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Critics often score based on first few episodes to be released in, and never revisit the score. And if it's shiny/ expensive (and RoP was both) and seems like it might lead somewhere, they risk ridiculing themselves by being too critical.


No, in Czech the meaning really is more specific and forced labor is not an overly bad translation, it's work done by serfs in medieval times. It can be used to describe any work as heavy, but that's either in joke, or when used by people geographically close to Poland (typically referring to mining).


Is there some historical reason for this?

I vaguely remember that in English, we have words like “cattle,” French etymology, and “cow” Germanic, and the speculation is that it is because the aristocracy were French for much of England’s history (so, the French word is used to refer to cows as a sort of abstract resource to be considered in bulk).


I believe it's a similar thing. Semi-educated guess based on historical facts: Because of various (not least religious) reasons, Czech-speaking intelligentsia pretty much ceased to exist mid-17th century (fact, replaced by German/Latin) and only actual serfs spoke Czech, work and robota became defacto synonym (speculation). And when it became fashionable and cool to speak Czech 100-200 years later for the city-dwellers (fact), they probably felt the need to differentiate whatever they were doing as a job from the definitely uncool farmers of the countryside (speculation).


The evolution is the other way around - the original meaning of that root in proto-Slavic was obligatory work, and that one in turn is a derivative of a PIE word with the same meaning.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/o...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/o...

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Eur...


Business class Dells and HPs have one too. Named differently because TM but good enough.


I would challenge you to find a 2022 Dell or HP with a trackpoint.


https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-840-g8-notebo...

Just got a new one from work. It's literally in front of me right now.

Granted the laptop's build quality is questionable (the right hinge's case bulges higher than the left) and the trackpoint has a tendency to get stuck to one direction.


Oh man, I have an 845 g8 (840 with amd). I hate this laptop with a passion. It could've been such a great tool, but it's a steaming PoS because HP wanted to make a quick buck.

I don't have your hinge issue. But, as you open the display, the hinge gets below the laptop's feet. So now it slides around on the table. Which is so stupid, because this laptop doesn't have 4 feet, but 2 large ones, than run the width of the laptop. Which is fantastic if you want to use it on the corner of a table since it won't wobble!

Then there's the screen. I swear someone at HP wanted to see how shitty a screen they could get away with in a 2000 euro laptop (which is just a middle of the road config, mind you). On basic models, you have a 6 bit screen. On higher-end ones, they have this security screen thingy that massacres the viewing angles even when it's off. If you move your head around the tiniest bit (say while listening to music) the colors will perceptibly change. The colors are atrocious. And they don't even hide it! The specs say 72% NTSC (not sRGB, which is much wider).

Then you have your usual suspects with cheap laptops: the cooler is an absolute joke, the fan developed a horrible noise in a few months. There's coil whine that drives you up a wall when connecting a USB-C monitor + power.

On the plus side, the analog headphone out is surprisingly good. I don't hear any background noise, there's no whine when moving the mouse, and the sound is similar to my Retina MBP on relatively high-end headphones.

It also works very well on Linux, I'd say it's even better than Windows: I've installed a fresh copy of Windows 11 and I can't get the camera to work. It works perfectly on Linux.


I have a flagship HP Omen 15" gaming laptop. The case is garbage, but the screen and guts are good.


Had a similar one and the trackpoint was a pain for 2 reasons. The shape was inverted, so you always touched a raised edge rather than surface. And the cap started coming off after a few months of use. Not a fan of HP's solution.


Rumor is, some IBM sales rep somewhere at some point in history managed to put pointing stick into a procurement requirement for professional laptops, so to make only ThinkPads to be qualified. Many agencies are not capable of drafting good requirements on their own and such skewed requirements written by the winning contractor to exclude competitors are sadly common.

There is always a model or two in every laptop manufacturer's mobile workstation lineups with a pointing stick, for that reason. Not often is in consumer or non-workstation business laptops, and I was never impressed with one, but there always is one.


The HP EliteBook laptops still have trackpads. For example this one: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-elitebook-850-g8-notebo...


I just looked down on my laptop and my 2022 HP has a trackpoint, never used this feature though. HP Elitebook 830 G6.


Ouch, that hurts. It seems you're right at least about Dells, and HPs are going too.


Although technically released in late 2021, the HP Elitebook 855 G8 has a trackpoint.


That's not true for over two years. Capped by EU at 19 eurocents a minute. And 70 dollars is pretty expensive, I think you should check if there aren't better deals available (I assume it's CZ?)

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/MEMO_1...


Within the EU, you will not pay more for being in a different country.

Data and voice may not cost more when roaming


You're right it's cheaper than I said. I didn't check for a few years.


Nope on the first part. 8M adults, 300k gun permits. And that's including almost 100k active police/military. As for the latter part, maybe, but there is way more guns in US than in CZ. And last time I checked.. Let's say I don't think there is any correlation between the two statements.


You're right about the stats, the news article I was referring to was wrong. It's not including police/military service permits though, the 300k is purely private permits (which can have overlap with police/military - they can't use guns for private purposes without a private permit); and there are 900k private guns.


> 8M adults, 300k gun permits.

This assumes that everyone carrying a gun has a permit to do so.


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