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The key is to avoid the big-name assfaces whenever possible; much like the major cell carriers, they don't give a shill if they lose any particular customer, as long as their bottom line isn't affected. Regional places like Sonic.net or DSL Extreme are MUCH better for any geek to go with, for example -- neither uses caps/throttling or minds home servers, and while both block port 25, DSL Extreme's TOS states they will open it if asked.

The thing is, regional ISPs are rarely well known even in their area, so a lot of people have no clue that there's any options beyond the cable/phone companies. Even if you've never heard of any independent ISPs existing in your area, spend some time searching the web for a local one (they can be very hard to find) and ask at BroadbandReports & Craigslist's Forum area before signing up with a national ISP. It takes some extra time, but it's worth it.

Untrue

I've already made the switch away from AT&T DSL to DSL Extreme due to the caps being put into place. So far it seems great. In fact, I now get better ping in all of the games I've tried.

http://www.acooke.org/andrew/electronics/spice.html- Spice and GEDA tutorial

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gsch2pcb/tutorial.html-Bill Wilson's tutorial on using gEDA/gaf, gsch2pcb, and PCB

Ugg! These tutorials are completely ancient. I have removed them. Thanks.

The official documentation for the gEDA project can be found here: Official Documentation

Seriously, if you want folks to use gEDA, release a beginner's guide showing how to make something simple, like a fm transmitter or lm317 board, and how to successfully prepare it for sending off to some place like batchPCB.

How about these documents:

• gsch2pcb_tutorial
• gschem_warmup
• transistor_guide
• Getting started with PCB
• ngspice and gschem
• tragesym tutorial
• Circuit Design on Your Linux Box Using gEDA

There is lots of documentation available for using the gEDA suite of tools and the geda-user mailing list is very friendly to all levels of users. I could probably dig up a few more tutorials if the above isn't enough. :)

I've also added a bunch of new free/open source hardware projects to the gEDA links page. There are some really awesome projects listed there that do not use proprietary tools.

http://www.acooke.org/andrew/electronics/spice.html- Spice and GEDA tutorial

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gsch2pcb/tutorial.html-Bill Wilson's tutorial on using gEDA/gaf, gsch2pcb, and PCB

As for the images, it allows us to take her work and recreate it. Now, if having to look at images and actually recreate a schematic is a problem, then I'd suggest recreate the schematics, pcb's, and release them in whatever format you want. She's released under an opensource license, so there shouldn't be a problem. Heck, I imagine she'd even let you submit them to her github for download.

Seriously, if you want folks to use gEDA, release a beginner's guide showing how to make something simple, like a fm transmitter or lm317 board, and how to successfully prepare it for sending off to some place like batchPCB.

Citation here.

So kind of like a dark sucker, then?

p

I use GKrellM, which is a linux program, but it has been ported to windows.

GKrellM for Windows
GKrellM for linux

Enable the net monitor, then click the normally invisible button in the bottom right corner of the net monitor to check data transferred per day, week, or month.

* for the first 6 months, then only $199.99 each month thereafter

Besides their apparent sadism by implementing filters and such (same RIAA/SCO business model, just change "Sue customers" to "prevent from using what they paid for"), Their advertised offers always have very tiny fine print, hidden in the margins and borders of the mass mailings, mentioning that oh yeh, the price quoted above in the bold 1000pt font is good only for a couple months before we double or triple it, and you are still locked in to us for a year! That is the main reason Im staying away from them. Besides, I got higher up/down bandwidth AND static IPs (something else comcast WONT do) for a MUCh cheaper price from DSL Extreme</happycustomershamelessplug>. If you sign up, feel free to use me as a referral (username there same as here).

tm

Nunchucks for the win

12. TERMINATION BY DSLEXTREME. If, in DSLExtreme's sole discretion, (a) a Subscriber is in breach of any of the terms of this Agreement (including but not limited to the Acceptable Use Policy); ...snip...
or (e) DSLExtreme for any reason ceases to offer the Service, then DSLExtreme at its sole election may terminate or suspend such Subscriber's Service immediately without notice. For a termination in accordance with this paragraph, Subscriber remains liable for all unpaid fees and other charges accrued or otherwise payable under the terms of this Agreement, including without limitation the Early Termination Fee and equipment charges set forth herein, if applicable.

12. TERMINATION BY DSLEXTREME. If, in DSLExtreme's sole discretion, (a) a Subscriber is in breach of any of the terms of this Agreement (including but not limited to the Acceptable Use Policy); (b) a Subscriber's use of the Service is prohibited by law or is disruptive to, adversely impacts or causes a malfunction to the Service, DSLExtreme's servers or other equipment, or the use and enjoyment of other users; (c) a Subscriber acts in an abusive or menacing manner when dealing with DSLExtreme's technical support staff, customer service staff or any other DSLExtreme employees or representatives; (d) DSLExtreme receives an order from a court to terminate a Subscriber's Service; or (e) DSLExtreme for any reason ceases to offer the Service, then DSLExtreme at its sole election may terminate or suspend such Subscriber's Service immediately without notice. For a termination in accordance with this paragraph, Subscriber remains liable for all unpaid fees and other charges accrued or otherwise payable under the terms of this Agreement, including without limitation the Early Termination Fee and equipment charges set forth herein, if applicable.

DSLExtreme resells lines from both Verizon and ATT/SBC. They are relatively small, but do offer 24/7 TS and most importantly, have no bandwidth caps. I'm actually hosting a web server and SSH/SFTP from my home DSLExtreme account right now... and from a dynamic IP no less (they give you long leases). No throttling, no threats, and so far, no layer-7 filtering either.

There are a number of ISPs that block outgoing SMTP on port 25. Mine even blocks it for static addresses. They do provide the ability to have the port unblocked for static users. My brother-in-law's ISP blocks 25, 465 and 587 and will only accept outgoing mail which has the sender in their domain. (That's a stupid idea btw.)

The criticisms of quackwatch were pretty much 'we don't like what he says' rather than any attempt to dismiss the information posted.

If the dark matter/energy is so difficult to detect and measure then it is going to have no bearing on health. There is an excellent critque of WR here: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/rogermw/Reich/ . He was onto nothing but his percieved victimhood

I assume you refer to Edgar Cayce? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce. You can't seriously quote a supposed psychic on nutrition.

Why is it that Linux offers pretty much the features of Windows or OS X, or Unix for that matter?

What is new and unique to Linux from a usability or UI point of view?

I have licences for both anyway, so why should I install Linux?

Cherry-picking features from other OSs isn't a good way to develop a coherent OS

I know there's a lot of programming talent in the Linux userbase, but is there any design talent, or more particularly, UI-design talent?

I agree with a few statements already made this should not be called "desktop" yet. As for the bar itself... him I do believe I've seen this before http://gdesklets.gnomedesktop.org/ or perhaps http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/ gkrellm.html When I did run gdesklets it was setup with a lot of the same features, quick notes, email, time, weather, calander and the list goes on. Nothing really new except it has goggle branded to it.

That's the reason I picked my current ISP. I want to run my own mail server.
<shamless plug>
DSL Extreme
(Don't work for them, just really like their service)
</shameless plug>
Keeps port 25 outbound blocked by default, but by just going through a few clicks on their site you can have it unblocked. If they notice a large amount of traffic from you on port 25 they will turn it off again and ask you to explain yourself.
This is really the way it should work, give me a pipe and let me put whatever I want through it, it's not like it makes a difference for the ISP, as long as the amount of traffic is not outragous. If you want to have some extra protection sitting there for the less computer savvy, fine, just let me remove it if I know enough to not be a problem.

• Download & install gkrellm
• Download & install Gkrellkam plugin (it's for getting images from webcams).
• Set up the gkrellkam plugin to get the image from http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/c3/10 24/latest.gif, which is a LASCO instrument at SOHO (which we are turning into the world's most expensive webcam IMHO).
• Also, set the number of second per update at 3600, so your image will update every hour (I don't know exactly the update times at soho website, I think 1 hour is ok)
• Stay alert for some twisted structure like this

I have four gkrellkam panels, one for watching sunspots, another for coronal holes (currently in "bake-out"), another for the auroral oval and the above one. The links for those images are:

sunspots

coronal holes

Auroral oval (replace "pmapS.gif" to "pmapN.gif" for the northern hemisphere)

Take a look to the SOHO website (lastest images->near realtime images) for more images... sadly the SOHO now is in a kind of blind point, so many of them are marked as "CCD Bakeout". Maybe it will be back online in a few weeks.

Of course you can use gkrellkam for a lot of other purposes, like getting weather satellite images... oh, and getting images from a ordinary webcam ;)

.. let alone any more useful than Gdesklets or Gkrellm . For one these seem far more customiseable/extensible/useful in that they converge local system state (top) with social state (email/IM) with world state (news/RSS). I guess win32 users are missing out.

DSL Extreme.

Unequivocal 10 out of 10. I am getting better speeds now than was initially provisioned, the customer service rocks, and the people there are 100% computer enthusiasts. They are friendly enough for your grandma but geek-friendly for anyone who is a regular here. And yes, you get static IPs! 3 on a basic static IP package, 5 on the high-speed high-performance tiers.

They serve 100% of SBC Last Mile customers in the US, and Verizon Last Mile customers in California. They also use Covad as a provider. They will support FIOS and DSL2 when they are rolled out by VZ and SBC respectively.

http://www.dslextreme.com/

I found the flash files that were trying to load from the orginal here is a mirror.... http://www.exstatica.net/flash/firefox/theoffice.h tm http://members.dslextreme.com/users/exstatica/fire fox/theoffice.htm Enjoy.

Do they mean something like Dockapps ,GDesklets, or Superkaramba? Or perhaps gKrellm?Yeah, that is new. :)

Alex

eigerface
eigerface@dslextreme.com

I would also recommend seti@home or any other distributed computing project. You can run as many instances of seti@home as you have CPUs, and bind each instance to its own processor. As for monitoring the CPU usage, I would recommend gkrellm.

My ISP, dslextreme, blocks port 25 by default. To have it unblocked, you fill out an online form -- and expose yourself to a port scan from them every so often, to make sure you're not an open relay.

It's a good thing. :)

$10 a month for image compressing 5x dialup or $25 a month for cheap DSL

http://secure.dslextreme.com/

Want something inbetween? Share with your neighbor.

Does DSLExtreme filter any ports?

A port 25 (outgoing mail) filter is applied to all customers to prevent against spam generated from our network. Customers who wish to have the filter removed in order to run a mail server may do so by registering at: https://secure.dslextreme.com/reg_server

By registering your mail server with DSL Extreme, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions listed at http://www.dslextreme.com/aup.htm . In addition, we will periodically scan port 25 over your DSL line to make sure your mail server is not an open relay. If we find an open relay on your mail server, the port 25 filter will be reinstated and you will be notified by the contact email address entered above.

DSLExtreme reserves the right to block any port without prior notice to protect the network and the end users from potential virus attacks spreading over a certain port.

D'oh

There's a simple, upfront solution. When an account is turned on by the ISP block all outbound traffic on port 25. Only open port 25 if the user requests it specifically. This way, reguardless of the system being comprimised, it does not become a source of spam.
After that, monitor traffic on port 25, if the volume seems abnormally high contact the customer. Ask them if they are legitimately generating that much email or not. If they are not, re-block port 25 until they get thier system fixed.
The ISP I am with currently does this. As I run a mail server at home, I have port 25 open, and have never had a problem, but for all of the comprimised boxes on the same network as me (I see lots of virus hits on my firewall logs comming from the network I am in), they don't become spam relays.
Why companies are willing to go to the trouble of turning off accounts for spam, but are unwilling to take this simple step, I will never understand. Unless, of course, its just a way to generate revenue in re-connect fees from hapless users.

Maybe its just me, but I really don't mind spammers being pushed offshore. As it is, I alreay block certain ranges of IP address, what's one more forgien IP range to me, I don't get any email from outside the US anyway. The problem is, occasioanlly (and actually quite a bit recently) I will get spam from IP addresses that are almost certainly cracked boxes sitting on broadband. This leads to the problem that blocking the IP ranges that these emails are comming from would cut off a few of my friends, which I refuse to do. I have sent a few emails to Comcast's abuse email, but have not seen any response, and the problem seems to be getting worse. Personally, I wish other ISP's would start doing what my isp did and filter outgoing port 25 unless you specifically ask for it to be open. I can run my home mail server, and the idiots on DSL with an unprotected windows box don't send out spam. In all, a very good arangement, though the people at DSLExtreme seem to actually have a bit of a clue. As for the rest of the world, well, we'll just have to wait until they sort themselves out. Maybe if the US actually does something good (for a change) the rest of the world might follow, its that whole lead by example idea that the US abandonded shortly after it was formed.

Check out DSLExtreme I've been with them for a couple years now, and have been very happy with them. They have fairly good tech support, and they stay the hell out of my way. And, a 1.5/256 line is $49.95/month, with static IP and a month-to-month subscription. The only thing you have to remember to do is tell them to turn off the port 25 filter on your IP, if you plan to run your own mail server.

* Richard Stallman

here's a sneak preview at RMS's music video debut!

My wife and I were dissatisfied with the management of a public (for-profit) discussion forum, so we decided to start our own.

We set it up in a weekend on our personal DSL server, assuming that we could transfer it later if it got popular.

Well, it got popular FAST, because over 150 people from the for-profit board wanted an alternative, and they flocked to our board. In a two week period, we had more than 5gb of traffic. We were flabbergasted at the sheer volume.

Needless to say, we've moved the board to a hosting provider that allocates us a specific (and very high) amount of bandwidth.

It should be noted that our ISP, DSLExtreme, was exceptionally supportive and patient with us during this time. The for-profit board attempted to get us shut down, and the legal folks at DSLExtreme would have none of it. They also allowed us to rack up that temporary 5gb traffic burst with no warnings, no stoppage and no extra charge (I only know how much we used from my own logs.) I can't thank them enough. :)

In California? Try DSL Extreme. I'm getting 1.5 Mbit downstream, 256 kbit upstream plus one static IP for $65/month. No blocked ports. Additional IPs available at $8/month. I'm running SMTP, DNS, HTTP.. no problems.

Routing is good, just a couple hops from major backbones. I often ping 100ms to the east coast.

No questions asked, they just provide the pipe. Works great, fast installation. I don't work for them or anything, I'm just a satisfied customer.

Pricing varies by local telco and region.

-molo

You're right that, as far as getting the line itself goes, we're pretty much screwed here. But at the very least there is still a very modest level of competition. Myself, I am getting ready to jump to DSLExtreme for my ISP. Sure, the money for the line still ends up in Verizon's pocket (that is unavoidable), but at least not all of it does. And, I can get a 1.5Mbps/128Kbps line for $50/month, with static IP, and a TOS which allows me to host my own mail/web server, and have multipul computers behind a router. Yup, its not quite competition, but what do you expect when the phone lines are owned by Verizon?

Not me. I've already made something like that for my own personal amusement. (please note: the mess visible in the background is the result of packing for a move and is not indicative of the normal state of my living quarters. I got enough snide comments regarding that the last time I posted this link, thank you very much.)

I speak from personal experience when I tell you that these guys are using every trick up their sleeves to try and silence consumer advocates. Wellington Burke has filed suit against me and recently contacted my ISP trying to get my service disconnected (I host my own site). Fortunately, my ISP (DSLextreme.com) after reviewing the contents of my site told them that nothing there violated their TOS and told them to go to hell.

It's amazing that your site can be featured in national news organization's reports (i.e. CBS national news, NY Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, etc), but that so many of these ISPs will shut you down in a second as soon as they receive a threatening letter.

I speak from personal experience when I tell you that these guys are using every trick up their sleeves to try and silence consumer advocates. Wellington Burke has filed suit against me and recently contacted my ISP trying to get my service disconnected (I host my own site). Fortunately, my ISP (DSLextreme.com) after reviewing the contents of my site told them that nothing there violated their TOS and told them to go to hell.

It's amazing that your site can be featured in national news organization's reports (i.e. CBS national news, NY Times, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, etc), but that so many of these ISPs will shut you down in a second as soon as they receive a threatening letter.

They are also less expensive than Speakeasy.

>The Apple 1 fit in a brief Case:
>That beats that by about 8 years

Why fit it in a briefcase when the computer can be the briefcase?

Actually, I'd like to see such a thing mass manufactured, so I really do hope Apple copies this idea!

They give out static IP addresses and allow those who know how to do it and can keep their boxen patched the ability to run servers. They even have their own game server too! How cool is that?

Sorry about those in the other 49 states...PPPoE sucks.

Static IPs for all, no restrictions at all except don't serve pr0n or Warez from your home server.

The whole company is run by computer enthusiasts. They even have their own game server. How cool is that?

They work with the Telcos for their last mile, so you are limited to what Verizon or SBC can do for you, respectively. I have 768/128, but if you're in SBC territory the base package gives you a little more downstream bandwidth. My speed tests have been running around 735Kbps which is close to the max. When I had DSL previously with Flashcom 384Kbps was all I could get.

DSLExtreme rocks my world. No, I am not employed by them.

DSLExtreme's AUP/TOS:
Right Here. And they give out static IP addresses too!

These guys rock.

DSLExtreme's AUP/TOS:
Right Here. And they give out static IP addresses too!

These guys rock.

I moved to Murietta, CA and the local incumbant (Verizon - it seems if you live in the USA you end up with one or the other these days - thanks FTC/FCC) only offered 768/128 dynamic service (PPPoE or DHCP, not sure which, probably PPPoE). It seems I'm just lucky they upgraded their frame relay equipment to ATM or I'd be SOL. Luckily, found a provider called DSL Extreme which has so far been good to us with a 768/128 bridged DSL-ATM line with 1 static IP (and an option to buy more @$10/mo ea) and no server restrictions for $50/mo. (Read: another good deal) I'm just hoping they don't mess us up if Verizon decides we're not paying enough.