http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-22/d...aud-claims.html

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Dell Agrees to Pay $100 Million to Settle SEC Fraud Claims
Dell Inc. will pay $100 million to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accounting fraud allegations in an accord that will let founder Michael Dell stay on as chief executive officer after paying a $4 million fine.

Dell, 45, and the personal-computer maker failed to tell investors about “exclusivity payments” received from Intel Corp. in exchange for not using products made by the chipmaker’s main rival, the SEC said today in a complaint filed at federal court in Washington. Those payments allowed Dell to reach its earnings targets from 2001 to 2006, the SEC said.
“Accuracy and completeness are the touchstones of public company disclosure under the federal securities laws,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in the agency’s statement. “Michael Dell and other senior Dell executives fell short of that standard repeatedly over many years.” The settlement helps Dell resolve inquiries about the role payments from Intel played in its financial results and those of other PC makers. The payments were at issue in a private antitrust lawsuit filed against Intel by chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., a New York state probe of Intel’s business practices, and a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit filed against Intel in December. Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, said on June 10 that it had set aside $100 million for the settlement.

Rollins, Schneider
Dell’s former CEO, Kevin Rollins, 57, and James Schneider, 57, the company’s former chief financial officer, agreed to pay fines of $4 million and $3 million, respectively. Schneider was suspended from appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant for five years. The SEC, as urged by the company in its settlement proposal, spared Michael Dell similar punishment. “We are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Michael Dell said in a statement. “We are committed to maintaining clear and accurate reporting of our periodic results, supporting our customers, and executing our growth strategies.” Calls to Michael Mann, an attorney for Rollins, and Neil Eggleston, a lawyer for Schneider, weren’t immediately returned. “In similar cases, you’d expect the SEC to seek a bar against a senior officer,” said Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School. “He’s probably too important to the company and it would have caused too much harm to shareholders,” Henning said of Michael Dell.

Barred Executives
In November 2009, Kenneth Mueller, the former chief financial officer of SafeNet Inc., was barred for five years from serving as a director or officer in a public company over SEC claims he was involved in improper accounting that helped the company meet analysts’ earnings estimates in 2004 and 2005. The SEC last year sought a bar against Beazer Homes’ former chief accounting officer for allegedly improperly recording accounting reserves to meet analysts’ estimates. Intel, which accounts for more than 80 percent of global computer-processor sales, was sued by the FTC for using its dominant market position to “stifle competition.” The firm’s payments amounted to 10 percent of Dell’s operating income in 2003 and grew to 76 percent by 2007, the SEC said. Without the payments, Dell would have missed the earnings- per-share consensus in every quarter from fiscal years 2002 through 2006, the SEC said. When the SEC opened its investigation of Dell in 2005, the company was forced to restate results, fire workers and change its corporate governance policies. “We’re relieved to see that the framework Dell had outlined previously is coming to fruition,” said Bill Kreher, a senior technology analyst at Edward Jones & Co. who has a “buy” rating on Dell shares. “Any time you can put something like this behind you, it removes the uncertainty,” said Kreher. The announcement is unlikely to have a significant effect on Dell’s stock price, he said.</div>

Looking into buying a new Dell laptop, so I guess I better get it soon before prices go up due to this lawsuit.

 

why buy a Dell Laptop? Get a HP Netbook and a higher spec Desktop and still spend less money. Manufacturers want you to buy laptops because they get to reuse their old chips and charge more.

 

Friends don't let friends buy Dells.

 

I buy $400 Refurb Dells because they're cheap and get me at least 4 good years.

My Dell Inspiron 531 - AMD Athlon x2 Dual Core Proc 5600+ with 4GB has lasted me 4 years so far. Cost me $500 shipped including a 19" flat panel and 9.75% sales tax

check out the Dell Outlet on their website to get refurbs, scratch & dent, and abandoned sales.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DTN @ Jul 23 2010, 01:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>why buy a Dell Laptop? Get a HP Netbook and a higher spec Desktop and still spend less money. Manufacturers want you to buy laptops because they get to reuse their old chips and charge more.</div>


nooooo! I'll never ever recommend an hp laptop. They are absolutely bottom bin for reliability. Dell's are much more reliable. When looking at a laptop higher spec is like 5th on my list. Reliability, battery life, upgradability, price, are first. I recommend asus, lenovo, toshiba, and dell. HP, gateway, acer, etc. are junk.

Personally I choose asus, they tend to be pricier though. For customers I choose lenovo and dell.

 

I would never recommend a high end laptop to anyone. Use a upgradeable desktop, or a low-end netbook. People don't realize that you cannot replace the hardware value of a desktop with a laptop. You get less for your money with a laptop.

A Netbook is designed for portable computing. It is a small screen with a energy efficient processor. People buy laptops and expect them to do well but do not take into consideration the fact that they get destroyed, lost, stolen, and take more abuse then any computer should. They last only a couple of years for most users.

For an average home user, using their computer on their bed, blocking the air vents, tossing it in the car, using it in the kitchen while cooking.... A laptop is not designed to stand up to their abuse, nor is any computer... The answer is to buy the cheapest, newest hardware possible. That's a netbook.

I'm not saying that a laptop has no place... Business professionals and students need them to continue work at home without switching computers....

I'm currently typing this from my $250 HP netbook. Currently running on it: Firefox with 4 tabs, a media player, Eclipse (Java Programming), NetBeans (Java Programming), and OBD2ner, the program I'm working on.. It's fast enough that I don't have to wait for things to load and it's cheap enough that I don't need to worry about tossing it on the couch or blocking the airvents.

I would never recommend a laptop to anyone unless they need the full size keyboard. I'd recommend the cheapest piece of junk available and a reliable desktop with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

As a society we've lost sight of the risks involved in mobile computing. You cannot expect the average user to reduce the risks, but you can debunk the hype surrounding brands. It's a simple fact that a laptop will die because of what the user does to it, not the brand name. If you want a computer that will last, you buy a desktop. If you want a computer that is mobile, you buy a CHEAP netbook, unless you meet any of the following criteria:
A. Have lots of expendable income
B. Need full keyboard
C. Require extreme mobile gaming

You simply cannot match a few hundred dollars in upgrades every few years to picking up the entire thing and putting it in the trash and buying a new one every few years. A desktop computer gets upgraded when it gets slow. A mobile computer has a lifecycle. Any mobile computer will be thrown away at the end of its lifecycle. You might as well keep it cheap.

 

In the last 13 years I've had 6 different laptops (including this netbook) 1 desktop and I just added a media center.

 

If I were running a company, I would recommend management get netbooks and just dock them in their office for a bigger monitor and keyboard. Upper management doesn't need the power, and the portability allows them to take 'em to meetings and access the internal network wirelessly. I've talked with some department heads and they're actually considering it. There's no reason for some of these managers/directors/AVPs/VPs/SVPs/C-levels to have $1,500 laptops with 17" screens. A 10" netbook is much more feasible for their job descriptions (i.e., nothing but attending meetings).

Now... for myself, as an auditor, we travel to several of our different companies. Having a 17" widescreen is awesome considering I deal with large excel spreadsheets, and for my data analysis I need the power. My HP is nice (EliteBook 8530w) and works GREAT for what I need, including a full number pad. We switched to HP from Lenovo because the Lenovo models we used started offering smaller screen sizes. They felt cheaper than my HP, and I like my HP's fingerprint scanner better than my old Lenovo (mainly a software difference).

For personal use, I had a 16" Toshiba (first 16" screen that came out - 8-9 years ago). It was awesome, handled gaming well, but was horrible for taking to class. Lasted a good 6 years before the hard drive failed. Also SUCKED for cooling. For people in college, a netbook is the ONLY way to go. If you want power in the dorm for gaming, get a desktop. Don't lug around a 9 lb. desktop replacement like I did.

I bought my wife her Dell Inspiron 531 (Core 2 Duo) and it's served it's purpose (online classes, typing papers, etc.). She wanted it so she could do school work while watching TV. 3 years or so and it's still doing okay. No problems with power or anything, just the pre-loaded Dell crap. I should've wiped it clean at the beginning, oh well.

 

For students the keyboard form factor is important when jotting down notes. I cannot type well on my netbook, which is smaller then both of my feet side-by-side. It works well for coding because I spend 5 minutes thinking about a line and then typing it takes about 10 seconds. The heat generated by a propely software equipped netbook is nearly nothing.

 

I've owned 4 HP/Compaq's and they have been all problematic. Back in the day, Gateway desktops were the bomb. In 2002, I owned a Gateway laptop. It was the most reliable laptop I have ever owned... it's a damn shame they went bankrupt. Today, I don't trust any computer company and I make my own computers. The computers I've made has been more reliable than mass produced ones. I wish making your own laptop would be more accessible for everyone.

EDIT: I've heard great things about Samsung Computers and I am eager to buy one of their laptops.