thinking about computers
Posted by anya on May 20th, 2007 filed in UncategorizedI’m not the most technically-savvy person. I can’t figure out a lot, and a lot doesn’t make sense. A lot of times, I don’t try hard enough. That’s why when somebody puts a concept in less complex terms it always sticks with me. This, for example:
“Computers aren’t so lucky. They don’t have the vast library of common sense we do so they have no idea that a knife isn’t generally useful when admiring a painting. We gain common sense by making observations about the world around us. Computers gain common sense by being fed a brick-load of sentences and building huge tables of probabilities.”
Context here.
On a related topic… How much should I be looking to spend on a 40 Gig external hard drive? There is a technical market here in Weifang, and I think that an external might be a good idea for storing some of my media. I’m just wondering how hard I should try and bargain, since I have no idea how much these things reasonably cost.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Try to get a fully USB-powered external drive, so that you don’t need to plug it in. Those will be a bit more expensive, granted, but if you need to use it ‘on the street’ then it’d probably be more practical.
I can’t say much in terms of prices. Hit up NCIX.com if you want to know how things are _here_ but markets are very different, so it should be cheaper out there. To put it in context…
+ a 500 GB internal drive that you can buy an external, power-supplied casing for would total up around CA$150
+ an 80 GB laptop drive would be about $80
+ so a 40 GB external, USB-powered HDD could be around $50, depending on brands.
But hey, let me know, maybe I’ll tell you what I want from .cn =)
May 20th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Alex…
yes, I definitely want a fully USB-powered one. My friend here has a 40 GB Samsung one which is quite nifty, so I’m thinking of looking for the same thing. She paid over $50, though, so I’mma try and stand my ground while I bargain. I suck at bargaining.
I’ll let you know as soon as I buy anything related, muahaha. My friend has already bought a camera, an mp3 player, and a whole buch of cords for his mac and ipod. Let me know what you want, and how high you are willing to go with the price, and I will do my best! Also, DVDs are about $1 each. If you want anything at all, let me know. :) I was actually thinking of what I would get for you, and I think I gadget you need/want might be better than another lighter ;) (or a bracelet that prohibits you from writing, haha!)
May 21st, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I just kicked by Bestbuy here in Seattle and a fully USB-powered 120 GB drive retails for $89.99. So while you wouldn’t find a 40 GB one for only a third of the price, you can hopefully use this as a metric of sorts…
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
bah. now i realize how little i know.