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Apple's corporate culture dictates that they will NEVER let go of the hardware business, at least while Jobs is at the helm. Jobs is a perfectionist and a control freak, and he will never relinquish control over any part of the Macintosh business.
For historical examples, look at the first Mac. It was a sealed box with no way to open it and no expansion capability. You either used it Apple's way, or you didn't use it at all. Look at the iMac. Look at the Cube. Same idea. Jobs doesn't want people messing up his beautiful hardware with third party sh*t.
For more insight on Apple's mentality, read Neal Stephenson's essay, "In the beginning...". I would love to see OS X on an Intel platform, but it's never gonna happen while Jobs is in charge.

It is easy to say 'Oh they weren't really doing XP then' but it is hard to see how any project doing even half of the XP practices could develop something 'that never worked once', and did it for long enough for people to quit because of it. At the very least I would have expected the customer to 'can it after the second iteration.

It sounds more like they were using the AEP method.

Its a, sadly, common phenomenon.

It looks like these people are converting the texts to XHTML.

For instance, I live in an apartment, a space where too much power would kill the overall sound stage. My speakers are all KLH, no sub, the fronts deliver plenty of bass without pissing off my neighbors. Yes, I can get better ones, better sound reproduction, but KLH have always been very good for people on a budget. If you have plenty of money, I would go with Klipch or Cerwin-Vega. Main thing, stay away from Bose or any clone makers. Those cubes may look pretty, but the sound reproduction is sub-par. It's pretty simple physics, you need the large box for accurate sound.

Second, the reciever/decoder. At the moment, I have a Sony DE-835 Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. I have been very happy with this system, and I have always liked Sony. Like I said, I am on a budget, so it is not top of the line, but it works quite well and Sony has many other options for more money. Plus, it has tons of optical inputs. My only problem with it is the number of coax digital inputs; it only has one. Hope this helps you some.

I've driven past the Chimney Rock Rd and Woodway intersection while experimenting with ways to get home from work. According to Mapblast, they are not to far west of that spot.

I can stop by sometime during the next couple weeks and take a look. Email me at xmas00 at hellgate dot homeip dot net. I may have messed up the qmail services running while experimenting with httpd yesterday so don't be alarmed if the email doesn't go through till sometime this weekend.

According to the Human Development Index for 1999, the best countries are Canada, Norway, United States, Japan and Belgium.

The HDI combines measures of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. No freedom but it can be interesting to compare freedom and development.
__

Check out where CNN filed the story. While its not exactly your normal technology sotry given enought time it might be.

1. It's too early to criticise The Gimp for not supporting JPEG2000 because the JPEG2000 image standard has not been finalised. To quote the Final CD from the official JPEG2000 website,

• "anyone implementing software according to the description available in this FCD, risks not being compliant with the final JPEG2000 International Standard (IS), which is due to be published some time in 2001 as IS15444-1.

2. Another important issue (stated here) is that the royalty-free fee-free JPEG2000 patent licenses may apply only to conforming implementations. One such requirement of conforming implementations is to have copy control implemented including methods

• 1) To protect access to the image
• 2) To identify the image, source or owner in a secure way that cannot be removed by unauthorised parties.
• 3) To indicate integrity (images that are not allowed to be edited).

It is not clear how the patent holders will interpret these requirements for open-source implementations that want to use a GPL license (as for Gimp) which requires the whole software to be modifiablefor any purpose, potentially in ways which could violate the conformance requirements.

--William

The cost of this super low end is that you have to tweak the Pitch Trim control from time to time. If any more than this is required (adjusting the coils, for instance) then something is wrong and the unit is not working up to spec. Maybe the Zener is whacked. Maybe NPO capacitors were not used for C8 and C10, which are the capacitors in the LC Tank circuits.

Trying to submit this, but the slashdot server keeps barfing out error messages:

The HoneyNet Project, a network of honeypots!

The Honeynet project is a group of 30 security professionals dedicated to learning the tools, tactics, and motives of the blackhat community and sharing those lessons learned.

ZDnet report

LED's are terrific. Increased reliability, higher efficiency, lower power consumption, higher peak output, and better heat dissipation.

BUT, one 'negative' side effect of greater LED usage is the NTSB will have less forensic evidence after aircrashes (at least with smaller private planes without a flight data recorder)...

At moment-of-impact, the filament from a lit bulb breaks apart differently from an already-burned out bulb or from an operable-but-not-lit bulb.

Here's an article that describes filament analysis. And two reports, one where LED's prevent filament analysis (search for "filament analysis") and another where analysis showed the status of indicators (search for "filament stretching")

Slightly off-topic, but interesting, I think.

I've never used Dxpc but my understanding of it is that it compresses all the X11 traffic on the fly. Used in combination with other tactics (e.g. using the lightweight apps/windowmanagers[1] like another poster recommended), should help your situation out.

I think there is some way to channel X11 over SSH, and further to finangle SSH into compressing the data stream, giving you compression as well as security. But I have absolutely no idea how to do that, so you're on your own in that regard. :-)

[1] if you want a lightweight windowmanager, definitely check out wm2, the rpm of which is 58Kb and at runtime (2x xterm, xdaliclock, xload, xsetroot -solid grey25, 1280x1024x16@100dpi) it looks to be taking up about 2.9 megs, of which a hair over a meg is actually shared. Note that wm2 is really minimal but then that's sorta the point. :-) Another low-usage window manager is aewm, also interesting as it's homepage includes links to several other ultra-lights. (<--becuase let's face it, twm is U*G*L*Y and should not be tolerated in polite society, hah)

--

This is probably not going to affect Altavista email. Other free ISP's can be found at: Free ISP List

Take a look at Gamechoice Club's DVD page, found here. They sell, among other things, the Dantax 9001 (US$279) which plays DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, and MP3 CD-rs and CD-RWs. They also have a Sony DTS system ($460) that's rather small and sits upright. Mind you, all these DVD players are code free (Region 0), so you can play most DVDs on them, no matter what region they are from.

I haven't personally interacted with Gamechoice Club (which is in Hong Kong), although they seem to have an OK reputation and have some absolutely cool stuff, like a a handheld Duo R X for the PC Engine.

Screw the Plextor ... use the Kenwood 72x True CD-ROM. Under windows 98 I can get rip speeds of about 60x-65x. The CD-ROM has a buffer of 2MB and it blocks if it's empty -- I've ripped about 300 or so CDs with it and not one of the rips has skips in it (even my scratchy old Led Zeppelin CDS).

Using this CD-ROM, the bottleneck on my p3-800 system is the encoding itself. It takes only 4 or 5 seconds to rip a 20 minute song, but more than a minute to encode it. This was your original question, though ... I think the most specialized hardware you'll find for MP3 encoding (at this point in the technological timeline) is a hefty processor. Speed really counts, since it's just number crunching. I liken this to the good ole days of software compilation on 386-SX machines -- the faster your CPU the faster a program compiled. I'm sure you know, but the better quality encoding you do, the longer it takes to encode a given song. I usually use moderate/high VBR for all my songs (since I like post-processing using my equalizer) and have found that the only way to speed up the encoding is to lower the quality of the resulting MP3.

I've been using the AudioCatalyst product for about two years now, and it has been (and continues to be) the fastest and best sounding (don't bore me with comparisons of audio plots -- it's not the data that's in the MP3 that matters, it's how it sounds) MP3 ripper/encoder that I've found. CDex (http://www.surf.to/cdex) is a close second since it fits nicely on top of any encoder that you want. I've gotten comprable speed out of Cdex as from AudioCatalyst (http://www.xingtech.com)

Posted anonymously so I can't be accused of harma khoring:

Link for Symbian.

HTH

1) yes, the GFLOPS per "CPU" is fewer for the SV1. That is because they're made to run in highly-coupled groups of 4 called an "MSP". That's why they prefer to say it's really 7.2 GFLOPS as opposed to 1.8. It's not the same as just having 4 CPU's in parallel - it's really more like 4 CPUs as 1 CPU. Let's also remember that this is Cray's "Budget" line. Did you look at the cost on the Hitachi? Ouch.

2) Where the heck do you get 40TB/sec of memory bandwidth?!? Each node-to-node link in the Hitachi is 1 to 1.2 GB/s each way. See their site.

3) Calling the Top500 list "real evidence rather than marketing numbers" is a big joke. One of the biggest discussions at the conference was about a new benchmark suite being created to rank the top500 list. Why? Because Linpack is really a peak-speed measurement. These huge parallel ASCI machines run them at 30-50% of peak. On real applications, they'd be damn lucky to get 1% of peak, if that. In fact, a Cray T3E still holds the world record for sustained performance on a real application. It's interconnect is that good. I'm sure Hitachi is behind the new benchmarks as well (Cray is)...anything which emphasizes real application speed will make any vector machine look MUCH better.

4) Cray does not "mainly sell Alpha-based machines" these days. They sell them once in a while, but if you're counting by number of systems shipped, they sell a lot more SV1s. I think Ford just bought 2 or 3. I think they've maybe sold 4 or 5 T3Es all year.

5) I don't have any numbers on this, but I really really don't think the Hitachi has a MTTI of over a year.

lastly, did you see who won the "Supercomputing product of the year" award at the conference? The SV1 did. For the second straight year.

Now, I'm not knocking the Hitachi - it's a good machine - I'm just pointing out that vector computing in the US is doing just fine, thank you. And it will be doing WAY better when the SV2 is out in 2002...it's going to be a doozie!

this is definately not current news;
I read this a LONG time ago on
FreakTech (near the bottom of the page)
I beleive it was posted about
11 MONTHS AGO!!!!!!!!
I submitted it months ago myself and
thought it was rejected because it
was ??Old News??
WTF ????

A non-borken link to Tuxracer: http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net ;

If the internet is a reality then by Gödel's second theorem it can not be completely described(mapped), right? Maybe the converse of this is true.

A lot of people tell you not to vote for a third party because it would "waste" your vote. But, really, the waste of your vote is to vote for a more "mainstream" candidate that you don't really believe in.

Bush and Gore both seem the same to me and they both sicken me. Did you see the debates? They were even wearing the same suit!

So, please, take a look at third parties and independents out there. These people aren't so politically entrenched as the major parties, and have some very insightful ideas about what to do with our country.

Don't waste your vote.

Ralph Nader, Green Party (also endorsed by the Reform Party)
Harry Browne, Libertarian
Pat Buchanan, Reform Party (sort of)
John Hagelin, Natural Law Party (sort of)
Howard Phillips, Constitution Party

http://www.xenu.net
http://www.lisatrust.net/
Python

Zdnet Linux 2.2/Apache benchmark

Ludicrous TUX/2.4 numbers

Yes, 2.2 with Apache is a little slower than NT, but should still handle >500 hits/second. You'll run out of bandwidth first. Tux on 2.4 crushes all opposition. Static web-server performance is a useless pissing contest, and anyone who seriously worries about pure speed doesn't know what they're talking about.

A "Ponzi Scheme" is a type of investment fraud wherein the operator promises high dividends or financial returns that are not expected from traditional investments. Instead of investing victims' funds, the operator pays the original investors "dividends" using the money that subsequent investors give. The scheme generally falls apart when the operator flees with all the proceeds, or when a sufficient number of new investors cannot be found to allow the continued payment of "dividends."

The Ponzi Scheme was named after Charles Ponzi of Boston, Massachusetts who operated an investment scheme in the early 1900's. He guaranteed investors a large return on their investments, but ultimately could not pay the dividends. Ponzi was found guilty of mail fraud and imprisoned for five years.

I see the embracing of cybernetics, virtual reality, artifical intelligence, nanotechnology, etc.. to be VITAL to the evolution of the force of knowledge. In my not so humble opinion, knowledge is *the* force driving the universe. Sentient beings have evolved from simple abundant molecules and have continued to grow more advanced exponentialy as time has progressed. I feel the force driving this is knowledge. It seems that the most logical means for knowledge to continue to evolve itself (and the human race with it) is to embrace the merging of meatspace and cyberspace until we "cast off the monkey body" (any McKenna fans out there?) This is what makes me SO EXCITED TO BE INVOLVED WITH COMPUTER SCIENCE! I can feel the very evolution of mankind dancing just beneath our finger tips. This is an unresistable force. Even if it is "moraly wrong" or "against God (tm)" when has that stoped humanity in the past? This IS comming and it WILL arrive. Your two choices are to embrace it and witness all the greatness that is our destiny or hide from it and denounce it and find yourself left behind with all the other "tradionalist". Personaly, I dream of the day that I can cast off this adaquet but limited body and pursue the beauty that is a purely energy existance...Some get this from religion, me, my religion is science and I am positioning myself to become pure...YMMV...

Business DSL in Canada is getting quite good. They install within a couple weeks and guarantee uptime of 99.5% (they'll have someone on site in 4 hours if there is an issue). Plus they give 2.2MBps and 32 static IPs. All for $300 a month (in US$). In some areas the service is better than that (in BC some people have got 4MBps).

However on the residential side some of things many providers (such as Sympatico) are moving to a PPPoE config. This has caused a lot of problems, as the supported clients are lousy. The reliability of the PPPoE clients is sorely lacking. The one provided by Sympatico, called Access Manager isn't supported on linux or NT/2000. There is however another client called EnterNet that will work with the Sympatico system. However, it costs $30 (US I believe). I strongly urge you to stay away from any DSL company using PPPoE. Go for one that uses straight DHCP instead!

sdk that is used for this project is cosm. cosm was developed by former distributed.net developer. you can find more info on cosm on http://www.mithral.com/projects/cosm//A

Ain't technology grand?

Check out KL Group's JClass PageLayout. Quoting from the product page, it will "Output directly to the Java AWT Printer, Acrobat PDF, HTML, PostScript Level 2, or PCL 5."

I admit that I'm biased, but it's still worth checking out the eval.

Anyone was able to submit comments and reply comments - only a few did, but those few pointed out some important points.

http://www.finalfantasy.com/

Currently, you can write applications with the developers release of MOSX or with an old OPENSTEP box and then convert the nib files to gmodels. This is the way ProjectCenter and the 3DKit are being written. We would really appreciate any and all interest.

I think there is also something of a reversal of causality in your documentation of political blinders and free markets. It's precisely because I see the political blinders in the technology culture that surrounds us (Quiz: Where would you rather create a start-up, in Chechnya/Sierra Leone or in Northern California where the roads are good and the food and pharmaceutical supply is untainted and bandits don't lurk around corners on Skyline Boulevard and houses mostly won't fall down after they are built and work-study exists and libraries are free and the Arpanet/Internet had 20 years of slow, commercial-free development? All due to the fine invisible hand of government ...) that I ask the questions I do and take the positions I hold

Three words: DNA-derived personality simulations.

Or is that four? Or six if you expand the acronym?

Who knows.
--

There's zlib / gzip, they're patent-free, browsers seem to support unpacking them, so no problem at all.

© 2000 Ilmari. All ritghts reserved, all wrongs reversed

Was watching CNN/fn and saw news about Teradyne...their stock price took a big dip today...wonder if there's a connection.

Yes, I know nobody will read this since it's an old article, but still thought it was funny....
--

And here is the link to them. This guy is right, Fat probably is one of the best indie labels out there... Although I think they are distributed by Sony (through Epitaph) but I could be wrong...

Most MP3 players (including my homebrew design) use the MAS3507D or STA013 chips.

If these chips were to start checking for the SDMI phase 2 watermark, it could be game-over for most of the portable players. Of course, these chips are firmware upgradable, and they have no interaction with the user interface, so it's hard to see what they could do with them.

Just thought I'd add my two cents to the mix on this one. The Tex Murphy series from Access software (now unfortunately owned by M$), specifically "Under a Killing Moon", "The Pandora Directive", and "Overseer" are fantastic examples of realistic 3D environments done in realtime and done right. The games contained puzzle-solving, mystery, adventure, a well-developed plot and compelling characters in RT3D years before Myst even existed. The whole series can be had for around $30-$40 nowadays, too. For more information, check out Tex Murphy at it's home over at M$. However, as for buying copies of the games, check your local used software place, or other discount bins, as the first two listed above are pretty old (computer-game wise).

They (AVID owned Softimage team) can't even port their newest "Next-Generation 3D Animation" effort to the once SI|3D Native IRIX. Softimage|XSI 1.0 on IRIX is actually the NT version running under emulation, causing horrible slow-down and a considerable ammount of bugs. Many under valid support contracts who got their XSI "upgrades" have been most disappointed by their IRIX performance.

While TOONZ for LINUX may seem like a step in the right direction, take into consideration that TOONZ is actually developed by an R&D Company called DIGITAL VIDEO. I take this directly from the softimage.com toonz legal type:

Toonz is developed in Italy by SBP S.p.a, Itaca S.r.l. and Digital Video S.r.L. and is distributed by Softimage Co. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

So if you're expecting the Montreal team to put out anything other than buggy and non-production ready software i.e. XSI 1.0, don't hold your breath. You might get lucky with Mental Ray though, as that is also developed by a seperate company, MENTAL IMAGES.

I for one hope that Softimage can get their colletive heads out of their collective butts and jump on the cross-platform compatibility bandwagon a'la A|W's Maya. Otherwise they (or at least their 3D division) face a rapidly growing dissatisfied and defeated user base who have had enough of their lies, bull and empty promises.

-not bitter :)

I sense much NT in you.
NT leads to bluescreen,
bluescreen leads to downtime,

I'm also tired of Judges who refuse to do their jobs, like Judge Kaplan, and profess to have knowledge that they don't. Kaplan's behavior on the Bench seems to merit his impeachment.

I'm also tired of Judges and Lawyers who can't count past the Number 2 and trolls which represent the MPAA.

---And I am tired of people who are not lawyers not understanding laws, especially one as simple and direct as this one. I've posted this before but obviously it didn't penetrate into some people's skulls so I'll tear it down # by #.--

--- 1) Your first sentence is correct - your second sentence is what YOU think it should be. But it's not and go whine to congress. Currently it's illegal to circumvent CSS no matter what you believe or want to think it should be. DeCSS circumvents CSS - that's exactly what the authors of the program say it does, that's what the defense stipulated to in court that it does, that is what every single expert on the stand has said it does. Please don't continue to pretend to be ignorant to it's true function. --

Actually, nearly every Lawyer I have spoken too disagrees with your assessment.

To quote The Village Voice

"If the judge finds for the plaintiff, and the decision isn't knocked down on appeal," says Yochai Benkler, a professor of information law at New York University, "it will create an environment that's closed like nothing we've ever seen before."

Since I work for NYU, I called Benkler. I asked him about Kaplan's decision that even if the DeCSS was created for reverse engineering purposes, even then the DMCA would not permit the posting of a LINK to the DeCSS code. It seems completely incompatible with the plain meaning of the reverse engineering clause in section 1201 of the DMCA and the Fair Use clause. It is his opinion that Judge Kaplan is making a major stretch in claiming that while the DMCA is so poorly written that it directly stands in conflict of itself, that reverse engineering is OK for an individual user, but that dissemination of the Code would be a violation. It is also his opinion that the DMCA will not stand a review by the Supreme Court if Judge Kaplan's ruling is a correct interpretation of the act.

--- 2) Reverse engineering has some very narrow criteria. And perhaps DeCSS meet these. Do you suggest that every single person using DeCSS uses it for the educational value reverse engineering provides. AND you conveniently forget that even reverse engineering still does not allow you to simple ignore existing copyright protections.---

Reverse engineering has nothing to do with education. Educational copying of copyrighted material is a Fair Use as determined by the Supreme Court and legislated into the copyright code under section 107 of the Copyright Law. Reverse Engineering, by definition, is a protected right which anyone can partake of without permission of the designer of the original device. This is obvious and is considered Prima Faca evidence. Compact did not have IBM's permission to reverse engineer the PC.

--The copyright holder still maintains control over access to his material and no matter HOW you got to the material (unencrypted movie file) the copyright owner STILL owns it and can dictate (like it or not) how and by whom it's accessed. This is not a valid exception and case law supports this. --

Legally speaking - this whole statement is just wrong. First of all, Copyright holders NEVER have the right to maintain control over access to works no matter HOW they distribute the material. The only thing a Copyright holder owns is a license to a limited commercial monopoly of a work. They can not prevent anyone who obtains a copy to limit when they view it, how they view, and with whom they view it with, who they sell their copy to, or how they view it. I think you just made this up.

-- 3) Too bad copying entire movies is not even remotely "fair use" --

Actually - making a copy of a work for personal use, educational purposes, archival purposes, and even to give away for FREE is exactly what Fair Use doctrine is as developed as the Supreme Courts response to abuses of Copyright which inhibited Constitutionally guaranteed civil rights to Property and Freedom of Speech. It was later legislated directly into the Copyright Statute which can be read at New Yorkers for Fair Use.

--too bad that no one is using DeCSS to critique a small sample of a movie. Too bad that there is no need to use DeCSS to perform "fair use" and that it could be performed by other means and so fair use is not an excuse for circumvention. AND, even if fair use was the honest intention - that still does not override the prohibition on circumvention. You must learn how to read law.--

What's too bad is that you fail to understand what your reading in the Law. A purchaser of a Disk does not enter into any contract with the Copyright Owner, or licensing agreement. They can do anything with the disk that is guaranteed under the Constitution as part of their civil rights to ownership of property. This right of property is a guarantee of the Constitution. Copyright does not extinguish an individuals right to his property. He can therefor do what ever he wishes to the disk aside from commercially exploiting it, which is reserved for the Copyright Owner. The Copyright Owner of the material has a limited license from the Government. The Disk owner is the property owner and is not limited by any licenses.

--4) While DeCSS, the source code of that program, is protected as free speech. There is NOTHING in free speech which gives license to violate copyrights.--

This is not the question in front of the court. The question in front of the court is if there is ANYTHING in Copyright which can limit Free Speech. If the Code is Free Speech, it is protected under the Constitution. Copyright can not prevent Free Speech, and that is part of the definition of The Fair Use Doctrine.

-- Again, precidence and the preponderence of case law demonstrates this. Do some research instead of regurgitating EFF BS--

Again - I think you made this up..

--- 5) You sound like an MS hater. This case has nothing to do with antitrust or misuse of copyright and you'll find that neither of those lame defenses was even attempted, even by this lame defense team. ---

Right.... and you are what??? A Troll?

--Copyright owners are free to decide how their IP is distributed and by whom and how it's viewed. Get a grip - stop pulling terms that don't apply outta yer butt! ---

Actually - they are NOT, which is why the DMCA is likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court.

Interesting points. David Brin has an interesting interview where he discusses the pro's and cons of this Openness (ala Transparent Society). Go read it if you haven't already. Privacy advocates should read the interview too. Both models 'ultra secrecy' and 'openness' could potentially support a free data concept of sorts but personally I think that the 'openness' model would be an incredible failure. The potential for abuse is just too great. People are having identity theft occur already at increasing rates. (btw here is a great link with a lot of info on it) Either perspective is troubling, so I won't say I have made up my mind 100% on the issue because the data is something we paradoxically want and don't want. I would hate for insurance companies to be able to get all sort of personal data and medical history on me and family members and tie it genetically linked homosapiens, but its more or less to late because they already have the beginings of that. On the flipside: I would really like it to be painless to find out more about a potential babysitter for my kids/nephews etc. and at present it is needlessly expensive to do so. I could see being a babysitter who wouldn't want to share private info or info about thier pr0n surfing habits for example too (but I don't think I would entrust that person with children if that were the case). Its all very circular... Here is my thought: The ideology of The Bill of Rights is that freedom is pretty much the right/desire of men/women to be left alone, especially by the government. Basically this means freedom=privacy. I wish the founding fathers of the US had gone into more detail about privacy though because the whole idea of interpretation imho is crap (insert jab at antigun folk...:politicians don't fear unarmed peasants) Where does all this lead? I am not sure , but it will be an interesting ride...

--http://www.alccdenver.com/hh-kit.html

if you don't want to see the links, find another way to browse Usenet.

• Set up an ssh link between two routers A (your local router running Linux or your free operating system of choice with support for SSH and packet filtering) and B (the remote router where the rest of the VPN lives).
• Run pppd on top of ssh.
• Tell all the other machines in the local area to use A as the router for all addresses within the VPN.
• Set up router A with ipchains to forward all connections from the local VPN over the PPP-on-SSH system to router B.
• Set up router B (another linux box) to forward all packets from A to their correct addresses on the remote systems.

Putting copper on poles is a horrible idea. Sticking it in the ground isn't much better. One lightening strike and you've fried both ends of the connection.

My company built its new office building right next to the old one. For several months, we were working out of both. As such, we had to drag the phones and network between buildings. Initially, we were going to pull a 600-pair cable between the building for the phones. (A big fsking cable, by the way.)

After a couple hours of talking it over and hearing horror stories from our telecom guy, we went with fiber at nearly double the cost. Living in Florida, the lightening capitol of the world, it made sense.

If it were me, I'd go wireless. Using 3COM AirConnect, you can get 11mbps at 300 feet and less at more. With fancy ears, you can get even more range.

Of course, if you don't go wireless, think about fiber in the groud encased in interduct. That will be more expensive but is far better than copper.

Your best bet may be generic ADSL with a VPN though I doubt that would be nearly as satisfying to your geek urges.

InitZero

If this kind of stuff really interests you, the whole situation reminds me of a book I read about a year ago called On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Yes, this is a link to the Amazon page where it is sold, but there are some pretty interesting reviews there.

Anyways, it's all about killing in our society, and how it effects us. Everything from our removal from seeing the animals we eat murdered, to the violence we see in entertainment today is discussed.

The focus is on the military and soldiers, but Grossman shows how some things we see in the movies and video games disturbingly resemble military methods aimed to overcome the unwillingness to kill. A very scientific approach is taken on the whole, and some of the results are fascinating (i.e. 85% of soldiers more or less intentionally misfiring guns, so as not to kill the enemy even when their own lives are at stake)

The author, Lt. Col. David Grossman, makes the comparison that at one time there were many books about love, but none about sex. Amongst scores of books on war, this one deals with the singular act of killing.

I suppose this was off topic a bit, but the book is fantastic, and I couldn't see anyone who was in this discussion (excluding our friends first and second :) ) not enjoying it.