Assuming it's working properly.

My VW's system is supposed to do that, but because it doesn't sense the door unlocking or opening properly, the alarm stays armed, and you then get the alarm going off when you try to start the car.

GP also mentioned that nobody is making anything better than 1080p, which is what I was refuting.

My frankenpad began as a T60p (15.0" 4:3, by the way, I forgot to mention that), with just the LCD swap, maxed out RAM, and a 2 GHz Core Duo, and I stuck with Windows 7 on that build (my experience on OS X being subpar, having used it extensively on an iBook G4, and being frustrated with the speed).

Then after a while, things were failing, the chassis was damaged, and I was getting sick of the RAM limitations, so I got a nice refurb T60 15.0" 4:3 cheaply, ripped out all the T60 bits, put T61p bits in (which is what required filing part of the chassis away), swapped my LCD over, and ran with it for a while.

Then, the screen started failing right before the MBPR was announced, so I jumped ship to OS X, and I'm liking it now that I have a fast machine.

It's not your only choice, it's just your only choice that's currently available.

Plenty of 1920x1200 options if you go back to Core 2, a few at Nehalem, and a couple at Sandy Bridge. (Some of those in the Core 2 and Nehalem days are even 15".)

Also, if you go back to Core 2, and don't mind some frankensteining, you can get an IDTech IAQX10, IAQX10N, or IAQX10S panel, a ThinkPad T60 or T60p, and a T61p 14.1" 4:3 motherboard, heatsink, Socket P CPU, and PCMCIA slot assembly, and put them all together. Need to reflash the panel's EDID ROM, and file some stuff away from the chassis, but the end result is up to the following:

2048x1536 IPS display
2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo Penryn
Quadro FX 570M (but crippled, and 128 MiB VRAM only)
8 GiB RAM
Whatever SSD you want, but IIRC it's constrained to SATA 2 speeds (maybe SATA 1, actually)

With less frankensteining, you can run the T60p board, and get up to the following:

2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo Merom
FireGL V5250
3 GiB RAM
Whatever SSD you want at SATA 1 speeds

And, with zero frankensteining, you can find an ultra-rare config of the ThinkPad R50p, which means up to (I think):

1.7 GHz Pentium M
Radeon 9200 or so IIRC
I think 2 GiB RAM?
Whatever PATA SSD you can find

The T61p/T60p frankenstein is what I ran before getting a MacBook Pro Retina, I'm a bit of a pixel whore.

There were certainly attempts at copy protection, though, largely relating to either weird disk track stepping mechanisms, disk defects that copying software didn't properly copy, and the like. I think there was the odd dongle, too.

Of course, Bumpgate hit all the x86 business laptops with discrete graphics, too. ATI didn't have anything competitive performance-wise at the time, so everyone went with 8000 series Nvidia stuff.

Basically, 2007-2008 was a bad time to buy a new laptop with discrete graphics.

Metal wheels on metal rail have significantly lower rolling resistance than rubber tires on asphalt or concrete, though. And, the infrastructure for rail is better suited to providing electricity to a train (partially because there's already metal to metal contact) than the infrastructure for roads.

The Republicans here in the US are often approaching Europe's right-wing terrorists, actually.

Literally, a lot of the right-wing rhetoric that gets spewed wouldn't look out of place in Breivik's manifesto.

The clerk actually prevented HIMSELF from violating the law, too, as he would be personally liable, knowing that she was going to export it.

Of course, he opened Apple up to a civil suit for discrimination, most likely. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

Or you die.

Wonder how long before there's mass suicide to discharge student loans.

There's actually another way to do it, that GEOS and webOS's Enyo framework did. Actually, even Windows Mobile's implementation of .NET did this to an extent, IIRC. Android half-asses it, but it at least tries - there's separate phone and tablet UIs in the same application.

Don't let programs draw their UI, make them give a list of tasks to the OS, and make the OS draw the UI that's appropriate for the device you're on. (GEOS, at least, had hinting of sorts, IIRC, to note the priority of tasks.)

Use the same binary across all devices.

So, on a phone, you get a simple UI that lets you do stuff that's appropriate for doing on a phone.

On a tablet, you get a more fully fleshed UI, but still touch-friendly.

On a desktop, you get a full desktop UI.

The added benefit of this is, the UI can never be inconsistent with system standards.

And, there were consumption device-class tablets back then, too.

They were basically the "internet appliances", shoved into a resistive tablet form. And they all failed miserably. Part of it because of performance, part of it because there wasn't a strong software ecosystem, part of it because they didn't have a strong premium consumer electronics brand attached to them (that is, part of the reason why Apple is so good at launching products is because they're Apple, and people will buy Apple stuff, and due to network effects, a platform needs to be successful to be successful (it also didn't hurt that Apple started with a phone OS that was already successful)).

Although Catleap et. al. shows that there is a market for defective displays.

(That's how they get their panels so cheap, FWIW.)

IME, the thing that Diaspora needs more than anything is massive optimization.

When it's taking 30-60 seconds per page load from a 1.1 GHz P3, and it's not due to swapping, but rather sheer CPU load...

The irony is, what is a BBS if not a social network of sorts, that you can play door games on, and chat with your friends?

(Granted, very few people are setting up their own social networks...)