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Comment Re:"I'm still waiting for my under $50 Macbook." (Score 2, Interesting) 299

It's easy, just start selecting some extra options such as more RAM or an ssd drive. Admittedly the other manufactures also have a high markup on such upgrades but it's much easier to upgrade these parts yourself. Apple do their best to go against this with helpful features such as hard to open cases, oddly sized storage mounts and glued in memory.

If you choose the cheapest RAM / storage options on a "pc laptop" and buy upgrades elsewhere you not only save a few hundred bucks on manufacturers price but also have a spare drive for backups/whatever and an extra RAM stick to flog on ebay. Given Apple's price markup on upgrades the savings will be even greater for similar specs.

As for the GPs comparison of a 13" XPS vs the MacBook Air, Standard: given that the Air uses a low power Core variant the fact that it has a higher clock speed is meaningless. The XPS will be faster and costs 20% less than the Air.

Linux

Submission + - $50 Multiseat Fedora Linux Thin Client (kickstarter.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Plugable Thin Client: The $50 thin client computer adapter. Kickstarter project needs Linux geeks help to get funded. Right now you can buy the adapters from them on Amazon, but are trying to cut the price way down.

Bernie Thompson, says that all the kernel level code is actually already there in 3.3 and 3.4. So all distros support the hardware at a low level, but there is only higher level support on Fedora 17 right now. It's differences in components at the higher level, that determine whether automatic USB multiseat is supported. Lennart's blog post (and the discussion below it) have good detail.

Currently, higher level support is written into systemd and configured to work out of the box on Fedora 17. It's all open source, so other distros can adopt the feature when ready.

The adapters also function as a laptop docking station for Window machines.

AI

Submission + - A Faster Jigsaw Solving Algorithm (i-programmer.info)

mikejuk writes: Andrew Gallagher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York has improved the standard approach to automated jigsaw solving by copying what humans do in finding groups of pieces that best match and working outwards from there.
With a speed of 10,000 pieces per 24 hours it can solve large puzzles. Not only that but the type of jigsaw it solves is more difficult than the usual in that the pieces are square and can be placed in any orientation. It is so good it can even solve problems consisting of a number of mixed up puzzles without being told how many or their dimensions.
Of course as well as having fun beating humans at another recreational pastime the technique could be used to unscramble shredded documents as per the recent Darpa challenge.

Comment Re:That £3500 PC (Score 1) 174

In the UK healthcare is run by the National Health Servce, a large public sector organisation as the OP pointed out. In other words, not an organisation in the "profitable" sector of the economy. Perhaps they're better on budget control, or atleast slightly more professional than a local council.

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