LOL @ PC donation drive

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

Processors: Original release date should be less than 6 years ago.
Motherboards: Original release date should be less than 4 years ago. ATX form factor or smaller derivatives (e.g. micro-ATX, mini-ATX)
Memory: DDR or newer. Each module should be 256MB or larger. No notebook modules (SO-DIMM) please.
Hard Disk Drive: Minimum size 40GB, IDE or SATA.
Graphics Card: AGP or PCIe bus
Network/Sound Card: PCI or PCIe bus
Optical Drive: At least CD-ROM, read speed 24x and above. CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW drives also welcome.
Monitor: At least 15", able to display 24/32-bit (true) color. DVI/VGA interface. Please also provide power and DVI/VGA cables.
Speakers: In pairs please. Nobody wants to receive just a subwoofer or one satellite.
Power Supply: Minimum 350w. Preferably with power cable.
Keyboard/Mouse: PS/2 or USB connector.
Casing: ATX form factor or smaller derivatives (e.g. micro-ATX, mini-ATX)
Software: We would greatly appreciate it if anyone is kind enough to donate Operating Systems, Productivity (office) or any other original software whose license is still valid for installation on another PC. Software should not have been released more than 4 years ago. See additional notes below.

Lets see...

My mom is using a Pentium 4 1.8A for her work - system bought in mid-2002, most likely released earlier - fail
Motherboard - bought with CPU almost 7 years ago - fail
Memory - SDRAM - fail
Power supply - 200+W - fail
Software - Windows 98 + Office 97 - uber fail

She's still freaking using it today. And it still functions as fast.

As for me...

Motherboard - came with Starhub promotion Compaq PC in 2005, mainboard series launched in early 2005 - fail
Graphics card - before I upgraded it to HD3850 2 months ago it was onboard - neither AGP nor PCIe - fail

And the TV rig before it was recently upgraded:

Processor - Athlon 800mhz - released since god knows when, probably 2000 - fail
Motherboard - the famous A7V133 - confirm fail
Memory - either 64 or 128MB, definitely not 256 - fail
Hard Disk Drive - 4GB - fail by a factor of 10
No optical drive, no monitor (uses TV), no keyboard (yes no KB), no casing (yes no casing) - fail
Win98 - you expect me to run slow XP? - fail

Even after the upgrade it still fails - because it uses the exact same motherboard + cpu in my current Starhub Compaq rig. And it uses the onboard graphics. Plus the PSU fails too.

Secondary com - used as dad's com, backup, botting com
Processor - Celeron D 2.4Ghz, may have passed the age requirement, but performance doesn't match that of the 1.8A
Motherboard - some wierd SIS or VIA chipset supporting up to 533MHz FSB - fail
Graphics - f-king slow on-board - fail

Then, at my new job, we're supposed to use laptops in our work. And I suspect the laptop uses Willamette core - fail

And I know of many friends who are still using Pentium 3's or have used it until now. Some of their parents use the same computer for work. And I also see lots of old systems still being used in workplaces.

Those systems with CPUs that fail, they're still being regularly used for real productive work (apart from my decommissioned TV rig (code name Revival) which was used for entertainment). Those systems with CPUs that pass, fail anyway in other requirements, but they are still being useful. My TV rig handles HD 720P H.264 decoding (with slight difficulty sometimes) which is still a CPU-demanding task today, and my main system (which specs are similar to the TV rig less the recent gfx card upgrade) has served me well for years and is going to continue so, and with a graphics card I play UT3 and F.E.A.R. and C&C3 etc with no lag. Even without one it can handle most MMO games with ease, and allow me to frag noobs in UT2K4 under the name of Higu. If you remember this name, yes you're right, you've been fragged by an on-board gfx.

All this fun and usefulness on "failed" systems. Wow cool.

Donating PC to low-income families is good. But the strict requirements makes this hypocritical. What is the use of a high-end computer for children anyway? Even DotA and Maple and CS don't require such specs; my mom's "failed" system, once equipped with a Ti4200, managed UT2k4 and C&C Generals with no lag. And the use of older computers for work illustrates the situation even better.

So lets just say we gave them the good specs to play games, this is the most reasonable explanation since games are the most demanding apps for a PC for a normal consumer.

Now that's just wierd. And you'd think that in low-income families the parents wouldn't want their children to study hard to break out of that poverty cycle.

And you cannot say that I'm too cynical and selfish. Remember, my main system failed the requirements. Even though my systems are all good enough for so many shitz lol.

The reason they want <4-year-old motherboards and <6-year-old processors might be reliability; it'd reflect badly on their image if the donated PC spoils. But hay, reliability and age isn't directly related. My com ran almost 24/7 since it came to me. My mom's rig used to belong to me, and it also ran 24/7 before for a good amount of time. Freak, the fact that all these coms are al still working says that they're reliable enough. Yet if you go on forums, you see lots of people with things dying here and there. I'm guessing if you don't like and respect your gadgets they die on you. My Creative 64MB MP3 player lasted me from 2002 to 2006, and the 2 pairs of NiMH battery I bought from it died first (Sony... good brand).
And if they want reliability, why 350W PSU? 350W suggests a generic PSU, you see PSUs below 500W outside, nobody goes by multiples of 50W anymore. Now imagine the thing has been used for 1 year already. Prepare for some fireworks.
Yay, the irony, the 200+W PSUs that came with the two Starhub systems I have along with the 300W FSP are heavier and better than those generic 350W. Ever tried running a 9800Pro on 300W?

Or, they might just want to give good coms so that they look good. Or because the beneficiary requested for that much. Either way...

I originally wanted to donate the Athlon away (my mom's idea, independant of this donation drive), I'll tell her about this and see what she thinks lol.

I think I'll just donate it to the salvation army. Even the old Pentium II would be faster than the watever OLPC project, because it can play Unreal Tournament. I'm sure it will be useful to them.

The bottom line...

Why bother donating if the people/group you're donating it do doesn't even use/appreciate it more than yourself?

Oh well, I do have a 2.8C and some AXPs lying around. I can donate those.

The six stages of progress in audio:

1. First you find EQ sux because it only makes your $10 speaker sound worse

2. With a better but still largely inadequate $30-80 speaker setup, you find that EQ helps to improve sound quality quite a bit

3. With 200-dollar speakers, plus a basic source, you find that EQ makes things too noisy and artificial

4. $500-2000 system, the source is clean enough to handle a bit of alteration, the speakers are beefy enough to dish out that bit more bass, and you also have a much cleaner equalizer (which is probably non-digital in nature). Heck, they have all these capacitors and varistors that EQ the sound inside the gear. Then there's this "tubyness" that is apparently adjustable.

5. $5000 to money-no-object, fk EQ, it's for pussies. You want bass at 8Hz? I GOT bass at 8Hz. My supertweeter hits 100kHz. 5-way systems FTW.
(Note: This is the point where audiophiles with different beliefs split ways. While many will opt for the scientifically perfect system that does not attempt to defy any law of physics and reproduces sound with utmost precision and accuracy, a siginificant number will opt for aesthetics and/or their beliefs in full-rangers and that crossovers are bad. Hence white smooth iPod speakers that cost $6,000SGD and floorstanders with one driver that cost >$10,000)

6. Back to the studio, where it all first started:
"I think the drummer isn't hitting it hard enuff"
"Lets up the bass so that it is"
"The vocalist sucks, she has too much sibilance"
"...so I decrease the high frequencies a bit... done"
"But her voice is too throaty, not forward enough, did I mention that she sucks?"
"Upped the 4kHz, nasal enough for you?"
"Thanks, that gives us the kawaii-ness of the voice we expect to hear from a 30-year-old"
"While we're at it lets clip the electric guitar more, it's not fierce enough"
"And the piano and strings backup don't feel spacious enough, giv'em some crossfeed"

Ahhhhh, EQ + mixer is like the Photoshop of music.

Random thought of the day

Who cares if it's built like a tank.

Do you know that if a tank falls from the 4th storey the people inside will still die?

Newton's laws, heh.

It's not the hardness of the shell that counts, it's the damping, the cushioning effect of the... erm... cushions inside.

Ever wondered why when a car crashes the most expensive part of the car - engine, is always gone? It killed itself to save you.

So even if your product is like this, it may not survive a four-storey drop. Otherwise, it's quite safe from impact and weight, plus it's a nice paperweight on its own.

If "tubyness" can be adjusted...

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/index.html

Draw your own conclusions.

Lame thought of the day:

TripleFi is called "Triple"Fi because it has three drivers.

So why don't UE (or now Logitech) call the SuperFi 5 "Double"Fi? Or the SuperFi 3 "Single"Fi or just "Fi"? Easier to distinguish the two also.

Random thought of the day (continued from yesterday's):

Continuing from the argument that we "hear more details" because they are louder (or the "loud button" effect),

Does adding a supertweeter make guitars sound nicer because of more accurate high-frequencies, or because the highs are now louder?

Lots of implementations of supertweeters do not feature a crossover, making this a perfect target for today.