Re: [dwm] Asustek EEE PC 1000 Atom 1GB 40G SSD Linux Black

From: Kurt H Maier <karmaflux_AT_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2008 09:43:05 -0500

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 9:25 AM, Matthias-Christian Ott <ott_AT_enolink.de> wrote:
> That's stupid! Even if the battery is nearly unusable, you can still buy
> a new one instead of buying a new computer (I also heard about people
> who build their own batteries ;)). Buying a new computer if the old one
> is not entirely broken just contributes to these huge e-waste dumps in
> Africa and Asia.

...except that I don't throw away my old laptops. I still have them.
All of them. All the way back to my 486 Thinkpad 755CDV.

I rebuild batteries pretty frequently, for my power tools. Rebuilding
a simple NiMH battery is a different task than some customized,
proprietary LiPoly job. It's just not feasible (or cheap). A new
battery for my T43 would have set me back at least a hundred dollars
and a few hours of labor to rebuild myself, and buying one new is
obviously more expensive. Since I was *already* unhappy with the size
of the computer, it didn't seem like a good investment. I plugged it
into my KVM, and it's serving as a desktop machine now.

> or take my IBM
> Model M keyboard which was manufactured somewhen in the 1980s (It even
> survived a chemical laboratory - well, I took some hours to clean it ;)).

I have a box of about forty of these I got from a recycling center.
They're the only keyboards I use at home -- but I don't intend to
carry one around with me all day.

> But tiling doesn't work effectively on these screens (at least on my
> screen it doesn't).

I haven't had any problems. I just use bottomstack.

> I meant this seriously. I didn't touch a EEE PC 1000, but for the EEE PC
> 700 this is true. I haven't seen someone using this as his development
> computer or computer for longer works.

You have now. I develop on my Acer, and I use it to manage the entire
computer science department network at my campus.

> I didn't say that these netbooks are no computers or have bad
> performance (I prefer an Intel Atom CPU to a Dual Core processor), I
> just said, if the manufacturers would build exactly the same machines
> with bigger displays, the computers would be a good choice - at least
> currently they are in the majority of cases just toys.

Not everyone wants a big screen. My desktop computer at home serves
me quite well with a 14" monitor. Likewise, I have no problem with my
Acer.

> Additionally I can't understand, why all people started to carry around
> laptops (what's the difference between laptop and notebook?) with
> themselves, except they are maybe professionals (programmers,
> scientists, ...) and travel a lot. I don't have to have a laptop to sit
> in an internet cafe during holidays.

I carry around a laptop because I use computers a lot and frequently
find it more convenient to bring my own. There are no internet cafes
where I live.

> All the world seems to be busy (or at least pretend this) and therefore
> has to run around with mobile devices (mobile phones, laptops, ...) in
> order to do their "important" work. In my opinion these mobile devices
> are just modern today and people often just buy them and use them in the
> public for no reason, just to show who they are. It became some kind of
> status symbol.
> If your at an airport, just look at the screens of these "business
> men" - nearly nobody of them does serious work (or at least I got the
> impression). You can also observe this at internet cafes or railway
> stations.

I don't see how this relates to whether or not a netbook is a useful
tool, or how it relates to whether dwm runs well on one.

#Kurt H Maier
Received on Fri Sep 05 2008 - 14:43:05 UTC

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