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The Intel PIC clone was designed by, yes, you guessed right, Zilog

Thank christ Intel will check it before it goes to silicon. Zilong engineers spend their time doing things like this and this

If you have broadband in your house, chances are you have a router and a spair port. Here, i'll make your life a little bit easier if you're confused about what's out there.

Netgear RP614 Router (4 Ports) = $44 bucks. Dig around for the other rebate and you can even get it for $30. It beats SMS, Linksys and 3Com's $200 dollar routers into the ground with it's ease of use and superior performance.

Of course AOL users aren't really on top of the Microsoft's priority list when it comes to Live. Even my grandmother has a router in her tiny house. She's pushing 92.

As you can see, the connectivity is a non-issue.

Yes, it's cool. But plasma TV's are not some new invention, and this one doesn't seem to do anything special. Besides, if I was in the market for a plasma, I think I'd go for the Gateway, which is like half the price. Which is still about $2600 more than I would spend on a TV or monitor.

The composite video inputs offered the best overall picture which is to be expected, followed by the RCA video connection and S-Video in a distant last place.

This statement worries me, here's why (excerpt from a cnet article):

Composite video

Although the composite-video system was developed for color-TV signals, it doesn't give you a very sharp picture. Composite video was created as a backward-compatible solution for television's transition from black and white to color. It was a fairly clever solution to the problem of how to continue to send the same black-and-white picture to all the old sets and layer color information on top--a composite of those two picture components. The black-and-white sets ignored the color component, while the newer sets separated out the color information and displayed it with the black-and-white picture. This made for a smooth TV transition in the 1950s with low-resolution color TVs. Today, though, sophisticated high-resolution displays show all of the compression artifacts and cross-color (or moiré) blurring that comes with a composite video connection. It's simply impossible to perfectly separate the color and picture information of a composite-video signal. So, if your TV picture isn't sharp enough or the colors blur together, the likely culprit is a composite output signal.

S-Video

S-Video, which was introduced in the 1980s, solved some of the problems that came with composite video. It provides better color separation and a much cleaner signal. S-Video does so by keeping separate the color and picture parts of a composite-video signal. You'll find S-Video ports on most TVs for sale today, but not many people are really taking advantage of them yet. Why is that? Well, take a look at Direct Broadcast Satellite, for example. It starts broadcasting in the composite-video domain, and even though it is a component-video format, the artifacts associated with composite video still show up in the picture.

Component video

Component video improves the picture quality even more by not only separating the color from the black-and-white portions of the picture but by further splitting the color information into two color-difference signals. When the picture signal is split up in this way, you get an unfiltered, uninterrupted image, with better resolution and greatly improved color saturation. And this is why component video is the predominant method of hookup from HDTV set-top decoders to HDTVs.

From the article:
"Users are required to lock into a seven-month contract in return for a modem, or power socket."

Now all we need is a PCMCIA version. Then we'll have a modem that gets its electricity from the computer and the information from the wall outlet.

And you thought tech support had it rough now...

"Nono, sir, you don't..."
[BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZttt *spark, *fssszt]

But was ultimately limited by his physical location and environment reach. Had he done this two years ago, he would have done more damage, but now that PaineWebber has been a part of UBS Warburg for, two years most of our transaction and settlement occurs in our Stamford facility But he did take out an entire data center in New Jersey, three external websites, and connectivity to all 500 of our national retail (private investor) branches, FOR A WEEK!!

What I still don't understand is why, among the most technically savvy, there is such a huge imbalance in support, when a site like Cnet rates them almost equal.

Two reasons. One, just because someone is technically savvy doesn't mean they want to have to use that savvy just to watch TV. ReplayTV may have "innovated" in areas like show sharing and commercial skip but in areas like making it easy to record what you want recorded, ReplayTV started out poorly and in two years has changed almost none at all.

Two, CNet (and reviewers from most other publications for that matter) use the things they review for like a week, which is hardly enough time to learn all their ins and outs. When they make statements like "ReplayTV offers two tuners" (from this recent CNet review) that someone with five minutes experience with a ReplayTV could tell you is false, it makes it hard to believe the reviewer ever laid a hand on a ReplayTV remote.

If the opinions of a handful of reviewers who can't get basic facts right are at odds with those of the PVR owning public I would say that it's the reviewers that should be treated as suspect and out of touch, not the hundreds of thousands of people who actually use and rely on their PVRs every day.

Which one? RMS didn't write the first emacs, that was Gosling.

That is incorrect.

RMS wrote the first emacs as an extension to TECO. Gosling wrote the first C-based emacs, but Gosling is also a conniving rat (like Tatu Ylonen) who promised RMS he could use his Emacs code, then changed his mind and threatened legal action. More recently, he has fraudulently claimed credit for inventing Emacs.

More history here.

some sort of x86 processor conflict, I just read about it http://computers.cnet.com/linux/0-1107-404-2043625 3.html?tag=ld.

Still, I'd like to have one of these (or rather the Zaurus, since I'm a Unix programmer) with integrated 802.11, which would enable me to throw in all sorts of other gadgets and/or a shitload of memory and still have full connectivity.

You want the Toshiba e740. It has a 400mhz xscale processor, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, and dual expansion card slots. You can get it for under $400 after rebate at pricewatch.

Here's a review from CNET.

both Realplayer and Windows Media Player exist on the Mac.

But WiMP for the Mac probably doesn't support digital restrictions management, the enabling technology for online movie rentals. It can't support DRM because last time I checked, Mac OS X didn't have signed drivers or a "secure audio path", unlike Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. In addition, Win XP appears to have a "driver blacklist", purportedly for compatibility purposes, but which may help the DRM system.

So the only reason I can think of for not allowing Macs is pure laziness.

Or, perhaps, the fact that Apple doesn't believe in DRM?

I have news for you. Microsoft doesn't give a crap about Linux or OS software and whatever insignificant market share they have.

Ballmer: Linux Is Top Threat To Windows

Microsoft acknowledges Linux threat

Ballmer: Microsoft sees the Linux challenge

You mention that "lots of big companies" are starting to deply Linux to the business desktop. Name a few.

Wall Street Embraces Linux

Linux for the Rest of Us

DreamWorks switches to HP, Linux

Secure Linux desktop begins shipping to UK police force

Toshiba's Portege 2000 (pic with dock) was a pretty remarkable laptop. Not sure if that make Slashdot, but it was the first super thin laptop to hit the market. .7" thin.

Saying that, I do think Apple's laptops are the best. VPR Matrix's line come REALLY close, but they were also mentioned on slashdot. (VPR will be my next laptop purchase, I can't let go of Win2k just yet!)

Dell seems to be no better...

however My experience with toshiba was great. I dropped my wifes laptop with the 802.11b card sticking out and that shoved the PCMCIA card slot deep into the casing- I had bought the extended warranty (the laptop is 2 years old) and in under 24 hours I had a new system board. It seems like they have great service to me!

Personally I'm waiting for the Toshiba RD-X1. Its supposed to be available now, and has an 80 Gig drive as opposed to a 40. The price in the press release says $1500, but it can be seen on C|Net for as little as $789.

Dude, some writer for CNet needs to feed his kids, so he resorts to the time-tested journalistic technique of sensationalism to make a story where there is none. VPR Matrix decided they wanted their computers to look kinda cool--not much of the story there. But VPR Matrix asks the Porsche design firm to do it, which allows the author to drop a recognizable name and make this a story.

This thing looks nice to you people? It looks like any other PC Laptop... ugly. Look at it! Why does everyone think it looks like a TiBook? Coz it's wide? It's got this ugly dark color! Two-tone? I'll pass.

Now look at the TiBook. (QTVR) Much nicer.

This story confuses me, is it a troll or what?

Because the minidisc uses Sony's proprietary ATRAC format, which is a pain, because it takes longer to transfer music to the player. See CNet's review...it's not exactly glowing. It's more expensive than CD players, and more handicapped. If it weren't it'd take the country by storm...it has great battery life and good media.

The towers are widely agreed to be a terrible deal. I wouldn't buy one either.

However, the iMacs, iBooks, and Powerbooks are much more competitive, with perhaps a zero to three hundred dollar markup relative to PCs, but plenty of other benefits to offset it.

As for the displays, well, you're free to use any other display you want with your Mac. But even Cnet agrees that they're the highest-quality displays you can get (and they generally hate Macs).

...oh and unlike the PCG-U1, this little Fujitsu is available in the US already!

Such good news, in abundance, doesn't seem to be helping Corel's stock price much. Is the market so pessimistic on any news now?

I have not seen any good office suite reviews in a LONG time. The last was MS Office 2000 vs. Corel 2000 over at cnet.

Anyone know if there are any reviews with the massive amount of suites. Koffice, open office, star office, ms office, ms works, corel office, applix, easy office, lotus smartsuite, siag office, axene, newdeal, 602Pro, etc..

-
I'm too shy to express my sexual needs except over the phone to people I don't know. - Garry Shandling

I understand and appreciate your problem. I have tried many solutions, and I believe the c-pen 800c is the best solution I've tried for my research needs. There is another pen based solution, WizCom QuickLink SuperPen which I've also tried. I did not like the wizcom because it was not as comfortable to use or as accurate. It also actually had a moving part. :) Both have SDKs to write your own software, however, the only one I could get access to was the c-pen, which made it even more of a favorite of mine. The cpen can also act as a mouse and can do some gestures in addition to being able to input text through "writing" (in big letters) on the page. Both companies are barely alive it seems, but it's a niche market, and I hope they survive. They both have some fantastic functionality, such as translation and barcodes. Of course c|net did the normal bribed review, but I guess the cpen wasn't out at the time. Both are upgradeable and can load extra programs or dictionaries and such. I wouldn't want to go back to college with out one.

Hey, if this has at all been useful, please feel free to buy me one! I miss having it around.

everybody wants to talk to a guineapig, but no one wants to be one

Tom's Hardware Guide and similar sites get paid by their advertisers to be a guinea pig.

CNET has performance specs another review, and more specs. This has been out for a while. :)

CNET has performance specs another review, and more specs. This has been out for a while. :)

CNET has performance specs another review, and more specs. This has been out for a while. :)

CNET has performance specs another review, and more specs. This has been out for a while. :)

They also have their own lineup of, IMHO, a lot more sexier, better and more feature rich units than those from RIO. See the SlimX and their new HD unit, iDP-100 on their product listing page.

I'm getting a iMP-350 soon, and I guess this means that Real Soon Now(tm) I'll get to rip my CD collection to OGG and play it on this beauty! It's got very good reviews everywhere.

Cheers!

Costyn.

A little google shows us:
Western Digital - EVIL
User reviews on CNET

So some people have problems, some don't. The problems do sound scary, though.

I think I use WD pretty much exclusively, btw. I think I've had one problem with them ever. Could be luck, though.

C-Net shows prices as low as $333 US.

Nice summary by O'Reilly
Sharp USA site
Zaurus user's site
Sharp Developer site
ZDNet UK review
cNet review
Linuxdevices.com review
ZDnet review
TechTV review
ThinkGeek review
PC Magazine review
IT Reviews review
Cnet shopper latest prices
Buy @ Amazon

Nice summary by O'Reilly
Sharp USA site
Zaurus user's site
Sharp Developer site
ZDNet UK review
cNet review
Linuxdevices.com review
ZDnet review
TechTV review
ThinkGeek review
PC Magazine review
IT Reviews review
Cnet shopper latest prices
Buy @ Amazon

http://www.e-review.tk

http://www.cnet.com

are two which i visit everyday

Its funny that their review of IE 6 scored the same as Netscape 7, 7 out of 10. It is funny to read the review because it pretty much says what the Netscape 7 review says, but for IE. "Don't switch if you like Netscape", "No startling improvements or features", etc. What I would like to see is an update to the IE 6 review that makes new comparisons to NS 7 instead of 6.1 and see what he thinks then. His review of Netscape 7 just didn't do that.

I wonder if the Linux version of NutScrape-7.0 has those ads too? They wouldn't be that stupid to include AOL ads for the Linux users. Would they?

I'll stick with Mozilla & Konquer.. thank you very much.

Aside from the tabbed browsing, new to Netscape, it doesn't seem like 7.0 is that great an upgrade. Here's a CNET review on the new version...as much as I generally distrust CNet's reviews of software, they're pretty much on the money with this one, it seems.

The CNET review of 7.0 is here.

Title: Don't switch browsers

Summary:
We had high hopes for Netscape 7.0, but we're sorely disappointed, especially by the missing pop-up suppressor. There's no practical reason to switch from either IE or Mozilla.

Well, you should also note that this review you posted is 2 1/2 years old, and Linksys has a competing product that is supposedly better. I am wondering exactly how the technologies compare and if they are using the same methods of data transmission. Does anyone know the difference between this and HomePlug 1.0?

Don't you think that 712,49 $ are a bit hefty?
Not for the Japanese, maybe.

You forgot to mention one of the best features of the Rio Volt SP250. The anti-skip protection. This baby has eight minutes of skip protection for MP3/WMA CDs and three minutes for audio CDs. It also recognises and uses M3u playlists. Bonus!

CNET claims this is the best MP3 player there is today. They gave it a 9 out of 10. I'd agree.

I too am a very very satisfied NEX II owner...Bought largely based on the rave reviews here in the 2000 Ask Slashdot article, and just read the rave reviews at cnet.com. 92% approval! Including some idiot who put his pan of the Rio 800 in the Nex II review section! For exercise especially, where weight is a concern, the NEX II is a champ. I convinced my girlfriend and two other friends to buy one and they love it.

And Frontier Labs are a nice, decent company to deal with. About 2 months into my NEX II ownership, I yanked the thing off an exercise machine and it took a hard fall...the LCD screen stopped working. Shipped it off to Frontier Labs, they sent it back w/in 3 days of receipt good as new, no questions. The largest delay factor was simply the unfortunate fact that Frontier Labs is based in Hong Kong.

Which brings me to some questions about this device perhaps the savvy Slashdot community will know. What is up with Frontier Labs?! Why are they not marketing the heck out of the NEX II? You really have to dig to find one of these...buy.com occasionally carries it, but certainly none of the big consumer retail outlets do. I got mine via Ebay from Choke Slam Media, a little mom'n'pop reseller, hilariously endorsed by Frontier Labs themselves.

And why is support for the NEX II at an apparent stand-still since like 1999 or 2000? There have been zero firmware upgrades since then, and there are some obvious bug fixes/feature additions. The one-level-deep directory structure has been mentioned. There is no support for .m3u playlists which would be wonderful. And, there is a bug (Frontier Labs has told me they know about it) in the unit's display when playing VBR mp3s. Namely, it uses the instantaneous bit rate and the size of the file to estimate how much play time is left for a song. This means the display is always wildly changing while a song is playing, giving you no useful info about play time for VBR tunes. Note, however, VBR songs still play just fine. The NEX II always sounds great...the equalizer is very functional and completely customizable.

The last question is...have any NEX II users found an armband style case that fits the NEX II? I run with mine, and though the factory case is highly funtional, and the belt clip quite sturdy, it chafes after a reasonable run. Last time MP3 players were discussed, somebody mentioned the Amphipod which is an ergonomic, "chafe-less" waist pack that looks awesome, but I wonder if their Micropack Landsport fits the NEX II. Any suggestions in this regard?

Weird that they have removed older comments, but at least download.com are warning potential users on the NeoAudio download page. This is from download.com:

Editor's note: This download includes additional applications that are bundled within the software's installer file, some of which may be provided by parties other than the developer of this download. These applications may deliver advertisements, collect information, overlay content or graphics on the Web site you are viewing, or modify your system settings. As with all downloads, CNET recommends that you pay close attention to the options presented to you during the installation process. Known third-party applications bundled with this download include SaveNow and TopText. For more information, please read CNET News.com's report on bundled software.

/Hans

C|Net features the new phone prominently on their homepage as their Editor's Choice! Those shills, they show up in the strangest places!

C|Net features the new phone prominently on their homepage as their Editor's Choice! Those shills, they show up in the strangest places!

XBox has managed to take to number 2 slot in this market, although closely followed by the GameCube.

Nintendo hasn't even been all that close the last two months according to the sales figures from C.S. First Boston.

Xbox Sales
May - 229,000
Jun - 265,000

GameCube Sales
May - 111,000
Jun - 213,000

Dude, there are certain USA Fans who are guilty of all these traits. I think you can guess what operating systenm they prefer...

Yeah, that's what I thought.

They own news.com, but it's a redirect to news.com.com which they prefer? What's wrong with news.cnet.com? Another redirect to that stupid com.com website.