a Macbook Pro might be nice software-wise, because you can run everything under either Lion or Windows Bootcamp, but I am not to happy with the HARDWARE of my Macbook Pro (a late 2011 15"). The notebook has two very annoying "features". One is that it has a real heat problem - if you run a game or any other software which stresses both the CPU and the GPU, it is easy to get the CPU to a thermal level at which it throttles in self-defense (apparently there is one heatsink which is shared between the CPU and the GPU). Also, the Magsafe power supply is sized too small - there are lots of posts on the Apple forums by users who have the problem that when plugged in while using CPU/GPU-intensive software, their Macbook Pro not only does not charge anymore, it actually NEEDS the battery, too, to run. Meaning the battery is discharged and when it is empty, the notebook shuts down because the power supply itself cannot maintain the power needed.

Like I said, I own a Macbook Pro and I really like it for everyday work - since I upgraded it with a SSD and more RAM, it is under normal load a very quiet and nice-to-work-with piece of hardware. I am just very disappointed that unlike every other notebook I ever dealt with (e.g. the high end HP ones I get to use at work), it seems to be not designed at all for anybody who actually wants to use all the CPU/GPU power they put into it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2787732

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17771835

Pretty sure that TV series is based on books which have been available for years already. So I don't know how one week more would make a difference.

True, but from what others have written here, you get an warning message "DUAL INPUT" yelled at you by the computer when both are trying to control the plane via the joystick, so it's not as if the pilots are not aware that the other one is also doing something. It seems that the pilot in this crash chose to ignore the warning that the copilot was also trying to control the plane for too long.

So yes - the Airbus system makes it impossible to feel what the other guy is doing when you hold the joystick, but you ARE aware that the other one IS doing something, too. And you can then tell him to let go of the joystick.

If you overclock because you enjoy tinkering with your hardware or if you actually need every little clock increase for whatever it is you're using your computer for, more power to you. But I think he has a point - overclocking is not as necessary anymore for "standard" users/gamers as it was a few years ago.

I, too, overclocked everything back in the days of the 486, Pentium, P2, P3 (plus the various AMD alternatives). But that was mostly because back then the clock increase actually made a huge difference when playing games, because most stuff was CPU limited. Overclocking my PII-400 to 450 actually meant I could choose more graphical details or maybe a higher resolution in the games without getting FPS which were too low to play.

But today, when I overclock my i7-2600K (which cost much much less than my PII-400 back then), I notice no difference at all in games or in any other application, even stuff which should be only about CPU speed (say, zipping a couple hundred megs of files). Yes, maybe I save a second or two when I zip files, but does that matter? Any CPU which you can buy right now (if you do not choose something extraordinarily slow like an Atom CPU etc.) is fast enough that it does not limit you in any meaningful way when you do normal stuff or even games on your computer. Gaming performance today is limited by the graphics card, not the CPU. So if you have a decent graphics card which allows you to play at the native resolution of your screen with full details, overclocking your CPU won't give you any noticeable benefit. And that's why I do not overclock anymore. I just don't notice any difference to the standard clock speed.

Like I said, if you overclock because it's fun for you or because you need to run extreme calculation tasks 24/7, go ahead. But for games or normal applications? Nah, not needed anymore.

Definitely not required reading in school. Would be no point in doing that anyway, since the whole book is just crap, nothing to learn there except that Hitler was not good at writing :-) Maybe some excerpts are used in history class somewhere to show how delusional Hitler was.

The book could not be bought anywhere because of the mentioned copyright, but it never was any problem getting your hands on an old version of it - basically every household back then in Germany had one, and many of those books survived to this day on some grandma's / grandpa's bookshelf. I know that my grandmother had one (she said that most people threw theirs away after the war, but she kept hers because it had an autograph in it), I think my uncle has it now.

My (German) bank recently switch to a smart TAN system with a card reader. To authorize any transaction, you need to insert your debit card into the reader and then have the reader pick up some flashing bar code transmission from your screen. You then can verify the transaction on the display of the reader (amount, account number, etc.) and if everything is correct, you then use the TAN the card reader generated to authorize the transaction on your computer. So if anybody wants to transfer some money from your account, he would need a.) the password to log onto the banking website b.) your debit card and c.) your specific card reader (every bank account is linked to one specific card reader). The whole thing looks similar to this: https://www.volksbank-forchheim.com/files/smarttan_leser_klein.jpg

Oh yes. This is something which really makes me mad sometimes, when a website/search engine/whatever makes ASSUMPTIONS based on my location (IP address). Listen, just because I am sitting in Germany, that does not automatically mean I *want* everything to be presented in a crappy German translation (I can understand your normal website with MORE content very well, ty very much), or that I want to see only stuff your German distributor has available. Maybe I want to look up stuff for some US product I bought on ebay. And maybe I do not want to see only the search result for my current location, maybe I want to look something up for my holiday next week. Assumptions are bad.

Yup. My Golf (GTI) has "brake assist", as do all newer (last couple years) VW. Brake overrides throttle, and if the car senses you suddenly applying the brake (i.e. you accelerate and then suddenly put your foot onto the brake), the car even applies full brake force automatically (because apparently many drivers are not capable of doing a full emergency braking when it is needed, because they never trained it or even only tried it once).

When you bought XP, you knew that Microsoft would stop support for it eventually, because they clearly stated that (and the date for it) on their website. In fact, they even extended that support by a few years. Still, you bought the OS, knowing that fact. So it's not as if Microsoft suddenly forces you to upgrade, you were aware of the need to eventually upgrade your OS if you want security updates and support for current hardware for it, and had several years to prepare for that and save up $5 or so every year for the next OS version.

What "news"? The fact that Microsoft will stop support for XP, which has been know for years? It's not as if that should be any surprise for anybody.