AMD64 PC timeline (so far)

Here's the timeline so far :

23 Nov 2005 : Signed up for the promotion via phone call to 1633 hotline (day 00)
02 Dec 2005 : Received StarHub letter, registered order online with HP (day 09)
07 Dec 2005 : Received first call from HP regarding order (day 14)
08 Dec 2005 : Received second call from HP, confirmed order (day 15)

Since our MaxOnline account is under Biow's name (due to historical reasons), she's the one dealing with the HP representative. Says that the HP rep tried to upsell her all sorts of stuff from AMD64X2 dual-processor to HDD to CD-ROM drive, LCD monitor, graphics card and even the 3.5" floppy drive which nobody seems to use nowadays (apart from probably WinXP setup with a SATA HDD). Really quite a hard sell it seems.

In the end we stuck to the Desktop Upgrade 2 package for $299 but also increased the RAM to 1 GB (512MB x2) for an additional $95 (lower than the $137 listed on SCV website, and not too far from SLS prices). So, well, it's not entirely free, but for $394 we'll get a pretty much state-of-the-art PC which should cost close to $1800 if I were to go the usual Sim-Lim-Square DIY route. So, still, not too bad.

Interesting thing is, again, Biow's PC will be 200 MHz faster than mine - my old PC was a P3-450 while her current one is a K7-650. And now mine is an AMD64-3200 while hers, with the upgrade option, will be an AMD64-3400. Heh. Not sure whether it'll be a socket SC754 or SC939 though or whether it will have SSE3 extensions, not that big of a deal anyway.

Delivery supposed to be within 14 *working* days + an additional 3-5 *working* days for the customized, "built-to-order" setup. Probably gonna be Jan 2006 by the time it arrives. We'll see.

Ford to cut 30000 jobs

peakoil.com, xinhuanet.com, thestar.com :

Ford Motor Co, the second largest auto maker in the United States, is preparing to cut as many as 30,000 jobs and close 10 plants as part of a broad restructuring plan, the Detroit News reported. Ford reported a pretax loss of 1.2 billion US dollar in its North American automotive operations in the third quarter.

Ford had a total of 122,877 North American employees at the end of last year and 324,000 employees worldwide. The automaker has already cut 2,750 workers this year and outlined plans for slashing another 4,000 workers in the first quarter of 2006.

Google Base :
american auto-makers, mass layoffs

(2005-12-08 13:06:35 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

Food production to peak as fertile land runs out

This article belongs to the Global food crisis story arc.

peakoil.com -> guardian.co.uk, peakoil.com -> fwi.co.uk :

New maps show that the Earth is rapidly running out of fertile land and that food production will soon be unable to keep up with the world's burgeoning population. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined satellite land cover images with agricultural census data from every country in the world to create detailed maps of global land use. "The maps show, very strikingly, that a large part of our planet (roughly 40%) is being used for either growing crops or grazing cattle," said Dr Navin Ramankutty, a member of the Wisconsin-Madison team. By comparison, only 7% of the world's land was being used for agriculture in 1700.

The Amazon basin has seen some of the greatest changes in recent times, with huge swaths of the rainforest being felled to grow soya beans. This agricultural expansion has come at the expense of tropical forests in both countries. Meanwhile, intensive farming practices mean that cropland areas have decreased slightly in the US and Europe and the land is being gobbled up by urbanisation. The research indicates that there is now little room for further agricultural expansion.

(2005-12-08 12:58:38 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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