Slashdot Mirror

Where's the challenge? What's the piece you can't figure out?

A DD-WRT compatible WiFi router with USB port goes for $30, and draws all of 2W of power.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009AO64E8

Connect a USB hard drive, enable mass storage, and SSH access. Use sdparm to set it to spin-down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Install rsync. Give it a free dyndns address (or some other service that screws free customers less).

Stick this contraption in a datacenter, under your desk in your office, in a friends/neighbor's house, etc. If you can't get them to open a port on their firewall, then you'll need to do "reverse SSH" tunneling, but it'll still work just a bit slower.

Hell, if you can find a location to put it that's under a KM from your home, you could even skip the internet requirement, and use WiFi for connectivity. You could even do without the power grid, setting up a modest solar panel to charge a 12V battery... My USB HDD enclosure runs on 12V directly, and a $5 car cell phone charger can provide the 5V@2A the listed router needs:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0079BLTPS

In any case, you'd just need to figure out the rsync command-line options to run on your home computers to copy the differences over the wire with the minimal overhead.

Where's the challenge? What's the piece you can't figure out?

A DD-WRT compatible WiFi router with USB port goes for $30, and draws all of 2W of power.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009AO64E8

Connect a USB hard drive, enable mass storage, and SSH access. Use sdparm to set it to spin-down after 30 minutes of inactivity. Install rsync. Give it a free dyndns address (or some other service that screws free customers less).

Stick this contraption in a datacenter, under your desk in your office, in a friends/neighbor's house, etc. If you can't get them to open a port on their firewall, then you'll need to do "reverse SSH" tunneling, but it'll still work just a bit slower.

Hell, if you can find a location to put it that's under a KM from your home, you could even skip the internet requirement, and use WiFi for connectivity. You could even do without the power grid, setting up a modest solar panel to charge a 12V battery... My USB HDD enclosure runs on 12V directly, and a $5 car cell phone charger can provide the 5V@2A the listed router needs:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0079BLTPS

In any case, you'd just need to figure out the rsync command-line options to run on your home computers to copy the differences over the wire with the minimal overhead.

Well, there is a value proposition in the $550 iPad 3 for many people, enough people for Apple to profitably sell it at that price point. Some folks find it easier to use, with more apps they care about, and so forth. Enough that they're willing to pay the $150 premium over the Nexus 10. I personally don't consider the premium worth it, but enough other people do, and that makes all the difference. Apple is making something that people want, at a price they feel is fair.

Let's see, one of the first hits on Amazon for a core i5 ultrabook is this, at $584.98, as opposed to $1088.99 for the Surface Pro. It has a Core i5 processor, same as the Surface Pro, also runs Windows 8, same as the Surface Pro. It has 500 GB of storage as opposed to only 128 GB on the Surface Pro. It weighs 3.96 lbs as opposed to only 2 lbs for the Surface Pro, its touchscreen probably isn't as good as the Surface Pro's, and the Surface Pro's screen resolution is higher at 1920x1080 vs. 1366x768 for the VivoBook, and perhaps the battery lasts longer, but that's about it. Frankly, I don't care about these advantages enough to pay $504.01 for them, and I frankly haven't heard any convincing arguments anywhere to justify that huge, huge price difference. I could buy two VivoBooks for just a little over the price of one Surface Pro! The fact that they don't seem to be selling very much either makes me believe that more people have my opinion than disagree. Microsoft is perhaps making something some people might want, but at a price they cannot really justify.

Well, there is a value proposition in the $550 iPad 3 for many people, enough people for Apple to profitably sell it at that price point. Some folks find it easier to use, with more apps they care about, and so forth. Enough that they're willing to pay the $150 premium over the Nexus 10. I personally don't consider the premium worth it, but enough other people do, and that makes all the difference. Apple is making something that people want, at a price they feel is fair.

Let's see, one of the first hits on Amazon for a core i5 ultrabook is this, at $584.98, as opposed to $1088.99 for the Surface Pro. It has a Core i5 processor, same as the Surface Pro, also runs Windows 8, same as the Surface Pro. It has 500 GB of storage as opposed to only 128 GB on the Surface Pro. It weighs 3.96 lbs as opposed to only 2 lbs for the Surface Pro, its touchscreen probably isn't as good as the Surface Pro's, and the Surface Pro's screen resolution is higher at 1920x1080 vs. 1366x768 for the VivoBook, and perhaps the battery lasts longer, but that's about it. Frankly, I don't care about these advantages enough to pay $504.01 for them, and I frankly haven't heard any convincing arguments anywhere to justify that huge, huge price difference. I could buy two VivoBooks for just a little over the price of one Surface Pro! The fact that they don't seem to be selling very much either makes me believe that more people have my opinion than disagree. Microsoft is perhaps making something some people might want, but at a price they cannot really justify.

Came here to say this. I have a bluetooth iGo Stowaway originally intended for BlackBerry but it works great with my Android device. The screen on my Razr Maxx HD is pretty decent; I generally don't feel the need for a screen, although I generally carry an HDMI cable so I can Netflix in the Hotel.

I recently replaced the computer in my bedroom with an Android "TV stick" that makes my 32" TV into a "smart" TV without all the $$ and all the hassle. In large part, I've entered the post-PC era, where much (perhaps most?) of my computing is done on a non-MS device and I don't care much about X86 compatibility except for "legacy apps" like video games.

Came here to say this. I have a bluetooth iGo Stowaway originally intended for BlackBerry but it works great with my Android device. The screen on my Razr Maxx HD is pretty decent; I generally don't feel the need for a screen, although I generally carry an HDMI cable so I can Netflix in the Hotel.

I recently replaced the computer in my bedroom with an Android "TV stick" that makes my 32" TV into a "smart" TV without all the $$ and all the hassle. In large part, I've entered the post-PC era, where much (perhaps most?) of my computing is done on a non-MS device and I don't care much about X86 compatibility except for "legacy apps" like video games.

The Morris Worm was written by Cornell University student Robert T. Morris while in school. He is the son of former chief scientist of the NSA's National Computer Security Center, and inventor of the Unix password scheme, Robert Morris. The incident is discussed in part of this book:

The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage

I've enjoyed reading it more than once.

Comments like this scare the piss out of me. Any time a person justifies murder as a response for the injustice that the TSA represents we have all taken a step closer to a real nightmare of armed revolution. The government is broken and our rights are constantly under attack, they have been since the start, but it was set up in a way to give us a peaceful means to change it. Some suggested reading:

Shake Hands With the Devil

You might learn how close we always are to a world where the neighbors that put Halloween candy in my daughter's bag this evening could kill her with a machete next year. All it takes is fear and the ability to view other people as non-human. You're at least half way there.

So tired of people excusing our government's behavior just because others do it.
Others include Pol Pot, Idi Amin, 'Papa Doc' Duvalier, and Joseph Stalin. (No point in invoking Godwin here).

If the US is like those, where are the piles of bodies, the mass graves? What made them infamous was ultimately slaughter, cruelty, and oppression, not simply surveillance.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't that government surveillance can't be misused, but I have yet to see evidence of actual meaningful intentional abuse by the NSA. One person per year spying on a girlfriend and getting fired doesn't really make the grade. The potential is there, but not the actuality. I think it is easy to make the case for more oversight since the potential is real, and intelligence agencies are a potential source of danger in a democracy. But don't confuse the NSA for the Stasi, KGB, or what have you. It clearly isn't true, and I think I'd trod that ground enough times.

If you want to worry about demonstrated, admitted government oppression, then you need to look to the IRS and its handling of conservative political groups around the time of the last election. That is a demonstrable danger to democracy, and may have even tipped the election. That nonsense has to be rooted out now before the rot spreads.

As to the Constitution, there is no pretending about the US having a constitution. The US has one, and it seems to be working even if the results baffle some people. Much of the controversy involves people being confused about exactly how it works, particularly when there is interplay between Article II, a state of war,* the 4th Amendment, and criminal law versus national security / the law of war. People here that wouldn't fill out their own tax form regularly make sweeping statements about questions of constitutional law that they really know little about, and often get it wrong.

For further aid in disentangling the US from those examples, I suggest watching at least this trailer if not the entirety of this film - available on Amazon. It tends to be clarifying.

* Yes, the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force is legally equivalent to a declaration of war. It is against al Qaida and its allies.

If the law is unfair, then get the law changed.

With the current political climate: good luck with that. You have the "JOB CREATOR" defenders (sorry, I meant FREEDOM) who will do everything they can to give tax breaks to the very rich, and cry about how the media is just biased against them, and that everyone should pay less tax anyway, because tax cuts just magically pay for themselves in hughly unrealistic economic growth that is just waiting to explode when the government just shuts down the IRS.

Then you get a bunch of billionaires running "grassroots" conservative websites, encouraging alternative realities, to gum up government so they can continue to underpay and pollute, and the party faithful will tear around the country claiming to be victims of tyranny, and for some reason they think they are rebels.

As a conservative, I support tax reform, and I appreciate that most liberals want a fairer and simpler tax system. The political incentives are set for the GOP to simply cry about tyranny whilst fighting for Larry Ellison's carried interest tax break.

If the law is unfair, then get the law changed.

With the current political climate: good luck with that. You have the "JOB CREATOR" defenders (sorry, I meant FREEDOM) who will do everything they can to give tax breaks to the very rich, and cry about how the media is just biased against them, and that everyone should pay less tax anyway, because tax cuts just magically pay for themselves in hughly unrealistic economic growth that is just waiting to explode when the government just shuts down the IRS.

Then you get a bunch of billionaires running "grassroots" conservative websites, encouraging alternative realities, to gum up government so they can continue to underpay and pollute, and the party faithful will tear around the country claiming to be victims of tyranny, and for some reason they think they are rebels.

As a conservative, I support tax reform, and I appreciate that most liberals want a fairer and simpler tax system. The political incentives are set for the GOP to simply cry about tyranny whilst fighting for Larry Ellison's carried interest tax break.

Questions answere by Mel Brook's Son:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Zombie-Survival-Guide-Protection/dp/1400049628

If you want some more detailed explanation, I would suggest reading about what Craig Venter's take on it is. He is one of the principal researchers on the Human Genome Project, and has taken the time to write a book for the layman to grasp the magnificence of what he has found.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Speed-Light-Double-Digital/dp/0670025402

This book was released October 17, just a few days ago...

Stagnant hell. They've regressed. You can pry my 1880x1400 CRTs from my cold dead hands. It took a Korean manufacturer doing international sales to finally break the logjam in the US market on 2560x1600 LCDs, and that only happened last year. Until then, you couldn't get one for less than $1000, and they went for $1200-$1400 for years and years. They still run nearly $800 on NewEgg even today.

And they're already outclassed. Now you can get this, an UltraHD 3840x2160 display, for less money. The downside is it's 39" vs 30", so the PPI is only slightly better. Oh, and the other downside is that specific product isn't available with DisplayPort, so to drive it at native resolution with HDMI 1.4a, you're stuck with 30 Hz. One hopes Seiki will find out that DisplayPort is royalty-free and release another model in the same price bracket.

This only happened a few months ago. Finally. After a decade.

1080p screen? I wish I could get a laptop for $500 with that.

You didn't say new, so here's a refurbished one for $550.

Everybody knows it was an attempt to recreate the energy pyramids written about in http://www.amazon.com/Siva-Formerly-Millennium-Lewis-Richmond/dp/0441768369/ in 1955.

Why do people keep acting as if something described in "The Puzzle Palace" is something new, different, and surprising?

Fog: Either dry ice in water, or a fog machine.

Maybe a Plasma ball

Various chains have some potentially amusing decorations.

Some grocery chains are currently featuring what for most Americans would be exotic fruits, such as dragon fruit, Buddha's Hand, horned melons, rambutan, and others. A number of things you could do with those. If you eat them, make sure it's the right part. ;)

Maybe some Halloween Sound Effects

Remote controls - always handy.

Perhaps some party lights.

Remote speakers.

Have fun.

Fog: Either dry ice in water, or a fog machine.

Maybe a Plasma ball

Various chains have some potentially amusing decorations.

Some grocery chains are currently featuring what for most Americans would be exotic fruits, such as dragon fruit, Buddha's Hand, horned melons, rambutan, and others. A number of things you could do with those. If you eat them, make sure it's the right part. ;)

Maybe some Halloween Sound Effects

Remote controls - always handy.

Perhaps some party lights.

Remote speakers.

Have fun.

Fog: Either dry ice in water, or a fog machine.

Maybe a Plasma ball

Various chains have some potentially amusing decorations.

Some grocery chains are currently featuring what for most Americans would be exotic fruits, such as dragon fruit, Buddha's Hand, horned melons, rambutan, and others. A number of things you could do with those. If you eat them, make sure it's the right part. ;)

Maybe some Halloween Sound Effects

Remote controls - always handy.

Perhaps some party lights.

Remote speakers.

Have fun.

Fog: Either dry ice in water, or a fog machine.

Maybe a Plasma ball

Various chains have some potentially amusing decorations.

Some grocery chains are currently featuring what for most Americans would be exotic fruits, such as dragon fruit, Buddha's Hand, horned melons, rambutan, and others. A number of things you could do with those. If you eat them, make sure it's the right part. ;)

Maybe some Halloween Sound Effects

Remote controls - always handy.

Perhaps some party lights.

Remote speakers.

Have fun.

The "Robber Baron" era started somewhere in there, illustrating a key point.

Note that that era began with the increased government intervention into markets, particularly railroads :)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Robber-Barons-Business/dp/0963020315

"The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs, such as Hill, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller, succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. The political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and in railroads the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies, or in some way use government to stop competitors. The market entrepreneurs helped lead to the rise of the U. S. as a major economic power. By 1910, the U. S. dominated the world in oil, steel, and railroads led by Rockefeller, Schwab (and Carnegie), and Hill. The political entrepreneurs, by contrast, were a drain on the taxpayers and a thorn in the side of the market entrepreneurs. "

Theoretically every element of government is accountable - that's what the voting booth is for.

How is an unelected bureaucrat held accountable?

But there's no safety/backup mechanism, other than trust-busting.

And there may very well be an argument that that is a legitimate, safe, legal, and rare implementation of government.

But in the end, I can't help but agree with Bastiat - the more government you have, the less freedom individuals have. One might argue there is some sort of local optimum you can strive for, a balance we might agree to, but the modern US is heavily skewed in the direction of statists. The real question is going to be what kind of sea change is going to tip the scales back to the side of freedom...perhaps something that will happen in our lifetimes, perhaps several generations away, who can tell.

Hey researchers, a toy company beat you to market.

That is an interesting point of view. (Interesting as in barking wrong.) As of 2013, wind power is now cheaper than coal power, and that is true even when you ignore the cost of carbon pollution. Obviously this policy is more about heading of crony capitalism... lobbyists doing favours to get coal power plants built that will buy their companies products for 50 years.

This is excellent. At my company we are not allowed to have phones with cameras

Are you allowed to have any other kind of camera?

How do they stop people from carrying one of those cameras that look like a car key, an usb key, a pen, or any other tiny item?

Or is it just a security circus to tell the clients "We are ultra secure!".

When I was a kid anything bought via phone or mail was "allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery". Only with Amazon did this finally change to 2 or 3 days.

How much of this is Amazon and how much of this is UPS and FedEx modernizing their services with the advent of newer technology? Amazon doesn't actually deliver anything, though they've made great strides in minimizing the time spent preparing the order. They certainly have a symbiotic relationship with shippers and the two have worked together to streamline the process, but a good bit of that 4-6 weeks was spent in transit, and eliminating much of that time is none of Amazon's doing.

AmazonFresh is one of their new direct delivery programs and growth of these programs is likely why Amazon became in favor of sales taxes for online purposes. They'll now have a physical presence in many states, so won't be able to duck local taxes. From the Boston Globe: 'A Massachusetts distribution center could allow Amazon to offer same-day delivery in New England, something it has been rolling out in other parts of the country, according to retail analysts.' The sales tax for Amazon purchases starts in November here. Even more strategically important, it adds a barrier to entry for anyone else looking to get into online retailing.

As for the 4-6 weeks, that was due in part to many of these catalog operations not having significant inventory in stock, they'd place their own order after receiving customer orders. For the ones that did have inventory in stock, sitting on your money made them interest, so the longer they took, the more 'free' money they made.

Because what is covered in US history has always been honest, and no one has written a book outlining some of the issues?

http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382909717&sr=8-1&keywords=lies+my+teacher+told+me

You're right about one thing, the solution is for these people to get education/skills in order to rise above these types of jobs.

Take a look at the following links. This program Amazon offers is exactly the solution you are talking about, offering a way to rise above unskilled labor.

Amazon Career Choice Program
Amazon Career Choice Program FAQ

Sounds like Amazon is offering a nice way to move up and out of the warehouses.

You are kinda repeating yourself. You are trying to have it both ways here.

On the one hand you are trying to argue that life in prison for the guilty is roughly equivalent to the death penalty and thus there isn't much gained by execution.
On the other hand you are trying to argue that life in prison for the innocent is wholly different to the death penalty and thus the death penalty can't be used for fear of this additional moral force.

I also disagree we are supposedly a rational society. This isn't the enlightenment where we hold to reason in other areas of policy. I'd say our state policy making is often emotionalism and symbolism run rampant. We are deeply aware of psychology and sociology and how little reason does in fact influence our actions. For example: http://www.amazon.com/Why-Everyone-Else-Hypocrite-Evolution/dp/0691154392 . And ultimately you can't really appeal to reason and then make a purely emotional case that the death penalty is bad because these particular deaths are so much worse than others on emotional grounds.

Whatever justice system we construct will inflict massive injustices on some individuals. The death penalty because it is subject to higher scrutiny substantially reduces those injustices. More innocent people are set free. If the goal is to not punish the innocent then you would want every felony carrying a 20 year sentence of so to be converted to a death penalty case.

So does Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gimp+mask
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dildo&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adildo

So does Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gimp+mask
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dildo&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adildo

I don't suppose that you noted that the files in question were (believe it or not) on dead plants.
Every tried encrypting dead plants?

http://www.amazon.com/Scanners-Office-Electronics/b?ie=UTF8&node=172584

Lots of journalists take note on paper, sometimes using shorthand, often in cursive. This is why there is still such a thing as a reporter's notebook.

While some of us have pretty bad handwriting, I'm not entirely convinced you could categorize that as secure encryption.

Since I replaced most of the bulbs in my house to CFLs, I'm changing light bulbs far less often. They last far longer than incandescents in my experience, exactly as claimed on the box. I've also bought several 65W LED floodlights, and they produce light just as good as incandescents, turn on to full brightness nearly instantly, and use about an eighth the electricity of incandescents.

Who needs more than this?

the wiki i linked to used Einstein as a source for the claim quoted.

Umm...try reading that link again because that is completely wrong. The claim that it is a feature of QM came from the wiki page and has all the authority of the random internet person who wrote it. The paper which is cited on that page was written by Einstein as a way to convince people that QM was wrong. Einstein himself never believed in QM and applied the laws of QM to the entangled two photon system to try and show that this was a crazy feature of QM and so QM had to be wrong. It was later experimentally proven to actually be the case.

just make sure to note the **page number** of course

Why? Are you incapable of using the contents in the front of a book and finding the page on the derivation of the hydrogen atom orbitals? As I indicated there is no single page number where the claim is made because it is a negative claim. You are the one making the positive claim and, in science, that means you have to provide the evidence. All I can do is point you to a QM textbook and tell you to read it because it will then become very clear that entanglement is just one feature that comes from the fundamental nature of QM.

If it is a help here is a link to the book in question. The copy I have is an older version so my page number of the hydrogen orbital chapter would not help you in any case - you would still have to look it up in the contents at the front. If that's too much effort then you might as well give up because looking up the page number of the chapter is nothing compared to the effort that will be required to read and understand the chapter.

They are always like this - especially if the vendors can keep the source secret. I've taken to running VLAN's at home - mostly WNDR3800 refurbs ($50 w/ Prime) running OpenWRT and GS-108T switches (poor GUI, but linux inside), feeding to a pfSense instance. Anything that's not all open source goes on an isolated VLAN that can't get traffic to or from anywhere without an explicit rule. pfSense makes it pretty easy to set up a VPN to get to data on the inside, so outside ports don't need to be open.

I set it up as best-practices, but with Bull Run, D-Link, this, and other similar stories, it seems like an even better idea in retrospect. If I were the NSA, I'd want a backdoor in Roku.

They are always like this - especially if the vendors can keep the source secret. I've taken to running VLAN's at home - mostly WNDR3800 refurbs ($50 w/ Prime) running OpenWRT and GS-108T switches (poor GUI, but linux inside), feeding to a pfSense instance. Anything that's not all open source goes on an isolated VLAN that can't get traffic to or from anywhere without an explicit rule. pfSense makes it pretty easy to set up a VPN to get to data on the inside, so outside ports don't need to be open.

I set it up as best-practices, but with Bull Run, D-Link, this, and other similar stories, it seems like an even better idea in retrospect. If I were the NSA, I'd want a backdoor in Roku.

I would love 4k too but I don't want to use it for a TV, I want to use it for a computer monitor (How many IDEs can you fit in 4k?). I keep looking at this particular TV and thinking about how much space I'd have to clear off on my desk to use it with my laptop:
http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-Digital-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra/dp/B00DOPGO2G

Much cheaper than a lot of the 4k monitors out there, but is the image quality good enough to not make your eyes bleed?

It's great. I think I already reviewed it on Amazon where I got mine, but the short version is:
1920x1080p 60hz - good monitor
3840x2160p (30hz) good monitor as long as you have mid to bright ambient light behind the unit. I got a vague headache and eyestrain since it wasn't directly in my line of view (I have 2 other displays (Go Radeon 7970!)) and the 30hz takes a toll. I put a desk arm lamp in, pointed it at the wall behind the display and it's been good.
4k for $700 (sale)? Awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/Extortion-Peter-Schweizer/dp/0544103343 There ya go, 600 footnotes included.

Except your citation isn't for what the AC posted, i.e. "The ACA has been a such a failure and promises to bankrupt the country."

http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Cycling-John-Forester/dp/0262516942

Has definitive answers to how and why Cyclists get hurt.

I have an older version, but effectively the injury/death rate is mostly effected by poor decisions by the cyclist, not the car. Getting hit from behind by a car was 2% of injuries (but a major cause of death) while getting hit by the asshole riding against traffic was 33%.

In fact, the most dangerous thing to a cyclist is another cyclist.

Reading the first really long review it seems to work best as a 1080P monitor for PC's.

http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-Digital-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra/product-reviews/B00DOPGO2G/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

I would love 4k too but I don't want to use it for a TV, I want to use it for a computer monitor (How many IDEs can you fit in 4k?). I keep looking at this particular TV and thinking about how much space I'd have to clear off on my desk to use it with my laptop:
http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-Digital-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra/dp/B00DOPGO2G

Much cheaper than a lot of the 4k monitors out there, but is the image quality good enough to not make your eyes bleed?

If this incident has you freaked, don't even think about reading Command and Control.

Inkjets are disposable. If you only use them once every few weeks, your heads will be so hopelessly clogged in just a few months that you'll have to junk it. That's false economy; it doesn't take very long even at one $60-printer-per-year before you've exceeded the cost of a small-but-good, duplex-capable color laser, e.g. a Konica Minolta 1650EN (*), particularly when you factor in the high cost of ink. Unless you have a specific need for the look of ink, I'd just steer clear of it entirely.

(*) Note that I have not personally used that particular laser except for seeing print samples at a conference, but I own its big brother, the 7450 II grafx, and would highly recommend it if you need a large-format color laser. For printing music, the ability to do 11x17 folio printing is really useful.

http://www.amazon.com/Extortion-Peter-Schweizer/dp/0544103343
There ya go, 600 footnotes included.

Canon All in one. The printing works easily in Linux. You install a driver and it just works in Ubuntu. I never got the network scanning to work in Linux though. Works well in Windows as well. I don't use the wireless option (it is hard wired into my network). I have heard people complain about the wireless strength in reviews. http://www.amazon.com/Canon-imageCLASS-MF4890dw-Wireless-Monochrome/dp/B008YD1V76/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382541608&sr=8-2&keywords=canon+all+in+one+laser+printer

I second this. I have had two brother printers (one at home and one at the office) and they have lasted 8+ years and show no signs of slowing down. They are great for low end printing, which is probably all you need in a SOHO. I would recommend one with a network port and probably a scanner function as well, so the MFC7360 is probably a good candidate.

Also, to get around the fanboy reviews, throw out the 5 and 1 star reviews on sites like amazon and they tend to be pretty accurate.

After becoming disgusted with the price of inkjet cartridges, I bought a brother MFC-9320CW, which is a very capable multi-function color laser printer. The current cost is about $800 which seems moderate for all it can do. However, I found that I immediately had to buy $150 of replacement cartridges for it because it comes with "teaser" cartridges that don't only work for a ridiculously short time. And the replacement cartridges didn't last long either.

I wasn't happy about that, but I soon discovered that the cartridges have a "flag gear" on them that the printer uses to prevent you from using all the ink in the cartridge - it simply refuses to print. But you can reset the flag gear about three times before the cartridge is truly empty. (Search for "TN-210" on YouTube to see a video about resetting the flag gears - it only takes a couple of minutes once you get good at it.)

The teaser cartridges don't come with flag gears, but those can be bought separately for about $3 per cartridge. You can also buy a cartridge refill kit for about $30 that will refill two blacks and one each of the three colors. This is a bit of trouble (and mess), but it does work. (I never had any luck refilling inkjet cartridges.)

The printer is such a tank that I suspect that Brother loses money on the printer itself. So, if you like to beat the system and don't mind a little trouble (and mess), the method here would be:
- buy the printer at the typical loss-leader price
- buy flag gears for the teaser cartridges and learn how to install/reset them via YouTube
- buy refill kits to refill the teaser cartridges and keep refilling them as shown on YouTube

Alternatively, you could by third-party used cartridges. Resetting the flag gear still would be an essential skill, though.

• check the price and availabilty of the inks before buying the printer
• print regularly (at least twice a week) to avoid clogged heads
• for printing photos, get a printer calibrator (you can share it with other people since you need to calibrate only once for each set of printer / ink / paper). While you are at it, calibrate your screen.