High end computers

My curiosity got the better of me today over lunch and I decided to do a couple experiments. First, I decided to price how much it would cost me to build a top of the line computer (o.k., almost top of the line).
I decided to price the costs of building the following. Don't worry if you don't understand all the stuff. This is just making a point.

Pentium Dual Core 3.4ghz computer with integrated fire-wire capability on the motherboard, 8GB of RAM, a Radeon X1900 512MB video card, two 500GB hard drives, one x16 DVD burner, a wireless keyboard & mouse, a 20inch LCD flat screen monitor and Windows XP Media Center edition.

My price = 2,275.06 I was actually quite suprised that it was this low.

Then I went to DELL.com. I couldn't quite get the 3.4ghz, so I chose the 3.2ghz. Firewire? I can't tell, I think yes. I couldn't go up to 8GB of RAM, so I chose 4GB. The Radeon X1900 wasn't an available choice, they actually didn't give me a choice, so instead of a 512MB card, I chose a 128MB one (much slower). The rest of it was the same.

Dell's price = 2,465. So I beat dell by $200 and I got a faster processor, double the amount of RAM, and a video card that plays varsity instead of JV.

I also wrote down all the costs of these components and in 6 months, I will post again with my price and Dell's price. I'm curious to see how much prices go down in 6 months. We'll see.

What makes "news" news?

As I read the headlines of the past few months it's rather interesting to note that there is no "news" per se.

Is the fact that there is fighting in the middle east really breaking news? As a matter of fact the biggest headline in the news would really be "For the first time in 4,760 years, not a knife was drawn and not a shot was fired in the middle east." That would be news worth reading.

Is a professional athlete's use of performance enhancing drugs really news?

Is a celebrity doing something stupid news to anyone?

As I ponder these questions I wonder, what is "news". The Jason Smith dictionary defines "news" as a group or collection of "new". It also defines new as something never seen before. So based on the most accurate definition in the world (that would be the one above). Here is today's news.







And there you have it. All the new (yes, the space above was intentionally left blank).