why did you buy your last computer?

[Q Classic]

well, there's also jacking in(to a plug)...

[Kramerman]

car jacking

[MrFun]

Originally posted by geeslaka
There are two kinds of jacking - thread and off.

[geeslaka]

well, there's also jacking in(to a plug)...

I was under the impression that caused a painful shock.....

[monolith94]

Other - I got it for college. My plan is to use this until I graduate, when I will get another one.

[Dis]

well I don't actually buy computers anymore. I upgrade.

but yes, I upgrade to get my specs higher for games. What else are computers good for? well that and porn.

[Skanky Burns]

Internet, pron and games. Which can overlap at times too. Online strip poker as an example.

[Dis]

online strip poker

this gives me an idea.

Why not have multiplayer strip poker. Using your real self of course, not pictures. You would need a webcam or something similar of course.

I could make a lot of money with this idea. Of course I posted it here, so someone will probably steal it. Okay I'm not motivated, nor have the programming skills, so we know I'll never do anything with this idea.

But I seriously think it could have it's niche market among the singles dating scene.

[Asher]

Yeah, Diss, that's a brilliant idea. I'd jump at the chance to see a bunch of lonely internets geek taking off their pants, revealing stained Spiderman tighty-whities.

[Dis]

I told you the market is with the single dating scene, not geeks who play everquest.

believe it or not, a lot of average people of both sexes flirt with each other in chat rooms. why not make it more interesting?

[loinburger]

That's a good plan, esp. since it also prevents people from lying about their age/gender (at least, for any appreciable length of time, unless they're really good at poker).

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dissident
I told you the market is with the single dating scene, not geeks who play everquest.

The people desperate enough to play video strip poker online are not going to be gorgeous.

[Mercator]

Originally posted by MrFun
You know what -- I don't think there is any limit in the ways a thread can be thread-jacked.

From purchasing computers to sex.

wow

You were discussing multi-threading...

[Neutrino]

Asher:
Wouldn't software need to be optimized to take advantage of HT?

Hmm wait.. if the OS knows about HT then it can choose to assign the 2nd process from the OS' PCB to the CPU - but does it choose the optimal solution (one that does not interfere w/ the other running process so that no deadlock occurs).

[lord of the mark]

so basically it seems there are two basic reasons folks here buy a new computer.

1. They need to increase the number of PC's they own ( I realize i should have stated option 1 differently - a university student getting their first computer is pretty much equivalent to that, I think)
2. Their existing specs are inadequate for games - especially civ3 (well im not surprised, this is poly, after all)

Only a couple of people here bought new computers cause they were physically breaking down - confirming the general view that obsolence drives replacements, not physical depreciation. And that the principal obsolesence is software obsolesence (though mobility - moving from a desktop to a laptop - is also a consideration) and that games (at least around here) drives software obsolecence.

While i meant to focus on demand considerations, several comments focused on "supply" considerations - if a bargain is available, whether do to low price, ease of building a puter oneself, or other factors, some people here get a new one without any explicit consideration of advantages of a new one over ones they already own. OTOH if your budget is tight you may defer purchase even when the existing computer is inadequate. And of course upgrading is a an important option, with personal computer savvy, the upgradability of the existing box, and the price of parts being the drivers.


I should perhaps have limited the poll to only those who have purchased in the last couple of years, or even to replacements only. Though then I would have lost he sense that new households (including students going to university) is a key driver of purchases.

Thoughts - the new purchases by students is a sign the market is not yet saturated - in many of those cases the parents or other adults in the household had no computer, or less than one per adult, so there is room for expansion in total base of PCs (in developed countries) beyond growth in population. IE new 18 year olds get new PC's. Dying 70 and 80 year olds never had them. So even a steady state population generates demand for new PC's, aside from replacements.

Demand for replacements largely driven by games. (well polys probably not representative in this regard, but still) Which presents major threats to PC manufacturers (and chip makers, and operating system publishers) if PC games stagnate or decline. The console vs PC game issue becomes not just an issue for gamers, but an area of concern to the entire PC industry. Which is good, since they, more than game publishers, can address issues of ease of use and compatibility that tend to handicap PC games.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Neutrino
Asher:
Wouldn't software need to be optimized to take advantage of HT?

Hmm wait.. if the OS knows about HT then it can choose to assign the 2nd process from the OS' PCB to the CPU - but does it choose the optimal solution (one that does not interfere w/ the other running process so that no deadlock occurs).

Programs optimized for HT show the most improvement, but it doesn't need to be so. Most applications today are single-threaded (they only use one thread), and HT won't show any performance advantage in that case unless you are running two different programs at once (say, video encoding & norton anti-virus). More and more programs are designed for either dual processors (SMP) or hyperthreading (SMT). SMP programs usually show a considerable performance boost with HT, SMT programs show the most.

And Windows XP is the only Windows OS that actually understands and recognizes HT. Windows 95, 98, and Me won't use HyperThreading at all, and Windows 2000 treats it as a 2nd physical processor.

[Neutrino]

I wondering how the OS will determine the optimal choice in picking the other processes to run concurrently in order to maximize resource efficiency and utilization (and avoid something like the Dining Philosopher's problem). Maybe it looks at the address spaces of each process on the PCB and compares the shared blocks?

[CivPatriot]

bought a laptop for college, an ibook

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Mercator


You were discussing multi-threading...

And then another poster expressed excitement over it, so I joked that he had something to masturbate over.

[Kramerman]