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I don't find this surprising. Lately, it seems that Yahoo has been getting some of the positive internet buzz that used to be reserved solely for Google.

They're definitely providing at least a couple of services which I'm surprised that Google isn't heavily involved in just yet.

One of them is YahooGroups, for running mailing lists (along with several additional group-like features latched on). I guess Yahoo picked up a lot of this market by default, especially after Listbot was shut down by Microsoft. The other is Yahoo Calendar, which I'm admittedly only just starting to play with, but I'm finding it useful.

The biggest reason that I'm surprised Google hasn't touched these areas is that they're both very search-oriented, or can be. Just about everything Google's done in the past has been based around some kind of searching, or generally helping people to find things. That's where Google's expertise is.

Last week the wire services announced that MS would shut down ListBot in August. They want people to start paying for List Builder instead.

Last month my boss thought it would be a good idea for us to use MSN Messenger for quick questions at work. He did not seem to mind that we would all have to register at Passport, nor that all our messages would go through MSN.

He wouldn't let me put up a local Jabber server because of the time it would take to configure and administer.

Last week the wire services announced that MS would shut down ListBot in August. They want people to start paying for List Builder instead.

Last month my boss thought it would be a good idea for us to use MSN Messenger for quick questions at work. He did not seem to mind that we would all have to register at Passport, nor that all our messages would go through MSN.

He wouldn't let me put up a local Jabber server because of the time it would take to configure and administer.

Listbot, after going overboard with lines of ads, are now going pay-per-mail. Anyone know of a good gratis mailing list provider (not MSN or Yahoo)?
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mrBlond (I don't email from Malaysia)

Take a look at this then: wailing list subscription page. "Despair, inc, in partnership with Microsoft, presents The Wailing List". The funny thing is, they are using MS software for the mailing list, which probably means MS is cool about the use of their logo, but they have presented it in such a way as to make it look like they're ripping the piss out of Microsoft.

I've asked some of the original protocol developers and they don't have access to the documentation anymore. I've asked some of my friends who work at HP, and their access to the places where this doco is stored came up empty.

I've asked maddog via his Linux International link (of which HP is also a primary sponsor) to talk to HP for us, but never received a reply. He's a busy dude, so I didn't mind too much.

PPA printers are well supported using pnm2ppa 1.0.4. Usuable versions are in most of the distributions now, and we are FreeBSD/NetBSD/BeOS compatible (and for that matter, cygwin and simple to make under Visual C++). I develop under NetBSD on the alpha, and it's 64 bit clean.

About the last thing I'm going to work on is ghostscript integration. We need some help from the ghostscript dudes as we must calibrate our printers, so that should be fun.

PPA printers do use a lot of CPU time. We feed the printer data that is ready for the print head - there is nearly nothing in the three families of PPA printers. The sheer amount of data is uneconomical from the point of view of how fast you can send data down, and the level of compression we can achieve in the protocol is only moderate in comparison to PS or PCL3e (which is what the other HP deskjets use).

Now, how does UCITA figure into this? Each state has to ratify UCITA within its own borders and that's not a given at all. Do now: set up a bookmark to your local legislature and check often to see when UCITA comes up. While waiting, set up a listserv at ListBot or ONElist (or on your own machine if you're running listserv or majordomo) about UCITA and get all the user groups and third parties in your state to sign onto it. When UCITA shows up, hit the panic button and have everyone start writing your legislators every day -- either snail or Email. (Encourage writers to use their own words rather than a form letter.) When you have defeated UCITA in your state, change the name of the list to Internet Issues. Voila! You have just created an inspired and dedicated Internet-aware polity! Those legislators will now *always* be looking over their shoulder for you -- and that's the way we want it...

The other two have a background of static. Kind of like recording a conversation with an auto-level tape recorder at the beach. When there arent any voices, the static increases, when someone is talking, the static gets less.

My other friend has his fax connected to the same line and reports no ill effects. I suspect the connect speed is slower, but haven't been able to prove that. I'll probably put a fax listener on that line when i get ambitious, so it's ok.. So I'm actually paying:
$40 to USWest for the ADSL (not sure about the $29.99 mentioned - will have to check the bill)
$15 for my second voice line
$19 to my ISP
=====
$74 total.

Sure it costs more, but I'm happy with the service, I was the first on my geek-block to get high speed service (my home network is the envy of the BUG and both my wife and i get to surf fast at the same time.

-bob anzlovar