SSDs get the benefit of non-moving parts, unlike a hard drive. In the event a moronic sibling happens to knock it off the desk, the external solid state drive stands a better chance than the usual spinning hard disk drive. That known security may be well worth some people's money.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this was Engadget - the gadget blog, not a linux news feed like DistroWatch. What was the reason to post this here?

Are you f*cking crazy? So much of modern music and the history of popular culture has been affected by the Beatles. You can't just say "the Beatles cant sing" when that in itself is a matter of musical taste. And PLEASE use proper punctuation, if you are, at all, a professional - which by your posting history, suggests you are not... and the Beatles were 60's, not 30's. And I think the most common way to spell the word is "yuck," not "yuk." I don't care if you are an IT professional, you still are an idiot.

Here's an example of a person who has worked in an IT Helpdesk, a 'professional' if you will, that is still an idiot.
http://chroniclesofgeorge.nanc.com/

why was I ranked down?

well, though it does kinda suck that 40% of the performance is lost, it IS kinda dumb to run a laptop off the power supply when the only thing holding the power supply to the laptop is the flimsy magnet. I would definitely hate to be doing some video editing, and suddenly have my little cousin trip on the power supply, and *flip* there goes an hour of work. One of the main points of having a laptop anyway is to not be stuck connected to the wall. Laptops are great cause you have a the battery, which can help you in case of a blackout - even near dead batteries providing 5 minutes of life would still be enough to let you save your work. Besides... The if the cable for the magsafe adapter gets any more energy through it, it'll probably melt. If you're THAT worried, just get a second battery - you CAN replace it or have spares after all (macbook/macbook pro... NOT the MB Airs).

I think I'll take the RAM regardless. I doubt the system would run without it. So if it happens to be a 1GB flash drive, I'd rather have gone with the RAM.

Forgetting that Blu-Ray also serves as a data storage. So many more gigabytes than a DVD or CD. Screen estate isn't the only reason people go for the MBP - it's also got the dedicated graphics and usually better processor.

um... you realize that panicking and holding away money isn't gonna solve our country's recession, right? The only way it can get better is if money is pumped into it - that means consumers have to have confidence in the markets and buy again. Plus, it's a great time to buy stock for companies you know who will survive - like Apple, since it's now under $100, where it used to be nearing $200. Buying is good for the economy.

I'd have to say Computer Science: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. Never ceases to amaze me how computers are far behind the human brain.

"You sound just like the guy who said he wouldn't trust all his data to an 80gb drive. Times change, man-- change with them"

A couple things:
1. I won't need that much (I hardly even use up 80 GB, so I have two 80GB mirrored... yes, I am the guy who wouldn't trust my data on an 80GB drive... j/k)

2. Currently, I'd see it cheaper to buy three 500's than the coming 1.5TB, unless the HDD is going to be less than $250 (since I can pick up a 500GB drive for a little more than $80 easily)

3. If I wanted 1.5TB storage, it would all have to be mirrored... meaning I'll need to buy two. No thank you.