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Like many of you I'm trying to prevent doing myself a permanent injury by mouse usage. I have a normal cordless mouse, a Logitech cordless trackman trackball and a 3M ergonomic mouse (which is vertical but a better design than this thing I reckon). The 3M vertical mouse saved my wrist, but in recent months shoulder pain has started - there's a lot of repetitive shoulder movement with a vertical mouse. So I got the trackball, which is better, but a bit hard on the hand (the thumb in my case).

I definitely recommend a vertical mouse to save your tendons, but keep both plugged in - I find that switching between my 3 (!) mice is the best way to avoid over-stressing myself, or rather, to spread the stress out. If I had to choose one it would probably be the trackball right now (though it's the least precise of the mice) but the vertical mouse would be a close second.

Doesn't it seem strange that using a mouse can hurt you in the long run? But it's true.

You mean these? They're much cheaper here. If you want them a little less ugly and don't like the volume control, there's also these that use the same driver. This model (and the really ugly big brother PortaPros) is considered a 'sleeper' model by many.

Goes a long way to explaining why they last longer than the standard cheap Rat Shack crap.

You mean these? They're much cheaper here. If you want them a little less ugly and don't like the volume control, there's also these that use the same driver. This model (and the really ugly big brother PortaPros) is considered a 'sleeper' model by many.

Goes a long way to explaining why they last longer than the standard cheap Rat Shack crap.

As CmdrTaco, I'm sure you have money coming out of your ears that you've harvested from the pseudo-religion that is Slashdot.

But for those of you with fewer fiscal resources, I will tell you the stories of my friend and me, a.k.a. The Master Rebaters.

My story is a simple one. I love music. I have over 1,000 CDs and have spent a lot of time meticulously ripping them with my friend CDex. So, I have some 350-400GB of data that I would like to archive. There are a multitude of possibilities but, since I'm short on cash, I opted for a simple $13 RAID 1 controller ... I know, I know, I'm going to catch hell for using such a crappy generic product. And I know many people who will tell you that VIA is crap when it comes to RAID controllers. Maybe you're one of them. If you are, I hear that the brand Promise provides excellent RAID controllers, you'll just pay a whole lot more for them. A couple of these babies in RAID 1 and you're set.

My friend, however, opted for a huge and expensive RAID 6 array controller made by Promise. Then he waited and waited until there was a 250 GB Maxtor rebate at CompUSA or Outpost and went in and bought five with cash. Then he filled out the rebates for relatives and played the waiting game. Huge initial investment but he received a lot of money back slowly. Result, a 1.1 ~ 1.2 TB RAID array. He got a lot more storage and more efficient use of the disks since a RAID 6 with striping allows for drives to be rebuilt in the array.

What he wasn't planning on was the logistics of what he would have to do to his Antec case as a result of all these drives. Fans. Airflow. Heat. These all became huge issues for him--especially in the summer. I'm not sure what your situation is with a case but I made no alterations to my case.

Now, there's a lot of things I skipped over that you can take into consideration, like SATA or ATA? 7,200 RPM or 10,000 RPM? 8MB or 16MB buffer? Striping size? etc. Honestly, those issues aren't worth my time to mess with. Sure sure, I'm losing precious ms seek/read time on my disks but I'm not that motivated.

In the end, if you're only looking for half a TB, do what I did. Those 500 GB drives will only get cheaper and if one blows, just pop another in. And if you really need that room to grow, grab the nice RAID controller that supports RAID 0-6 and just use two 500GBs leaving the other three slots open for the future when you might buy them and RAID 6 it.

What fails? The old IBM Deathstars. Beware!

I'm sure there's a cheaper solution out there, but the RIAD units seem to have just the right features and price point. Also the bling!

Get your 250GB external USB2.0 or firewire 400 Hard drives here for 89$! (aft rebs of course)

I'm sure there's a cheaper solution out there, but the RIAD units seem to have just the right features and price point. Also the bling!

Get your 250GB external USB2.0 or firewire 400 Hard drives here for 89$! (aft rebs of course)

I bought it at CompUSA. It was $15 after a $15 "instant rebate" off the sale price. It's a P-330WC. Looking at their website, it doesn't seem to be on sale at the moment, but I'm not sure if they offer their in-store deals on the web anyway.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=329138&pfp=BROWSE

The scripts they use in the UI don't do very good input checking, so you can put `&& <your favorite linux shell command>` in a variety of input boxes, and the command will be run. On the log searching page, you can even get output from your command. It's also considerably smaller than any Linksys device.

I also like D-Link stuff, but it's not very hackable. A lot of time you don't need to hack though; you just need the advertised functionality.

In any case, if it does happen that often - e.g., you live in California or some third-world country with an unreliable power grid - wouldn't you be better off getting a UPS? I've gotta believe that a SFF desktop with comparable specs + UPS is still less than this thing costs.

I live in an apartment complex in NJ, and man alive is the power setup horrible. Probably originally wired in the 60s, and that was the last time. Brownouts and power surges are a regular thing, as are blackouts during - I shit you not - thunderstorms.

My desktop is [see below --- ] on a UPS (probably the best one I know of at the consumer level - has always been near perfect - APS Back-UPS 1000, although the 1500 is out now - that's probably better) but one of a series of laptops I have - for work or personal use, or that of the GF - is often plugged directly into the wall in a room outside of the office. When we get a power surge or blackout, it sure is nice to have that battery in there.

----------------

AW MAN! I gotta tell you how perfect this is - as I was sitting here typing this, in my office, the power went out. Who knows why, it's sunny out. Thank you laptop battery. ;)

This isn't outside of the box thinking. This is idiotic. For LESS then the cost of a iPod, they can get some external hard drives that would suffice. Here's a nice one that that can be had for less then 200:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=333220&pfp=BROWSE

In any case, I will agree with you, HIPPA is a PITA. Patient record privacy could have been done much better with out it, but the feds decided to muck it up even further with HIPPA. Also, these images are basically being sneakernetted all around the hospital. Does the hospital not have a secure network (no internet on the image machines)? Why not store these on a secured SAN volume or do a NFS share or something of that nature?? The thign is with external devices of any type is they can grow legs. A iPod or external hard disk can be stuffed in the lab coat and walk right out of the hospital. This type of info should no t be allowed to leave the hospital except via secure means. VPN to the hospital image network from the off campus office can achieve this. Storing them on a external device is not outside of the box thinking.

I haul one of these back and forth to work with laptop, power supply, minidisk, books, USB trackball and USB hub, various cables, toiletries, lunch, etc. http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=51077312&pfp=srch1 http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review_printerfr iendly1047.html It's well constructed and I got a before-current model on closeout cheap at CompUSA.

You've paid three times as much. (never mind the cost of the PSP and TV thing)

You've paid three times as much. (never mind the cost of the PSP and TV thing)

Especially when the DVD is a third less expensive>.

Naw, PSP games are just conversions of the same games that weren't that good on the PS2 a few years ago.

Why pay twice as much money for games that are gimped versions of their plugged in bretheren? Especially if you're only going to spend more money on a device to display it on a television.

Naw, PSP games are just conversions of the same games that weren't that good on the PS2 a few years ago.

Why pay twice as much money for games that are gimped versions of their plugged in bretheren? Especially if you're only going to spend more money on a device to display it on a television.

People talking out of their ass with no idea what they're saying get modded up to +5, and all the replies below him pointing out how wrong he is don't.

Retard.

A lot of the decent ATI cards, and all of the Hauppauge cards (that I know of) run with Linux.

Just because you either a) bought a crappy card, or b) have no idea how to get Linux running, or c) are a Microsoft fanboy does not mean that you have to order a "specialized Linux supporting card."

Double retard.

Now if there's a nuclear attack im not going to care about any of this, but most likely a more run-of-the-mill disaster will come my way sometime, Los Angeles has some fires going at the moment and that Big Shaker is waiting down below. So I set up an old spare computer with a big HD inside a removable enclosure, like this one http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=282701&pfp=SEARCH where I will backup the important data from other computers via rsync, mainly /home directories and mp3s. In case of emergency or if I'll be away for some time, I turn a little key, pop it out, and take that drive with me or leave it somewhere safe, all my important stuff can be lugged without having to take all the computers or waste time trying to get HDs out. It's not too big and it will hold alot more data than a usb drive. Besides, credit cards, birth certs, DMV docs, etc have their own backup at the proper offices, those are the least of your concern. But all those emails, documents, and pictures you've collected, nobody has a copy of those. You'll appreciate having them when your whole life is going up in a flaming inferno! Just a thought, EL CHAVO!

You can switch between wired and wireless operation depending on your bandwidth/mobility needs of the moment, so you're not giving anything up.

http://amazon.com/ (somtimes even has discounts on new games)
http://compusa.com/
wouldn't say they are 'good', but they do sell games online.

http://www.apple.com/retail/
http://www.compusa.com/locations/default.asp

Why would you even be closer to considering it if you have never even seen it? Doesn't matter where you live (in NYC or SF or LA) it seems you just like to complain about things you seem to have never even seen.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=315787&pfp=srch1

XP Pro for $85? Is that an "upgrade" or full version price?

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=200 704&Ne=200000

In fact, right now, both circuitcity.com and compusa.com list AMD Sempron-powered Compaq Presarios among their top sellers in the desktop computer category. It's not merely geek-chic now... but in all honesty, it never really was.

Choose something else as your lost cause; this one never qualified.

No, both Professional and Home retail versions of XP come with SP2.

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

The DLO Transpod FM is available today, and it looks a whole lot like the iPod buddy. Sure, theres also has the fancy mounting device, but the rest of it looks like a direct rip of the Transpod-- right down to the LCD display with the FM frequency.

I think this is a situation where the patent system works. The guy has prior art and a patent, what more could you want? The podbuddy people are free to patent a device that attaches an ipod to a cigarette lighter which is used as the anchor-- and they would probably be granted the patent. Then, it's up to them to license the technology if the patent owner allows it, or STFU.

This guy is a whiner, and leave it to Timothy to come up with yet another unresearched, POS article.

I hope that guy doesn't get paid.

Okay, you win - if you try REALLY hard, I'll admit you can find a drive with only a one year warranty.

That said, here is a link to the identical model 7K80, 80Gb Death^H^H^Hskstar (IBM / Hitachi OEM, factory sealed) you linked as an example; kindly note the 3 year warranty.

Congrats, however, for managing to find the same item for $24 more, and with a 2 year shorter warranty than the same model you linked to.

Kinda looks to me, generally speaking, like the manufacturers are moving away from 1 year warranties, eh. I will surely concede that someone, somewhere, may in fact be selling them with a 1 year warranty - but it's rare. That, I believe, was the GGP's very point.

Just sayin, is all.

You're trolling, or full of it. I see ads from Best Buy, Circuit City, and other places all the time that offer 1 year warranties. They're commonplace, because modern drives are crap.

XP Home does not cost $300. XP Pro does.
XP Home costs $200.

These are the full version retail equal to $129 Tiger

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

You can get OEM versions cheaper but that legally (within the limits of MS licensing) requires a hardware purchase and the last time I read an MS agreement, it requires a Motherboard, Processor, Memory, and a Hard Drive. Some resellers will 'cheat' by allowing a single piece of hardware.

An OEM version of an Apple OS comes with iLife of which there is no MS equivalent and a software bundle that depends if your a home consumer or a professional user.

On another note, I'd mark down Lego Star Wars a bit because of the collection element. You really have to hit or use the force on almost everything in the game to collect blocks. Along with that and how repetitive it is, I think 7.0 is about right.

On the other hand, I would give Psychonauts a 9.5. Each new mind you enter is completely different with different puzzles and atmosphere, so it's not repetitive at all. Of course there's still the collection aspect, but it doesn't get in the way of the gameplay and you don't really need to do it much. It may be too difficult for younger kids, but it's very funny and there is not much that would bother them.

Back when the PS2 was in development, I think DVD players were still $150 and up; so the appeal of having DVD playability was a definite value-add to the game console; it was like subracting $150 off the price of the PS2, because it could serve double duty.

However, nowadays DVD is so common that CompUSA is selling DVD players for $15.

So, why would I care about DVD functionality? To save $15 off the game console? Woot.

Now, if it had something else, like PVR to DVD-R functionality, that would be a value-add worth considering, but basic DVD playing... nah.

I've had a number of drives fail in the past few years in my home computer, until I installed removable harddrive trays. I haven't had any drive failures since.

The ones I use have a front and rear fan built in.

They also have the added convenience of making it easy to swap drive.

Downside is they require a front accessible 5.25 drive bay.

This is a similar tray: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?p roduct_code=50261146&pfp=SEARCH

For some bundled versions of Photoshop Elements, Adobe provides discounted upgrades to Photoshop where your total expense is less than the sum of the two. I think Adobe should provide an upgrade at the price difference between the two for all versions of Elements.

Apple gets this right. Final Cut Express is $300, while Final Cut Pro is $1000. They also sell an Express-to-Pro upgrade for $700. This means that you can't buy Express and upgrade to Pro for any cheaper, but it does mean that if you later realized you needed the Pro version, the mistake wouldn't cost you money.

However, if your father was willing to consider piracy, then what he really wants is $650 software for $50. That can't be helped.

These sleeves, and a plastic 2-drawer CD storage thingy that they don't seem to make anymore. IKEA still makes CD storage boxes, they're reasonably cheap ($5/pair). They don't hold that many (23) if you use the jewel cases, but using the sleeves doubles or tripples the storage.

While I'm impressed that they actually bothered to measure the sound coming from their case, their final measurement of 31.7db hardly counts as silent. In fact I personally regard that as fairly noisy, though I'm perhaps pickier than most. Realistically how much noise one can tolerate is a personal thing. If it bothers you it's too loud no matter what the acoustic measurements might tell you. And what bothers me might not bother you. I have just listened carefully to my machine and whichever component made the most noise got replaced.

The only way to have a truly silent case is to have no fans and an idle hard drive. If that isn't possible fans like Pabst 8412 NGL are the next best thing. They don't move much air but they're very quiet. And a better solution IMO than the hard drive enclosures which drive up heat and reduce reliability is vibration isolators combined with a naturally quiet drive like Seagates. There are some fanless and semi-fanless (doesn't run unless it gets hot) power supplies out there like the SilentMaxx Semifanless. And replace those stupd 60mm fans that they insist on using for CPUs and GPUs with big headsinks and/or heatpipes. Also install neoprene or other washers and use rubber to deaden case vibrations. Home Depot is a great source for a lot of this stuff.

TurboTax 2004 Premier is $50 and TaxCut Premier is $30. Now, I know you'll write back and say $50 is about $20, so don't bother.

TurboTax 2004 Premier is $50 and TaxCut Premier is $30. Now, I know you'll write back and say $50 is about $20, so don't bother.

How about $79 for XP, ($99 before rebate)?

We're talking about upgrades here, not the version of XP you would buy to install on a freshly built PC.

SP2 was and still is a free download for users of XP. SP2 is comparable to one of these .1 version upgrades for OS X.

Get some of these from CompUSA. They help cooling a little and help with vibrations a lot. Of course you need free 5 inch drive bays. If you have drive rails (like me) the hole spacing may be non-standard and require some drilling, but that's easy enough if you take your time and measure carefully.

• A Zalman Silent 400W Power Supply helped a lot and only emits about 20db of noise. Still not silent enough for me so I'm going to get something like a SilentMaxx Semi-Fanless 450W soon.
  
• I replaced my case fans with Papst 8412 NGL fans which only emit 12db; basically silent. I tried one of the PC Power and Cooling Silencer units and it's a fine power supply but still pretty noisy.
  
• I put some new rubber feet I picked up from Home Dept (about $3 each) which are normally used for door stops to help dampen case vibrations.
  
• I switched over the 7200 RPM Seagate hard drives from the 10000RPM Maxtor/IBMs I was using. The old drives were fine but rather noisy.
  
• I replaced my graphics card fan with a Zalman Heat Pipe system which emits no noise at all.
  
• I picked up these hard drive coolers with rubber shock absorbers from CompUSA which further helps dampen case vibration, and helps keepd the drive quieter. My case uses drive rails and I had to drill an extra hole in the drive rails to make them compatible.
  
• I also installed this Anti Noise Kit from CompUSA. One caution is keep at least one screw from the case touching both the power supply and the case with no padding. Helps keep a ground between the power supply and the case.
  
• I also bought some rounded cables (yes I'm aware of the crosstalk issues but they haven't been a problem) which helps cooling. I got some cable wraps and zip ties to keep the cables bundled and out of the air flow as much as possible.
  
• Installed a HUGE Thermalright SLK800 heat sink with a Pabst fan (above) to keep the processor cool and silent. This actually dropped by processor temp by several degrees in addition to being quiter.
  
• I installed Melamine foam from Home Depot throughout the case to dampen noise.
  

• A Zalman Silent 400W Power Supply helped a lot and only emits about 20db of noise. Still not silent enough for me so I'm going to get something like a SilentMaxx Semi-Fanless 450W soon.
  
• I replaced my case fans with Papst 8412 NGL fans which only emit 12db; basically silent. I tried one of the PC Power and Cooling Silencer units and it's a fine power supply but still pretty noisy.
  
• I put some new rubber feet I picked up from Home Dept (about $3 each) which are normally used for door stops to help dampen case vibrations.
  
• I switched over the 7200 RPM Seagate hard drives from the 10000RPM Maxtor/IBMs I was using. The old drives were fine but rather noisy.
  
• I replaced my graphics card fan with a Zalman Heat Pipe system which emits no noise at all.
  
• I picked up these hard drive coolers with rubber shock absorbers from CompUSA which further helps dampen case vibration, and helps keepd the drive quieter. My case uses drive rails and I had to drill an extra hole in the drive rails to make them compatible.
  
• I also installed this Anti Noise Kit from CompUSA. One caution is keep at least one screw from the case touching both the power supply and the case with no padding. Helps keep a ground between the power supply and the case.
  
• I also bought some rounded cables (yes I'm aware of the crosstalk issues but they haven't been a problem) which helps cooling. I got some cable wraps and zip ties to keep the cables bundled and out of the air flow as much as possible.
  
• Installed a HUGE Thermalright SLK800 heat sink with a Pabst fan (above) to keep the processor cool and silent. This actually dropped by processor temp by several degrees in addition to being quiter.
  
• I installed Melamine foam from Home Depot throughout the case to dampen noise.
  

Personally, I'd compare it to any of the various video players out right now.

Well, probably not the DVD players, since UMD doesn't have exactly a certain future.

But if you're right, and we shouldn't be comparing the PSP to the Game Boy, then the thing we should be comparing it to is the Tapwave Zodiac.

The Zodiac's original model costs about the same as the PSP (the newest model is $100 more), but the memory upgrades cost much less than the PSP's and both come with the same amount of memory, 32MB. The Zodiac plays games, mp3s and video that you load from your computer, it has a more centrally-positioned analog stick, and it seems to be slightly smaller than the PSP. It definitely doesn't seem to be as powerful for games as the PSP and the screen definitely isn't as nice, but it has a vastly larger feature set since it's a fully functional PalmOS PDA and the screen supports stylus input.

In this case the PSP doesn't at all compare poorly to the Zodiac but it doesn't seem it would be automatically be one's first choice of a buy between the two either.

You got me looking at my Logitech mouse, and wouldn't you know? Between the buttons looks like someeone's vagina, if said vag were dark gray. HTH.

Part of the problem is that you can't really fit two buttons on one of Apple's "Hulk SMASH!!!" mice.

Just put one of these six button mice on their desk and watch their head explode.

Today, with essentially zero competition, it's $299.

Today, with essentially zero competition, it's $299.

If the mac users are really that picky about the UI why don't they pay for the development of a mac version of OO or lobby apple for a real office suite or just say fuck it and buy msoffice?

They are doing exactly what you're so eloquently suggesting.

MS Office is a top selling OSX application (likely *the* top selling app), and Apple has just announced their iWork suite.

What bizarre keyboards, good pointer. There are both full-size and mini versions and a bright-yellow variant.

The Thinkpad A21P also includes analog video capture, built-in floppy drive and serial port.

Get a rubber keyboard. The only local store that I see carry them is CompUSA, but lots of places online have them.

Fan filters would be a must. Probably a good idea to use duct tape to cover any other ventilation. Either an older computer or something cheap and low power like a Via C3.

Why not a Cardbus-like standard for LCD displays?

What's wrong with SVGA or DVI? Almost every laptop has one.