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[ChairmanPoo]

So I figured out Skynet, I think.  The premises for my reasoning are the following

1: Skynet is spawned due to an unstable time loop.

2: Being a supercomputer with a time machine and an infinite ammount of energy at it's disposal, we can also regard it as a deity, for practical purposes.

Now, going back to #1: originally Skynet was spawned by a terminator that was sent to kill it's nemesis
If it fails, he gets destroyed by John Snow Connor thirty years down the line at best. Or else he never gets developed at all (EG: terminator 2).
If it succeeds, there is no reason to send a terminator back in time, and thus Skynet unwittingly erases itself from the space-time continuum.

Therefore: the reason we keep getting godawful Terminator sequels with constant retcons, is that Skynet has literally no other option than to send a neverending stream of terminators back in time, which are successful enough to get Skynet built a few years hence, but NOT well enough that they destroy John Connor and close the time loop.

[TD1]

2: Being a supercomputer with a time machine and an infinite ammount of energy at it's disposal, we can also regard it as a deity, for practical purposes.

How is its power infinite?

[Rolan7]

Okay I know this is super vague but my brother needs some advice about buying a laptop.  Specifically, on a tight budget.
He needs to be able to emulate with Virtualbox, so it needs a decent CPU speed (and I don't think multiple cores will help with that, beyond dedicating a single one).  Memory is less of an issue since we can upgrade that if need be, and the virtual machine shouldn't need much.

How does one go about buying a cheaper laptop safely?
He's found a used Acer which might be at a decent price, but it's still high.

I used to know a little about hardware and I'm sure most of that is defunct now.  I still feel like AGP is "A good idea, a dedicated slot for graphics".

[Aklyon]

There are still AGP slots?

[Rolan7]

I don't think so
But I'm not even sure either :B

[Frumple]

For what it's worth, personal experience would say to avoid acer laptops like the plague, unless it was made somewhere around pre-'05 (in which case it won't be even remotely strong enough for what you're asking). Later part of college I went through two of the things in <3 years, one of them new, one of them used. Anything coming out of them that technically has the CPU power you're looking for is entirely too likely to be a piece of junk.

Acer in general just doesn't really make particularly good machines anymore, from what I've had the misfortune to see.

Are... are they really set on a laptop? You can't convince them to go for a desktop? Cost/power wise that's going to be rather significantly better. And if they are dead-set on a laptop, make damn good and certain they don't need a GPU for much.

... as for buying used ones safely, about the best advice I could give you is look for friends/family/etc. that are looking to offload a machine. That's about as safe as you can get. Otherwise don't be too surprised if you have to send something back, or trade it in fairly rapidly. Just find whatever it is that meets the bare minimum at the lowest price, so if things do go southward it's a relatively easy replacement.

[Rolan7]

Yeah, afraid they need a laptop (class). And it's true, an acer laptop has screwed them before actually. It's just considerably cheaper :/ Without factoring in the short lifetime...
I have an old ThinkPad which *may* suffice... slow though, even if I can find the power supply. T61 I think.

[Yoink]

I don't trust teetotallers.

[Frumple]

... is there a question in there?

[TD1]

Here's my two questions:

1) Why does Yoink not trust teetotallers

Not a drop of alcohol has passed my lips in more than a decade. Before that I may have had a sip once per year, but I don't even have that now. Am I inherently untrustworthy? You should know better, Yoink. It's best to trust strangers like me on the internet. Where else would you trust them? Real life? Of course not!

2) What are Yoink's bank details...?

[Yoink]

... is there a question in there?

Nope, just responding to the earlier discussion.
I suppose "why on Earth would you choose not to drink" would make for an excellent question, but I doubt I'd get serious answers.
And even if I did, if those answers were firsthand then they would be untrustworthy anyway, being from the mouths keyboards of teetotallers.

[Frumple]

Yeah, I guess if, "Drinking killed about a third of my family, drove half the remainder to various degrees of insanity, and is the root cause for several people I know, including my mother, being abused" isn't a serious answer, there's not really any helping you. When the alcoholism kills you, please don't take anyone else along for the ride.

[TD1]

Yea. My mum's friend is a lovely person, but down to some bad stuff that happened with her husband she turned to drink. She is no longer with her husband, but she lost her job because of alcohol, and really only has my mum left. Even at that, she frequently gets drunk and either calls or texts my mum. Her own daughter doesn't really talk to her, and she has little to do with her grandson.

So if you're looking for reasons not to drink, it's best just to look.

[Yoink]

I'm not seeing any reasons not to drink. I'm seeing plenty of reasons not to be a jerk, but not any reasons not to drink.
Drinking socially=!ruining people's lives. Not that I expected y'all to be reasonable on this subject, anyway.

[Frumple]

To spell it out a bit better instead of lashing out a bit against basically spitting on the deaths of much of my family and suffering of much the rest: It's not worth the risk. It's an addictive substance that can very, very easily lead to abuse. You avoid it because it's entirely likely that "drinking socially" leads to ruining peoples lives, and it's pretty bloody likely you won't really be able to stop yourself. That happens, very, very often. Seen it happen far too many times.

Maybe if you're someone that can manage to not go over the line. I've met a few of those. I've seen a lot more that thought they were. They weren't. S'really just best not to touch the stuff.

E: For what it's worth, just like with most other self-destructive behavior, I support people's right to make the choice to drink. All I ask is that they only abuse themselves with it, and don't get anyone killed in the process. Disappointment on that angle looms often, but *shrugs*