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Your aggression seems unwarranted: http://www.compusa.com/retailstores/compusaStores/index.asp

CompUSA never did close. The company was purchased by some other company and the stores (at least the one around here) remain open to this day under the CompUSA monicker. What did happen is they lowered their prices, started selling OEM/Grey box stuff so they now compete price wise with online shops like newegg.

http://www.compusa.com/retailstores/compusaStores/index.asp

Gotta love MS, always two steps behind when they crib their strategy from elsewhere (in this case the big box stores that love overpriced accessories).

Marking the hell out of cheap commodity accessories stopped being a viable business model a few years ago.

Here's hoping that extended warranty scams and increased online competition force some sense into the big boxes at some point, but the writing's on the wall.

Amazon's already trialing same-day shipping in major markets. Other etailers won't be far behind.

So, the new site is basically Tigerdirect underneath with the usual Circuit City logo on the main page? I bet when you order, the stuff comes out of the same warehouse as Tigerdirect. So, why not just order from Tigerdirect? These guys did the exact same thing with compusa.com. If they were going to do something new and different with the brand, then I'd say go for it, but this is hardly creative at all. They've basically just put Circuit City on an eternal life support machine,...

Really worked well for these guys, and of course these guys, too. Sounds like a great idea to apply to more retailers. I wonder, can I buy an extended warranty on a case of pens from Office Depot as well? Damned things keep breaking on me.... And how about these? They might break, too.

The presence of closed-source programs on your computer makes it more difficult to support the free software on the same computer. One workaround is to have one pure machine for use with free software and shared-source software and one impure machine for restrictions-managed software.

And if a user still chooses to run closed programs despite knowing that it makes debugging more difficult then he will have decided that some other factor is more important. You place a high priority on debugging and a lower priority on some other things -- that's fine and dandy for you but you are aware (I hope) that other people might have different priorities.

What is the Free alternative to a song by Genesis or Yes?

What makes you think you have the right to buy a song from Yes under whatever terms you see fit? If Yes doesn't want to sell you their song except as an 8-track, that's their right -- you are free to take it or leave it.

North Americans buy phones with a subsidy lock because they can't walk into a phone store and buy phones without a subsidy lock.

http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?cat=1809&keywords=unlocked&mnf=

Disclosure isn't enough in an oligopolized market. Case in point: Which set-top video game console sold in North America is designed to run free software?

What makes you think there is a market for a console that is designed to run free software? I venture that there is no such market because ability to run F/OSS on their game consoles is not a priority for most console-buying consumers.

I don't want to be cool or l33t. I'm not being a snob. But the crux of your argument seems to hinge on not wanting to pay for anything.

Most people don't build a computer, they buy it. It come with Windows on it, pre-configured to run with the hardware, and they don't mess with it any farther than that.

Take a look, for instance, at this computer at CompUSA. Even assuming that I don't mail in the rebate, I'm not likely to come out of the store with those same parts for any substantial savings. Windows is more or less "free" at that point.

Even given the economic argument, I'm still not buying it. Then again, people around here do seem to enjoy getting things for free as in beer. Can't say I don't enjoy free stuff, just that I'm not going to make some sort of stand on it and try and evangelize the crap out of it.

If people want to use it, I'm sure they'll find it on their own. I'm not a salesman, and I'm sure as hell not an evangelist. When I was a teenager, sure. But you know what, no one really seemed to give a shit that MS had crappy business practices or shoddy software, or that BSD and Linux were more solid or "free" or "open source" or anything else -- except for some people.

There were a few kids in high school that used linux because "m$ sux0rz." They were the same ones obsessed with "swordfish," "the matrix," "antitrust," and films of that nature. They were the ones that wanted to be bad-ass h4x0rz and 1337. they also had no friends.

I'm just saying that I can't see a compelling reason for average users to up and swap OSs for basic tasks, when they had one that was alright for it in the first place. I don't know anyone who's ever actually bought Windows to put on a computer, so Linux doesn't seem like a cost-saving thing for me.

Not arguing that Carlos Sim is a honkin' big Mexican multibillionaire ... but CompUSA is officially defunct.

While most CompUSAs were closed it's my understanding a few stores were kept open in select locations. And the online store, CompUSA is still running. I wonder how closing most of the stores affected his ranking. Oh, I did make a mistake though, according to wiki Carlos Slim Helú's father settled in Mexico from Lebanon.

Loved to browse the local CompUSA store and make a detailed list of the stuff I really wanted to buy and then later but it at a better price on eBay, or at Best Buy, Fry's, etc... Prices were a bit high, but CompUSA seemed to sell at least 1 or 2 items at or below cost to bait bargain hunters... (if you could get to the store early enough).

Once worked in their Dallas, TX Call Center as an 9x/ME/2k/NT4/XP v1.0 Tech for CompUSA's (awful) TAP Program http://www.compusa.com/services/tap/default.asp ...worst job I ever worked, but they were one of the few hiring (recently laid-off IT personnel) in that time (for LOW wages) following the 2000 dot-com bubble pop. Learned to really dislike Siebel there too...
Bye-Bye CompUSA!

(Now..., Could someone *please* forward this thread to CEO John Fry, Pres. William R. (Randy) Fry, CFO & CIO David (Dave) Fry, and/or EVP Kathryn Kolder.) HINT! HINT! -Z

Quad Slim jewel cases

Seriously, I know I accept the risk of being modded down here but I use these guys. They fit 4 CDs in the size of one standard jewel case. It was a pain when they left my state, and it'll be a bigger pain when they close their doors.

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?No=100&N=200486

Its decent... the center area pops and swings out to form a mouse area. That also leaves the center of the tray with a big hole to keep air circulating.

However, I suggest you keep what you have, get a nice but tiny OPTICAL mouse, and just use the mouse on the upholstery/pillow/jacket at your side.

You can't buy them at CompUSA? That's odd, you can buy them from CompUSA.com. You can also see/buy them side-by-side with other computers at Best Buy.

Maybe XBOX360 can give a Wii a run for its money on more than just price competition. They should port this to the 360: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=srch1&Ntt=novint&N=0&Dx=mode+matchall&Nty=1&D=novint&Ntk=All&product_code=347104

Now if you want anything more than an iPod, you need to buy directly from Apple.

I picked up a Samsung ML-2510 last April for my taxes. (Pay to efile? Are they nuts?)

CompUSA sells them for $130. But last April there were frequent $60 rebates. $70 for a laser printer seems.... Acceptable... That's less than what an ink refill will cost for my InkJet. Besides, the InkJet takes a couple hours of fussing with to get all its jets unclogged and printing again. (And cleaning up the ink it spills all over the rollers.)

The Samsung ML-2510 is a lot faster (25ppm). More reliable. The jets never clog. Works with USB or Parallel interface. It supports Windows / MacOSX / Linux (SuSE Linux 8.2, Red Hat Linux 9, Red Hat Linux 8.0, Mandrake Linux 9.2, Red Hat Fedora Core 1, Red Hat Fedora Core 2, Mandrake Linux 10.1 Discovery, SuSE Linux 9.2, Red Hat Fedora Core 3) out of the box.

How can anyone justify continuing to use an inkjet for b/w printing, when new laser-printers are cheaper than ink?

Great! Where can I get a MythTV box preconfigured for $100? I will patiently await your link. Thanks ahead of time!

I picked up one of these just over a year ago thinking it would be a disposable keyboard. It's made of soft rubber so it's quiet for heavy typers like me. It can roll up and be tucked in a backpack. But the bonus I didn't expect was that I can rinse it off under hot tap water and wipe it dry/clean with a cloth or paper towel. It takes me about 2 minutes to fully clean my keyboard so I don't mind doing it often. I now have two rubber keyboards because I liked it so much.

But there's always a catch... it does take some getting used to typing on it. First, it's flat - which is arguably ergonomic since I'm not flexing my wrists backward at all. The keys are also pretty bouncy, so you end up missing letters a lot at first. Once you get acclimatized to it though, these add up to a bonus as well: Nobody at my office likes to use it so they leave my desk alone ;)

You know, it's funny... the last 3 PCs I'd bought were from brick-and-mortar stores, and 2 were HPs (the other was an Acer). I like the look-and-feel of HP laptops, and my mom liked their slim desktop cases. Until recently, I had felt that HP had better prices than Dell as well.

But today I just ordered a new Dell laptop. The reason? It's *so freakin' cheap* ... I got an Athlon 64 X2 TL-60, 1gb DDR2, SATA 80gb, 15.4" glossy screen, DVD/CDRW, 9-cell battery, yadda... for $595 with taxes (http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/733198). The closest thing from HP/Compaq was this Pavilion from CompUSA for about $560 after taxes and rebates, but it has half the RAM and a slower TL-50 processor, as well as being heavier, although it does have DVD+-RW and S-Video. And I loathe mail in rebates.

When did Dell stop being the "premium" brand and switch places with HP?? I haven't bought a laptop in a while, and I'm quite surprised to see Dell competing agressively on price!

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=0&N tt=modem&D=modem&Ntk=All&Nty=1&Dx=mode%20matchall

Seems like there's plenty of them even after you skip the "cable modems". The PCI ones are probably not winmodems.

Here is a list of the stores that are staying open:

http://www.compusa.com/locations/store.asp

Look for the ones near you and see if they made the cut.

Here's the list of stores they have announced as closing thus far: Long Beach, CA (PCH) (Store # 175) 6310 East Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach, CA 90803 San Mateo, CA (Store #728) 41 West Hillsdale Boulevard, San Mateo, CA 94403 Mesquite, TX (Store #127) 1515 Town East Blvd. #168, Mesquite, TX 75150 Skokie, IL (Store #177) 7011 Central Ave., Skokie, IL 60077 I found these on their website at http://www.compusa.com/about/news.asp under an article called: "CompUSA Announces Comprehensive Realignment to Better Compete in Changing Marketplace"

if it's not on this new list, it's closed:

this list

There used to be a section in all of the stores with "cheap" cables... the equivalent of radio shack generics.

That section exists, but it is online only! Talk about frustrating:

14 foot patch cable, pick-up, $34.99

14 foot patch cable, delivery-only, $6.00

There used to be a section in all of the stores with "cheap" cables... the equivalent of radio shack generics.

That section exists, but it is online only! Talk about frustrating:

14 foot patch cable, pick-up, $34.99

14 foot patch cable, delivery-only, $6.00

Hopefully you can score one using one of these. Availability link for CompUSA (Enter Zip) and Target (Change zip code in URL). Also, the bundles have been coming in and out of stock at Wal-Mart and Gamestop. Toys R Us and Circuit City also get a decent amount of systems shipped to them. Check their weekly ads online after midnight on Saturday to find out where they'll be available. Best of luck!

Until I can walk into Office Depot, Compusa, or Best Buy and find two computer sections, those with Windows, and those with Linux, there is no competition.

If it's not in the store, it is not competition.

And, any computer sold to the general public needs to be able to boot up to a desktop by just pressing the power button. No complicated questions, just a desktop, with all applications, including the all-important web browser(s), available with a click of the mouse.

Also, the price needs to be down there, no other isles full of machines hundreds of dollars cheaper.
They go for the price first, and the features next.

Apple has that reversed, so are shut out of lots of sales.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p fp=SEARCH&Ntt=philips+900&N=0&Dx=mode+matchall&Nty =1&D=philips+900&Ntk=All&product_code=337160&pfp=s rch1

The reviews are not exaggerating, it's a nice camera.

I forgot, it has a usb-audio device endpoint two that's a built in mic, but that's not important.
The 1280x960 modes mentioned are software scaling, so they're useless. It's a fairly standard CCD board in the unit that is 640x480. Since it uses a Bayer pattern to filter color, you're going to want to throw away the chroma components in your analysis. You might be able to use chroma for helping it distinguish the balls from the background, but you'll want to use the luma information for accurate tracking.

Well, if you buy your Mac from a local CompUSA store, it appears to be a 21 day return policy, as noted on their web site here:

http://www.compusa.com/terms.asp#in-store

A copy of Outlook costs $100, less than the $130 Apple's charging for their Mail upgrade. Sure, you get other features with both products.

I will need to wait until I can buy a spindle of 100 Blu-Ray disks for 9.99 before I go out and buy one of these things.

Ummmm 25GB per disk, that is 2,500 GB or 2.5 TERRABYTES of storage for $10 dollars, which gives a price per Megabyte of 0.0004c. Current CompUSA own brand is $24.99 for a $100 spindle CR-R (700Mb) which is 0.0357c, so you are asking for something almost ONE THOUSAND TIMES cheaper.

Muppet.

Since it's impossible to detect any hint at humor from your comment (no smileys, etc) ...

Step 1: Buy one of the $2.50 PS/2 to USB adapters available in many electronics stores.
Step 2: Break the enclosure to examine contents.
Step 3: ... there is no step 3!

CompUSA has this one. These shouldn't be hard to find at another outlet.

They will definitely have support for it: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=336365

The drivers might very well be installed by Sony and DO NOT ship with XP/Vista, but so what? Anyone who doesn't know how to install drivers will most likely purchase a preloaded machine, and anyone who does either buys a preloaded machine OR puts it in themselves. It's just like RAID or SATA drivers for XP.. you have to use a floppy and do some weird things to get it to work which are most likely beyond a typical PC user. So really, I don't think it matters that much. Most new hardware doesn't have driver support in XP, so its not a new issue.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=336365

Sony already has one ready to go. Good if you really need all that storage on a disk, otherwise as many have said, I'll stick with my external hd.

CompUSA are now offering a variety of BluRay Products for pre-order.

What is this price disparity that you speak of?

What is this price disparity that you speak of?

Dude, what world do you live in? DVD-DL burners have been out quite awhile now, and are getting to be a dime a dozen to purchase. CompUSA has them on sale every other week for about $100 or so....Heck a quick search revealed these cheap units for $79 and up...

Most any computer you even see from Dell can easily have a dual layer burner put on it...and media is getting cheaper, like near $0.50/disc or better...

Take a look around, dual layer burners are all over the place cheap...

Err, Buffalo did, and they cost just about the same as D-Link..?

And the CompUSA brand wireless routers also support WDS, and they are $50 (with 1 $30 rebate per household last time I checked)?

Sorry, D-Link is just lazy suck.

Nokia's 770 platform is only just starting. The 770 is available for retail sale, but not really intended for the general public.

I guess other people have mentioned it's weird to say something is for sale but not intended for the general public. I mean, if you had to go to some special website or a fringe store and give a secret password, maybe I'd understand, but a quick look shows that it's on the shelves at 4 of the 5 CompUSA stores near where I live. A friend notes that it's also on the shelves at Fry's.

If a product isn't intended for the general public, maybe they should, like, make it harder for the general public to get. All they've done on that front is make it cost $400 (which I must admit is pretty effective to keep me away).

Yeah, a PowerBook/MBP docking station would be nice, and I don't know why Apple hasn't made one (ExpressCard could handle it). But that's not the solution for everyone -- I have a tower with faster hard drives and 2 big monitors at home, so I don't dock. I use my DVI connector on the road to connect to monitors and projectors at remote sites, and VGA wouldn't always cut it.

I also like the trackpoint and wish it were available as an Apple option. I disagree with your characterization of the keyboards, though -- I find I'm faster with the Apple PB/MBP keyboards than the ThinkPad one. (If you're thinking of the flimsy iBook keyboard it's a different story.)

The other thing which the ThinkPads (and 99% of all other non-Apple laptops) is lacking is digital audio output. This is especially glaring as laptop analog audio hardware is both cheap and very prone to interference from inside the case.

By the way: stealth fighter = 1982. :-) Seriously, I'd love to buy other Core Duo laptops but I haven't seen one with a design even half as sleek and well-executed as Apple's -- and the MBP is only a slight evolution of a design first unveiled in 2003! Laptop manufacturers need to get with the design program. Garish multicolored plastic 1.5" thick enclosures aren't good enough.

I looked at the Terms and Conditions and on page 12 (PDF page 14) it says:

"The following is applicable to all plans EXCEPT ... Laptop Screen Upgrade: The Plan ... does not cover loss or damage resulting from external causes such as dropping the product, collision with an object, burglary, theft, vandalism, environmental conditions, fire, flooding, corrosion, sand, dirt, windstorm, hail, earthquake, or damage from exposure to weather conditions, misuse, abuse, neglect or accidental damage or damage resulting from improper use of any electrical power source."

The wording seems strange since the "Laptop Screen Upgrade" is defined as solely covering the screen, but if what you say is true I would strongly consider getting my next laptop through CompUSA instead. Thanks!

Damn ADC interface.. what am i to do with this big ass cinema display?!?!!?

I'm working, as much as possible, with the same rules they did, except that I'm pricing everything after rebates.

RAM: Corsair 1GB PC3200, $48.99 after rebate http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3746086

Optical Drive: NEC 3550A, same as they did, $38.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Subm it=ENE&N=50001326&Manufactory=1326

Keyboard, Mouse and Speakers: About as generic as they come, cheap PS2 keyboard, USB mouse, and some sort of speakers, $12.99 including shipping http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?l inkid=119&item=23-174-003

Monitor: 17" X2Gen LCD, $129.99 http://www.onsale.com/onsale/shop/detail~dpno~7181 70.asp

Case/PSU: Generic silver case with a generic 450W PSU. $29.50, free shipping http://www.supergooddeal.com/ProductDetails.asp?Pr oductCode=BCC204-4HA-S-P4&Click=17583

Hard Drive: There's either a 160 GB WD drive for $50 http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oi d=67646&cm_keycode=85 or a 100 GB Maxtor for $40 http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=320167&pfp=feb19sale.

Now, here I left a choice, and a bit of a nasty one. I've got $189.54 left for a motherboard, CPU, and hopefully a video card. I'm going to offer it both ways, one with the best processor I can fit into this, the other with a cheaper processor and a real video card.

Motherboard: Again, there aren't any great motherboard/CPU combo deals at the moment. For those wanting to go all-out on the CPU, I found an Athlon64 3400+ (socket 754, obviously) with a PCCHIPS 861-G (Yeah, crap, but it has onboard audio and video) motherboard for $184 (optioning to update the BIOS and including thermal paste). http://www.pc-infinity.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen =PROD&Store_Code=P&Product_Code=MB7543400

Now, if you do plan on doing a bit of gaming on this, a video card might be a good idea. Unfortunately, one really can't be put in without dropping the processor to a Sempron, so that's what I'll do. Let's face it though, with the video card that could still be afforded, CPU limiting will probably be a non-issue. As far as Semprons go, the 2800+ they chose seemed to be at a very nice price point, so I went with it and an ECS 761GX motherboard, $75 and $49.50 respectively at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16819104245 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82 E16813135002

Now there's $65 left for a video card, but I'm going to offer four options; two each for ATI and NVidia, going to $525 as they did or keeping it under $500 (with the strong recommendation of spending the extra $25; performance increases a lot). For the cheaper two, we have a choice between the ATI X1300 128MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8

Slow down there, cowboy. Acer != Dell, for starters. Mmmm... *slightly* slower video? That's an X1400 vs a X1600, I'd like to see that benchmark. Similarly for the CPU, 1.66Ghz vs 1.83Ghz ? Oh you forgot to mention memory : 533Mhz memory vs 677Mhz ? 1280x800 display vs Apple's 1440x900? It appears I could go on and on, but... you get the point. This is not the laptop you're looking for.

Oh, and that's a retailer-discounted price, after rebate. The real price is $1499. Sure, you get it for $1299 eventually, but... meh. Point is, there are more than a few ways that the Acer isn't equivalent even "functionally" whatever that means ; it's more like what I'd expect the iBook replacement to be, except I expect that to be Core Solo and even cheaper...

These are not "similar" specs, and it's only $500 cheaper, really. Find a machine with actually similar ( as opposed to consitiently inferior ) specs, then get back to me. I suggest checking Dell's website. Oh, that Gateway laptop? $2099-2,809.95 depending on configuration... again... maybe a bit cheaper, but not a really, definitely not a big difference, sorry... Apple is competitive here. The only real issue is they don't have the mind-boggling wide arrange of choices you find from the 8 other larger manufacturers. Sure, that's an issue for some, but if that's a bigger issue than Windows vs OS X... use Windows. Really. You want to have your cake and eat it to ?? Um... so do I, but I'm not going to tell Apple they need to support other hardware manufacturers' businesses, and I'm not sure why you'd think they should.

I'm going to guess that if Dell or HP or Sony offered Apple a really, really good deal ( including co-development, etc ), they *might* get an OEM deal out of Apple... but they'd really, really have to make it worth Apple's while. Apple *could* release OS X for more generic systems, but should they really, would it be a wise business move? How much would it cost to write drivers for all of those video chipsets and memory cards and...uh, why was it again that you can't run Linux on that laptop? I see... sorry, Dell or someone offering Apple a giant stack of cash is the best you're going to hope for, if OS X on their hardware is somehow what you really, really want. Start yourself a letter writing campaign... to the hardware manufacturers, though, not to Apple...

I'm an apple fan, however this is total bullshit:
However, when you look at Dell's Core Duo laptop and Apple's Core Duo laptop... the differences aren't much. That's the big win for Apple in switching to Intel hardware- the systems are really comparable and fairly easily similarly priced.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=336978&pfp=srch1

Slightly slower processor. 2 GB ram, base. Slightly slower video vard (ATI Radeon X1400). SD card reader, firewire, DVD burner, yadda yadda. 120 GB harddrive, which is slightly greater.
$1299.99

The MacBook Pros are vastly more expensive than similar PC hardware. The build quality of this Acer is not so bad, either; I just purchased one. It is most likely going back, in exchange for a MacBook Pro (ATI's complete lack of any kind of linux support is a big issue), but this notebook is functionally equivalent to a MacBook Pro for significantly less money.

Don't even get me started on other similar systems, like the Gateway NX860, or a variety of others. The simple fact of the matter is that PCs with similar specs are vastly cheaper. If I could get a dual core PC laptop with 100% functioning drivers on Linux, I'd purchase a PC. Hell; I did purchase a PC, but then found out that not even the VESA drivers support the native resolution on this ATI chipset. Damn Acer for not releasing the 5650 (same machine with a Geforce) in the U.S.