Buttonhole McGee wrote:

Gradually, this effect tends to drive good merchandise out of the
market entirely, leaving a generous selection of cheap crud.

Oh, I dunno. I have a $200 computer that's got a 40 gig hard drive, a 2 gig
processor, half a gig of ram... Sure, I got crap video and crap audio, a
crap mobo with only two slots, a comparatively small drive, no DVD stuff,
but damn, I got a ripping fast, perfectly functional computer for $200.

It wasn't all that long ago that I paid $800 for a CPU. Not that much
longer ago that $1/megabyte was a steal for hard drives. (That's really
scary when you think that the average low spec drive today in 2004 is
probably 80 gigs. By the old standard, it's an $81,920 drive. For $75.
Damn.)

I just don't think it's quite a fair comparison. How much do people NEED a
computer to do? My cheap computer does everything the dual 5 GHz 10
terabyte 4 gigabyte mega ultra hoo flutzy of my dreams could do, only
slower, and maybe a little less of it. It spends 90% of its time with a
CPU load average of near 0%.

I think the fact that super el-crappo low budget Wal-Mart consumer computers
today are a lot faster than the one I'm using now is really great.

That's not at all the same thing as saying I love HF tools and I'm happy to
own my Suckmeister 3000 TS with extra sloppy arbor, double decibel, ultra
anemic motor, and extra flexible fence.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/