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but the total of zero packages for the Linux user

Umm.. I count around 1200 packages, and that's just in the Red Hat 7.2distribution. Just because someone hasn't put each of these packages on a seperate CD each with their own EULA and a nice price tag, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

They also carry Mandrake and SuSE Linux.

but the total of zero packages for the Linux user

Umm.. I count around 1200 packages, and that's just in the Red Hat 7.2distribution. Just because someone hasn't put each of these packages on a seperate CD each with their own EULA and a nice price tag, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

They also carry Mandrake and SuSE Linux.

but the total of zero packages for the Linux user

Umm.. I count around 1200 packages, and that's just in the Red Hat 7.2distribution. Just because someone hasn't put each of these packages on a seperate CD each with their own EULA and a nice price tag, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

They also carry Mandrake and SuSE Linux.

The reason it's hard to "save money" vs buying OEM is largely because OEMs put crap components in wherever they possibly can in this incredibly price-competitive PC market. Yes, if they're selling a new gaming system, they're going to go for the points people look for:

High MHz processor
High-end video card

Things that often fall by the wayside in OEM systems:
* Input devices. Those cheap little OEM-rebranded mice and keyboards are often fragile, mushy things.
* Sound card/system: Unless this is sold as a gamer or music system (and the sound system is explicitly mentioned in the specs), you're probably looking at on-board sound. Not a huge deal, but you can be looking at a performance hit when playing lots of sounds in a game. In Linux, no existing sound architecture, including OSS, the kernel, ALSA, artsd, and esd has good support for use-all-existing-hardware-channels-then-transparen tly-fall-back-to-software-mixed-channels. You're then looking at all software or all hardware, so getting a bunch of channels can be nice. Hardware midi synth can be nice, but timidity's softsynth and a good soundfont pretty much put to shame the hardware synth I've seen.
* Hard drive: You do not want a bottom-of-the-line hard drive. It's not economical. If the current standard midrange size is 80GB, get an 80GB drive, not a 40GB. The small amount of savings you get for the large loss in space are not worth it.
* Speakers: OEM speakers are pretty much bad, unless you're getting a high-end system
* RAM: still not that good. For example, CompUSA is selling this system with WinXP and yet only 128MB of RAM.
* Ethernet cards: to most people, these are pretty interchangeable. I've had some bad experiences and now only use 3com. You aren't going to be getting a 3com card in an OEM system.
* Modem: If you're buying OEM, you're going to get a Winmodem. Most of these are useless in Linux. They slow down the machine (yes, I know that it isn't necessarily a massive chunk of the processor any more, but it does count). Poorly written drivers may take over the machine while dialing or give you stability problems, both of which I've run into.
* Monitor: OEMs are absolutely awful here. Worst point. If you're buying an OEM system, your chance of getting a refurbished monitor is very very good. These are absolute crap -- the failure rate is ridiculous. I've lost count of how many Gateway (a particularly egregious offender) monitors I've seen die.

Now, you are likely to pay roughly what you would for an OEM for a given system. Maybe save a little, probably under a hundred bucks. However, you get significantly better components, and you get the guarantee that all the parts you're getting are Linux-savvy and don't have a bad rep (I'd be avoiding IBM's hard drives, for example).

His name is Carlos Slim, and he actually owns the only Phone company in Mexico -Telmex- (there is another one Avantel, but they only offer long distance) and he owns as well the biggest ISP (Prodigy) and as well is the major head at CompUSA (funny: CompUSA is actually a Mexican company!).

To close the circle look at the Prodigy website! Now the relationship between Slim and MSN is clear and that this whole thing is being played by "special intersts".

Closest I could find at CompUSA's site was this one. It seems that, from the (awful, low-quality) image, it doesn't have quite the round "hump" in the middle of the keyboard that the MS ones have. (I found a whole bunch that were like that.) I found those to be very uncomfortable. But if you can find out where to get one that does, I'm all ears. :)

Theres no answer to your question. Everything depends on the way you use your machine. A processors power consumption depends, among others, on the processing load. In most modern OSs (I dont know if it applies to Netware, but am sure that it applies to 2000/XP and Linux), when the kernel notices theres nothing to process, it issues a HLT instruction, replacing idle cycles with a suspend mode. Then not only the processor takes less energy, but it also cools down.

For older Windows versions, there are some programs that cool down the processor, thus lowering power consumption.

So the power consumption depends on you OS, how you use your machine, etc, etc. But lets face it. Nobody really cares to [desktop] computer consumption, because it usally takes more money to build a low power PC than the savings itd result in a lifetime.

For instance, the cost difference between a $159 17" CRT and a 15" LCD, wich takes less power, simply would be enough to pay you computer power bill for years, IMO. And also, do you really think server monitors should be turned on 24x7 ? The server probably will be locked in a room. Get a cheap CRT and simply turn it off when not using. Its much cheaper.

Theres no answer to your question. Everything depends on the way you use your machine. A processors power consumption depends, among others, on the processing load. In most modern OSs (I dont know if it applies to Netware, but am sure that it applies to 2000/XP and Linux), when the kernel notices theres nothing to process, it issues a HLT instruction, replacing idle cycles with a suspend mode. Then not only the processor takes less energy, but it also cools down.

For older Windows versions, there are some programs that cool down the processor, thus lowering power consumption.

So the power consumption depends on you OS, how you use your machine, etc, etc. But lets face it. Nobody really cares to [desktop] computer consumption, because it usally takes more money to build a low power PC than the savings itd result in a lifetime.

For instance, the cost difference between a $159 17" CRT and a 15" LCD, wich takes less power, simply would be enough to pay you computer power bill for years, IMO. And also, do you really think server monitors should be turned on 24x7 ? The server probably will be locked in a room. Get a cheap CRT and simply turn it off when not using. Its much cheaper.

Now, many of those formerly compelling reasons have evaporated:

IM - is a world of divided standards, so you can only talk to AOL users if you're an AOL user, MSN if your an MSN user, etc.

email - is a world where you need to sift through 20 spam messages to find your one message. Also the monoculture of email clients created a nightmare reality of viruses.

nntp - spam is certainly a problem, as is the bulk of news services no longer carrying binaries.

Search - pay per search, or commercially-supported search (ie - paid-for results placement).

Stock Trading - find me a stock worth investing in today. It was half a function of cheap trading, but also half a function of stocks where you could actually make money.

Nobody can afford to host anymore, so people's websites are either overrun with popups or they're very small, and hosted on very slow hardware, and anyone posting material of any worth has been shut down due to copyright concerns.

Anything interesting or non-mainstream is either impossible to find now, or shut down.

I recently went through my bookmarks.html list, of 500k, accumulated over the past 8 years or so - and a good 70% of the URLs were dead. Making me regret not saving the content to my local hard drive. (and I have saved a great deal anyway).

Free Music - the age of napster is finished.

Free Software - I'm not talking about Free Software, I'm talking about that which the BSA is making extinct. Warez. Right or wrong, it was one major compelling reason people got onto the internet.

The only compelling things left I can see are: email/im - despite the fact that they're not what they used to be, they're still very useful, but there's no need for broadband here.

Corporate Software websites - where you can usually get up to date drivers and updates. Most of the time, broadband isn't required.

Free Software - If you're a Linux-head - you still need broadband for downloading those isos.

Marketing - ah yes. If you're an advertiser, the internet is your friend, and a very compelling reason to get broadband, or even a T1. That is, until everyone who has signed up for the internet in the past 3 years finally realizes that there's nothing out there for them but advertising and crap, and drop the service.

If you think you have a better solution to these problems, how about proposing them, and actually DO something about it. Complaining here on Slashdot is not a guarantee that things will change.

Yeah, it just sucks there are no online deals anymore.

Looks like you just have to get ripped off trying this one on the evil patent empire's site or perhaps this one if your looking for a firewire external. Also maybe you just might want to grab some $4.99 CDRs after rebate to go with the new burner. Need a new processor, grab a 1.4GHz Athlon Thunderbird for $86.

As for DVD writer, I was comparing entry-level machines. If you want to add a DVD-writer, the cost differential is roughly the same in the PC and Mac world.

As for DVD writer, I was comparing entry-level machines. If you want to add a DVD-writer, the cost differential is roughly the same in the PC and Mac world.

As for DVD writer, I was comparing entry-level machines. If you want to add a DVD-writer, the cost differential is roughly the same in the PC and Mac world.

I just installed a 120 GB hard drive in my computer. It was a Western Digital WD1200BBRTL, their 120 GB model at 7200 RPM. Read about it at CompUsa.com. The drive includes the new Data Lifeguard (TM) system; the drive seems to work even after I dropped it on my carpeted floor (only from a few feet though). Comes with a 3 year warranty too, so any other of those poor slobs that dropped theirs can call WD for a replacement if needed. Don't forget to use your 80-wire cable, or you can't get ATA-100 speeds. The drive's nice and quiet, too. Everyone else, if you're thinking of upgrading your UTVs, buy an extra drive and upgrade your computer! It'll mount under NTFS as one volume too, unlike some other filesystems.

I couldnt find it on Best Buys Site but HERE it is at comp USA.

I would highly recommend the Samsung Yepp. I purchased one a few weeks ago and it has been working nicely. It comes with 64 mb of built in ram, plus a SmartMedia expansion slot. In addition, it has an FM radio tuner. A good place to buy it is at CompUSA.

It's already in stock at CompUSA. It was in their ad this weekend.

Here's a cheap one for you. And if I remember correctly from last time I was in a CompUSA store, 7.0 was even cheaper.

I just got a SMB barricade last week. Supports numerous clients, and wireless network to a cablemodem.

Got it with rebate from CompUSA for 50 bucks or so.

That's a good deal, for a 4 port switch, router, print server...

Oh.. bummer. rebate period is over:

info was here

The page for Home Full states that WindowsXP won't be ready until "Thursday, November 01, 2401".

Oh well, at least M$ isn't pushing the envelope...

(for the benefit of those browsing above the AC's...)

Hard disk space is NOT cheap. Have you seen the prices of hard disks recently?

Yeah, I got a 30GB drive several months ago for about $150, and prices have gone down since then. That's cheap. About 3 times as expensive as blank CDR's, megabyte for megabyte, but it is cheap.

But of course, I'm not the type to spout numbers without some kind of evidence. Check here, or if that's not big enough check here or here. Yeah, it's more than a few beers, but what were you expecting to pay for serious storage?

Then why bother with a PS?

PS To PC USB Adapter

PS Emulator or countless other places

TV Out Adapter

Consider this hypothetical situation. You go to one of the numerous electronics or computer retailers across the fruited plain and you buy a computer off the shelf. (Please...you can stop laughing now at the absurdity of this possibility.) The thing's preloaded with the latest bluescreen inducer. (We're also assuming that, for whatever reason, thinking different isn't an option.) You'd rather replace the preloaded software with something that's a little more reliable. You borrow a copy of $LINUX_DISTRO|$FREEBSD_DISTRO from a friend and blow away Win$YEAR when Billy sends some attack lawyers down from Redmond and slaps you with a lawsuit for depriving him of any future revenue when Win`expr $YEAR + 1` comes along.

How is the above hypothetical any different than what Gracenote is trying to pull off here? They seem to be under the impression that once you use their service in your software, you're stuck with them forever.

(Does anybody have a tool and/or a project (probably of a distributed nature) going to brute-force CDDB for all possible data and pass the info along to one of the free (as in speech) alternatives?)

Or you could run some more cable to your wiring closet and feed the audio across the house to the computer, along with an IR/RF remote (or repeater) for remote control of the computer and a speaker so the computer can reply to commands...or a network terminal of some sort (WebTV? Webplayer? iOpener?) for chatting with the computer.

There also are wireless audio devices which could send the audio across the house to the computer. X10.Com has some, and I see that CompUSA has one on sale this week.

You want a Happy Hacker Keyboard ... this thing is portable ! Two people at the month lan party I go to, use it, and do very well with it.

And you can't go wrong with a flat panel LCD if you can afford it. You may want to check your local computer fair and see if you can buy a refurbished one.

I found that system with no comparison shopping whatsoever. I would gladly bet money that I can find a better deal yet if I look around a little.

On an unrelated note, I'm not really sure what made my last post "flamebait". I merely pointed out the FACT that somebody who shops carefully can get their hands on a decent gaming PC for under $500.

Yes, 233 is minumum box specs for most new games, which means that 400-600 is plenty enough. My game system is an old 333, and it runs every game I've installed so far with no problems whatsoever. You do not need a 1.1 GHz system just to play the latest shooter.

I sure hope it's not a pointless hoax or vaporware.

Face it, the arguments in favour of this product are all flawed. A small business can't afford a firewall and a router? How cheap do they need it? And if they can afford a small server, they can afford a firewall.

A failsafe solution for any company? Bullshit, if a server crashes hard and you don't already have a failsafe, you're dead. If theoretically the server has crashed hard but still has a functional power supply, you have only bought yourself enough time to bring up a backup firewall box and router inline, so that the server with the card can be brought down and repaired. This is the same net effect as buying a dependable router and having a dedicated firewall box and synchronized backup ready to switch. Either way, you're going to have a few seconds to a few minutes of downtime, and one way you are going around your elbow to get to your nose.

Isolated from host PC software, therefore more secure? Two words: embedded Linux. So when some skriptkinder come up with the latest supersmurf, teardrop, raindrop, DoS or overflow vulnerability in Linux, do you have to ssh into the card, apply a patch, recompile and reboot? Will the company provide a flash utility with timely kernel updates? Why depend on them?

I'm not trying to prove that this is a hoax; that's an easy do. What I'm saying is that this is a stupid idea for a product, and shame on /. editors for biting on it.

A quick check at CompUSA Onlineshows that full suite price to be $1980.95 and upgrade price is $931.85.

Um, thanks but no thanks. I'll take FREE over $2K price any day.

The problems with Ask Jeeves are two-fold:

1) They only have a few paid editors who try and compile the list of questions and answers
2) They in general only provide a single link to a question that they already know the answer to. Big companies provide big money to make sure that their resource is listed first/exclusively and these big sites are not always the best sources of information. For instance the questions "Where can I buy an Ethernet cable" should take you to a site like Pricewatch and not to CompUSA in order to get the best deal.

The Open-source community can solve this problem easily. We allow anyone who wants to to submit question-and-answer pairs, and then we allow end-users to vote (or should we call it moderate?) on which answers are best suited to each question. Thus, the system grows as a result of its users activity, and is not really subject to editorial control. Even less editorial control that Slashdot, believe it or not.

So, here's my question. I am currently too busy with other projects (although one of them such as enzyme.sourceforge.net, the engine that backs Catalyst Recruiting has a lot of related code) to really speahead and maintain this project. I have, however, purchased the domain names that will be necessary to make it work: askgneeves.com (this time the N is silent). Anyone out there interested in working on it? Anyone think it's even a good idea? Is someone already doing this? I think that pretty soon we could have an open-source product that would be useful to 90% of the clueless users out there.

But even more damning is the lack of need for the ATL. Couldn't most, if not all, of the ATL's main goals fit withen the charter of the Business Software Alliance or the Software & Information Industry Association? So, why aren't we seeing a survey from the BSA? Or at least a responce from the BSA? If more of us email the BSA about this then maybe we can get an unbias survey conducted.