Oct 25, 2019 17:50
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...at the Trustee Savings Bank Bank
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Oct 25, 2019 17:57
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:A non-pro Surface 3 is the sweet spot of price and performance right now, from my research. It won't break the bank but its modern enough that everything supports it and windows 10 still has updated drivers I have a Surface 3 and the CPU is most definitely not up to snuff for anything more than light browsing. Watching videos is a pain because it just doesn't have the CPU power necessary to do 1080p consistently and smoothly. Of course it's also the poverty spec variant with 2 gigs of RAM but surprisingly beyond being slow to launch and necessitating some sane program management that's much less of an issue than the CPU, especially with newer versions of Firefox. Also Microsoft keeps breaking poo poo with updates and there's a bunch of smaller issues that pop up here and there. Currently for example smooth screen dimming is just gone after a Windows update. No idea if it'll ever return.
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Oct 25, 2019 18:14
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I've only ever worked with the 4 gig variants but I haven't noticed youtube issues. My 2gig NuVision 8" tablet plays YouTube just fine. Makes me wonder if you're having driver wonkiness They are for sure not gaming rigs but if OP just wants jackbox theyre probably fine for that, its barely more than a flash game
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Oct 25, 2019 18:29
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I dunno I suppose it could be the RAM that's killing it but I for the life of me can't get a very smooth or consistent experience once video is involved. Forget browsing the OSHA thread or watching YouTube casually while doing other browsing, it just absolutely doesn't work well at all. 60fps video in particular is a killer. And I'm not asking for the impossible here either, just mostly smooth and responsive playback.
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Oct 25, 2019 18:34
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOSmrpw89SI
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Oct 25, 2019 19:10
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Ruflux posted:I dunno I suppose it could be the RAM that's killing it but I for the life of me can't get a very smooth or consistent experience once video is involved. Forget browsing the OSHA thread or watching YouTube casually while doing other browsing, it just absolutely doesn't work well at all. 60fps video in particular is a killer. And I'm not asking for the impossible here either, just mostly smooth and responsive playback. I’m watching 1080p just fine on a convertible with an n3350 (Celeron, 1.1ghz processor) so that seems weird. It does have 4gb though.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:22
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big crush on Chad OMG posted:I’m watching 1080p just fine on a convertible with an n3350 (Celeron, 1.1ghz processor) so that seems weird. It does have 4gb though. YouTube videos almost work, but trying to actually use the rest of the page, skip ahead in the video or similar induces terrible lag. 60fps YouTube just doesn't play back properly at all. It's in a really annoying spot where it almost works, but in practice it's so laggy and unpredictable that it's not very usable. I usually just leave YT on auto quality since it tends to prefer 720p which feels more workable for the device.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:30
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Even desktops are not immune if you're a dirty poor like me. 1080p60 Youtube is what finally got me to retire my Dell Optiplex 780 USFF. It was a Core 2 Duo E8400 but it had the GMA4500 integrated video and I couldn't put a faster video card in it because it's a little machine with no slots. Now I have an Optiplex 990 Minitower. The Sandy Bridge Integrated video can almost manage 1080p60, I got a cheap GT 1030 GDDR5 which is hugely faster than the integrated though.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:40
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Vanagoon posted:Even desktops are not immune if you're a dirty poor like me. Dude, every phone and tablet on the market for the last 7 years can do 1080/60fps youtube.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:43
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7 years ago was 2012, are you sure? I had a single core 600Mhz ZTE Merit in 2012. I told you I am I dirty poor, on disability no less. I use stuff until it's not able to work anymore. I am the tech relic.
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Oct 25, 2019 19:49
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A non-pro Surface 3 has a circa-2014/15 Atom, which definitely isn't up to the task of modern web browsing. I have a similarly spec'ed tablet and it's just awful.
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Oct 25, 2019 20:31
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