In modern times, I would give them no admin rights on the box itself, but you could provide virtual machines for them on which they can do whatever they want. The argument that they need to do things that "really, really" :-) require access to the bare metal, doesn't hold anymore, because the applications they are building will anyway need to be able to run in a virtualized environment.

I've done many audits and project plans on this topic in the past, and the issue is always that developers are split personalities: on the one hand they are standard corporate citizens that need email, calendar and word, which must be rock solid and therefore IT controlled, on the other hand they do their development work that requires freedom over their box. In the past the best solution was always to give them two PCs (or a thin client for the standard desktop work), but today I would solve this all through virtual machines.
 

In the end, I find the best way to figure out where something is made is to look for the "Made in XXXXXX" statement.

Which especially for a car tells you nothing. If it says "Made in Mexico" (for arguments sake) it only means that final assembly happened there. The engine could be put together in Korea and the brakes coming from Portugal.

That's why my Fujitsu P7010-D was/is such a fun laptop: only 10.5 inch wide-screen, but with a 1280 x 768 resolution. That's way more pixels/inch than normal. I have one dead pixel, constant blue on, and I just don't notice it. Simply because the pixel is so small.

This laptop is 4-5 years old, with a Pentium-M probably still faster than an Atom, has a 3-5 hour battery life and a built-in CDRW/DVD. Yes, it is a bit heavier than a netbook, but the size is the same as your typical 10" netbook.

The only BIG BIG difference is of course that at the time those machines went for prices over 2000 dollar. Compare that with what you pay now for your 10 inch netbook. Those extra pixels didn't come cheap....

Let's keep the definition simple: if it has an Atom CPU it is a netbook, when it has a standard Core CPU it is a laptop. So far, this holds....

My daughter has a HP Netbook, but it requires a PROPRIETARY cable, something I refuse to encourage with my dollars.

That's true for the older HP1000, but the HP110 that replaced it does have a VGA connector.

Wouldn't Google earth have the largest 'photo' ...

Google's satellite picture of the earth is one million giga-pixels large (if I didn't make some calculation error).

Yes, if it were open, it'd be easier to fix, ...

Proprietary software is not more difficult to fix than OSS. It's simply that in the case of open source there are more people working on it. The army is not better, just much bigger....

Mmm, I'm not wondering at all. :-) My home-brew firewall, gateway, etc. is a 12+ year old 486SX in a nice Industrial PC casing. So no, I'm not going to compile a Gentoo distro on it. But it runs fine its RedHat 6.2.

It is the kind of compromise between using distros matching the age of the hardware (which would be Slackware or RH 3.0.3) and distros that are more recent and 'cutting edge', with all the associated problems because they need matching up-to-date hardware.

And to the original poster: if you get running what you need in a weekend, or maybe a week, go for it. But otherwise, I would definitely spend 50 bucks on eBay and get some more recent hardware. Don't punish yourself....
 

I have a stinkpad that has three round connectors

You mean a Micky-Mouse :-) plug. Yep, I've got some of those too. Toshiba is using them as well for their (some?) netbooks.

Friend of mine came over from Europe with her netbook and I still could borrow her the right powercord. This time I didn't let her steal it, because I don't have that many.

Where the hose that goes to the toilet doesn't fit the hose that goes to the sink

Did you try USB .... Universal-Sink-Bath connectors. For the toilet, better don't use mini-USB. :-)

Ehhh, Motorola is also using them already for years. At least my KRZR (two years old) has mini-USB and I'm pretty sure the RAZR is the same.

Even better: don't buy the travel adapter for your laptop, but after arriving just ask your host if he has a local power cord lying around (and steal that from him for your next trip :-). Alternatively go to the local electronics store (or dollar store) and buy one, they're two to five bucks.

Which would be the same if you would travel from the UK to let's say Germany or France, all with different wall outlets.

I live in Canada and over the years I've built up a small collection of European power cords. My laptops upgrade, but the power cords (mostly) stay the same.

> I am a healthcare worker ....

Good for speaking up!! I've never read on /. so much crap as tonight, by reading from people that are nicely "standing on the side" and are 100% convinced that it's OK if people are fired from their job if they don't give in to a media hype.

My wife is working in the largest hospital in town and is afraid of facing the same decision. She won't take the shots, no matter the consequences, just because she is too careful with her health. She didn't have the flu in the last 20 years, so she doesn't want to get it from some unproven shot.

If you compare the number of people dying from H1N1 (each and every one of them makes headlines in the papers) with the number dying per year from normal flu (just in the USA 36,000 per year, that's an avg. of 100 people per day), it is ridiculous that this gets such an attention.

This being /., maybe health care is served better when we start firing programmers that don't donate their liter of blood once a month. That would be the same kind of BS.

>
> I just was thinking about the term papers I would have to do in
> university. I was preparing for a science or engineering career
>

Yeah, yeah .... term papers .... but how were the girls left, right and center of you?? :-)

>
> I sat in on another teacher's class, and remembered why history was so f*ing boring. Most teachers can't teach!
>

And that's the biggest shame of all school education. OK, I love physics, and languages are very important, but the most essential class is still history. And it should also be the one the most easy to make into a fun class, either to kids or adults. But I agree, history too often was boring, and we all regret that for many years to come.... I'm still catching up!