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"One of the best "Cool Stuff" Blogs out there is Kevin Kelly's Recomendo."

The other is Dan's Data, which conveniently doubles as a drop-in replacement for "Tom's Hardware"

the new 40Gig iPod is nice and pricey, and totally cool.

Perhaps the new 1GHz 12" Apple PowerBook?

Certainly a Sony Aibo is expensive and unnecessary, but can be useful in harassing the interns.

Or a UX50 CLIE(TM) Handheld PEG-UX50 PDA. Very cool, and uber-sexy.

If you want impractical, get a Rubberband Machine gun (http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/) Oh yeah. Great for hostile takeovers!
Also check out their remote control tanks that shoot BBs: http://www.backyardartillery.com/tanks/. Sweet. (don't forget the plastic Army men to go along with the tanks!)

Dan's Data (http://www.dansdata.com/) reviews a lot of fun toys like the above. LED flashlights, tanks, and what-not. Maybe a super-modded computer case? Maybe a Powerball (http://www.dansdata.com/gyrotwister.htm#pball would do.

You can always check out the Sharper Image catalog, too. Lots of expensive junk in there.

the new 40Gig iPod is nice and pricey, and totally cool.

Perhaps the new 1GHz 12" Apple PowerBook?

Certainly a Sony Aibo is expensive and unnecessary, but can be useful in harassing the interns.

Or a UX50 CLIE(TM) Handheld PEG-UX50 PDA. Very cool, and uber-sexy.

If you want impractical, get a Rubberband Machine gun (http://www.backyardartillery.com/machinegun/) Oh yeah. Great for hostile takeovers!
Also check out their remote control tanks that shoot BBs: http://www.backyardartillery.com/tanks/. Sweet. (don't forget the plastic Army men to go along with the tanks!)

Dan's Data (http://www.dansdata.com/) reviews a lot of fun toys like the above. LED flashlights, tanks, and what-not. Maybe a super-modded computer case? Maybe a Powerball (http://www.dansdata.com/gyrotwister.htm#pball would do.

You can always check out the Sharper Image catalog, too. Lots of expensive junk in there.

Here's an opposing view (Scroll down to the second-last letter - lucky b'stard).

The Model M is an amazing keyboard. So is the model 42H1292. Both are heavy, and both feature the buckling spring switch under each key principle. Dan (from dansdata.com) reviews them here. He calls 'em "battleship boards", goes into the why they make such great keyboards. It's interesting reading, like pretty much most of what Dan writes.

IBM/Lexmark quit making them a while ago, so they are a little hard to find. He did manage to find a company here in the US that uses IBM's old tooling to manufacture new 42H1292 keyboards. They don't have the IBM logo, but they are apparently functionally identical to the IBMs. They're US$50, however.

I was inches away from buying one of the new units, and decided to do some searching before I threw down a hundred dollars. After some searching, I came across a company called IndexComputer that specializes in older OEM computer parts, specifically IBM parts (if you need port covers or whatever for an old ThinkPad, they're the people to talk to). They sell brand new 42H1292 keyboards for $20.

I bought one a couple weeks ago as a test. It's the real deal. Even smells like a pool toy. I'm using it now, actually. I went back and bought three more for a spare and for a couple other computers I have.

For $20 you can't go wrong with a 42H1292. If you really must have a Model M, IndexComputer sells those as well. They're US$50 though. I don't know if a plug-in cable is worth the extra US$30, but if you really have to get your hands on a true Model M, they're the people to talk to.

-B

"What in the hell is a "heatspreader"?"

And why is it not useful?

Actually it's a security circumvention device, used to bypass fingerprint scanners

My take on this idea, in the unlikely event that anyone cares, is here.

Another Logitech: Cordless MouseMan Optical.

Cordless, optical, feels great.

After getting one for work I got another for home. (now isn't that backwards ..??!)

My big question: Does everybody really turn off their wireless mice when getting in an airplane?

--Doug

Word.

Full list of articles

b.t.w. that PC-destruction article is as old as the hills.

spammer, noun, derivative of spamming, verb: to send irrelevant or inappropriate email messages indiscriminately to large numbers of users.

spammers, n. pl. lying thieving pig-licking toilet blockages with feet.

spammer, noun, derivative of spamming, verb: to send irrelevant or inappropriate email messages indiscriminately to large numbers of users.

spammers, n. pl. lying thieving pig-licking toilet blockages with feet.

I've felt both a time or two (accidentally). 110 is really more of a tickle and certainly won't kill you.

You've got to be respectful of it but with 110 I didn't even realize I was being shocked until well after the fact.


Dude, 110 volts is most certainly enough to kill. True, most of us have been "tingled" by 110/115 a few times, and didn't die... all that proves is that we were lucky on those occassions.

For an interesting discussion of why low voltages *can* be deadly, see this page.

The bottom line is, lower voltages tend to be "safer" due to the resistance of your body, and the fact that low voltage power sources also usually have a fairly low current capacity. But try wetting your hands and grabbing the leads from an arc welder set on 200+ amps sometime, if you don't think low voltage can f#@k you up.

That particular MP3 player was a similar design to the Creative Muvo player.

The reviewed player didn't have DRM support and didn't require drivers (as long as your OS supported USB media).

Doesn't the ammonia in windex strip off the anti-reflective coating on monitors?

I have a tube of Arctic Silver 2 (yeah, I'm like two generations behind) but I'm not sure that I really needed it. This dude tried out several non-conventional thermal transfer compounds, including vegemite.(!) When properly applied, there wasn't a huge difference between them. In fact, in the (extremely specific) conditions, the vegemite and toothpaste outperformed the Arctic Silver! (Obviously, you should read the article for details.)

The article's point isn't that you should be using toothpaste; rather, it's that make sure you properly apply whatever thermal compound you do use, and don't expect miracles. No matter how effective your thermal transfer, you've still got to dump the heat somewhere. If you're running close to the edge of thermal failure, there are almost certainly other, much more effective cooling solutions. This new paste is probably a good thing, but don't expect miracles.

That's because it's been interpolated from a RGBG (or whatever) matrix of original colour-filtered pixel values. Only Foveon have made a true per-pixel RGB single-chip sensor, and it's only available in one rather weird camera so far; every other current single-sensor camera uses filtered pixels, which is why their RAW format output is different from their TIFF format. RAW preserves the original pixel values, without interpolating the colour from surrounding pixels.

That said, the filtered pixels do not give you a cleanly arithmetically reduced resolution. They give reduced chrominance resolution, and some reduction in luminance resolution as well that's determined by the image and the filter colours and pattern. If you're shooting an all-red or all-blue scene with an RGBG-filtered camera, you'll get one-quarter resolution. If you're shooting an all-green scene, you'll get half resolution. If you're shooting a normal scene, you'll get something approaching the resolution you'd expect from the raw pixel number.

The subject matter and photographic situation may make it impossible to capture a full resolution image anyway, mind you. My slightly old EOS D60 review here has more to say about effective resolutions and what they mean.

With NiCd and to a lesser extent NiMH as well, the voltage tends to drop a bit if the cell is not fully discharged for a long time. E.g., at 50% charge level, a fresh NiXX cell should give 1.15 V (or whatever number). If the cell is never discharged to below 50%, then the voltage at 40% will get a bit lower, e.g. 1.10 V. This can upset the battery indicator of electronic devices. One almost-full discharge to 0.9 V per cell will cure the problem. See this page for more info.

You can build a simple discharger with a 1 amp silicon diode in series with a 0.5 ohm resistor (min. 500 mW). The diode will make sure that the discharge is not beyond 0.7 volt.

Someone's already linked to one of my pieces about batteries, so I need only pimp Dan's Quick Guide to Memory Effect, You Idiots :-).

• Buy a good charger. Cheap ones can fry batteries, take longer to charge, and can go up in smoke easily. Also, make sure it can charge NiMH batteries as well as NiCDs; if you have high-drain devices like digital cameras, then you want NiMHs, and probably don't want to pay for a new charger for 'em. Expect to pay $30-$50 USD for a decent one.
• When you buy batteries, look at the milliamp-hour rating. That's the capacity they can hold: for example, an 1800 mAh AA could supply (theoretically) 1 mA for 1800 hours, 1800 mA for one hour, or anything in between. While mAh ratings do tend to be stretched a bit (the tests are performed under the most favorable circumstances possible), it's the best guide you can get to how long the battery will last in the device you plan to use.
• Don't buy more battery than you need. Your TV remote probably doesn't need expensive 2200 mAh NiMHs, so put in cheaper 800 mAh NiCDs.
• You'll be better off buying online than anywhere else. I've had good luck from several companies, but note that the "Energizer" branded batteries are relabeled and marked-up generics; you can get better batteries, cheaper if you go with other companies.
• Get extra batteries. You should have a few sitting around for when something important goes dead; don't just buy what all your devices need. Get a few extra of each type you use, or just keep alkalines around to use while recharging.
• Don't be too hard on your batteries. Many good chargers have a "fast" and a "trickle" setting; don't use the "fast" setting unless you absolutely can't wait overnight. Fast charges are hard on batteries; once or twice won't hurt much, but repeated fast charges can cause a significant drop in total battery life.
• Finally, if you have some high-drain devices and want to get more battery life, try hacking something onto the AC adaptor. A good guide to doing this with your digital camera is here; the principles are pretty much the same for anything else that has an AC adaptor socket.

Review one. Review two.

Review one. Review two.

Read it while you wait for Viperlair's server to un-Slashdot itself :-).

"And if you don't give a rat's ass about Internet Free Speech, boycott Tom's Hardware because they suck"

Toms Hardware? People who can give a great review to graphics card X without ever mentioning that it'll run at 8fps on linux because there aren't any drivers for it? A site supposedly run by computer enthusiasts, yet they're reccommending WindowsXP? C'mon, get a real computer.

Perhaps I should split this paragraph over 8 pages with a 300x300 flashing advert on each. Now if only everyone could fit 100KiB of HTML on their 3-paragraph webpage (without graphics)...

Besides, Dan's data is so much cooler.

Dan makes it his mission to review any hardware that comes his way. Consequently, he has a large collection of case reviews, including 20 separate articles on Lian-Li cases and accessories. You'll find all case reviews in one handy section in his full list.

http://dansdata.com/altindex.html

The only 1Ghz VIA based motherboard i know of is the Epia M10000.. (as reviewed by Hexus, DansData and IANAG). Anyway heres the specs lifted from via's site...

Processor - VIA C3/EDEN EBGA Processor
Chipset - VIA CLE266 North Bridge - VT8235 South Bridge
System Memory - 1 DDR266 DIMM socket - Up to 1GB memory size
Graphics - Integrated VIA Unichrome AGP Graphics with MPEG-2 decoder
Expansion Slots - 1 PCI
Onboard IDE - 2 X UltraDMA 133/100/66 Connector
Onboard Floppy - 1 x FDD Connector
Onboard LAN - VIA VT6103 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PHY
Onboard Audio - VIA VT1616 6 channel AC'97 Codec
Onboard TV Out - VIA VT1622 TV out
Onboard 1394 - VIA VT6307S IEEE 1394 Firewire

hope this helps

I've been thinking of mking a rig like this, but there are reliability problems. Check out What Happened to Dan of Dan's Data.

Corrosion is a big problem for the uninitiated :-(

"These micro-engines have over 300 times more energy than an ordinary battery" is meaningless. If they mean total energy delivery over whatever time period you like, then microengines can beat batteries by a factor of a million trillion zillion, as long as you hook them up to a big enough fuel tank. In actual power capacity, though, microengines aren't anything special at all, yet.

The aim is little turbines the size of a sugar cube that run from butane or propane or whatever, and have several watts of output power; prototypes of such things have been spinning for a while now. The microengines shown in the U of B release, though, are minuscule piston units which have power output in the microwatts, if that. Heck, the ones shown in the release don't even have generators attached to them, so their electrical output at the moment is zero!

For your amusement: A reader also pointed this out to me; it's a reprint of a piece on the subject from the British "Sun" tabloid, and it reads as if they took the U of B press release and put it through a Markov chain program, or something.

It's good to know that alcoholism in the press is alive and well.

I checked out the (somewhat more practical, and higher resolution) SyncMaster 172T the other day. The review's here. Among a large number of other things, I actually had a go at measuring the contrast ratio.

the only thing lcd monitors have going for them as far as i am concerned is that they are easier to move around than crt monitors. this might be an issue if you're lugging a 21" screen to a lan, and if you're going to a lan you'll probably appreciate the wank factor of an lcd. but i'm not. and dan agrees.

The superior tactile click of the IBM keyboard from the PC-AT era. I don't think these are around any more, and nothing still even comes close.

In fact, the IBM keyboards witht eh tactile 'click' are indeed still produced (IBM sold off their keyboard division years ago, and they are sold under a different name). You can buy one at PcKeyboard.Com. They even offer an updated model with the additional Windows 95 keys (winkey and context menu), and a pointing stick (like the ones found on IBM thinkpads).

A detailed article on the old IBM keyboards can be found here

You mean something like this?

As for NiCd "memory," you would do well to read this article, which explains the myth and reality of NiCd memory effect. As for "nickel platinum" batteries, a Google for them didn't turn up anything; neither did "NiPl." Also, a quick check of my LaserJet IIp printer cartridge showed the two contacts to be made of steel (they're far too thin for lead; if they were lead and I applied the amount of pressure I did, they would have been flatter than pancakes. As for battery pack contacts, they're just little bits of metal. I'm sure they could be replaced for a few cents; it's the cells inside that make up most of the cost.

Where did RAM temperature get into this? RAM temperature is essentially irrelevant.

They've also got a whole alternative energy site, featuring amusing things like rustic wooden wind generators, here.

This incredible object is worth a look, too.

They've also got a whole alternative energy site, featuring amusing things like rustic wooden wind generators, here.

This incredible object is worth a look, too.

Embedded Linux mag used to have micro ( smaller than mini-itx ) motherboard from ZFLinux.com, but now they sell system-on-chip thingys, so maybe that'd be a bit too much hacking...

here's one 2.7 inches by 1.6 inches, it has an IDE interface and a 486sx...

Ah HA! Gotcha!
LinuxDevices.com:Top:Hardware:Boards:Single-board computers HERE.

Right, so that takes care-of the motherboard, so to use a flash-card or micro-drive, you need either anATA-to-CF adapter,
or, if you need more than a pair of 2GB CF cards, maybe one of these flash-disks ( ATA, SCSI, PC/104? that's what the ZF boards were called! ),
or you can get an all-in-one IDE MicroFlash Card from MagicRam.com,
or dig Dan's Data's review of the VME CF-IDE adapter ( neat that it can run as either ATA-master OR ATA-slave, unlike the competition, so you could get 4GB of 'drive', or RAID-1 2GB, it's what I'd choose, if they do actually do this... ).

Then get a Lexar CF-card ( up-to 6MB/s, no motor ), up to 1GB 32x or 2GB 40x, or put a MicroDrive on it, and you'll have a VERY mini machine you can FTP to ( probably be able to stick Gentoo on it, if going for a 486-SoC ), if you have to limit everything for power, you may need to limit the amount of RAM on it, when it's in its final config...

Just ideas, I don't do this stuff day-in-day-out, so I don't know how you'd get it connected to your magnetic-instrument, but I hope this helps..

And anyway, fingerprints are extremely unreliable. It's possible to lift fingerprints from the sensor, and fake a finger with cheap replacements. It will also get dirty fast and of course will start having problems. See this article, for example.

Retinal scanners probably are more effective, but like all biometric solutions have a BIG problem. If somebody manages to repoduce your fingerprint or retina, what can you do about it? Get a new eye? See? It's all very inconvenient.

You can buy LEDs that screw into a standard bulb fitting.
This webside is crammed with all kinds of useful information regarding LEDs and LED torches. Check it out.

Sounds like Dan's Data. :)

But you also need random links, too.

Toothpaste was actually better at transferring the heat than arctic silver. (Not that toothpaste would be a good solution in the long run :))

I've installed my last three heatsinks, including my current Zalman CNPS6000AlCu, with pink TIM wax pads. TIM pads are cheap, neat, and don't require you to get crap all over your hands during application. I'll never go back to the goop game.

Since it doesn't make a difference what the hell you use to stick your heatsink onto your CPU--hell, toothpaste works just as well as AS-3--I'll stick with the easy stuff.

The ultimate cooler review site: http://www.dansdata.com/coolercomp.htm

Just a good one to bookmark :-)

This was also pointed on Saturday's Slashdot Story

A mere $US5,000 would be something of a price sensation by the standards of current large capacity SSDs, whose prices aren't dropping nearly as quickly as are those of magnetic media.

Yes, it is because it is - along with 5 Ghz and a couple of more frequencies - unregulated (or minimally regulated for commercial and scientific use. 5 Ghz, according to this excellent article on Dan's Data is "inherently even less able to deal with propagation obstacles than 2.4GHz".

Yes, it is because it is - along with 5 Ghz and a couple of more frequencies - unregulated (or minimally regulated for commercial and scientific use. 5 Ghz, according to this excellent article on Dan's Data is "inherently even less able to deal with propagation obstacles than 2.4GHz".

What I'm trying to say, just get one of those stun batons.