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...could actually be a combination of these three things:
1. An latop with the display you need (15" UXGA, etc, etc) - $2000?
CPU, Disk and RAM don't matter.
2. A small Compaq Evo e-PC with the computing power you need. - $683.00 onwards
(P4 CPU, DDR, 2 GB RAM - you can upgrade the disk).
The form factor is pretty small: 10"x10"x3.5" + a small power brick
3. A VNC server (eg: TightVNC) on your "server"
and a VNC client on your laptop. Run the client full screen.
You can also use Windows' built in terminal server if you're runing Microsoft.

Plus you'd need some network connectivity (Wifi/Bluetooth/crossover cable) between your client and your server.

This is a client/server setup at a (comparatively) cheap price, small enough for hand luggage (airport security won't hassle you if you checked the "server" in and carried your laptop in hand baggage). Plus you can use your laptop on the flight.

If you hookup a second monitor to your "server"in the field, you can also use x2vnc (Linux) or Win2VNC (windows) to obtain a single dual-head "desktop". These programs allow you to use two screens on your two different computers as if they were connected to the same computer (single mouse and keyboard controls both and "jumps" at the screen border) You can also cut and paste between computers. Even if one is running Windows, and the other is running Linux. It's great - I use it at work in my "dual-head" XP/Linux setup.;-)

Itanium a $9000 chip ? That may be what you want your readers to believe, but it somehow conflicts with facts since you can buy an Itanium II workstation for less than $6000 (here).

Oh and HP compilers work quite well, thank you. Let's compare Opteron to "Madison" (Itanium's next processor), I guess they'll become really available around the same time.

Really ? Check your facts.

What surprises me is that in this day and age we still have battery powered calculators at all. Wouldn't a decently sized solar panel [e.g. make it 2cm x 1cm and that should be enough].

That'd work fine for a 4-function calculator (or an entry-level scientific calculator), but I'd think the solar panel you would need to power (for instance) a TI-92+ or an HP 48GX would be a bit on the bulky side.

"Really? Care to point out a single constructive use of popups?"

I find that pop-ups are used quite constructively on many e-commerce sites. For example, if you are on the page where you type in your credit card information and you don't know what the "Card verification number" is, you can click 'help' and a little window pops up showing you how to find it.

You could also use the <abbr> tag, which will associate a tooltip with a chunk of text. HP is one site that uses this tag frequently...as an example, hover over the underlined "PCs" in the "PCs & workstations" link on their homepage. A tooltip that says "Personal computers" will pop up.

The ago old problem... The 'MAN' is the evil Texas Instruments corp (Yes, TI, not Microsoft, is the great evil one). Most companies believe Joe Sixpack is too stupid to comprehend the greatness that is RPN, so they don't make cheap calcualators.

However, there is a new hope. HP are releasing new calculators for 2003, one of which should be a cheapish RPN calc.

...on why, perhaps, folks get slashdotted:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 jdf jdf 57197 Dec 17 10:12 original.html
-rw-rw-r-- 1 jdf jdf 10425 Dec 17 10:28 text.html

Yes, that's 47 kilobytes of javacript, headers, footers, CSS, and associated crap for about 10K of real info. Sure, there's also pictures and such, but this is basically 4x the original in overhead alone. Anyhow, here's the text from the site:

Pick a toy--any toy--for holiday gift-giving.

By Joan Lynch, Maura Butler, and Matt Miller -- EDN, 12/12/2002

Holy spokes, Bikeman!
Attach Hokey Spokes to your bike, and you'll have not only the coolest ride in the hood, but also the safest. Inventor and MIT graduate Dave Hoch wanted to take the terror out of night bike riding and designed the transparent "blades" to wirelessly communicate patterns or words with each other. You can put up to six blades on each wheel; a computer on each strip controls 16 LEDs in a variety of colors. Each blade costs $29.95 at www.hokeyspokes.com. Illumination Design Works, 1-617-924-4014.

Keyboard portability on a roll
Road warriors who prefer a full-sized keyboard with their laptops or PDAs will appreciate the Manhattan True-Touch Keyboard. When you're on the move, you can roll up the flexible, plastic unit and tuck it away. The keyboard features a QWERTY design and 104 raised keys that provide goodand quiettactile feedback, but using them will take some practice. Choose from PS/2 or USB connectivity. Units are dustproof and moistureproof and offer a lifetime of 15,000,000 keystrokes. Keyboards are available for around $27 from ThinkGeek, www.thinkgeek.com.

The "PC" PC
In an environmentally friendly move, NEC designed its PowerMate eco PC with 100% recyclable plastic and a 15-in. LCD flat-panel screen that contains no boron. The motherboard is made with lead-free solder, and the computer has no fan, which reduces the amount of dust dispersion for users with respiratory problems. The eco contains a 900-MHz Crusoe processor and a 20-Gbyte hard drive. And of course, it's Energy Star-compliant. The eco starts at $1599. NEC Corp, 1-800-338-9549, www.nec.com.

Free space
Combining a DVD player with a hard-disk-based PVR (personal video recorder), the Scenium Digital Media Recorder (DRS7000N) could be just the thing for overcrowded home-entertainment centers. The $599 unit features progressive-scan output for the clearest pictures and plays a variety of discs, including MP3 CDs and DVD+Rs/RWs. The PVR section handles the usual trick features, such as pausing live shows, and offers more than 30 hours of recording on its 40-Gbyte disk. Best of all, unlike PVRs such as TiVo, there's no fee for the EPG (electronic-program-guide) service. RCA/Thomson, 1-317-587-3000, www.rca.com.

The power of pictures
CyberLink's PowerProducer lets you produce your home movies and photos on DVD or CD for sharing with friends and family. If you're completely inexperienced, a step-by-step wizard-style program eases the way. It takes just three steps to import photo or video files from video-capture devices; you can then add special effects; adjust color; and trim, merge, and split video. The "QuickBurn" feature captures video from DV camcorders directly into DVDs in one click. Prices begin at $49.95. CyberLink USA, www.gocyberlink.com.

Mouse exterminator
Rid your desktop of mice with the iGesture Pad. The touchpad, which is just a bit smaller than a mouse pad, lets you use finger gestures to complete the same operations you would with a mouse. The $179 pad recognizes hundreds of hand gestures, including those that let you point, click, drag, and scroll. Twist your hand to open a file; spread your fingers to zoom. The USB-connected device is thin and small enough to travel and accepts commands from the right or left hand. Hmmm, wonder how it handles gestures you might make when your computer isn't behaving the way you'd like it to? FingerWorks, www.fingerworks.com.

Carry all
The multifunction Duex is an MP3/WMA player, voice recorder, and data-storage device in one portable package. Take off the bottom of the device to find a USB plug for attaching to the appropriate port on a computer. You can drag and drop music, image, video, and data files from the PC to the Duex and vice versa. The device features 128 Mbytes of memory for two hours of MP3 playback, four hours of WMA playback, and eight hours of voice playback; a backlit LCD shows song information in numerous languages. One AAA battery gives you more than 12 hours of music play. With a headphone/neckstrap, USB cable, software CD, manual, and one battery, the Duex mp302 costs $179. Innogear,
www.innogear.com.

Click it, stow it
The ultrasleek Pocket Digital is a handy, stylish way to capture favorite moments. The credit-card-sized digital camera captures and stores 52 high-resolution images at 1.3 megapixels. The lithium-polymer battery endures for hundreds of pictures and recharges through the USB connection. Image downloading is a snap. $129.95. Logitech, www.logitech.com.

The end of e-mail angst?
Neo (Nelson Email Organizer) might be just the ticket for reducing the stress associated with your daily barrage of e-mail. This add-on for Microsoft Outlook lets you work alongside or outside Outlook. Neo automatically sorts and prioritizes messages into intuitive folders. Searches are quick, and complicated filters are not necessary. The program deals with spam and bulk mailings and manages groups of messages by the type of attachments they contain (for example, all Excel files or Word documents together). Neo costs $39.95 for one copy; site licenses are also available. Caelo Software Inc, 1-250-354-5580, www.caelo.com.

Power protection
As more and more electronic equipment finds its way into more and more households, UPS devices could become commodity items for the average home owner. Six UPS models from Energizer will help protect home offices, home theaters, and PCs from power surges, spikes, brownouts, and outages. They automatically save open files, safely power down systems, and protect hardware when threatening power irregularities arise. Features include visual and audio warning indicators and USB connectivity. Prices range from $59.99 to $279.99. Eveready Battery Co, www.energizerups.com.

Surreptitious snapper
Fitting into the palm of your hand, the Mini Pen Cam 1.3 offers a still-image resolution of 1248960 pixels. Using its 16 Mbytes of flash memory, the device can store as many as 50 full-resolution pictures or 160 snapshots snapped at VGA resolution (640480). The $79.99 gadget also gives you the ability to shoot AVI-format movies, although their quality tops out at 624480 pixels and a choppy 10 frames/sec. In addition, the device, which runs on two AAA batteries, connects to a PC via USB to function as a Webcam. Aiptek, 1-949-585-9600, www.aiptek.com.

In touch, on the go
BlackBerry now lets you make and receive phone calls. The palm-sized BlackBerry 5810 wireless handheld device operates on GSM/GPRS networks to allow communication via wireless e-mail, SMS (short messaging service), or integrated GSM phone services, including call waiting, call answering, conference calling, and call forwarding. It comes with an earpiece and microphone for hands-free operation. You can even click on a telephone number inside an email message to place a call. The $499 device incorporates Java 2 Micro Edition. Research in Motion, www.blackberry.net.

Dude, you're gettin' a PDA
Like the PC before it, the PocketPC platform continues to attract more and more manufacturers. PC powerhouse Dell recently joined the fray with an aggressively priced model called the Axim X5. The device features a 3.5-in. transflective TFT with 240320-pixel resolution, as well as both CompactFlash and Secure Digital expansion slots. Two variants are available. The $299 model has a 400-MHz XScale processor, 64 Mbytes of SDRAM, and 48 Mbytes of flash ROM. A $199 configuration steps down to a 300-MHz processor and 32 Mbytes of each type of memory. Dell Computer, 1-800-999-3355, www.dell.com.

Risk averse
If you carry your office in a pocket-sized device, you're asking for trouble. What if you leave it on a plane or in a cab? The iPAQ h5450 tries to reduce the danger with integrated biometric security. A thermal fingerprint reader means only you can access your priceless data, and you can even add a layer of safety by combining the fingerprint sensor with a password. The $699 pocket-sized PC also includes a 400-MHz XScale processor, built-in IEEE 802.11b and Bluetooth capabilities, and an SDIO (Secure Digital Input Output) expansion slot. Hewlett-Packard, 1-650-857-1501, www.hp.com.

Bragging rights
The Zaurus SL-5600 gives the gadget geek ample reason to crow. It not only features a cool physical design with a hideaway keyboard, but also runs a version of Linux. The PDA boasts a 400-MHz Intel XScale processor, CompactFlash and Secure Digital expansion slots, 64 Mbytes of flash, 32 Mbytes of SDRAM, and a juicy 1700-mAhr battery. The device is slated to appear early next year, and pricing hasn't been announced yet, but its predecessor, the SL-5500, currently goes for $375. Sharp Electronics, 1-201-529-8200, www.sharpelectronics.com.

Stop graffiti
Thumb-pecked keyboards have become so popular on handheld devices that even Palm, the originator of the Graffiti handwriting-input system, now offers them. The $549 Tungsten W, slated for the first quarter of next year, features a tri-band GSM/GPRS radio and supports phone calls (via a headset), Web browsing, e-mail, and messaging. Powered by a 33-MHz Motorola Dragon-ball VZ processor, the PDA includes a Secure Digital expansion slot, Bluetooth, and a 320320-pixel color display. Palm, 1-408-503-7000, www.palm.com.

BTW, there is a bug report stating this needs to be documented.

How about one of these?

I found the stylus (pen) interface extremely good - the mouse will follow the stylus even if the stylus is not physically touching the screen up to a height of about 1.5 inches. This makes things a lot easier than having to drag the stylus physically across the screen when moving, say, a folder. A single click is acheived by just touching the stylus to the screen for most applications. The stylus on this machine was apparently "active", requiring one AAAA battery - I did not take it apart to verify this, and have no idea how long the battery would last, but it must be a fair while.

The "lazy susan" type keyboard (note: not full docking) station is extremely space efficient, and the key feel is (for me) not too bad for the form factor. The tablet is "smart" enough to know when it has been plugged in to the keyboard base, and rotate the screen from portrait to landscape mode automatically. I was sold - it would be a great setup to take on the road, as it would actually be quite usable in an aircraft, on your lap etc.

Apparently there is a full docking station available (with CD/DVD ROM etc), but we did not have access to it. Under most circumstances, given the inbuilt WLAN interface, the keyboard station would be sufficient.

For those wanting to support Transmeta, this device contains the new 1Ghz Crusoe TM5800 processor. Battery life was claimed "up to five hours", realistically about 3.5-4hr max. Not stunning, but quite good considering the form factor. Speed was not lightning fast, but probably acceptable for most tasks you would envisage for this type of device. ZDNet bagged it in this review, but I did not find it as bad as they make out

I hardly used the digital ink features, so cannot comment on them, but others in my section who tried the journal feature seemed to like it.

When I first saw this device, I pretty much blew it off as a "toy" laptop with a detachable screen, but they really are a bit more than that. After using it for a short while I had to revise my initial hasty opinion, and by the end I did not want to give it back. I would use it in place of a "full" laptop without hesitation.

Naturally for a new product the price is a bit steep for what you get, and since as far as I know no Linux geeks have had a chance to check it out, its Linux readiness is unknown - it is a given that Linux probably cannot support the software augmented hardware features such as the digital ink/journal etc - but even if the device supported a standard linux install with X, and the mouse and wireless card worked, these would be a great portable. workstation.

If I can get my hands on one for a bit longer I will try a Linux install, but will need to be carefult to not blow away the OS if possible - it did not look easy to reinstall the base OS, given the lack of inbuilt CDROM device. Comments from anyone who has tried (even at this early stage) to install Linux are welcome.

And therefore unsuited to closed source porting.

HP offers a closed source developer platform similar to IBM's Solution Partnership Centres at the Developer and Solution Partner Program.

I agree that SourceForge could/should provide this service, but the big guns offer it for cheap/free to have a larger family of ISVs servicing their platform. Maybe the question should be re-phrased.

Yes, tape is a "true backup medium", but it is *not* a suitable medium for longterm archival storage - at least, none of the affordable formats up till this point (like the DAT-derived DDS format) have been. There's a big difference between a backup medium (a copy that's probably replaced every day / week / month and is intended for use in the immediate future) and archival storage (a copy that's intended for use 5+ years in the future).

While the failure of a tape drive won't separate you from your data (unless the drive damages the tape at the same time it fails . . .), tapes themselves deteriorate over time. Here's an article about the problems the National Archives here in the United States have encountered with preserving copies of the Nixon tapes on DDS's audio cousin DAT. An excerpt:

"During the National Archives' routine monitoring of the tapes'
condition, the analog reel-to-reel copies have shown no signs of
deterioration whereas there is an estimated 5-10% catastrophic failure
rate among the DATs in the collection. There appears to be no pattern
to the failures. It has occurred on new tapes that were recorded six
months ago, and it has occurred on tapes that were recorded six years
ago. It has occurred on all brands of DAT purchased throughout the
previous seven years. Accordingly, the archivists routinely reduplicate
these DATS on multiple copies. As insurance, archivists also transfer
DAT copies back onto analog reel-to-reel preservation copies. Unlike
the other preservation analog copies, these copies have not been
filtered and closely "mirror" the original tapes. Therefore, in the
future when technology has progressed, the archivists can retrieve
conversations that are extremely close to the original audio recordings
and enhance these with the latest technology."

Leading audio preservationists have issued their own warning. This company deals with audio preservation, and has some interesting things to say about tape formats - analog and digital.

Of course, DDS tapes have supposedly been manufactured to a higher standard than their Audio DAT cousins, sport finer particles and stronger binders, and the format includes additional error correction and redundancy. Still, these issues with a modern tape format like Audio DAT are not an encouraging sign for those seeking to perform archival storage using DDS and it contemporaries. HP for example only claims a 10 year archival life for DDS. Contrast that with the 75-100 year lifespans Kodak and TDK are claiming for CD-R.

These longevity issues won't just be confined to older tape backup formats though, if history is any indication. It's the nature of the medium. I think Sony is currently claiming a 30-year lifespan for AIT, and HP something similar for their new format, but of course we only have a couple of years' experience with them so far, and given the incredible data density of those formats, if something should go wrong with either of them the results could be catastrophic. Unexpected deterioration has certainly happened with tape before - witness this article composer and synthesizer pioneer Wendy Carlos put on her website, as well as her own experience with her older tape masters.

Hard drives certainly aren't a great archival medium either, but I wouldn't be so quick to assert that tape is superior. At least drives have the advantage of being sealed from the outside atmosphere, and contain within them all the logic and hardware required to extract that information in the future. The only big issues I can see are, will there still be equipment to interface with them in 10 to 20 years (probably, since IDE is so widespread) and will the drives still spin up in 10 to 20 years (who knows). It's that second issue that's the real buzzkill for HD's as a longterm storage medium. Manufacturers won't even issue a decent warranty on drives anymore. What does that say about their planned longevity?

Me, I think your best bet is DVD. But if you really want to be able to read that data in the future, I'd suggest copying it to at least two different formats, perhaps AIT *and* DVD. Don't forget to check on it every few years, too. If there's any sign of deterioration, you'll hopefully be able to make another clone before the failure becomes catastrophic (perhaps to a superior format that hasn't even been invented yet). If you want something you can just throw in a hole and forget about, sorry - that media doesn't exist.

the high-res versions that are offered here are great. i have access to a huge hp designjet, and plan on printing these out for office wall art. does anyone know of other sites that offer similarly good, free, printer-quality sciency images?

Why do you say the Boehm GC can't do much with C? Have you actually tried it? Operation with C is one of its major strengths, and reasons for existence. It automatically collects allocated data that's no longer referenced. For memory management, what more do you need? Sizing buffer allocations is a separate issue, which can be dealt with separately.

The one problem Boehm GC can have is if data on the stack or in the heap happens to look like it contains pointers to allocated data, but doesn't actually, which can lead to space leakage. In practice, in most applications, this isn't a problem. If it is, in many cases, there are ways it can be dealt with.

it starts off with denouncing GC as oldfashioned, and then proceeds to tout stack-based allocation, which has been available for ages as the alloca() function (which also has portability problems.)

imho, you should use the Boehm Garbage collector, unless you have code that must be guaranteed to be free of space leaks.

Ok, I know it's not a supercomputer but I didn't feel like looking up the name of any Alpha-based supercomputers, so I'll just give you a link to the GS320.

/Mikael

HP has developped a pretty cool type of RAID. An automatic RAID-level that automatically organizes your disks for best performance while maintaining security.

When a friend explained it to me, it sounded like a mixture of raid 5 and 0+1. For example, if you replace a disk with a larger one, the extra capacity will be used to duplicate some other part of the array.

White papers here

Throw away?

HP will send you upon reqest, some postage-paid mailers to return your used ink cartridges for recycling.

Just click here.

I wasn't joking. HP is an environmentally friendly, socially responsible company, and you should buy stuff from us for that reason. Well that and we make good stuff.

And as for cheap, well have you tried buying a new ink cartridge lately? Ouch! (But it is better quality than the refills.)

>I doubt HP decided to move on their own without ultarior motives

Speaking as an employee of HP, I can tell you that we find it both profitable and satisfying to be socially responsible. In this case, it means supporting recycling. In other cases, it means encouraging diversity, corporate philanthropy, etc. Some Multi-National Corporations may be socially and environmentally irresponsible. We aren't one of them.

"If there's a central message, it is this: corporate citizenship is the foundation of HP's heritage and integral to who we are, what we do--and how we expect to be profitable in the future." - HP

Viva La HP

Report on Social and Environmental Responsibilty

It depends on whether you consider this a mainframe or a mini.

Linux has already been ported to IA-64. A very able David Mosberger and all the other developers have made ported it in time for the IA-64 release (before MS, but no big hurray). There's also a simulator here . Works well enough.

DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!
CART MASTER: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing. Here's your ninepence.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!
CART MASTER: 'Ere. He says he's not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not!
CART MASTER: He isn't?
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon. He's very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I'm getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you're not. You'll be stone dead in a moment.
CART MASTER: Oh, I can't take him like that. It's against regulations.
DEAD PERSON: I don't want to go on the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don't be such a baby.
CART MASTER: I can't take him.
DEAD PERSON: I feel fine!
CUSTOMER: Well, do us a favour.
CART MASTER: I can't.
CUSTOMER: Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
CART MASTER: No, I've got to go to the Robinsons'. They've lost nine today.
CUSTOMER: Well, when's your next round?
CART MASTER: Thursday.
DEAD PERSON: I think I'll go for a walk.
CUSTOMER: You're not fooling anyone, you know. Look. Isn't there something you can do?
DEAD PERSON: [singing] I feel happy. I feel happy. [whop]
CUSTOMER: Ah, thanks very much.
CART MASTER: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
CUSTOMER: Right. All right.

If the phone company is in charge then yes, its value added fees. Like the UK traffic congestion service that vodaphone run, that works out where you are and gives you info on traffic: for a fee. The best bit - I think the network itself provides traffic flow data; if a line of phones are moving across the cells at 80mph, that says a lot about road conditions.

But if our laptops can get location data then we can have some fun. Want to see what films are on nearby? send a lat/long to IMDB and get a listing (they dont do this, though they did informally a while back). Want to know where your friends are: go to your IM server and check their locations. Better yet; your laptop can even change time zone based on where it is -wouldnt that be a good thing.

see my paper on
context aware laptops for more ideas.

-steve

Here's Williamson's paper on the idea: Throttling Viruses: Restricting propagation to defeat malicious mobile code I haven't read it yet, but I see one potential problem right away. When you load a web page, you normally make quite a few connections--one for each image, e.g. I'll have to see how he handles that

It has a 400Mhz XScale processor, 64/32MB RAM, one SD slot, and one CF Type 2 slot. The battery is claimed to be able to support 4hrs 50 mins of active use. It's reasonably sized and weighs 225g, but the capacity to record sound is lacking.

Unfortunately, Sharp currently have no plans to release this beauty outside Japan. An alternative might be the HP Jornada 720, which has a 640*240 display and a keyboard. Its expansion options are arguably better. It has a 209MHz ARM processor, which may be good enough. However, it weighs half a kilo, it costs $1000(!) (at least officially), and Linux is still being ported. Yet another alternative might be the 640*480 HNT Exilien 00101/00201, but where or when that thing will be available beats me.

It's all very frustrating, because an SL-C700-like PDA with 128MB of RAM (instead of 64MB), somewhat better expandability (say one CF Type 2 slot and one Type 2 PC Card slot) and built-in sound-recording capability would solve all my life's problems. ;)

I would agree that if all you want to do is run Maya on a single system for a single user with nothing special except what comes out of the box, Windows isn't a bad choice. Running Maya with a complex set of custom plugins and other special integration pieces across a 300+ artist show *does* make Windows a bad choice. And good Linux workstations dramatically outshine IRIX workstations these days. For any scalable environment where you want to have control over your production pipeline, Linux (or some mix) is a popular answer.

As far as the competitive advantage of the workstation configurations at a place like Dreamworks, studios are happy to share their hardware configs with pretty much anyone - it's the customized and highly integrated software and the movies themselves that are the competitive advantage that no one can really discuss.

Dreamworks's current Linux workstation has been advertised in various venues, as Dreamworks has a vendor relationship with HP. It's the same X4000 workstation that was reviewed in Linux Journal, with 2G of memory, two 2.4G P4 Xeon's, 18G and 36G 10K RPM U160 SCSI drives, with an NVIDIA Quadro4 XGL 900 graphics card running RedHat 7.2 and the publicly downloadable NVIDIA drivers. They aren't exactly cheap, but they're still twice as fast as an SGI that costs twice as much.

My views and opinions expressed herein are my own and not necessarily those of my employer.

With Compaq aka The new HP computers in our office, which almost all had fujitsu or maxtor drives, the fujitsu drives have almost all died out from our 2001 computer batch. Computers prior to 2001 seem to be far more reliable. I would say 80% of our 2001 fujitsu's have needed the hard drive replaced.
Here is a lawfirm with a class action lawsuit regarding several models:
The Fujitsu hard disk drive model numbers that are a subject of this litigation include, among others, MPG3204AT; MPG3307AH; MPG3102AT; and MPG3409AH. Continue to monitor this page for the addition of other model numbers.

A new style of network discovery is available in the linux 2.5 kernel and in 2.4.20. Jean Tourrilhes'
Wireless Extensions for Linux version 14 and later contains a method to scan all channels for access points for a short period of time, then return to the wireless card's original state. This is implemented in the wireless drivers themselves so it works with any model of card. The 'iwlist' utility in the newer wireless tools suite will show this functionality.

There is a GTK+ application I have written called AP Radar that also makes use of this functionality. This utility has just reached a point where it can replace the need to run iwconfig and a dhcp client. Start the application and click on the ESSID that you want to associate to. AP Radar will set the ESSID and Mode of the wireless card, and launch a DHCP client (pump). Its meant as an end-user tool to simplify the process of connecting to an access point rather than a full featured net stumbler.

The advantage to using AP Radar over a full blown net stumbler like kismet is that you stay associated with the access point you are using, while still scanning for new APs in the area. With kismet and the others, your association is lost and you must reconnect after you're done scanning.

Samsung Contact (was HP OpenMail), anyone?

r.

From http://www.hp.com/united-states/linux/about_linux_ hp/partners.html:

Debian is one of the major distributions supported on HP Business Desktops and servers and is used internally as a development platform.

From http://www.hp.com/united-states/linux/about_linux_ hp/partners.html:

Debian is one of the major distributions supported on HP Business Desktops and servers and is used internally as a development platform.

There was and is a unix-based server that works like Exchange. It can use Outlook as a client, and can also use Java-based and Web-based clients, as well as other Unix mail clients.

HP developed it and used to sell it as Openmail, but they don't sell it any more.

Now it's been picked up by Samsung. Here's the FAQ.

yeah, and netgear, proxim, hp... so?

the poster already linked to plenty of manufacturers of these products. he's asking which solution is best, not which brand...

Both the Power4 and Itanium are tremendously powerful processors. See this page, ironically intending to promote the Itanium2 (which is a tremendously powerful chip), to see how a 1.3Ghz Power4 compares with a P4.

HP already had their own platform that they could have developed into a full-fledged Media Center that was based on Linux. HP DE100C

with open source published here. I think the merger has had a negative impact on HP's attitude towards open source.

HP already had their own platform that they could have developed into a full-fledged Media Center that was based on Linux. HP DE100C

with open source published here. I think the merger has had a negative impact on HP's attitude towards open source.

Yet, all the cash Intel handed DEC didn't save them. As you probably know, DEC was bought by Compaq and now Compaq is part of HP.

Maybe more appropriate to suggest Sun and some people at HP (though not those working on McKinley) are jumping up and down with joy.

If you want performance you've got to know where to look.
Unless you're playing games, real workstations blow away the fastest desktops.

OK, I've found the Dexxa Wireless Optical Mouse which seems to be very similar indeed to the Logitech MX700, for a full $30 less! However, I can't find something similar from HP. Anybody around here know what the HP equivalent is?

On a side note, I've been using Logitech mice for around fifteen years now, and I've always preferred them due to their (usually) great ergonomic design, good looks, and durability. In this case, I don't know if a $30 savings would be enough to lure me away from the company that I've come to know and trust when it comes to mice. I guess I'd have to spend half an hour or so in a B&M store with both mice to really be able to decide. (Yes, I am unusually picky with my mice, in case you hadn't noticed. Keyboards, too.)

Here's another question: I seem to vaguely recall that Dexxa is (or used to be) a reseller of rebranded Logitech OEM mice. Is this correct, or am I thinking of another company?

At least Dexxa and HP have similar products.

http://www.hp.com/products1/itanium/performance/ar chitecture/speccpu.html

-Kevin

I'm not sure where it's going. I definatly see HP droping out of the comercial unix world over the next few months/years. The fact that they killed the project to migrate PHUX (sic) to itanium/merced, and killed the project for a new PA RISC chip (or whatever HP calles their unix chip) seems to prove this.

Note the part about Linus binary compatability by next year -- yet another sign of the Tru64 influence in the process.

My understanding is that components from Tru64 will be integrated into HPUX in future releases. This article states, "HP Tru64 UNIX, an integral part of HP's UNIX portfolio, also showed strong results in the DH Brown report, earning top marks in two of the report's five categories. As part of its ongoing plan to continue enhancing the functionality of HP-UX, HP plans to bring key features from Tru64, including its TruClusters and Advanced File System capabilities, into future releases of HP-UX11i."

You can donate your money to the "give Billly Gates some money" fund. Or better yet if you can donate some nice computer equipment. I wouldn't mind one of these babies as a portable and this as a dream workstation. If you had a billion lying around that you want to get rid of then I am your man. Infact I will make a deal. You post here on slashdot and I will always mod you up. No matter how trollish or lame the comment is. I will do it for life for just a fraction of your worth.

Seriously if I had a billion dollars, I would donate $100 million to EFF. I would donate another $100 million to lobby all the politicans to outlaw pallidium and repeal the DMCA. Today's government serves money anyway and not the people. I would then buy Trolltech and gpl all the api's for all platforms and give Microsoft a headache.

If I had $10 billion instead of $1 billion I would purchase autodesk and gpl autocad and 3d studio MAX. Also if Microsoft effectively kills linux on x86 all thanks to palladium, I would invest $250 Million in apple under the condition that Steve Jobs requires all macs to have an option dual boot or linux only boot by default besides just macosX. I would convince Steve Jobs to write a letter to the opensource community about making the mac an ultimate linux box. The number of macs sold would increase astronomically from all the pissed off linux and windows users. I would also gain my money back quickly. I remember hearing that linux is beginning to catch up to macosx in desktop usage. Apple could almost double their marketshare.

I am currently in year nine of nine for my BA/CS degree. I'm pretty sure that I've done all permutations of the work/schooling thing. Here is my history to date:

• Two years full time at Grove City College until I decided that their CS program was weak. (Good academics, otherwise.)
• Transferred to Taylor University for a year and promptly ran out of cash.
• Worked full time (well 70hrs/week) for Phoenix Contact, GmbH in the MIS group at their North America headquarters.
• Returned to Taylor University to run the university Computing and Systems Sciences department's network and take a class or to on the side. I worked for the university for three years.
• Hired by HP (nee Compaq) Took two classes correspondance through Taylor University World Wide Campus during the last year.
• Still working (as long as I can... ;) for HP and about to take my final two courses during nights at local colleges to transfer back to Taylor University.

This WOULD be true if the printer were able to produce infintely variable shades of each pixel. Unfortunately they are not capable of that. Just ON or OFF...

Modern inkjet technology is not just ON or OFF. They do volume control to regulate the density of color. Current technology is amazing, they regulate volume into the low picoliter range. Here is a cheap $99 HP printer, capable of doing 2400x1200 resolution on photo paper. Here is an explaination of HP PhotoREt technology, although other printer makers can do similar kinds of things. Even assuming you need eight "dots" to get a true 24 bit color, that is giving you a real 600x600 DPI resolution.

Real laser printers are rated at fifteen times that output, per month .

10,000 pages is nothing in the life of a laser printer. Even cheap, step-above-toy printers are rated for 10k pages/month.

Your example says nothing about Panasonic's reliability.

I have a Laserjet III which, in its prior life, consumed a 500-sheet reem of paper daily.

It's as happy as it ever was. Some moving parts have worn out - fans needed replaced, the paper-grab wheel needed some care, but it's ancient - 10 years old, at least. Fans die, and natural rubber parts dry out given sufficient time.

Try again when you're a member of the 500,000 pagecount club.

http://partsurfer.hp.com

You can order parts and everthing. And the separator pad and pickup assembly are about the only things to go on most HP laser printers.

I too had this problem with a 6L. One day, I found this support page on HP's site. They had a fix. Their so-called "Seperation Pad" is basically a piece of sticker to put on the feeder. They shipped me the fix to Canada from UK at absolutely no cost. I did not have a single paper jam ever since.

That's what I call great support.

Now, checking if the fix exists for the 5L is left as an exercice...

You keep calling the PPC a weaklink, underperformer, etc yet continually fauly to provide a link to any benchmark that shows a P4 syatem beating a PPC system by anything close to the ratio of their clock speed difference.

Your "treatise" is littered with opinion (apparently mostly quoted from Ars Technica). I prefer fact to opinion, and at this point, fact is that no-one can show me the benchmark results that show what I'm asking for.
Noplace has anyone shown (that I know of) that at 2.5 times the clock speed, that a P4 system is even twice as fast as a PowerMac.
My opinion remains that Intel builds CPUs, support shipsets and mobos that are designed soley to achieve higher clock speeds with actual real-world performance being far less than should be expected for that transistor count and current draw. AIM designs chips that are overall well balanced, and efficiet, Apple is now designing systems that are fairly well balanced and remove many previous bottlenecks (many with still exist in P4 systems).

I don't know why you say Itanium is slower than the P4. HP's testing shows that cycle for cycle the Itanium outperforms the P4 in the SPEC tests you like so much. Ex: a 1GHz Itanium is 2.1x as fast in FP than a 1.6GHz P4 Xenon.