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yes a google search shows just how hard it can be to find.

It's not like a reputable company such as CDW sells them or anything... I'm one for pulling ideas out of your ass, but come on...

According to MS, in order to license the current version of exchange it will cost you $4000 per server + $97 per user + some unnamed fee if you want to interconnect with other companies servers

a shitty Web interface that has not kept up with the regular client

People with smartphones also end up costing you extra for connectors that allow them to access some of the functionality of your Exchange server

one more for the list, Linksys NAS200 http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1262189/

What types of budgets are you talking about? You can get an entry level watchguard or similar device for around $400. Here's one for a little over $300. http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=999365 (no affiliation, just a quick search to find it)

These things are remarkably easy to set up, and with generally good instructions. I'm not an expert in that field either, but I've set them up before, with not a significant amount of effort. If you can afford Oracle licenses, you certainly can afford $400 for a firewall.

FitPC has USB.
      -- You can add a usb wifi peripheral to turn it into an Access Point.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=785329

      -- add a usb/ethernet

for a DMZ with three ethernets...
usb ethernet example: http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D5050-Networking-Ethernet-Adaptor/dp/B000062R4P

disclaimer: I just googled, no idea about linux compatibility of these particular devices.

USB makes this completely flexible...

You may be interested in this:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 1224002
Servers absolutely are selling with the Opteron 8222, I don't know why you think it's unreleased.

Adobe's $2600 Creative Suite 3
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 1153138

Acrobat Pro $426
Illustrator $615
Indesign $720
Photoshop $660
Dreamweaver $412
Total if purchased individually $2833

**

I'm not against paying $2600 for having professional-quality products to handle certain tasks -- that's why I own the products both for OSX and XP, because I can justify the cost to myself, since I'm a software trainer in a previous life. However I find taht it's not just enough for a company to own a few cool pieces of software at a single desk; we need to inspire employees across our organization to develop their graphics skills, so implementing multiple workstations at $2600/each is simply not an option. If we could find a quality package in the $500 range, not only could we justify setting this up for a handful of employees, it's also not out of range for them to afford if they wanted to purchase a copy for their own use at home.

64GB should be close enough

I think that manufacturers brought the warranty down to 1 year, but consumers started to get really mad, so they started to raise the warranties again. Here's some drives with 5 year warranties.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 811474

The iPod is a silly music player.

I can buy other music players that don't carry the iPod name.

If I want to buy a computer retail, I have few choices from manufacturers to choose from and the required OS isn't my choice.

This search from CDW returns 3 Mac OSX choices and the rest Windows.

This search returns 3 iPods and the rest are mixed.

Hardly a monopoly.

The iPod is a silly music player.

I can buy other music players that don't carry the iPod name.

If I want to buy a computer retail, I have few choices from manufacturers to choose from and the required OS isn't my choice.

This search from CDW returns 3 Mac OSX choices and the rest Windows.

This search returns 3 iPods and the rest are mixed.

Hardly a monopoly.

And there are plenty of 3rd-party FM tuners for the iPod. There's a nice radio remote from Griffin that even records FM to the iPod. Apple appears [1] to be leaving this niche to the accessory market. CDW shows 18 hits for iPod FM tuners, some remotes and some docking stations. Apple even makes one (that doesn't record).

[1] My employer has Apple as a client, I am not speaking for them or Apple and I surely don't know about any Apple plans.

And there are plenty of 3rd-party FM tuners for the iPod. There's a nice radio remote from Griffin that even records FM to the iPod. Apple appears [1] to be leaving this niche to the accessory market. CDW shows 18 hits for iPod FM tuners, some remotes and some docking stations. Apple even makes one (that doesn't record).

[1] My employer has Apple as a client, I am not speaking for them or Apple and I surely don't know about any Apple plans.

Do you think an Osprey would fit in this or this?

Add some external RAID and you should be good to go.

I would highly suggest you try out Trend Micro. Centrally managed scans and updates, installs across a web-browser, and it works. They sell by block, so if you need 60 licenses you get each license for cheaper than if you needed 50 or less. It also keeps a good watch on spyware.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 639856

It's all about the developers. People use IIS because it serves ASP and more importantly ASP.net. Say what you will about Microsoft, but Visual Stuido is a first-class development environment. Building scalable and functional web applications in ASP.net using the graphical tools in VS is easier than anything I've seen in the LAMP world, with the possible exception of Rails.

Plus, Microsoft's near-suicidal devotion to backwards compatibility makes heavily mixed ASP/ASP.net sites like CDW reasonably easy, probably easier than mixing different web frameworks on a LAMP or Java platform.

Yeah, either that, or you could tell your boss you need a Pix, buy the same thing, with the same innards, by the same company, and buy yourself a nice 24" LCD with the leftover $700.

30 concurrant VPN connections. Dual internet ports that can function as failover or load balancing. Built in 4-pt switch. $180. That's small business.

~Will

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 895872

          250 lux
          1 lbs.
          SVGA

Introducing a portable projector so small, it can fit in the palm of your hand. Weighing about a single pound, this portable battery operated DLP (TM) projector supports native 800x600 SVGA resolution, and is powered by a sequential LED light source with support for RCA video, S-video and VGA inputs.

- Unbeatable convenience through extreme portability in both size and weight

- Long life-lamp, with quick-on, quick-off, no warm up period

- A projector at practically the cost of less than two regular projector lamp

- Can be battery operated

Included Accessories:

Protective slip cover.

The problem with tape drives isn't really the technology, it's the price. The tape drive you're talking about retails for over $1,000, and you then have to purchase $85 tapes for it.

If you look on CDW for a 250GB Western Digital hard drive, you'll find them for around $130.

Taking that into account, you're looking at buying over 50TB of storage capacity before you even come close to breaking even. It just doesn't make sense to go with tape given the cost of disk right now.

Are you KIDDING?

AMD is successful because from day one they've been in the business of making better products, not cheaper products. That they happen to be cheaper in some cases is just a sign that they have a successfully diverse product line.

I've been doing business with them through three employers, for almost 15 years.

And for the record, I'm talking about CDW

If they have it in stock, they WILL deliver, overnight if you need it that bad, and they stand behind their stuff. They have great relationships with their suppliers as well, so if you need pre-sales support, they can make that happen as well.

We (current company) sole-source our COMPAQ stuff through them, and I do not know of a single complaint. Once you have established an account, and done some business with them, you end up with a dedicated account team. I have been dealing personally with the guy who heads our team since 1997.

Recommended......

-RED

I wouldn't call SQL Server Standard a junior product... Take a look at the differences between editions here. SQL Server 2005 Standard has no cap on RAM like SQL 2000 Standard did, and you can cluster it. Now factor in what it costs, I think it's a pretty smart buy.

Easy, just call CDW, problem solved: http://www.cdw.com/webcontent/land/page/media_cent er.asp
Be like Fred!

Seriously, you need to get real. If you as the one and only IS person can keep things afloat then management will never hire you a PFY (pimply faced youth) to be your assistant! It's a small business, they don't have money for an IT department! Never gonna happen, you are the chief geek, get used to it.

The only real solution is to screw things up enough get overwhelmed and then ask management for help and beg them to hire an assistant. The alternative is to start making some serious automation to make your life easier. Learn some programming like Python or Ruby and get cracking on making it easier to admin user accounts, etc. Oh and stop thinking you are joe IS manager because ya ain't... If you are an experienced IS manager then you got a raw deal and are now the SysAdmin grunt; Time to move on, dude! Basically, you need to face reality, this company will never have a large IT environment like a Fortune 100 company so stop trying to change it to be like a Fortune 100 company IT infrastructure. It sounds like a small business that just can't spend money on staff nor IT gadets.

Alternative, call your local high school and speak with the guidance counselor as well as a computer teacher or two. Find some youthful volunteers who want real world experience. Maybe you can get management to hire one or two of these kids part time. Beats flipping burgers at Mickey D's!

This, for the laptop/ipod/phone/pda anyway. It can power all three off of one plug, and works in cars/planes. Very handy.

Slightly more expensive, but also mroe secure, are adhesive rubber feet, like these at CDW.

IT IS THE BAD THINGS THAT THEY *COULD* DO WITH YOUR INFORMATION. NOT WHAT THEY SAY THEY ARE GOING TO DO WITH IT.

Sure, if all they are doing is targeting ads, fine, whatever. But as we all know, you can only trust companies to do what's in our best interest, only if it is in their best interest. Think about it, do you really trust ANY company?

There is always a provision for changing the contract. They may even notify you of the change.

CDW is a huge retailer of computers and electronics. Check out the second paragraph CDWs provacy policy. At least they put it in the second paragraph and not buried.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy from time to time; the effective date noted above will indicate the date that this policy was last updated. You should visit our Web site periodically to review any changes.

So, do I need to continue to visit the site to protect my privacy? Do I need to check back with every company I interact with? No, because I trust that the company and all the companies that my information is sold to, will keep my information safe.....right. Even if there is no clause like this, they can still change the privacy statement. They company I work for does regularly.

Identity theft is steadly growing people....

Racks are cheap - a brand new Chatsworth telecom rack (just 2 rails - you know, what you put switches and routers in) goes for less than $150. A four rail rack is a bit more expensive but not that much more, and those prices are the result of a quick search. Which of course means you could easily find them cheaper elsewhere.

The harder part of setting up a rack for servers is proper airflow. Servers are designed to be cooled in a specific way, usually front to back. But there are exceptions to that. If you have some older Sun servers, be warned, they cool side to side, and putting them in a rack with sides on it will cause them to start loosing processors.

Back to normal servers. When you put a rack into a server room full of gear, you generally want to have it setup to provide cold airflow down (or up) the front of the rack so that the servers can pull cool air through the gear. Then you want to pull the hot air out the back of the gear. In data centers or server rooms you set this up as a cold aisle and a hot aisle.

As for this guys gear, it probably won't over heat (though I'd be worried about how he stacked the drives) simply because most small form factor desktop machines no longer put out enough heat to make it an issue.

Racks are cheap - a brand new Chatsworth telecom rack (just 2 rails - you know, what you put switches and routers in) goes for less than $150. A four rail rack is a bit more expensive but not that much more, and those prices are the result of a quick search. Which of course means you could easily find them cheaper elsewhere.

The harder part of setting up a rack for servers is proper airflow. Servers are designed to be cooled in a specific way, usually front to back. But there are exceptions to that. If you have some older Sun servers, be warned, they cool side to side, and putting them in a rack with sides on it will cause them to start loosing processors.

Back to normal servers. When you put a rack into a server room full of gear, you generally want to have it setup to provide cold airflow down (or up) the front of the rack so that the servers can pull cool air through the gear. Then you want to pull the hot air out the back of the gear. In data centers or server rooms you set this up as a cold aisle and a hot aisle.

As for this guys gear, it probably won't over heat (though I'd be worried about how he stacked the drives) simply because most small form factor desktop machines no longer put out enough heat to make it an issue.

It sounds to me like your vendor is playing a little loosely with facts. There are plenty of purchase points for CRTs. I like http://www.newegg.com/ for hardware purchasing, but also check out http://www.buy.com/ and http://www.cdw.com/. Those are the major vendors, but there are tons of others out there that will sell you the high quality CRTs that you need, and won't BS you about CRTs going away. As many of the other articles are saying LCDs may be popular, but CRTs are still the better, and more cost effective, solution. My recommendation is to get a new vendor.

He assumes that Windows has a high variable cost (that is, a high cost of manufacturing per unit sold, as an automobile does). It does not. The only variable cost associated with distributing Windows via OEM channels is the cost of the CD and packaging, and even there, Microsoft doesn't have to mass produce those. Dell has for a long time produced their own Windows CD's, so the variable cost to Microsoft could be the cost of a single CD Master.

The fixed cost of Windows is fairly high, as I'm sure hundreds of millions have gone into its development. However, the fixed cost is easily recovered through volume sales. If I write a shareware program, and my investment of time is ~$1,000, and 1,000 people pay me a dollar to register it, I've recovered my fixed costs; everything else is gravy.

If there is an emerging market of sub-$200 PC's, Microsoft can easily drop the price of Windows to penetrate it. A sub-$200 PC market is likely to be pretty hot, so sales volume would be high, and fixed costs would be easily recovered.

The reason Microsoft charges as much as they do for Windows is because they can. If Linux ever took 20% marketshare or more, I think you'd be surprised how far and how fast the price of Windows would drop.

Look at it this way; Apple probably puts just as much effort into developing Mac OS X as Microsoft puts into Windows. Mac OS X sells for $116, and they only have less than 5% marketshare of PC's. Microsoft has 90% marketshare of PC's, and sells Windows XP Professional for $309. And the ONLY reason MS sells Windows XP Home is to justify the higher price point of Windows XP Professional. XP Home is probably MORE expensive to develop than XP Professional, because Home is simply a version of Professional that's been hobbled.

He assumes that Windows has a high variable cost (that is, a high cost of manufacturing per unit sold, as an automobile does). It does not. The only variable cost associated with distributing Windows via OEM channels is the cost of the CD and packaging, and even there, Microsoft doesn't have to mass produce those. Dell has for a long time produced their own Windows CD's, so the variable cost to Microsoft could be the cost of a single CD Master.

The fixed cost of Windows is fairly high, as I'm sure hundreds of millions have gone into its development. However, the fixed cost is easily recovered through volume sales. If I write a shareware program, and my investment of time is ~$1,000, and 1,000 people pay me a dollar to register it, I've recovered my fixed costs; everything else is gravy.

If there is an emerging market of sub-$200 PC's, Microsoft can easily drop the price of Windows to penetrate it. A sub-$200 PC market is likely to be pretty hot, so sales volume would be high, and fixed costs would be easily recovered.

The reason Microsoft charges as much as they do for Windows is because they can. If Linux ever took 20% marketshare or more, I think you'd be surprised how far and how fast the price of Windows would drop.

Look at it this way; Apple probably puts just as much effort into developing Mac OS X as Microsoft puts into Windows. Mac OS X sells for $116, and they only have less than 5% marketshare of PC's. Microsoft has 90% marketshare of PC's, and sells Windows XP Professional for $309. And the ONLY reason MS sells Windows XP Home is to justify the higher price point of Windows XP Professional. XP Home is probably MORE expensive to develop than XP Professional, because Home is simply a version of Professional that's been hobbled.

(Well, it's not really new anymore, but ...)

"The "Radeon 9650" is the highest upgrade option .. also an old card. There are no options for current graphics cards."

True, but you can sell the stock card (quite a few earlier G5 users would glady take it off your hands) and just purchase an X800, but you aren't going to get $499 for that 9650. So, while Apple doesn't offer it as an option, it certainly is still an option to be had if wanted/needed.

"So where is the dual-core??".

We'll have them, just not quite yet. My Dual 2.5 is plenty fast.

Why wouldnt you. CD to CD or DVD to DVD copying is much easier with 2 drives. Why not give the user options??

It's called Firewire/USB 2. You can add one if you wish.

"Alot of people care. I personally don't want a 4+ foot tall computer ... this isn't the 70's"

I didn't like the size either. But, I aboslutely love the internal case design, and like the previous poster stated it sits under my desk as well and therefore have no problem with the size whatsoever.

"AMore network cards, better Audio cards, Raid controllers ... things that power users who buy PowerMacs typically need.."

Well, there's your three slots.

"You shouldn't have to buy extra RAM on a $3000 machine"

Doesn't the new dual core Dell start at $3000, and with only 512MB RAM?

If only they'd fix Acrobat Reader for linux...

We don't want Adobe Reader on Linux. For that matter, we don't want it on any platform.

Adobe, like a page from the Evil Corporation book, has taken it upon themselves to cash in on the success of Acrobat Reader. Currently, if you're a Windows Joe User who wants to download it, you'll wind up with all sorts of stuff. You'll get the Adobe Download Manager, the Yahoo Toolbar, Adobe Photoshop SE, and some mysterious Adobe Internet Printing that just appears in the start menu. Didja ever wonder why SO MANY people have the Yahoo toolbar even though they don't use Yahoo?

This is bullshit. While I realize that, in an ideal world, everyone would uncheck the little checkboxes and opt out of it but this isn't an ideal world. Adobe needs to be punished.

If some programming hero wanted to step up, it wouldn't be hard to knock a few hundred million dollars off of the value of Adobe's stock. Here's how:

1) Create free, open-source PDF writer and reader with none of the typical Evil attributes.
2) Distribute.

Adobe derives a significant amount of their revenue from their Acrobat Writer product. Most people simply want to create PDF files so they buy it. The company that I work for has thousands of licenses because they just want simple PDF creation functions. This is mind-boggling. They use none of the advanced features.

While we can all create PDFs in OpenOffice for free, I think that a set of PDF tools would devastate Adobe. This needs to happen if only for the simple fact that they've crossed the line.

PLEASE!?

I don't understand why they don't use LTO Digital Tape. LTO-3 currently holds 400GB (using no on tape compression). Is $0.30US/GB
http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/results.aspx?grp=TM L
Is very reliable and will last for a very long time. It is great for archiving and is what TV stations use. Also, if they are serious about archiving, why are they not considering higher bit rates? If they are going to do this then they should be considering 50 Mbit instead of 20 Mbit. Shure it takes up a lot of space, but that is why you use LTO. Also, every ~two years they come out with the next gen that has double the capacity of the previous version. And the new gens can read the older tapes.

Well, on those grounds MSSQL worms aren't an issue either, because believe me, SQLServer does not come with Windows either. Apparently shelling out good money hasn't stopped people from leaving the SA p/w blank.

BTW. Wordstar was $295, Word is $217. The 10% rule would put it at $30 (which would be reasonable), tripleing that would put it at $90 (Word is powerfull). Microsoft prices it at $217.

A computer that is THOUSANDS of times more powerful costs 1/20th what it did then. The leading wordprocessor costs 2/3rds. Yeah, software prices have declined.

PS: I know, buy Office and things are cheaper than buying individually, but the point is MS did not push down prices quite like you think.

If you can swing the adapter and a few extra dollars, going with two 17" LCDs is a great way to get extra real estate.

Two of these nec monitors at ~750 USD is a bit cheaper than one 20" display for ~800 and you get a larger viewable area, spread over two screens. Chances are you'll need another dispaly adapter that handles two monitors, that will set you back ~150.

I find the dual monitor set-up very effective, as you could have one with items you're currently working with on one and reference material on another. Of course, if you're doing work where you simply need to see a lot of stuff at once, this isn't the right solution.

If you can swing the adapter and a few extra dollars, going with two 17" LCDs is a great way to get extra real estate.

Two of these nec monitors at ~750 USD is a bit cheaper than one 20" display for ~800 and you get a larger viewable area, spread over two screens. Chances are you'll need another dispaly adapter that handles two monitors, that will set you back ~150.

I find the dual monitor set-up very effective, as you could have one with items you're currently working with on one and reference material on another. Of course, if you're doing work where you simply need to see a lot of stuff at once, this isn't the right solution.

Becuase MSFT has never made a large profit on a project that wasn't OS or Office.

You can bet your ass Microsoft makes a helluva lot of money from SQL Server and Exchange Server. Probably more than most other software companies make, period. Even with fully allocated development, support, and marketing costs.

Think about how much 31% of worldwide corporate messaging seats (see page 12) really is. Now multiply that number by at least 30 bucks per seat. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC= 659765

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that many people consider downloading from the internet or talking a friend into burning a copy much easier than shelling out however much the program costs.

Even more, will making cheaper computers bring down the ridiculous price tag of some applications?

A high price tag in software most certainly does not justify piracy, but it certainly helps to facilitate it.

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that many people consider downloading from the internet or talking a friend into burning a copy much easier than shelling out however much the program costs.

Even more, will making cheaper computers bring down the ridiculous price tag of some applications?

A high price tag in software most certainly does not justify piracy, but it certainly helps to facilitate it.

Like this one? $77 + S&H from CDW? (and I'm sure you could go cheaper with a search).

I only have 3 computers on the gigabit network (a Mac, a Windoze machine, and a Linux box) so instead of getting a switch, I triple NIC'd the Linux box, which I use as a gateway and a file server.

Why would anyone put 3 gigabit NIC's in a box and route within a 3-node network when you can buy a low-end gigabit switch for less than $100??? Were you hung over the day you "designed" this??? Also note that using cable of a higher grade than required by the spec typically doesn't give you some magic speed increase ;-)

I just installed the 8-port version of that switch (~$110) at home, and I find that I get ~350mbps between a G4 tower and a G4 PowerBook, without tweaking any IP options, and on my existing Cat 5 wiring.

Heck, Pricewatch even lists them.

I build these little shuttle boxes for software delivery at work for very cheap with 400gb Raid 5 usable redundant space for a mere $687 you can add that to an existing PC $300 for the controller 3x $129 for the drives if you shop around and dont use the first froogle links like I did you may be able to save some cash we used to use a different and cheaper (like 200 bucks plus a RDR Stick of ram) card, but it sucked. if you wanna spend more money buy another drive and make it 600gb raid 5

Other options include the purchase of a Snap! server, or other brand of NAS. If you've got a little $ to throw around, NAS is the way to go. Plug it into your network, minimal setup, and your off and running. Not very upgradeable, and somewhat problematic if your drive does actually die, but I use them at the office for a zero maintenence file server.

We use the Gyration GyroRemote, which works quite well on the Trade Show floor. They use commodity AAA alkaline batteries, so you don't have to worry about keeping them charged.

--Mike--