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You will be able to get a GPRS/GSM sleeve for the iPaq that not only will allow you to access packet switched data, but has a microphone and speaker so you can use it as a phone.

There's also a provision for an earpiece, but I suspect it's one of those el-cheapo crappy ones. I hope someone will write a Bluetooth driver that lets me use, say the Ericsson Bluetooth headset (as seen in Tomb Raider) to talk on the GSM phone.

The iPaq also has IBM ViaVoice for voice recognition.

Not quite what you're after, but close.

The 3870 has integrated bluetooth. If I didn't have such dismal expectations of it, I would say you could use that. There's also an IR port, if you have one on your synch station, and it can take an 802.11b card and synch over the network. If you just want to charge it, you can either use one of the PC Card sleeves with the DC in port, or use a small DC-in converter. The last two solutions are mentioned in the article.

Well this is a dilemma, i already have too many damn palms laying around (a VII, IIIc and a Handspring Visor Deluxe I got as a gift) and i had intended to pick up an ipaq, but i'll be damned if it doesn't look like this is a much better solution.

except for:
why so damn tiny? who asked for something that is only slightly larger then a WAP enabled cell phone display.

the iPaq (which my spellchecker wants to call Iraq) has a cell phone module pending, and it will also do GPS. And if you are married to the PalmOS and want color today you can get the color Handspring Visor Prism and add the Cell Phone module for free (with activation) only with neither of these you don't get the spiffy keyboard... (heh) also the prism isn't as quick as the the Treo, though it does have a bigger 16-bit color display today .

oh hell i just talked myself out of the Treo, and another palm... because well... even though i have heard that the cell phone springboard module actually rocks, the PalmOS development seems to be stagnating while the iPaq not only does every goddamn thing in the world and with a better diplay, you can also jack linux into it when you get sick of WinCE.

man... as a long time Apple guy (easy angry kiddys, i have been building x86 boxes since before you were born and EISA was a hot new bus archetecture) i really hate to see what was once the innovator and hands down best hand held solution (PalmOS) get trumped by another microsoft branded product... i'd help them if i can but i already have three...

http://www.compaq.com/emea/inform/q299/html/storag e/storageworks.html

It all depends on what part of the "agency" you're talking about. Certainly, there's a lot of push to move to MS on desktop-type systems.

But mission systems are a different matter. To start with, you're talking in some cases about systems that have been deployed for decades. What my company (and we're not alone) has been doing for the last 7 years is migrating these custom OS/HW systems to COTS platforms. In the sonar arena (think the sonar workstations in The Hunt for Red October), we have progressively moved the signal processing systems from custom systems to embedded (VxWorks and Mercury) to Solaris and SGI prototypes to Linux on Intel. Currently deploying systems are using Linux on Compaq Proliant 8500 8-way boxes. The next refresh will be to multiple dual-CPU P4 Xeon boxes communicating over Gigabit Copper Ethernet. Expect to see Itanium-based units in a couple of years. All of this is saving the Navy a lot of money while dramatically improving the capabilities of the fleet.

Do a quick Google search for Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion.

And it's not stopping there. Plenty of other onboard systems, both in the surface and undersea communities, are moving from outdated one-of-a-kind systems to commodity hardware encapsulated in survivable enclosures.

No need:

OpenVMS seems to still be going strong.

Now, I will ruin this powerful statement with a fart joke. I'm farting right now. He he, that was funny! Smelly though!

This stupidity brought to you by the slashcode lameness filter.

Scyld is a software company so they don't sell directly. To get a turnkey system they have partnered with hardware vendors who will sell a pre-integrated cluster along with hardware support and Scyld support for the integrated Beowulf Professional Edition software. Visit their site at:

Scyld Computing Corporation

Or go directly to their partners:

Compaq

PSSC Labs

Penguin Computing

eLinux

Aspen Systems

Custom Fit, Inc.

Atipa

Dan

• Compaq
• PSSC Labs
• Penguin Computing
• eLinux
• Aspen Systems
• Custom Fit, Inc.
• Atipa

Penguin Computing ships beowulf clusters

IBMdoes a lot of linux stuff, they even have beowulf traning classes - I imagine that they have some turnkey solution.

Compaq sells 'em. too.

In other words, almost any company that sells Linux servers sells beowulf clusters o' servers as well. And if you want training, quite a few of them out there have classes for it too :)

We read recently elsewhere about people buying cheapo 802.11b kit and simply plugging it in, essentially giving their neighbours [sic] a free leg-up on to the Internet. How does this compare with what you're proposing, that local municipalities deploy a public service style network?

I would think that a public sector MAN would be somewhere between the two extremes that we currently have. On one end, corporate cable provided by the usual suspects, and on the other extreme the so-called "parasitic grid". What would happen instead if a local county council (or US equivalent) subsidised cheap 802.11b receivers / transmitters? The expensive bit would be for the up-link which could potentially be a cost shared more equally across the community. For instance, your electricity shouldn't cost more simply because you live further from the power station, so why not employ a similar equality scheme for 'net traffic?

Personally I can't help but think that the ultimate direction for all this is for the "swarm effect" written about in the lamented Rapidly Changing Face of Computing, where personal transmitting devices effectively become a collosal wireless network.

Aegilops

We read recently elsewhere about people buying cheapo 802.11b kit and simply plugging it in, essentially giving their neighbours [sic] a free leg-up on to the Internet. How does this compare with what you're proposing, that local municipalities deploy a public service style network?

I would think that a public sector MAN would be somewhere between the two extremes that we currently have. On one end, corporate cable provided by the usual suspects, and on the other extreme the so-called "parasitic grid". What would happen instead if a local county council (or US equivalent) subsidised cheap 802.11b receivers / transmitters? The expensive bit would be for the up-link which could potentially be a cost shared more equally across the community. For instance, your electricity shouldn't cost more simply because you live further from the power station, so why not employ a similar equality scheme for 'net traffic?

Personally I can't help but think that the ultimate direction for all this is for the "swarm effect" written about in the lamented Rapidly Changing Face of Computing, where personal transmitting devices effectively become a collosal wireless network.

Aegilops

I really hate to say it, but I am not optimistic about Visor's chances of turning a profit anytime soon. Cheaper knockoffs are starting to chip away at their customer base, and much wealthier companies are taking over the high end with their CE devices.

-sting3r

Note particularly that Van Jacobson was able to obtain measured TCP throughput of 8Mb/s in the 80's.

There is a good review of the area in the O'Reilly book on Ethernet too.

Hi all,

there's an interesting new article over on the Compaq website about the upgrade of current iPAQs to Merlin (PocketPC 2002):

"You made a great decision when you purchased your iPAQ Pocket PC!
Compaq will offer an upgrade to Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 for the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 and H3100 Series.
You can place your order starting September 17, and shipments of the upgrade CD will begin in mid-October.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 or H3100 Series between September 6, 2001 and November 30, 2001, your upgrade is free*.
(*You only pay for shipping, handling, and applicable tax for the upgrade CD.)

The process will involve completing and printing a form, then mailing or faxing it to Compaq, along with your proof of purchase.

* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC before September 6 or after Nov 30, the upgrade will cost $29.95. Shipping, handling, and applicable taxes will be added to this amount.

Return to this site on or after September 17 to request or order the upgrade. "

The URL is here (thanks to Dave's Compaq iPAQ site for the original source of this news).

This comes after Compaq's announcement that "Customers can be assured that any iPAQ Pocket PC purchased today is upgradable to future Pocket PC software--a feature unique to the iPAQ."

I think this is pretty bad form on Compaq's part. First they announce that all current iPaqs will support Pocket PC 2002, with the wording of the announcement strongly reassuring potential buyers that it's really OK to buy one now, then they announce that they'll only supply the OS upgrade to people who've bought one from the 6th onward! Since I just bought an H3630 (ordered it on the 29th August) partly due to this announcement, I feel a little cheated. Compaq should supply the upgrade free to everyone who ordered an iPaq on or after the day they announced that the current generation would support the new OS.

Of course it does depend on how much the upgrade costs for us non-eligible owners, if it's say GBP30 (USD 50 or so) then while there'd be a fair bit of grumbling, most users would be willing to pay this (assuming there are significant reasons to upgrade).

As for whether it'll fit into the 16MB flash ROM, well according to most reports I've read on the misc. Pocket PC sites there'll be TWO versions of Pocket PC 2002, a scaled down one for all the current devices and the full version for the next-gen machines. There's more info at CNet here
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7025389.html% 20tag=mn_hd

Oh, I might as well part with a few iPAQ links of my own (in no particular order):

http://www.tekguru.demon.co.uk/

http://www.pdatweaks.com/

http://www.ludipocket.co.uk/

http://www.pdageek.com/

http://www.pdabuzz.com/

Hi all,

there's an interesting new article over on the Compaq website about the upgrade of current iPAQs to Merlin (PocketPC 2002):

"You made a great decision when you purchased your iPAQ Pocket PC!
Compaq will offer an upgrade to Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 for the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 and H3100 Series.
You can place your order starting September 17, and shipments of the upgrade CD will begin in mid-October.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 or H3100 Series between September 6, 2001 and November 30, 2001, your upgrade is free*.
(*You only pay for shipping, handling, and applicable tax for the upgrade CD.)

The process will involve completing and printing a form, then mailing or faxing it to Compaq, along with your proof of purchase.

* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC before September 6 or after Nov 30, the upgrade will cost $29.95. Shipping, handling, and applicable taxes will be added to this amount.

Return to this site on or after September 17 to request or order the upgrade. "

The URL is here (thanks to Dave's Compaq iPAQ site for the original source of this news).

This comes after Compaq's announcement that "Customers can be assured that any iPAQ Pocket PC purchased today is upgradable to future Pocket PC software--a feature unique to the iPAQ."

I think this is pretty bad form on Compaq's part. First they announce that all current iPaqs will support Pocket PC 2002, with the wording of the announcement strongly reassuring potential buyers that it's really OK to buy one now, then they announce that they'll only supply the OS upgrade to people who've bought one from the 6th onward! Since I just bought an H3630 (ordered it on the 29th August) partly due to this announcement, I feel a little cheated. Compaq should supply the upgrade free to everyone who ordered an iPaq on or after the day they announced that the current generation would support the new OS.

Of course it does depend on how much the upgrade costs for us non-eligible owners, if it's say GBP30 (USD 50 or so) then while there'd be a fair bit of grumbling, most users would be willing to pay this (assuming there are significant reasons to upgrade).

As for whether it'll fit into the 16MB flash ROM, well according to most reports I've read on the misc. Pocket PC sites there'll be TWO versions of Pocket PC 2002, a scaled down one for all the current devices and the full version for the next-gen machines. There's more info at CNet here
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7025389.html% 20tag=mn_hd

Oh, I might as well part with a few iPAQ links of my own (in no particular order):

http://www.tekguru.demon.co.uk/

http://www.pdatweaks.com/

http://www.ludipocket.co.uk/

http://www.pdageek.com/

http://www.pdabuzz.com/

Huh?

Comapq's Linux effort.

HP's Linux effort.

I'm not saying that they have invested as much time or money into Linux as IBM, but don't say it has been overlooked by HPaq. Compaq even has links on their site for Linux on the iPaq handhelds.

Compaq Press Release
HP Press Release

I'm not sure about HPUX or Tru64, but OpenVMS legally can't be dropped. Per the terms of their DII COE commitment with Uncle Sam from last year, Compaq agreed to guarantee support OpenVMS for 20 more years. With the merger, HP inherits that agreement.

I can't help but think that this merger is a good thing. HP understands high-end enterprise computing much better than Compaq, and clearly bought out the Q for the enterprise morsels they acquired from DIGITAL and Tandem...

Listen to the merger press release conference NOW at http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/presspaq/090401/ind ex.html!!!!

Don't hesitate, or your iPaq/Jornada will crash.

The register, including a letter from Compaq Chairman & CEO - Michael D. Capellas
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/21444.html

The new york times story
http://archives.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/business/04 DEAL.html

The press release from Compaq
http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/2001/pr200109040 2.html

The press release from HP
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/04sep01a.h tm

The deals not done yet, mergers and monopolies dicussed at siliconvalley.com
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/techtest /ml090401.htm

MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/623619.asp

Wonder what Bruce Perens comments on all this are, come on speak up Bruce! Is this good for Linux?

--
Modrators: i may be karma whoring but that is no reason to moderate this below Score:1. Mod up not down! If only i had meta mod ...

Compaq also produce some MIPS systems in the Compaq NonStop Himalaya series.

Officially? The Compaq name is going the same way as Digital and Tandem. There is no new company, where there were two, there will be one called Hewlett-Packard. Check out the Compaq press release and the linked fact sheet.

Given that none of this may be true - read the articles - it's all speculation at present - the one thing that HP will not inherit is the Alpha Processor. Compaq sold the patents, chip fabrication plants, development, and developers to Intel in late June. Follow this link at Compaq.

Intel will use the Alpha technology to improve the IA64 line.

When it comes to marketing a product the main goal is to differentiate your product from your competitors. In the case of PC manufacturers, this is extremely difficult, as there's a lot of competition and everybody uses the same standard parts. Tech support, bundled software and brandname works to differentiate between "mom & pop" assembled computers but between "big-name" manufacturers there really isn't much difference (i.e. as you mentioned, Gateway is pretty much screwed). Interestingly enough this article singled out Apple as the only company that can truly differentiate themselves from the pack.

As we all know, the PC market is quite saturated. Most people who are going to buy a PC have bought one and PC manufacturers are now almostly completely reliant on upgrades to existing computers to drive sales. In this kind of a market differentiation is going to be important; the question is, how are they going to do it? Since Microsoft really isn't going anywhere it's quite likely that it'll be in the form of proprietary hardware. While a manufacturer can get a better volume discount on generic parts, gross margins on more custom hardware are much higher. witness the 20%+ margins of laptops compared to the razor thin margins of desktop PCs.

Compaq has already started on this trend with some of thier iPaq line and I think we'll see more of this in the future. In the current industry climate the small guys (like Gateway) aren't going to last long and it seems that mergers are the key to success. With only a few "big name" PC vendors out there it will be a lot easier to push proprietary hardware than it was in the days of the PS/2.

As long as "standard" hardware can still be purchases then it won't affect the geeks much, but let's just hope that standard PC hardware is still supported at large. I'd hate to see the latest and greatest hard drives, RAM or video cards only supporting IBM or HP motherboards. Mergers the size of this one bring us a lot closer to the possibility of a much more closed PC market.

- j

Alpha/NT is history and VMS is probably next.

Actually, due to their DII COE committment, Compaq is required by the Federal Government to continue supporting OpenVMS for at least 20 years. Besides, Compaq isn't about to dump a cash cow that brings in almost $4 billion in annual revenue.

With the recent announcement of Alpha assets being sold to Intel, Intel basically admitted that they couldn't design a quality 64-bit processor to save their butts. Now with Alpha engineers and technology, the successors of Merced, McKinnley, and Monroe stand a decent chance of being kick butt processors. The 4th generation IA64 chip will essentially be an Alpha EV8 running IA64 instructions in microcode. This will be necessary since the first three generation of the IA64 design lack cpu lockstepping to take the place of MIPS processors in NonStop NSL fault-tolerant systems, nor do they have the four memory protection modes required for the port of OpenVMS to IA64 (which has already been announced.) Of course, the benefit of the Alpha sellout for Compaq eludes me. Doesn't make much sense to switch to a slower, more expensive processor.

Alpha/NT is history and VMS is probably next.

Actually, due to their DII COE committment, Compaq is required by the Federal Government to continue supporting OpenVMS for at least 20 years. Besides, Compaq isn't about to dump a cash cow that brings in almost $4 billion in annual revenue.

With the recent announcement of Alpha assets being sold to Intel, Intel basically admitted that they couldn't design a quality 64-bit processor to save their butts. Now with Alpha engineers and technology, the successors of Merced, McKinnley, and Monroe stand a decent chance of being kick butt processors. The 4th generation IA64 chip will essentially be an Alpha EV8 running IA64 instructions in microcode. This will be necessary since the first three generation of the IA64 design lack cpu lockstepping to take the place of MIPS processors in NonStop NSL fault-tolerant systems, nor do they have the four memory protection modes required for the port of OpenVMS to IA64 (which has already been announced.) Of course, the benefit of the Alpha sellout for Compaq eludes me. Doesn't make much sense to switch to a slower, more expensive processor.

Nothing in the article suggests this is changing now, but in the long term? Does this mean Compaq is gradually losing the main NYSE account? Damn! At least Compaq got the whole Sabre account as compensation...

The exchange needs systems that won't ever be down during the trading day. Not to disparage Linux: it's the hardware that's at issue. NYSE needs systems that you can pull a disk controller or system board out of and not interrupt services. Even if said board is on fire, the system can't go down.

(I haven't tried it yet, but the WL110 looks to be the best solution for 802.11. I plan on getting it to work with my schools wireless LAN - I've tried, and Pocket Internet Explorer is capable of rendering Slashdot natively - dunno about Linux solutions, my serial port is toast so I can't put Linux on the iPaq - yet. (And no, the iPaq didn't fry it - my UPS did, AFAIK :)))

(I haven't tried it yet, but the WL110 looks to be the best solution for 802.11. I plan on getting it to work with my schools wireless LAN - I've tried, and Pocket Internet Explorer is capable of rendering Slashdot natively - dunno about Linux solutions, my serial port is toast so I can't put Linux on the iPaq - yet. (And no, the iPaq didn't fry it - my UPS did, AFAIK :)))

(I haven't tried it yet, but the WL110 looks to be the best solution for 802.11. I plan on getting it to work with my schools wireless LAN - I've tried, and Pocket Internet Explorer is capable of rendering Slashdot natively - dunno about Linux solutions, my serial port is toast so I can't put Linux on the iPaq - yet. (And no, the iPaq didn't fry it - my UPS did, AFAIK :)))

(I haven't tried it yet, but the WL110 looks to be the best solution for 802.11. I plan on getting it to work with my schools wireless LAN - I've tried, and Pocket Internet Explorer is capable of rendering Slashdot natively - dunno about Linux solutions, my serial port is toast so I can't put Linux on the iPaq - yet. (And no, the iPaq didn't fry it - my UPS did, AFAIK :)))

Because of M$'s lock on the OEMs, you had to pay "the full price" for OS/2. The price for Windows is not immediatly obvious because it was rolled into the cost of the system. Sadly, those of us who chose OS/2 still had to pay Microsoft for Windows(via system purchase) as well as pay for OS/2. The Microsoft Tax was the driving force behind my learning to build my second(and later) systems. Even then, I still had to pay the M$ Tax when I bought a laptop - rather hard to build one of those from scratch.

Well, as everyone else said, the Titanium is sweet. However, if you can't shell out 3500, you can still get a decent deal. Since you are pointing at the IBM I'm assuming you don't mind a machine that comes preloaded with the Spawn of Evil (TM) and can either use that or reformat. Also, since I work retail in one of my jobs, I'll give you an idea of what you could pick up in a store. HP does pretty well with the N5470, and Compaq is fairly comparable with the 1215US. They should fall around $2100 and $1900 respectively. Toshiba has the 4600 Satellite Pro at $2400 that is pretty good, although I'm not too crazy about the 16MB Trident as the video adapter. That is offset a bit by the fact that it's a bit more rugged than the others. Those are about the best things I see on the sales floor that I'd actually like to use for a laptop. As for under $1000, you could actually probably dredge up a PIII or Duron 600 laptop around somewhere that would do decently. The HP N5470 can be found here. The Compaq 1215 can be found here. And the Toshiba is here.

As has been mentioned before, Apple is in a unique situation where they control nearly all the aspects of the computer. The ATX standard and most PC motherboards are designed with either tower or desktop cases in mind.

Separately sold cases, which have to be compatible with a wide variety of motherboards, have a hard time replicating Apple's designs. In particular, in a tower case, the internal devices are all above the motherboard, so the cable connectors are at the top. A swing out design, like in the G4, is hard to do because the cables will get in the way. Take a look ColorCases to see what "niche" case manufacturers are doing despite these limitations.

On the other hand, companies like Compaq, Sony, and Gateway already ship their computers with custom motherboards and cases, and so have fewer limitations. They do offer their own takes on PC case design, just not exact copies of Apple's design for legal reasons. I mean, check out Compaq's Ipaq and Sony's Vaio Line and tell me they're ignoring design considerations.

As for computer enthusiasts who actually prefer compatibility, performance, and value to fancy design, we typically opt for the kind of cases listed here. (My specific case isn't listed there; it's an Antec S830.) They offer better cooling, more expandibility, and better access than most of the cases that tend to form before function. We're not immune to the concerns of aesthetics either; we just prefer to take matters in our own hands. Granted, some of the mods are of questionable taste and talent, but there are as many clean, professional jobs as bad jobs. And every one is the pride and joy of someone, no matter what you think of them.

http://www.compaq.com/support/techpubs/whitepapers /0206-0799-A.html

They don't?

They don't?

I have an iPAQ with a PCMCIA card slot, sometimes hooked to a AirCard card (sweet wireless 128k download speeds in a taxi!), and sometimes to a Cisco Aironet wireless LAN card. We recently demoed this working through a Tachyon 1.5 meter dish satelite connection, routed to a wireless base station. I was streaming MP3s to a cow farm in Germany. Amazing applications, but one Achilies heel...

The problem: Power. My battery (even with the extra battery in the PCMCIA sleeve) runs out in less than 2 hours. As soon as I pop in an 1 Gig IBM Microdrive, it drops to about 1 hour, if lucky. To counter this, I've build a little laptop backpack that has 4 rechargable D-cells putting out the 5V DC that the iPAQ wants... backed up by a 12V DC-AC car converter and 3 solar cells mounted on the backside of the backpack (yes, I know it looks geeky, but stick on a couple Rage Against the Machine stickers and people think it's just a fashion statement, the latest in do-it-yourself geek-wear.)

So, the bottom line is now I carry a bag as big as a laptop whose sole purpose is to power my handheld laptop. Of course, I also charge my Digital Camera and Cell Phone off the same bundle, but I still feel like I'm missing something...

Get an iPAQ and the RS-232 serial cable. Reflash it with Linux. It comes with a CF sleeve.
-russ

I work tech support for a certain OEM that people seem to enjoy berating. You wanna know why we don't just ship the PC without the O/S?

Cap'n Bucky doesn't have the slightest clue how to configure power management under windoze, and now you want him to INSTALL it?!?!?!?

Pure genius. Really, it is. If a user knows how to install an o/s, usually that's the first thing they do. Format the HDD and install Win98SE, W2K, or better yet Linux.

Just don't bitch at me when your 4-year old copy of Oracle doesn't work in Windows ME, like my favourite call from yesterday.

Adobe's a member of the BSA.

The BSA has an interesting statement on the DMCA here. This is a response to a Library of Congress rule available here.

Members of the BSA include Adobe, Apple Computer, Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CNC Software/Mastercam, Compaq, Corel Corporation, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lotus Development, Macromedia, Microsoft, Network Associates, Novell, Sybase, Symantec, and Walker Digital; i.e. most of /.'s favourite hate companies, plus some extras.

These are the guys to line up against. They've been around since the '80s. I suspect that Adobe's lawyers are all BSA stooges. Certainly Adobe's PR department doesn't seem to be toeing the BSA line.

One option would be remote-site clustering as in this nice example.

Trust me, off-line storage and off-site backups are the way to go.

Computers are going to take the same road. They started off large and mostly incomprehensible, then were used for specialized projects. They are on the verge of becoming ubiquitous, and soon will disappear into the background. Constantly there, but not drawing attention to themselves.

When was the last time you were flamed over the company that makes the electric motor that starts your car?

This is exactly the classic computer science problem called the "Byzantine Generals Problem". Here's summary of an article from a 1982 ACM Transactions on Programming Languages written by Leslie Lamport of LaTeX fame:

The Byzantine Generals Problem

Lamport describes his paper saying, "There is a problem in distributed computing that is sometimes called the Chinese Generals Problem, in which two generals have to come to a common agreement on whether to attack or retreat, but can communicate only by sending messengers who might never arrive. I stole that idea and posed the problem in terms of a group of generals, some of whom may be traitors, who have to reach a common decision. I wanted to assign the generals a nationality that would not offend any readers. At the time, Albania was a completely closed society, and I felt it unlikely that there would be any Albanians around to object, so the original title of this paper was The Albanian Generals Problem. Some time later, the obviously more appropriate Byzantine generals occurred to me."

Brits/Europeans drive cars like the Smart and Polo, which are quick, economical and aethetically pleasing. Neither of which will sell in America. Yanks drive LandYachts like Excursion and Suburban, which are slow, inefficient eyesores. With far too much chrome. Sound familiar?

It probably still is available, actually, just not outside of Canada. All of the links that I had to stories are no longer available. Execpt one. http://www.compaq.com/rcfoc/20000207.html#_Toc4741 35690

Enjoy.

• Entering services will be difficult for Compaq, just as it has been for Dell, H-P, and all the other OEMs that are jumping on the bandwagon.

Of course, unlike Dell and HP, Compaq isn't just now entering services, they are expanding on what they bought when they got DEC, combined with their own services organization that they've been developing for years.

See here for more information.

Disclaimer: I happen to work for Compaq Services.