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Yes, I'm the one that needs to do research.

Let me help you:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=996699&cid=25385889

or more specifically:
http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/isp_mistakes.html

That'll cost you a cluepon.

I drop ICMP entirely

Then you're an idiot who has no business managing a firewall.

amen.

I drop ICMP entirely

Then you're an idiot who has no business managing a firewall.

First, go to TVfool and Antennaweb to find out where all the transmitters are and how far. Then, you need to see what type of antenna to get. Good places to discuss about DTV are at: news://alt.tv.tech.hdtv (newsgroup) and AVS Forum. I am not an expert and still learning, but these places are useful.

I couldn't use my old fashion rabbit ears since they were too weak and they were decent for analog feeds.

For those who can't decide which converter boxes to get with the coupons, then see Wikipedia and here. I still haven't ddecided what to get and I need to get them before May 27th, 2008 (should had waited to get better models). :(

That was a very interesting post, though prone to exaggeration. Your attitude seems to be that if American's change a foreign dish, we get credit for it but if
someone else changes an American dish, we still get credit.

Bananas did not originate from Hawaii, though bananas were probably introduced there between 500 and 700AD.
According to wikipedia: "They are native to the tropical region of Southeast Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and Australia."

One of my ancestors, an American by the name of Minor Cooper Keith, was responsible for the global banana trade (before it became exploitative), starting around 1873. Although a few banannas had been imported to the mainland US, and probably other areas like Europe as well, by sailors, they were something that you would only eat on a dare (imagine a banana after a multi-month sea voyage). He created an enormous infrastructure to bring these highly perishable fruits to the US from Central America, including the worlds first fleet of refrigerated steamships and dedicated ports to take the fruit quickly (under 60 hours) from harvest to hold. The railroad express shipment within the US had to be orchestrated and retailers had to be specially trained in how to handle and ripen the fruit. He discovered the bananas while building the first transcontinental railroad (before the panama canal) across Central America, along with his Uncle Henry Meiggs who built the first railroad in Chile. Meiggs died during the building of the transcontinental railroad along with around 4000 people (mostly American's from New Orleans) building the railroad through territory the natives were wisely afraid to visit. The workers from the US did not follow recommended safety precautions
but workers who were imported from Barbados survived to complete the railroad. The fruit company they founded has been known over the years as United
Fruit Company, United Brands Company, and Chiquita Brands International and has had a checkered history since Keith's death. Keith himself meddled in
the politics of Costa Rica backing benevolent dictators during the country's transition to the first stable democracy (he married the daughter of the
first president) in the region (other attempts to transition to democracy in the region, which was unaccustomed to citizen participation, were unsuccessful
and bloody). He refinanced the debts of several Central American countries, built hospitals, schools, and railroads throughout the region, and paid
workers enough to get ahead (double what other workers in the region were paid).

http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/clan/empire.html

Given that bananas existed for well over a thousand years in many parts of the world before Keith introduced them to Europe/America, I suspect that there are
many banana dishes that are not of American origin. Likewise, although the tomato originated in South America and was common in the US (but thought poisonous
before Jefferson rehabilitated it here), the tomato's history in England dates to around 1590, around the 18th century in France, and around 1550 in Italy. By
the mid 18th century, tomato consumption in Italy was widespread. So I am sure that the Italian's and others would take exception to the notion that anything
with tomatoes not of hispanic origin is created here. http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/vegetabl etravelers/tomato.html

The American hot dog is a perversion of the german Wurst (pronounced Vurst) or Wiener, though the National Hot dog council, according to wikipedia, credits a butcher in Germany, not an American, with the invention of the Hot Dog (the bland miniature version).

The Hawaiians had a very healthy diet before western influence, now the Hawaiians are the highest per-capita consumers of Hormel products (or so I was told
in Hawaii).

As for chee

And this is precisely why I asked about an open source replacement. It's one thing to pay for a product if you're going to use it to make money. It's a far different thing to expect to pay the same money for a product only to use it for hobby work.

I design gadgets for the Commodore 64/128, and a quick estimate shows that at the prices I've seen around the web in the last few days, I would spend more on the software alone than I would spend on making one production-ready unit of every board I've designed since I started fiddling with this stuff (that's only about 10 unique designs), and if I tried to sell, there's no way I'd ever break even. Several years ago there was a slim chance, but today, forget about it. Today, all of the stuff I write or design is free and open source, and stuff I have written in the past I have since declared free also (where the source code still exists). I think that fits anyone's definition of "giving back." I must stress - I do not program for Linux, just Commodore.

Oh, and to the other gentlemen who have mentioned auto-routing and other high-end features as being too much to ask of FOSS, let me see..

• PCB, the very PCB editor I started with years ago, is a nice board editor with autorouter (which I have yet to use) and some other nice features, but that's only half of the needed setup.
• KiCAD has a decent schematic editor, 3D viewer, and some other stuff, but it just has problems on my box (apparently poor integration, very slow board editor, crashy).
• gEDA attempts to integrate PCB with schematic capture and other tools, but it's buggy on my setup (missing config files in Ubuntu, schematic doesn't get translated over to the board properly, no component-onto-board auto-place function to go with the schematic capture)
• gschem2xpcb looks like it would fill in well to convert those gEDA/gSchem schematics over to PCB in a way similar to Eagle's autoplace feature, but this is just a stand-alone command-line program with only the one function, and the author seems have a major aversion to the GPL. *shrug*
• The GIMP of course has tons of features and a really nice UI, and in particular it has vector graphics capabilities and multiple layers, but of course it's not adapted for PCB/schematic work.
• Eagle, for this particular list, has wonderful parts libraries (for which utilities exist to convert these to other formats) and good integration between schematic and board, but it has some serious screen refresh bugs, plus the aforementioned 4x3 inch board size limit.

Along with these, every other open source program I've looked into has at least one of the features I need. I was just hoping for a program that combines all of these already-existing, already written features into one Eagle-killing FOSS program.

Actually, while this formfactor is less useful tan a laptop in some applications it is more useful in others. Sometimes the folding design of a traditional laptop gets in the way. Aside from the cost, this would be a good replacement for i-Opener style projects.

A web pad like this is sort of a lapless laptop for couch potatoes. Looks like you could use it on the couch or out on the deck (waterproof in case it gets rained on). It would also be good in a bar since it is apparently beer resistant. For bar use, I would want a shoulder strap (so you can take it with you when you go to the bathroom) and a lock slot. If you want a real keyboard, you plug in a USB keyboard and if it is destroyed by a beverage the damage is limited. This would make a nice ebook or IM widget. It would fit on the kitchen counter or table (think 3M Audrey/I-Opener).

Mount it on the sunvisor of your car for a GPS navigation system. I already did this with an iOpener. It has some features that are significantly better than the iOpener: touchscreen (major advantage in this case), instant on/off works, built in battery, built in keyboard/mouse, smaller vertical size obstructs view less, audio output jacks (for MP3/ogg player), hard drive built in, and WiFi (so you can download gps coordinates, music, etc. from your home lan at the beginning of a trip or use as a browser/im/email/voip phone system near a hot spot). If I could afford to shell out $800 right now, I would replace my iopener in a heartbeat. One feature that would be useful in this application is the ability to automatically begin shutdown when the ignition is turned off. With a USB DVD drive, you could also play movies on this. Also, this could be strapped to the back of a headrest for use as an incar DVD player (with external drive). Unfortunately, I think in this case "client" means the same as "host" rather than "slave" (or "device" in USB spec parlance).

Some suggestions for future models:

• Given the size, I would have prefered a built in DVD+/-R drive. It would make a nice DVD player.
• Video input like the archos PMA400 and TV tuner (with ATSC as well as NTSC support (add PAL/SECAM and DVB for european markets)
• An optional mounting widget for a small USB or bluetooth keyboard that makes it hinge like a laptop.
• More mouse buttons so you can run real software.
• More SDIO slots would be nice and maybe a compact flash slot too (there are still things like cell phone modems that aren't availible in the smaller SDIO form factor).
• Think about making an alternative "case" that is basically a flat plate behind which the screen mounts for build in applications (security system, climate controls, industrial controller, kiosk, etc). An internal expansion bus for connecting I/O devices would be helpfull here.
• More USB ports so you don't need a hub.
• Built in 110V/12V power supply so all you need is an HP cord or cigarette lighter cord at each place of frequent use.
• Silicone Rubber sleave (think Fluke 77 mulitmeter) to give more protection if dropped. They also make a super clear transparent silicone that could even be used to protect the screen (might affect touch screen operation).
• An optional expansion unit could dock to the back to provide extra features like DVD+/-RW, more battery, ethernet, built in power supply, etc.
• Shoulder strap and protective carrying case or at least screen cover.
• Attachment points for various mounting options (starting with VESA display mount). Allows vehicle mounting (visor, dash, or behind seat), under cabinet mount, CRT arm style mount over desk or table, MIDI keyboard mount, kiosk mount, etc. Optional removable adapter so unit can be unmounted quickly for portable use. Removable adapter could also incorporate docking connector.
• A smaller version with DVD drive behind and where the keyboard/mouse/speak

The lack of support in the US is likely due to the unethical bundling agreements with microsoft. One way to provide a reasonable degree of support without selling machines preinstalled is to publish highly detailed installation instructions. for a few distributions. I log machine installations in such a way that you can practically cut and paste the log into a shell prompt and duplicate the install. Only the occasional reboot or a $%@#$% interactive install program prevents running the entire log as a shell script. All file edits are recorded using diff/patch, sed, cat, etc so you have an exact way to reproduce the changes.

That way, you are covered on your first install, reinstalls, and have a good head start on upgrades. And, this way you don't have to use their configuration. You can partition your hard drive to your specifications, for example. But you don't need to go searching for drivers to download or puzzle out how to install them.

This approach doesn't work very well for grandma but it will work for power users who may be new to linux as well as those people who normally use linux. And it would be a major selling point to linux people if the installation instructions are on the HP web site and they can view them before they even buy the machine.

The link above includes an example for an older HP notebook.

That doesn't make any sense. You're saying that the government just decided to ban drugs because it was a way of oppressing minorities. Why would they do that? How do they stand to gain from preventing minorities from using their 'drug of choice'?

Blacks under the influence of marijuana committed such "heinous crimes" as stepping on a white mans shadow (which was actually prohibited), looking at a white woman twice (also prohibited), and laughing at white people. By outlawing activities people you don't like engage in, you have the ability to have them thrown in jail, you discourage them from living where you do, reduce competition from jobs, open them to exploitation via blackmail, etc. In other words, you create significant power to be exploited against those people.

Read the History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States (written by a law professor) and The Emperer Wears no Clothes .

According to the second source, banning hemp under the guise of banning marijuana also elimintated competition for 80% of DuPont's products (by number of rail cars of product: plastic fibers and paper processing chemicals) and the owner of the bank that financed dupont also appointed the head of the federal bureau of narcotics and dangerous drugs. Hemp also threatened to compete with the timber industry and Mr. Yellow Journalism himself, William Randolf Hearst, had substantial timber holdings and a substantial financial stake in a new cheaper paper making process that could not have competed with hemp since a new machine had been introduced that drastically reduced labor costs associated with hemp. Also, hemp lended itself to decentralized economies whereas patented paper and plastic manufacturing processes were more profitable for Robber Barrons. It also competes with the oil industry and the pharmaceutical industry. When marijuana was outlawed most Americans (even in the unlikely event they new it was up for vote), thought it was some dangerous exotic substance from mexico that Hearsts newspapers railed about and had no idea it was a form of the hemp plant that had been a vital part of human civilization for 10,000 years. At the time it was outlawed, however, hemp agriculture was at a low point in the US because it was very labor expensive and rope was being imported from asia where labor was cheaper. But a new decorticator had been invented that reduced labor costs 100:1, just as the cotton gin had done for cotton, and the same month the federal law banning hemp went into effect, Popular Mechanics ran a story on the new machine calling hemp a billion dollar crop.

1 acre of hemp, which is 4 times as efficient as other forms of biomass, can produce 1000 gallons of fuel for motor vehicles or other uses. Biomass fuel does not contribute to global warming since the carbon produced on burning came from the air in the first place.

Hemp products are making a comeback even though you still can't legally grow hemp in the US.

oops. Posted in text mode instead of html. Details on the navigation system are http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/navigator/