Anyone wondering when throw away computers going to replace the upgradeable desktop computer ? I’m so worried because I just got my A+ certification and if it ever leads to this, well, then I’m out of a job. Also, do anyone agree with reverse engernearing with firmware so linux can become compatable with the computer ?
#1 As soon as it is economically feasable and profitable. But I think there will always be a need for good solid high grade, dependable supercomputers.
#2 Al, you will never stop learning if you want to survive. The key to efficiency in learning is vision. I mean insight into the future. Or at least good guesses. From a philosophical standpoint, learning the truth will ultimately lead to wise choices in your learning preferences. Then you will be able to focus more on efficient learning rather than worrying about the usefulness of what you have learned. Besides, chance may favorablely shine on you and nullify what you have learn. Chance may bode ill for you and crash down your mightiest fortress wisely built. So do what you know to do well and you will be rewarded with peace of mind and security.
yea, that may be peachy, but I for one don’t want to end up to be a paper pusher in some huge coperation, I enjoy working with computers and I rather not do anything else. I hope people have enough sence to buy computers that can be upgraded or repair, just more trash in the ground if it ain’t.
Hey I’m with you Al. The present box is a non proprietary build done by yours truly scrounged from parts all over the place. I couldn’t do the paper pusher thing my self. I have very little trust of people. Especially when the institution is so huge you amount to nothing but cannon fodder at age 55 or so. But there is much more and much deeper to life than that my friend.
The only more issue of life is to burn down this new world order and coprate wellfair.
Well said
a certification doesn’t mean beans in the long run, it may be required for a job but for any kind of staying-power you need to be able to keep up with the times.
(or so all the coders and non-tedium-jobbed people say)
Al_capone i am getting a degree. i have already realised that within 1 month my degree will be worthless, as its not a piece of paper that counts but references, skills, and that kinda stuff.
i am doing it and not expecting to even have a job in the same field, sure i’d like to but in reality one career opens up possibilitys to move to another with some of the simialr skills.
my father did electronic engineering, he was working on the theory because it was later in his life that he was working on some of the ealier comupters in our country.
then he moved onto admin, then managment, worked as a high up manager in many companys earning $160+ an hour. retired at 50
now our family owns 3 houses, we are landlords. and dad formerly retired is now working again, he is now working as a low paid but highly skilled administrator.
and hes happy for once, for about 30 years of him workign he was stressed all the time and grumpy, now hes happy.
follow what you love and you will be happy. success seems to forget about happiness, but a truely successfull person is happy doing what they do, and accidentally gets money doing it
Alltaken
Aren’t they throw away already, even though they are upgradeable. It seems to be cheaper just to buy a new one than to buy new parts for them. I know what you mean though and I agree.
That’s what I’m doing alltaken, but if computers that can be repair will only shortly turn to throw aways, then how can I be in a carear that makes me happy ? What bussiness would there be in fixing them if people can just throw it away and buy a new palm held with Windows 2004 ?
al_capone, realise that there are always things that you will love, if computers are the only thing that make you happy, then i am sorry.
i suggest that you find other things that make you happy as well.
personally i could have choosen to follow a career as a doctor, a scientist, a manager, a lawyer. whatever i wanted.
so i chose design, i am doing industrial design, but i may end up following my love of design and turn it into another area of design, i may never be an idustrial designer, i might just become a personal style consultant for people wanting to start a new, i might design furnature i might do 3d graphics, i might be a manager.
if you like computers, then why limit yourself to only enjoying dismantalling them and sticking them together again, seriously just use that as a starting point and develope it into a new interest.
you may find that recycling old computers (throw away ones) and converting them into networked renderfarms becomes your intrest.
you may find that case modding computers for people becomes an interest, you may end up optimising installed OS’s for peoples specific tasks so that they run perfectly for people.
you see your simple thing is a starting point of a life of learning.
you should be learning somthing every day, you should be keeping your mind active and you will be happy.
seriously i will be learning new stuff at 90, a huge part of my life is learning, and once i have learnt somthing as much as i can then i move on to the next thing as the original bores me.
anyway you have the first step in front of you, don’t stay on this step, don’t let it limit you, your mind is infinatly able to adapt to situations, kinda necisary to survive.
Alltaken
well, I guess I could take something bad and turn it to something good, I do that often here 
Al, If you are concerned about disposable computers make them indisposable 
Be inventive. In my little philosophical rant above I spoke of wisdom and truth. Case in point is that there are few things temporal that last forever.
Maybe I’ll make Linux modems someday.
if you wanted them to be tike winmodems, you’d just have to chop off a few chips of it and put what was HW-driven into the driver, and then close-source the driver and not show it to anyone …that’s how winmodems work …i don’t see myslelf buying something with a closed driver, if i can get a perfect replacement (or even better) with an open one. …you’ll have a hard time selling linux-modems 
I was refering tour one that works with linux %| But maybe I’ll be the first one to come up with a soft modem upgradable to a hard modem.
al you even know what your talking about ???
first off there are easily available linux modems, second off modems are now the fading out technology, cable, dsl, satelite feeds, etc… modems are no good anymore
have you even looked for linux modems??? they can be bought just as easily as winmodems if you damn well look.
Alltaken
That’s insulting alltaken, ofcourse I know what I’m talking about, yes there are soft modems out there, but soft modems will go bad in two years of use, hard modems last longer and are less likely to drop. You see hard modems has there own cpu for data cruching.
Sure there’s soft modems that will work with linux, but seting them up is a pain in the ass, they don’t come with good instructions and it’s bothering trying to find the how to and drivers. And there’s the effort of detecting the modems and getting them to work.
Yes, 56k is becomming less comman, but allot of people still use them, the cable modems isn’t available in my area and satalite and wireless is just cost too damn munch, a 56k is the only option some people have.
These linmodems needs to come with a driver for easy install and I think a upgrading a modem from soft to hard wouldn’t be that hard, all it take is a cpu.
LOL but Al, the thing is HARD MODEMS EXIST.
they are infact easily available on the internet, why go out of your way to convert somthign that is already available. and why invest in a saturated market that is decline.
find the next greatest thing and jump onto that, currently distributed computing is a popular thing, that if you had jumped on a few years ago you would be in a good position.
now the next great thing is wireless distributed networking. meaning that devices relay the information sent to them from near devices to the next ones. like chinesse whispers (i dunno if its called that anymore or inother countrys because of PCness) and that does away with hard lines, and creates a virtual random network of devices.
Alltaken
They call them Broadbands, 50 usd a mounth plus 500 usd for the equipment.
Hard modems are out there but expensive, 60 and up and the serial ones are even more, the reasion why is because they need a power source and that’s cost extra.
oh and i found a linux compatible modem for $6
its a CNR modem which i think means its linux compatible (my brother had a CNR modem that was linux compatible)
i am assuming you have a CNR slot in your computer, it was the predicessot to PCI clots.
Alltaken