Replacing a Thinkpad? 902
An anonymous reader writes "As a very happy Thinkpad T20 user (still working after 7 years), I always planned on replacing it with another Thinkpad T-series. However, Thinkpads are now produced by Lenovo, a Chinese company, and I can't quite bear to buy Chinese while the Burmese military are shooting at monks with the Chinese Government as their biggest backer. Maybe this is silly, as whatever I buy is likely to be made (at least in part) in China... but still, what are my options for something as well built as the Thinkpad T-series?"
Re:by that logic... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ascribing moral equality between the governments of China and the USA is an insult to the innocent people executed and imprisoned by the vile, corrupt government of China.
Re:Ummmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ummmm (Score:5, Interesting)
While I will admit it is tough to not buy products made in China, I have found that with the exception of sunglasses and most electronics, I can buy the products I need which aren't made in China.
Granted, I'm the exception to most Americans in that I don't want or need a ton of stuff so I'm probably not a representative sample, but if one were to take the time and not buy products which are made in China, it can be done.
It's almost comical when I and my parents are out somewhere because both my dad and I look at where products are made. In fact, my dad refers to WalMart as "The China store". I'm sure some day someone in a store will ask what we're doing as we look at the labels on products. When that day occurs, I'll be happy to tell them why we're looking at the labels.
Re:the t series (Score:4, Interesting)
Boy, was that a strange meeting with the fire dept...
Re:Any reason to not get a Mac Book Pro? (Score:2, Interesting)
By comparison, my little brother brought his brand new MacBook Pro to school with him last year, and after his first semester, the keyboard had completely died from a beer spill. Now, while this is obviously a stupid move on his part, that's not the point. My ThinkPad stood up to numerous beer spills, and kept on ticking. From what he told me, Apple wanted $1,400.00 to fix his computer (I never verified this myself, but he insists its true). Instead, I had him order a new keyboard online for $75.00, and after 45 minutes of work (my first time taking apart a Mac laptop, cut me some slack -- and yes, they are impressively designed), I had it fixed for him.
Anyways, this is one example of a major difference in durability between a MacBook Pro (a great computer, in its own right), and a ThinkPad. At least, an old ThinkPad. I'm not sure if the new ones are built as well.
The other kicker, for me at least, is the lack of a TrackPoint. I personally can't stant touch pads. That alone is a difference maker right there.
Re:Good luck (Score:4, Interesting)
I am from canada, I have never had a positive non creepy encounter with a Falun Gong practitioner. China is severely over stepping the bounds of what is right or just but I get the same vibe from Falun Gong people that I do from Scientology's. A sort of creepy vibe, sort of like the person in front of me is just a shell of a real human being.
Re:Yes, you're being silly (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on where your from, my relatives in Xin Hua and Guangzhou are acutely aware of the deficiencies with their government. They are aware of the bad things that go on but persist to live a quiet live to avoid that trouble. But they're in a different socio economic class then the rest of China. They're owners of factories, doctors, accountants, the upper middle class of china. Their proximity to HK might be part of it too.
They have had brushes with some of it. My uncle was offered a promotion to Dean of one of the medical schools in the region. He had been a professor for a long time and was about to retire. He smelled a fish and took early retirement instead. Turns out they were attempting to find a scape goat for some embezzlement that happened. The person they did promote was arrested for embezzlement.
Re:the t series (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yes, you're being silly (Score:5, Interesting)
One the truly puzzling things about most Chinese that I meet is there bottomless capacity to defend the snake of a government they have - even the ones that have already immigrated away. I find that the upper-middle class tends to be the worst - the ridiculously rich are too educated to fall for the government's lies, while the poorest suffer too much to believe anything the government says. It's the people who fall down the middle that actually believe the things the government teaches them.
I've known many Chinese who admit their government's deficiencies, and admit that officials are almost always corrupt and self-serving. But for some reason they still declare their allegiance to the government, claiming that as a Chinese by blood they cannot possibly turn away from the Chinese government. This puzzles me greatly, since I've long ago refused to consider myself a supporter of anything BUT a Western democracy - if the government is shooting your kind by the hundreds, is corrupt, etc etc, what kind of loyalty do you owe to them? It seems very ego-driven, and amounts to stubborn refusal to admit that perhaps the West has a better sociopolitical system.
In a sick way, it's like Stockholm syndrome... a whole race of people who are culturally conditioned to remain loyal to their government, despite the innumerable atrocities that are committed against them in front of their own eyes.
As another side note... it's depressing the "history" they learn in their schools...
Re:Yes, you're being silly (Score:3, Interesting)
Ownership links to the communist Party (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the Taiwanese OEMs have practically all of their manufacturing facilities in China, but at least they aren't directly involved in feeding the Party hierarchies. One or two of the Taiwanese manufacturers have kept their facilities in Taiwan though. Google should help identify them.
The Japanese makers have likewise most of their factories in China, but there has been a recent trend to look at other less hostile and more democratic Asian countries to host more of the manufacturing.
Some China trivia: How many knew that the "peoples' liberation army" (PLA) is "constitutionally" loyal to the Chinese "communist" Party instead of the state or the "government"? Or that the current CCP and PLA head honcho Hu Jintao (aka "president of the PRC") was nicknamed the Butcher of Tibet thanks to his bloody crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators in Lhasa while he was the Party supremo there in the late 80s. In the immediate aftermath tens of thousands of Tibetans were forced to watch how the Chinese executed their freedom-fighters in a sports stadium. That bloody act loyal to the Chinese communist Party helped fast-track him into the top Party leadership. What if the Burmese generals were massacring monks and civilians in a neighboring country..?
Re:Yes, you're being silly (Score:1, Interesting)
Let's all sing together now: "four dead in O-hi-o" (Score:3, Interesting)
You mean recently [wikipedia.org] I presume?
Re:Yes, you're being silly (Score:1, Interesting)
Spend your $$ on buying political muscle ... (Score:1, Interesting)
If you really want to make a change - spend your $$ to buy a politician. Yes I really mean BUY.
Most democracies (at least that I know of - i.e. USA/UK/India) have become farces where the people don't matter. They get to choose between say 4-5 equally rotten, mutually indistinguishable, scoundrels (in the US' case it's a binary choice between an ass and a donkey).
So given this state of affairs - it's best to buy a politician - plainly and directly (say an ad on CraigsList or
Rather than go from
we-the-people==>companies==>"the economy"==>Dollars==>policies
why don't we cut the crap and just go from
we-the-people==>Dollars=>policies!