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They currently have 11 units online at futureshop. I've been watching it for the past couple weeks, and sometimes they are sold out, but it's not hard to get one if you check a couple times a day.

Which features does it lack that cannot be added in? The memory card readers? Oh wait, buy your own and plug it in via USB. The Wifi? Buy a wireless bridge. The less hard disk space? Buy a bigger hard drive (something that you cannot do on the 360). Buy all those features you listed for the core and all of a sudden it's a lot more expensive than the Premium 360. Buy the hard drive and it's already more than the cost of the premium 360, at least in Canada, (the hard drive costs $130 here) let alone all the other accessories you listed. The PS3 plays all PS3 games just as the core 360 does, except it comes packed with most other stuff that the core 360 DOESN'T. Microsoft is promoting all these great things you can do with the 360, except they all require the hard drive. That XBox Live Arcade everyone raves about? Sure, you can put MAYBE 1 or 2 games on your overpriced memory card before running out of space, but that doesn't sound like a great experience to me. I'm not saying that the PS3 is better than the 360, I'm saying that for all the stuff it gives you they shouldn't be expected to lower their price to the Core 360 which gives you so much less in comparison.

Mod fanboy down

This is why Most Retailers Have it at $699.

Granted SonyStyle still has it at $659, but that just means they're screwing over their retailers when people go to price match and the retailers have to sell bellow cost.

DVDs don't have a levy, I think because there are significant non-infringing uses and because CSS is supposed to stop people from copying them. However, there's many places where you can buy CDs for about the cost of the Levy. Even future shop has CDs for 45 cents each, with the levy being about 29 cents, according to this. Which means that about 2/3 of the cost of the blank CD is actually the Levy. Meanwhile, other stores have CDRs for 22 cents each (7 cents less than the levy) I find it hard to believe that anybody is collecting the levy with these prices, even futureshop)

First off, if I can buy a movie that will look better on a TV I buy in a few years, why not buy it now? I have a 7 year old Sony with SVideo, and as I type this I should figure it out, but ASSUMING BlueRay will work on that, why not buy my movies on Blue Ray?

As for your 2-3x cost comparison..
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/class.asp?logon=& langid=EN&catid=24073

Those are blue rays... and yes, up here if I see a new release for $28 to low 30s, I am not suprised... so I hardly consider these to be 2-3x the cost. Maybe your getting screwed in your end of the world, but up here although I consider Blue Ray movies to be a BIT more expensive, I don't see it being 2-3x (if that was the case, I'd be putting $80-90 down per movie in some cases.)

Fish-eye would probably be the biggest problem, although i'm not sure how much it would affect the ability of the OCR program. In university we did a robotics project that used a webcam to take a picture of a table with a block, so the robot could pick up the block. We had to do quite a bit of calculation in order to account for the fish eye of the lense. However, the biggest problem is the setup that is needed. The author of the post is talking about an expensive 8 MP camera, on a tripod. You'd have to either leave it in place, or adjust and calibrate it every time you wanted to "scan" a document. With theinexpensive scanners that are available today that can do much better than 300 dpi (try 1200x2400), it's probably better to just stick with a scanner. I realize that it's sometimes tedious to wait for the scanner to finish scanning, and that the software doesn't really help in automating the process, but I don't think the camera setup would solve all those problems. Plus, the entire set up would take up a considerable amount of space.

Good points and thank you for viewing my post and commenting insightfully.

Since I live in Canada our market for 1080p is quite small. Futureshop which is one, if not the largest electronics retailer in canada (aka. bestbuy) is only offering two 1080p sets which are VirtualHD 1080p(i suspect they're not true 1080p)
http://www.futureshop.ca/marketing/ps3/04.asp?logo n=&langid=EN , sorry I was off on my estimate of 1. Personally Im' not going to refresh my HD set for quite sometime, and if your willing to shell out 600USD for a gaming console I'm quite sure you already have an HD set and will be in a similar situation.

I agree 100% PS3 will be sold out for quite sometime and we'll be in the 360 shortage that was experienced last year. But everyone is commenting that PS3 is really the only next gen system. But what REALLY makes it any different than the 360? Ok, it may have some unproven and really interesting components(cell, blu-ray) but that doesn't mean it's next gen. I actually believe next gen really is HD and of course Wii controller which has changed the way you interact with the console. I do have a 360 and viewing all games on a large high def HDTV is really pleasant and actually breathed new life into my projection HDTV.

Honestly I will own all consoles just because I can afford it, but that's me and not your average person who looks at this stuff and thinks "what is all this techno crap, i just want to play!".

Now what will be REALLY interesting is how these systems will be 4 years out once the devs fully understand the ps3. I suspect that is what Sony is banking on, but getting to that point is going to be really painful for them.

here is a fairly decent spec sheet from futureshop as well. http://www.futureshop.ca/marketing/ps3/04.asp?logo n=&langid=EN

MrJynx

Good points and thank you for viewing my post and commenting insightfully.

Since I live in Canada our market for 1080p is quite small. Futureshop which is one, if not the largest electronics retailer in canada (aka. bestbuy) is only offering two 1080p sets which are VirtualHD 1080p(i suspect they're not true 1080p)
http://www.futureshop.ca/marketing/ps3/04.asp?logo n=&langid=EN , sorry I was off on my estimate of 1. Personally Im' not going to refresh my HD set for quite sometime, and if your willing to shell out 600USD for a gaming console I'm quite sure you already have an HD set and will be in a similar situation.

I agree 100% PS3 will be sold out for quite sometime and we'll be in the 360 shortage that was experienced last year. But everyone is commenting that PS3 is really the only next gen system. But what REALLY makes it any different than the 360? Ok, it may have some unproven and really interesting components(cell, blu-ray) but that doesn't mean it's next gen. I actually believe next gen really is HD and of course Wii controller which has changed the way you interact with the console. I do have a 360 and viewing all games on a large high def HDTV is really pleasant and actually breathed new life into my projection HDTV.

Honestly I will own all consoles just because I can afford it, but that's me and not your average person who looks at this stuff and thinks "what is all this techno crap, i just want to play!".

Now what will be REALLY interesting is how these systems will be 4 years out once the devs fully understand the ps3. I suspect that is what Sony is banking on, but getting to that point is going to be really painful for them.

here is a fairly decent spec sheet from futureshop as well. http://www.futureshop.ca/marketing/ps3/04.asp?logo n=&langid=EN

MrJynx

Yup, I got this one for $10: http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sk u_id=0665000FS10067076&catid=19994&logon=&langid=E N

I own an iPod. I didn't buy the iPod because I saw other "cool" people using it. I didn't buy it because I saw commercials with dancing silhouettes sporting white earbuds.

I bought the iPod because I have a massive collection of music that I wanted to carry around with me.

What does Sandisk have to offer? 6GB max? I've got 30GB of space in my iPod. I have fit all of my all-time favourite pieces on it. It doesn't contain every mp3 I have, but I'm not too sad that "I've Got A Boner For You" by the Teen Angels didn't make it on there.

There's not even a price advantage for choosing Sandisk over Apple.

At Future Shop here in Canada, a 30GB iPod Video can be bought for $379.99.

I can't find the 6GB player in Future Shop's page, but a 4GB Sandisk Sansa e260 will set you back $299.99.

So, IMHO, your pricing is *WAY* off. Your storage capabilities are minimal, at least relative to my desires and compared to iPods. And to top it off you choose to insult me (and others) for choosing an iPod over your Sansa? I'll remember that when I'm looking for my next MP3 Player.

I own an iPod. I didn't buy the iPod because I saw other "cool" people using it. I didn't buy it because I saw commercials with dancing silhouettes sporting white earbuds.

I bought the iPod because I have a massive collection of music that I wanted to carry around with me.

What does Sandisk have to offer? 6GB max? I've got 30GB of space in my iPod. I have fit all of my all-time favourite pieces on it. It doesn't contain every mp3 I have, but I'm not too sad that "I've Got A Boner For You" by the Teen Angels didn't make it on there.

There's not even a price advantage for choosing Sandisk over Apple.

At Future Shop here in Canada, a 30GB iPod Video can be bought for $379.99.

I can't find the 6GB player in Future Shop's page, but a 4GB Sandisk Sansa e260 will set you back $299.99.

So, IMHO, your pricing is *WAY* off. Your storage capabilities are minimal, at least relative to my desires and compared to iPods. And to top it off you choose to insult me (and others) for choosing an iPod over your Sansa? I'll remember that when I'm looking for my next MP3 Player.

This is the future, and we get it.

The batteries are consumable, and therefore not considered under the new Product Service Plan. However, the PSP covers power surges, so if your new electric car gets zapped by lightning or electricly malfunctions -- we fully cover you for it. Dead batteries could be a sign of power surge, so be sure that you have our tech run a power surge test if the batteries in your new super-fast electric car are dead.

Is by any chance this robot available at Futureshop?

Consider the purchase of 100 blank Maxell CDs. Future Shop retails the 100 CDs for $69.99. The breakdown of this sale is $48.99 for the CDs and $21.00 for the levy (even worse is a current Future Shop deal of 200 blank CD-Rs from HP, which retails for $59.99. The levy alone on this sale is $42.00 (200 CDs x 21 cents/CD) which leaves the consumers paying $17.99 for the CDs and $42.00 for the levy).

For example, the same Maxell CDs retail for US$34.99 at CompUSA. When you add in the exchange differential, the Canadian cost is just over $40.00.

Umm... excuse me

This article is on crack. Maybe if the authour was actually a Canadaian he'd know WTF he was talking about.

See above links. You can get 200 blank CDs for 40 bucks anywhere. And when they are on sale you can routinely get them for less, like 20 or 25.

So that means either this guy doesn't know WTF he is tlaking about RE the actual cost of the levy, or all these stores are selling CDs at a loss constantly.

I think option A is more likely.

Two of my coworkers have the XBox 360 and HD TV's and both have called the game a waste of money.

The 360 and HD doesn't compare to Doom3/Fear/CoD2 on a really nice monitor (like the NEC GX90^2).

But if you went to the US, you might have a problem with the strong US vs Canadian dollar. And the price of the trip (well, unless you just pick them up when you happen to be out of the country) would probably outweight the taxes.

It's not that bad any more. An $0.82 dollar means basically the savings of not paying sales tax are gone. It was a terrible deal at $0.70, but it's much easier to do by mail than crossing the border.

[U.S.] MAXELL 48X CD-R 100-SPINDLE: $29.99 USD = $36.92 CDN
[CDN ] Maxell 100-Pack 48X 700MB CD-R: $48.71 USD = $59.99 CDN

I couldn't be bothered to do it myself, but it does look to be a bit cheaper.

• First season of "24": $59.99, $71.98
• First season of "Alias": $59.99,
  70.39
• First season of "Smallville": $55.99,
  $59.92

• First season of "24": $59.99, $71.98
• First season of "Alias": $59.99,
  70.39
• First season of "Smallville": $55.99,
  $59.92

• First season of "24": $59.99, $71.98
• First season of "Alias": $59.99,
  70.39
• First season of "Smallville": $55.99,
  $59.92

Check it again.

Nova DV-P511 Progressive Scan 1-Disc DVD Player

What part of that says it's a recorder? Yes it's in the "recorder" catagory, but not a single spec on that page makes it seem a recorder.

From the page:
The Nova DV-P511 Progressive Scan 1-Disc DVD Player comes with many features including FWD/FFD, Skip, Slow Motion, Single Step Play, High Clarity Multi-Level Picture Zoom, and an Adjustable Screen Aspect Ratio (4:3 or 16:9). It provides clear images with a horizontal resolution of over 500 lines.

Both yourself and the OP are indeed ignorant since neither one of you actually READ the actual specs of the machine in question.

Ummmm

Under $40 DVD Player
It's Canadian dollars...Surely the Almighty US will have cheaper.

In real stores in Canada you have to pay 14 - 26 $CAD for a CD before tax, which is 16 - 30 $CAD with tax. An example. And another example. In my experience 10$ is a rare occurance, and certainly not the "average price" of a CD anywhere I've ever shopped.

The article says:
According to CRIA's own numbers, revenue from prices of an average CD in 2004 was C$10.95, down 8.8 percent from C$12.00 per CD in 1999.
Seems he's quoting revenue, not the sale price to the end consumer. If it's actually true that each CD brings in that much revenue, then CD prices are very very inflated.

Ok, with the current exchange rate on 26 Jan 2005 825.00 Dollars U.S. = 1,015.33 Canadian dollars.

With that said...

Here's what I found

Cache 1MB L2
CPU Speed 2.0GHz
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Graphics Card GeForce FX5500 128MB AGP Card
Hard Drive 160GB 7200RPM
I/O Ports See The Features Section
Included Software Microsoft Works 8.0
Network Card 10/100 Ethernet
Optical Drives 16x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer
Preloaded Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2
RAM 1GB PC3200 DDR RAM
Sound Card Integrated AC 97 Audio
Speakers Stereo Speakers, Black
System Bus Up To 1600MHz

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?lo gon=&langid=EN&dept=1&sku_id=0665000FS10055540&cat id=10607&newdeptid=1/

All for 999.00 Canadian or 811.73 US

And this is a pre-built system from an overpriced corporation...You could get this system for probably half that amount if you bought and assembled it yourself.

I just don't see the draw of the mini...its WAY to expensive for what it's capable of.

I've had a few friends that have wanted to join me in playing this game (yes, it's quite good). They can't find it anywhere. Obviously supply is better in the US, but in Canada it's quite hard to find

Future Shop

Best Buy

According to the Future Shop Web Site, (where you can preorder GT4), the estimated release date is March 1. Anyone know anything different?
Also, since I just got my PS2, should I get this game or should I get GT3? I have not played any GT game.

Indeed, as listed on their own web site: "Future Shop stores are a division of Burnaby-based Best Buy Canada Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY)"

I never really liked Future Shop that much. Still I find that they have slightly better selection that Best Buy. Perhaps this is a remenant of the days when they were not owned by Worst Buy.

When I heard that name I couldn't shake the image of Hugo Weaving's, (Agent Smith in the Matrix), voice saying that to Neo all the time.

In fact every time I see Hugo, like in the Lord of the Rings, I still hear him saying that...
"Mr. Anderson!"

Anyway, I'm glad to see that Best Buy is finally being recognized more for their money grabbing. Being an independent computer consultant, I'm tired of the Compaq/HP pushers filling the market with crap.
Further, the Geek Squad is now eating into my profits from service.

Irregardless, I for one welcome our new overlords. I've simply switched purchasing from OEM vendors to purchasing from Best Buy, Staples, Future Shop and so forth when rebates and discounts make it profitable.

What I dislike the most is that it's such a GAME.

Here is how you play and what you get:

1. Comb the flyers weekly, (both online and mailbox versions).
CircuitCity.com
FutureShop.ca
Staples.ca
BestBuy.ca
BestBuy.com
LondonDrugs.ca
OfficeDepot.com
RadioShack.com
(Please add more, I'm sure there are many)
2. Compare prices from Ebay, factoring in landed costs like shipping and duty.
3. Compare reviews and comments on items you are thinking of buying.
Tomshardware.com
Zdnet.com
4. Try to take advantage of 150% buyer protection by pitting store against store.
5. Now go and purchase what you can at the lowest possible price.
6. You will now get sales pitches, reams of paper receipts and mumbling twitchy eyed sales people running about checking the validity of your homework.
7. Don't forget to use any Airmiles, Reward Cards etc. to get even more discounts.
8. Before you leave the store, make sure you have everything you'll need to make a proper rebate.
9. Immediately test the product(s) you buy.
10. Do any returns ASAP.
11. If you do a return, make sure you go back to see if it's on the bargain table :->
12. Immediately fill out and make copies of your rebates, receipts and UPC codes.
13. Check everything for accuracy and dates.
14. Call help lines if you are missing any critical items or are unsure of anything in the rebate process before hand.
15. Immediately mail in rebates and keep postal receipts for your records.
16. Goto 1.

What you get is a product for a price you should have gotten right from the #$%king beginning.
Welcome to the rat race of buying and selling.
There are no winners, just lots of wasted time making paper for bureaucrats, lawyers and accountants.

Maybe we are just living in The Matrix.

I recently came across a BenQ 19" LCD monitor and the price was pretty reasonable. Call me ignorant but I haven't come across any BenQ monitors before. Is anyone out there using any of these displays and has any comments about them? So far I haven't come across any useful reviews.

Sharp makes an organizer that has a big display, multiple phone books with calendaring, scheduling, contact storage, PC link and a battery that lasts for a YEAR on a single charge. How much for this amazing wonder you may ask? $39.95 Canadian.

Sidenote: The original Halo has, in fact, been released on the PC.

Really the IPOD, and this thing are overpriced, toys. For a poor Canadian like myself, here's how it plays out:

1 USD = 1.31762 CAD (according to XE.com)

249.99 * 1.31762 = 329.39

329.39 * 1.15 = 378.80 (taxes)

The 40gb iPod is selling for 634.95 after taxes.

This for a music player/portable hard-drive. I don't care what the cool factor is, this is a lot of money. And if you think that Apple or others price for their international markets, fuggit it.

I like their "Black Leather" mouse better....

Product Info (if it doesn't work, search for "black leather")
Image Link

I like their "Black Leather" mouse better....

Product Info (if it doesn't work, search for "black leather")
Image Link

...this. It's a 1.5 GB USB 2.0 hard drive, and also pocket-sized.

Future Shop has a good deal going on Doom 3...

Buy Doom 3 and get Knights of the Republic free, along with a poster (oooooohhhhh) and a figurine (aaaahhhh).

Not a bad deal.

I've been eyeing this combo CDRW & DVD drive for my CD burning / DVD watching needs. I was in Futureshop about a month back, and noticed the same exact drive in their computer section, above a sign that read this price. I assumed that this was wrong, and pointed it out to the guy behind the counter.

"No," I'm told, "that's the correct price."

"But I can buy that exact same drive for about $75 online - don't you think that $120 is a little expensive?"

Once the guy finds out that it was NCIX that had this price, he starts ranting - yelling basically - about authorized distributors, and how as an authorized distributor, Futureshop doesn't have to match that price - besides, NCIX doesn't guarantee their products!

"Yes they do," I tell him, "plus they don't yell at their customers for asking questions."

At this point I walked away to pay for my purchase, and the cute girl at the register asked me how my visit to Futureshop was - I replied that it would have been great except for the jerk in computers, who I pointed out to her.

"That's the manager, sir."

In-effing-sane. Like I said to my buddies when I recounted this story, there's a serious problem somewhere in the supply chain when the same product costs 50% more at one location than another - somebody is getting screwed, and given the choice between the two retailers, I'm going for the one that causes less damage to my wallet.

I've been eyeing this combo CDRW & DVD drive for my CD burning / DVD watching needs. I was in Futureshop about a month back, and noticed the same exact drive in their computer section, above a sign that read this price. I assumed that this was wrong, and pointed it out to the guy behind the counter.

"No," I'm told, "that's the correct price."

"But I can buy that exact same drive for about $75 online - don't you think that $120 is a little expensive?"

Once the guy finds out that it was NCIX that had this price, he starts ranting - yelling basically - about authorized distributors, and how as an authorized distributor, Futureshop doesn't have to match that price - besides, NCIX doesn't guarantee their products!

"Yes they do," I tell him, "plus they don't yell at their customers for asking questions."

At this point I walked away to pay for my purchase, and the cute girl at the register asked me how my visit to Futureshop was - I replied that it would have been great except for the jerk in computers, who I pointed out to her.

"That's the manager, sir."

In-effing-sane. Like I said to my buddies when I recounted this story, there's a serious problem somewhere in the supply chain when the same product costs 50% more at one location than another - somebody is getting screwed, and given the choice between the two retailers, I'm going for the one that causes less damage to my wallet.

I think the key word in that post is Recommended. I have been shopping around on-line all morning and I found these specs at one Canadian retailer:

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

* CD ROM: 8X
* CPU Speed: 700MHz
* CPU Type: Intel Pentium III
* Disk Space: 600MB
* Display: 32MB DirectX 9.0 Compatible Video Card
* Memory (RAM): 128MB
* Operating System Compatibility: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Not Mac Compatible

(Reference: Futureshop)

In Canada we have Furtue Shop which is owned by Best Buy.

A month ago I went to Future Shop to help my girlfriend to pick up a digital camera (she had me come to help deal with the used car sales assiocates). We found a couple of camera's and were looking for some help (due to the labels not matching the actual cameras). I flagged down one of the sales staff who said he would help me in a minute and went over to chat with another associate. We he finally came over to help us he would only push the items that were on sale. (I have a friend who works for them, and how it works is when spepcific items are on sale for example, some of them give a larger commision then others, so they'll promote the crap out of them even if it's not the right solution for your needs)

So, we found a camera and picked up a memorey stick for it as well. The sales associate tried to force us to purchase the more expensive memorey stick because it was the name brand for the camera. I said we'd take the SanDisk one cause it was $15 cheaper. He them claimed it would not work as well with it. I told him that they're made based on a standard and it doesn't matter what brand. We also picked up a case for the camera (was about $15). He then began to push the PSP plan for the warranty. I took a look at the package and saw 2 years parts and 90 days for defects. He claimed they could not honour this. I disreguarded him and at this point had said no 2 times about a PSP plan. He then began to say he could give us the case for free if we purchase the $75 plan for 3 year warranty. Again, I said no.

When my girlfriend gave her Future Shop card to purchase the camera and additions, the associate had the gaul to question her about the card being hers (it was signed and her name was on it). Well, funny thing is that she was headed off to Portugul for a month the very next day and had every peice of know ID she ever had (Passport, Drivers Licence, Birth Cirtificate, SS card), so she showed her passport that was brand new. He then took the card and called their credit divison for no particular reason. As he was on the phone I demaned to know what this was all about, he didn't answer. So I unplugged his phone. (I was amazed that no one noticed or came over at this point) He then said it was not clear if the card was hers, yet it had her name on it signed matching the passport, which also had phone ID.

My girlfriend was about to jump over the counter and kick the associates ass. He then quickly seemed to be able to put through the order and was so shaken from us he almost forgot to have her sign for it.

The only reason we took the camera was she was leaving the very next day and didn't have any time to spare. We will both never shop their again. I was able to rate our experience on their site based on the recipt information. I rated is soo poorly I was called and my girlfriend was given a $50 gift card. It seems that customer reviews are at least read by Future Shop.

All of them try and upsell you on worthless warranties. I know personally that Radio Shack gives much higher commissions on the extended warranties, which is precisely why the salesmen are so damned pushy with it.

I also find it moderately funny that this topic shows up just 1 week after I walked out of Leon's after refusing the "extended fabric care package" on a couch I purchased. The exchange between myself and the salesman:

Me: "I'll take this couch."
Salesman: (blurb about how great the protection package is.) "So do you want it?"
Me: "No thank you, I'm not interested."
Salesman: "You realise you're buying a hamburger without the bun, eh?"
Me: "That's OK, I'm not interested, thank you."
Salesman: "What're you going to do when you stain it?"
Me: "I won't stain it, and besides, I have family that does professional fabric cleaning."
Salesman: "Well are they going to replace it when you stain it and it can't be removed?"
Me: "I'm leaving. I'll shop elsewhere."

I wrote an angry letter to head office, they called and asked about the situation. I explained it to them. Their response: "We actually train our salespeople to be like that."

I've spent $5k at Leon's in the 3 years I've been living on my own, and will never spend another dime there again.

It's a sad day when the consumer can't go somewhere, buy something they like, and leave without being bothered.

Actually, you can. But you have to hold it sideways, there's no keyboard, and I've heard that getting it to work well in landscape mode is a pain.

What are you talking about? What "store" are you talking about?

This looks like more than [the CAN equivalent of] $99.99 US to me ($449 CAN for Win XP Pro full)...

XP Pro Upgrade... $299.99 canadian.

However, I did manage to find an OEM Win XP Pro (SP1) full for $133 US here... but it's OEM and you can only buy it with the purchase of hardware... plus it's only that low due to a sale that ends today.

But yeah, either way, you're right: Win XP Pro upgrade doesn't cost $199. It costs around $220.

What are you talking about? What "store" are you talking about?

This looks like more than [the CAN equivalent of] $99.99 US to me ($449 CAN for Win XP Pro full)...

XP Pro Upgrade... $299.99 canadian.

However, I did manage to find an OEM Win XP Pro (SP1) full for $133 US here... but it's OEM and you can only buy it with the purchase of hardware... plus it's only that low due to a sale that ends today.

But yeah, either way, you're right: Win XP Pro upgrade doesn't cost $199. It costs around $220.

I only tried it out briefly though, as I use a lot of medical software that wouldn't have a version for it.

I don't want to get into defending MS because that's not what I'm after. But anyway...

The price of Mac OS/X and Windows XP are the same. Check out the prices from Future Shop, a mainstream Canadian retailer:

OS/X $299
Windows XP Home $299

So the prices are similar.

Microsoft doesn't sell servers as far as I can tell, they sell software that runs on other people's servers. Sun sells servers.

I meant to say server software. Solaris vs Windows 2000/XP Server.

I've been working in a server industry in a while, and I've never heard of anyone describe those three products as being very comparable. People buy Oracle or DB2 because they need a more serious DB. That said, I'm doing my part to get postgres on that list.

Well this depends on a lot of factors. I agree that high-end stuff pretty much requires Oracle and others. For medium and low-end stuff, MS SQL Server is arguably better than others.

This is just uninformed. I was using free browsers before I ever heard of Internet Explorer.

This point is harder to prove. Mosaic? Lynx? I still think web browsers wouldn't be free and where they are today if MS or another company didn't enter the market. Yes, you can use Mosaic or whatever you want but it never would have been as good.

Sivaram Velauthapillai

I don't want to get into defending MS because that's not what I'm after. But anyway...

The price of Mac OS/X and Windows XP are the same. Check out the prices from Future Shop, a mainstream Canadian retailer:

OS/X $299
Windows XP Home $299

So the prices are similar.

Microsoft doesn't sell servers as far as I can tell, they sell software that runs on other people's servers. Sun sells servers.

I meant to say server software. Solaris vs Windows 2000/XP Server.

I've been working in a server industry in a while, and I've never heard of anyone describe those three products as being very comparable. People buy Oracle or DB2 because they need a more serious DB. That said, I'm doing my part to get postgres on that list.

Well this depends on a lot of factors. I agree that high-end stuff pretty much requires Oracle and others. For medium and low-end stuff, MS SQL Server is arguably better than others.

This is just uninformed. I was using free browsers before I ever heard of Internet Explorer.

This point is harder to prove. Mosaic? Lynx? I still think web browsers wouldn't be free and where they are today if MS or another company didn't enter the market. Yes, you can use Mosaic or whatever you want but it never would have been as good.

Sivaram Velauthapillai

At Ac Lensthey are selling Computer Vision Glasses.
Quote: "These glasses have a special tint that helps to reduce glare and the intensity of the light produced by the average computer monitor, and a special UV coating that blocks UV rays produced by monitors and flourescent lighting." Sounds like Just what you're looking for to me.

Also, You might want to look into getting a Glare Screen, there's a good one at
FutureShop.
Quote Again: "VisionGuard XL, Glare Filter with Radiation Barrier. Relieves eye strain for healthy vision. Reduces glare up to 99%. Fits regular and Flat screen monitors 14 " to 17"." Looks again like it will solve your problem. AndrewM

Here's one for CA$99.99.

Also a lot more convenient than ripping DVDs.

You just don't get the 'purely unintended' side effect of getting to keep it forever..

Ahem.

top 40 CDs on sale for between $12.99 and 15.99 CDN