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It looks like it pointed to http://computers4sure.com/ at one point or another, and their phone number is 1 800 COMPUTER, so I am assuming the just lost the domain, or rebranded from computer.com to computers4sure.com

Ouch that's expensive. And big (in physical dimensions) compared to:
http://www.computers4sure.com/product.asp?producti d=5623741&affid=10000483

I guess it may be somewhat faster, but both are approaching the limits of what you can push through a sata interface.

The long and the short of it is: I find it *extremely* awkward to use that button to right click. Maybe I'm holding the pen wrong, but I have to change how I'm holding it just to press the button, and I tend to press it accidently, disrupting my work. I don't even know which digit (finger/thumb, not 0/1) I'm supposed to press it with...

I would much rather have a modifier button on the tablet itself, which I could press with my other hand, and then tap with the pen as normal to right click. Ideally, the button would be placed so that if I held the tablet like a book with my left hand, my thumb would be right next to it...

For me, a button on the pen device is much worse than a key on the tablet.

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

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

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

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

Or this one.

This actually makes sense to me. (Don't flame me for taking a different opinion)

First of all, the way it was set up before was not fair. My mom, who uses the internet only to send email (that's all she knows how to do with it anyway) would be paying the same amount that I would be paying to play online video games, downloading whatever into My Pants, and transfering whatever to whoever (and all that pr0n when my wife is away) et cetera et cetera.

Yeah yeah, I know: if she wants to just send email, then she should use dial-up. But she shouldn't have to. Dial-up is a totally different service, requiring tying up your phone line or paying for another phone line. On top of that, it requires you to (duh) dial out - a concept to complicated for my mother. She needs it Always On.

The way I see it, she has been paying to support bandwith hogs like myself (and I am not as bad a hog as many others are - I haven't networked computers at home since I left my college roomates).

I would honestly be more worried about their Networking Policy (you need to pay for additional IP addresses, etc.) than to complain about not getting a free ride anymore.

[FYI: I find it compelling to add another tidbit on the irrationality of my parents. They are paying AOL dial-up, Earthlink dial-up, MSN dial-up, and Comcast cable internet. They only use the cable. I have told them twice to get rid of those they don't use. "But we use Earthlink - that's what comes up (reffering to their home page) when we go online (reffering to opening IE).]

Many cable companies seem to think that trying to restrict their users from wireless solutions is a good idea, but AT&T seems to have the right approach.

http://www.attbroadband.com/homenetworking
redirects to
http://www.computers4sure.com/linksys/store/att_zi p.asp

If you drop in your zip code you will see that AT&T not only doesn't deny you wireless but in fact offers a one-stop-shopping for wireless products from Linksys.

So, while this specific article is about sharing your wifi with people that don't live in your apartment/home/discarded fridge box, I have to wonder if AT&T will even care about such sharing. They're pushing wifi as a solution, so they have to expect this sort of thing to happen...

I'm just curious how they detected his wireless usage. It seems like he could install a router with NAT between the cable modem and the wireless node, then call up and say "problem solved."

Here's another question: Was he using encryption? If he's not, I can understand the company's point of view. (Note: I said understand, I didn't say I agree with it.) If he were to say 'its encrypted...', that should solve it.

Hmmm sounds like a call to pre-emptively sue the cable/dsl companies for express permission to use wireless. When I signed on with @Home (and then ATT Broadband), they were advertising how to use multiple computers on the same connection. I even found a howto on how to do it. Here's the address: http://www.computers4sure.com/linksys/store/att_wi reless.asp

Note: AT&T's site linked me to this. When you go to this site before going to AT&T's site, you see the AT&T logo on the screen. Strange, eh? hehe.

I dont mind spending a few dollars more to support a company/product that supports my choice to use linux. It was well worth the extra $ to plug it in, run the install, and connect to the network at my college in under 5 minutes.

Not bad, and certainly cheaper than a Docking station and PCI Audigy EX, which has been my plan up until now.

The converse of Moore's law is that a constant amount of computing power gets drastically cheaper with time.
But it doesn't. The cheapest laptops have been around $1000 forever now. When can I buy one for $500?

1. The amount of laptop computing power available for $1000 has been increasing.
2. I couldn't get down to $500, but here's one for $779.

Computers4sure has it for $150.
non-afilliate link
affillate link
Not quite the deal of a 4 port switch, but hell, it's $100 with a web interface and telnet.

Western Drive Caviar 30.0GB, 5400 RPM, EIDE Hard Drive: $223.97
http://store.westerndigital.com:80/store/product.a sp?registered=0&dept%5Fid=2&pf%5F id=101

Seagate Barracuda 28.0GB, 7200 RPM, EIDE ULTRA ATA/66: $199.99
http://www.computers4sure .com/Product.asp?ProductId=80260

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 27.2GB EIDE UltraDMA/66 5400 rpm internal hard drive: $191.99
http://www.egghead.com/ca tegory/inv/00041912/02351925.htm

Maxtor 40.0GB EIDE, ULTRA-DMA/66, 5400 RPM, 9 ms: $252.95
http://www.buy.com/comp/product.as p?sku=10227545

So, basically, $7.47, $7.14, $7.07, and $6.33 per a gigabyte. A single-sided DVD holds 4.7 GB (which most movies come on). Thus, it will cost about $35, $33.50, $33.20, or $29.75 for the storage space to keep a single DVD on each of the above drives, respectively.

I'm not sure about how effective software data compression programs will work on MPEG-2 encoded video, but that could be a further means to reduce space (thus cost).

Basically, the price per gigabyte of hard drives is not yet where it needs to be to make DVD backup cost effective, but next year it will be.

Anyone else care to present an analysis?

Actually, some stores {althought they don't have any in stock :( } are selling the Libretto 110 for around $1100, not bad eh?



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There is no statute of limitation on stupidity.