Slashdot Mirror

It's probably just me, but does that picture of McBride look like X Files' Krycek to anyone else?

On another point, how often is a file legitimately mailed to a large number of users in a single organization? Perhaps a server that could say "25% of the users have gotten this exact (renamed) file, quarantine it and all previously received and subsequent copies" is in order. Sure the early birds will still get hit, but it should stop the snowball before it becomes an avalanche.

Mal-2

Most Slashdot readers will be too young for this one, but this it practically a script out of Salvage 1. Andy Griffith played the salvage engineer turned astronaut who first rescues a falling satellite, and later goes after the descent stage of a LEM.

Salvage 1 Main page

Yes, I can see you are a professional clown.

(Is that really you in those photos? Or is your Slashdot URL meant to be a joke?)

Thats why it is a firing squad, 4 blanks that don't kill, and one real bullet that does.

According to most of the references I've found, it's the other way round. One person gets a blank, everyone else gets live rounds (sometimes everyone gets live rounds and there are no blanks). The idea is that even though an experienced shooter can tell the difference, there are psychological reasons not to pay attention or to believe that you truly drew the blank round. Also, no one person can stop the execution by failing to fire.

Execution by firing squad
Firing Squad Protocol
Death by firing squad

But remember that when Microsoft came up with Windows, it was actually a very innovative thing too - a Mac-like interface for you DOS machines!

Of course Windows 1.0 was not the first attempt to do this. Don't forget such wonders as IBM's TopView, Quarterdeck's Desq, Digital Research's GEM and a number of others. For a while in the early/mid 1980's there was a swirl of innovation and copying (not to mention a lawsuit or two) as people tried to bring the Xerox-invented GUI to desktop computers.

You are so wrong.
How To Identify an Evil Leader

One interesting thing about your point is that this device could assist lucid dreaming. In fact, the Lucidity Institute that you link to sells a similar device called the NovaDreamer. The NovaDreamer detects REM sleep, then uses flashing lights to hopefully introduce dream signs into your dream. At $138 USD, this device is much cheaper than the NovaDreamer, which costs $395 USD.

I've been experimenting with a home-brew solution (a web page that flashes and talks at random intervals throughout the night,) but I've had very limited success with it.

While we're on the topic, I wrote a very long piece about Lucid Dreaming in 1996 -- many people have put it on their own sites

I'll tell you what Jesus did!

Good plan. You should always test your spacecraft with chimps before flying humans in it. Soon Darl can join the ranks of his pioneering kinfolk, Ham and Enos...

It wasn't my first MP3, but the first one I downloaded was the Superbowl Shuffle from the 1985 Bears!

I wanted to taunt some of my Packer friends when I was living in the UW-Madison dorms.

Da Bears should definatly stick to football and not songs. But they do a good job at drowning out the pounding on my door from all those rabid Packers fans! They have no taste in music. :)

There is an updated version of that article available at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Lot/8256/l andf.htm.

I'm using a digital branded, Sony GDM-1960. It's a nice monitor though now showing it's age. The plastic has a nice yellow patina! Here's a link to the specs on how to hook it to a PC. I'm using a program called powerstrip to force the resolution, backporch, etc.

That's the oldest I use on a daily basis, it's stamped March 1991. I'm also using an old Commodore monitor I got at a thrift store for about $10 as a TV (coupled with a VCR that no longer plays tapes obtained for free at a garage sale). The commodore is dated somewhere around 1987 I think.

The last place I worked was still using an amber VT200 as a remote console on some VAXs. That thing must be around 20 years old. And it was always on. A bit burned in, but working fine.

The person you are arguing with is VERY correct - the first generation of the PS1 had a very, very bad laser in it. You want sources? Read up for PS1:

My favorite PS1 Lens Repair Guide

Common Problem with SCPH-1001 model

And now for PS2:

http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/003/gaming/ps2/ ps2-1.html

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/390/390535p1.html

And I could go on and on...

The PS2 Model SCPH-30001 was horrible at reading DVD-R discs. The newer models are much, much better. So, if you want to watch home movies, you have to pitch the first generation ps2 and get a new one, like a V7, V9, or V10 console. V9 and V10 being almost identical on that front, but V7 is not bad either. About that problem with model 1001 for the PS1 above - I had that problem with my generation 1 model, and it was because Sony used plastic slide rails in the laser instead of metal. Future models used aluminum. One such fix for that problem was to take apart the laser, sand it down so the rails were even again, and then apply aluminum from a pop can with crazy glue on the rails so the plastic is protected, and doesn't wear anymore. I had a lot of success using that method with fixing those old consoles.

My point is that just because your PS1 still works, that doesn't mean that there hasn't been thousands of people who's PS1 or PS2s died within the first year they had them. That's not good - but Sony makes a lot of cash this way, and so do people like me who charge to do repairs :)

What exactly do you mean with fast enough ?

How about this for a logo?

Blasphemer! Bow down and worship Pengra, the Baby Penguin God.

I'm more like the Oracle of Fraggle Rock, only I'm male and I'm not made of garbage.

He should have zapped the DVD in the microwave like the rest of us who don't want *anybody* getting at burned data.

This whole story- printers, monks, computers- reminds me of the Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke, which you should read if you haven't. If only to chuckle at the quaint predictions for computer science he made back in 1967.

I agree, read this:

Somehow, the Christians have managed to brainwash themselves into thinking that faith somehow justifies their belief in a deity. Faith is central to the Christian religion, and all "true" Christians are required to have a significant amount of it. After asking a person what their reason for believing in an invisible sky pixie is, the answer is often "faith". I'm not entirely sure how faith became the most common answer to such questions, but one thing is for certain: the Christians who think in this manner have no idea what faith really is, and more importantly, what it implies when one must resort to it.

Faith is defined as belief without evidence that supports the belief. Having faith in the existence of God quite simply means that there is no evidence supporting his existence. That is, after all, exactly what faith is. I find it amusing when a Christian claims that he or she has found irrefutable proof of God, for such a thing would make faith of this sort impossible. Belief isn't faith if the belief has been proven. Seeing as faith is so important to Christianity, proof of the existence of God would actually be rather detrimental to their principles.

Consider the statement "I believe because I have faith." I personally have encountered this statement many times when arguing with Christians. Let's examine this reasoning more closely. If faith is defined as belief without evidence, then the statement can be rewritten as, "I believe because I believe without evidence," which essentially means, "I believe because I believe." This is purely circular reasoning. The same kind of logic is used by five-year-olds when asked a "why" question. Ask a child of that age why he did a certain thing, and he may very well answer "Because," and nothing more. Ask him, "because why?", and he will again reply with, "Because." The same circular logic is used by Christians when answering why questions with faith. Faith, therefore, is not an answer of any kind to questions concerning the reasons for religious belief.

Suppose for a minute that faith did somehow justify a belief in God. If it can be used as reasoning for the belief in one god, then why not another? If having faith in the Christian god somehow makes the belief in him valid, then wouldn't it also validate a belief in Zeus, Odin, or Thor? If Christians are supported in their beliefs, then so are members of every other religion with a belief in a deity.

The only reason that faith is a major part of Christianity is that there simply is no evidence for the existence of God. Christians must resort to faith because there is, and never will be, proof of God. If there were, then they would be using it in their arguments, not just depending on blind, baseless, and irrational dogmatic beliefs.

Taken from this page

Somehow, the Christians have managed to brainwash themselves into thinking that faith somehow justifies their belief in a deity. Faith is central to the Christian religion, and all "true" Christians are required to have a significant amount of it. After asking a person what their reason for believing in an invisible sky pixie is, the answer is often "faith". I'm not entirely sure how faith became the most common answer to such questions, but one thing is for certain: the Christians who think in this manner have no idea what faith really is, and more importantly, what it implies when one must resort to it.

Faith is defined as belief without evidence that supports the belief. Having faith in the existence of God quite simply means that there is no evidence supporting his existence. That is, after all, exactly what faith is. I find it amusing when a Christian claims that he or she has found irrefutable proof of God, for such a thing would make faith of this sort impossible. Belief isn't faith if the belief has been proven. Seeing as faith is so important to Christianity, proof of the existence of God would actually be rather detrimental to their principles.

Consider the statement "I believe because I have faith." I personally have encountered this statement many times when arguing with Christians. Let's examine this reasoning more closely. If faith is defined as belief without evidence, then the statement can be rewritten as, "I believe because I believe without evidence," which essentially means, "I believe because I believe." This is purely circular reasoning. The same kind of logic is used by five-year-olds when asked a "why" question. Ask a child of that age why he did a certain thing, and he may very well answer "Because," and nothing more. Ask him, "because why?", and he will again reply with, "Because." The same circular logic is used by Christians when answering why questions with faith. Faith, therefore, is not an answer of any kind to questions concerning the reasons for religious belief.

Suppose for a minute that faith did somehow justify a belief in God. If it can be used as reasoning for the belief in one god, then why not another? If having faith in the Christian god somehow makes the belief in him valid, then wouldn't it also validate a belief in Zeus, Odin, or Thor? If Christians are supported in their beliefs, then so are members of every other religion with a belief in a deity.

The only reason that faith is a major part of Christianity is that there simply is no evidence for the existence of God. Christians must resort to faith because there is, and never will be, proof of God. If there were, then they would be using it in their arguments, not just depending on blind, baseless, and irrational dogmatic beliefs.

Taken from this page

I suspect that it's simply a patch antenna. For the size and weight, it's hard to beat the gain of a patch antenna.

Here is an example for 802.11b of which the author notes, "What's nice about the patch antenna over the "cantenna" is its broad beamwidth. The cantenna has to be pointed very precisely at the AP to get anything at that range, but the patch can be tilted several degrees and still get a signal." The Spirit's antenna was estimated to be 2 degrees off aim at the initial connect attempt, but they said they should still get good data at up to 4 degrees off, and beyond that they would still get carrier.

While the frequency is different, you'll find that these people sell patch antennas which compare favorably in signal strength with their parabolic antennas, but with a wider beam spread.

But we all know they're simply using the technology they've been using for years to practice mind control on us.

-Adam

The GPL is whack.

• The Place (old-school)
• Calcaxy
• Dross
• Form
• Telegarden
• Splat
• TV Collographe
• SITO

select name, top_level_domain from countries where top_level_domain is not null and sovereign = 0;

on this data yields 98 records for non-sovereign countries / territories with top level domains. I can't list them here, neither as text nor as HTML table, because the /. filter doesn't let me.

What's the point?

The final verdict is that 9200 brands is good.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

Whack

It appears so. I got mine with Dropline Gnome for Slackware 9.0, but several of my coworkers use Fedora (which I believe also uses GTk'd Moz).

the 'aviation engineer' in question is Barnes Wallace. The 'Bouncing Bomb' was used in the successful attacks to flood the industrial Ruhr Valley in Germany, by destroying the reservoir dams. He chose 220mph, rather than 25mph. I guess the stalling speed of a Lancaster bomber is a little high for that.

I've skipped stones (at a precise 20degrees) at Ladybower reservoir in Derbyshire, UK, where the practise flights were made - like many WW2 bombing operations, there was no attention to 'collateral damage':

Guardian Unlimited
Two dams out of the three targeted - the Mohne and Eder - were breached. Thirteen hundred civilians were killed, including nearly 500 slave labourers from the Ukraine - mostly women. Local towns were flooded, trains washed off their tracks and six electricity stations put out of action.

FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF! omg innovationz up the wazooo

GNAA is whack.

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:

• Linus Torvalds [microsoft.com] is an anagram of slit anus or VD 'L,' clearly referring to himself by the first initial.
• Richard M. Stallman [geocities.com], spokespervert for the Gaysex's Not Unusual 'movement' is an anagram of mans cram thrill ad.
• Alan Cox [microsoft.com] is barely an anagram of anal cox which is just so filthy and unchristian it unnerves me.

I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual [goatse.cx] propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.

Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail [microsoft.com], which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'

As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted [salon.com] on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.

And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo [comp-u-geek.net] slut [rotten.com]!

Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual [goatse.cx] perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children [slashdot.org]. To quote from the article linked:

'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'

Is this why you were touching your penis [rotten.com] in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?

We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual [goatse.cx] terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his

I agree with just about everything you say, except that I think establishing a permanent moon base first should be a priority

Yeah, but then the MoonBase explodes because we use nucular energy to power it and it spins like totally out of control and fucks up the tides and leads to UFOs hiding behind it. But I think a lot of cool liquid-breathing aliens and neato, sexy alien babes might be involved.

According to the official site, it is good.

I've been working with fvwm for a while, and enjoy fixing up .fvwm2rc's for my machines. Here is a page of mine with several for you to try, and here is a link to the one that I am using now, with SuSE Linux, to make this post. As you can see, I love working with FVWM.

"Definition of Minumim Wage: If they paid you anything less, it would be illegal."

Definition of being paid less than the minimum wage: opening a factory in a prison so you don't have to pay even as much as a "slave wage"

Prototype Robot Dog

Some older Russians may distrust Germans, but the younger ones aren't bothered. The Germans had a history of working with the Russians dating back to Peter the Great. There was a large contingent of Russians of German ethnic origin (mostly descendents of farmers invited by Catherine the Great), although many have taken up their right to relocate to Germany. Catherine herself was born in Darmstadt, Germany.

Around 1991, I spent alot of time with with Greg Deocampo and friends from RISD in the early 90's when they were writing the software (which later became a company called AVX Design).

Mark Marinello wrote the original software, It was used on the U2 Zoo TV Tour which was largely based around what EBM could do with video.

The software was written for Quadra 950's under OS 8 running video cards (radius videovision, I think) that could barely crank out 320x200. It not for pixeldoubling and on-board zoom, it would have looked far worse.

Specs on EBM's live rig are still available.

If you're still interested in this sort of thing, ArKaos makes a MIDI-able video sampler now, called the Arkaos Visualizer which works a bit better than the AVX Video Sampler did.

I think the pioneer device might be great for real-time video mixing, but nothing quite compares to being able to fill up a midi keyboard with 88 keys or more of whacked out video and sync it to midi.

Quite a few of us moved to the West coast in the late 90's during the .com craze, and started IFILM, but that's a whole other story.

I for one welcome our Martian Overlords

Just to be clear, the pilot (actually, the Captain) Michel Asseline lived. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison, but it is unclear whether he served any time. January 30, 1990 Risks Digests indicates he lost his French Pilot's license for 8 years and was flying in Australia at the time (1/30/90).

It also looks like he saw a UFO in 1975 (Google Translation)

See Re:Traditional Boeing vs. Airbus debate for links to the accident reports. There is some controversy over whether someone tampered with the black boxes.

I tried to determine if Michel Asseline was ever a test pilot, but did not find evidence of that. Googling for michel asseline "test pilot" results in 3 hits, only one of which is relevant, which leads to http://www.geocities.com/landroval.geo/airbus-j.ht ml, which is not found, but the Google Cache says:

COLMAR, France, March 14 (Reuter) - A French court on Friday sentenced the pilot of an Airbus airliner which crashed at a 1988 air show, killing three people, to six months jail for manslaughter with another 12 months suspended.

The verdict vindicated Airbus Industrie , the plane's makers, blaming human error and irresponsibility by operators Air France for the disaster.

The Air France A320 ploughed into a forest and exploded into flames on June 26 1988 after a very low altitude pass over an airfield at Habsheim, near the eastern city of Mulhouse, killing three of the 130 passengers.

At the trial, pilot Michel Asseline blamed the cockpit computer displays and said the flight recorders had been tampered with. But the prosecution said he and co-pilot Pierre Mazieres had recklessly endangered the passengers' lives.

Mazieres was given a one-year suspended sentence.

The prosecutor called Asseline ``a reckless daredevil who tried to prove out of pride he was as good as a test pilot''.

The defence failed to show that the flight data and voice recorders had been rigged. Experts testified that the plane crashed because it was pushed beyond its mechanical limits.

Three other officials, including Air France's director of flight operations at the time, the state-owned airline's then security director and the organiser of the air show, received suspended prison terms of six months or less.

Asseline and Mazieres declined to comment on the judgment or say whether they planned an appeal as they left the court.

Air France was declared liable for the accident and ordered to pay undisclosed damages to victims of the crash.

The prosecution said Air France had regularly run low-altitude demonstration flights with passengers aboard in violation of civil aviation regulations.

``Airlines should be transporters, not circus performers,'' expert witness Michel Bourgeois told the court.

Jean-Claude Boetsch, a spokesman for an association representing victims and their families, said he thought the sentences were misguided and too heavy.

``As far as the court is concerned, the verdict is clear and the case has been proven, but in our view there is no proof. The plane is still partially in question, but the stakes are so high that they preferred to make one man pay rather than the system,'' Boetsch said.

The association supported the pilots' accusations of a shortcoming in the aircraf

And the beginning of confusion.

Lao Tzu

You may recall, I wasn't talking about "eye-witnesses" but the total absence of physical evidence despite thousands of "documented" encounters.

Would phisiological differences between people who claim to be abductees and the rest of us be sufficient?

Or how about evidence of implants being seen with MRIs?

We have lots of evidence, just no conclusive proof.

As others have said absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.

LK

The posts so far are about Dell's business model, but the article is asking techies to ignore Dell and build their own PCs, then build a business and negotiate for better prices. Why isn't anybody discussing building PCs?

I build PCs for myself, my friends, and my family. Most of them have custom "Solprovider" machines. I pick the parts; I build it; I install the software; I support them. PCs I build remain usable for over 5 years, and I average about 1 support call per machine per year. (If you are interested in what I build, see my October recommendations from the last time I built a PC.)

I am not attempting to turn this into a business. I have a very successful career, and the effort is too high and the margin is too low for this business to be worth my time. I refuse any money, although I expect a home-cooked dinner for my trouble, but then I only build PCs for people I care about. The other side is that these people know that I will never interrupt my paying work to help them, so sometimes their problems can take over a month to solve.

But why aren't you trying to sell PCs? You are already technical. You probably understand what the hardware does. You can learn how to use a screwdriver. You already know how to install software. The bad side is that you might have to install MSWindows if the buyer insists, but you could install grub for dual-booting, so every time the buyers watch it boot there is a chance they may choose Linux.

(Use the Maxtor 160GB drive. Use only 10GB for Linux and they will not complain. Tell them it is there so you can troubleshoot easier, but they can try it if they want. I am actually installing a new hard drive this way this week.)

I usually spend several days to research my recommendations. One day is spent researching the new technologies; one day is spent researching the various products; and a few hours are spent checking prices. Someone who builds more than one PC every 6 months would spend much less time per PC because their knowledge would remain current.

Unless they have patents, there is nothing they can do to stop someone from building a microscope using their plans. The only thing they can do is stop you from copying the plans themselves (under copyright law).

John D. Alexander, the inventor of the disk scanner, also has a 'free' STM design on the web. Incidentally, this guy took out a patent on the disk scanner, then withdrew the patent application! Now that's a smart way to make sure others cannot lock up a design with patents (or he just ran out of money).