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The home video game console is what killed aracades.

But it is not what killed pinballs. There could be more large pinball arcades. Part of the reason there isn't is that kids today have been taught to like playing more violent (and much less skillful) games -- and now, thanks to first person shoot em ups we have new "games" like paintball, a truly barbaric thing to introduce children to. The (electronic) game times have changed, for the worse.

By the way, props to Radica "20 Q", that has done an amazing job with a handheld version of a classic game. We use it all the time when driving in our car, the game's amazing algorithms get what we thought about 80% of the time, interface is simple and easy to use, and some of the remarks it makes are funny. All that computing power for under $20 -- it renews my confidence in the human race.

"Also, OLED's have a short life. 1-2 years." Then how is it that they sell Creative Zen micro's and Sony Minidisc and MP3 Players that use them? http://www.mysimon.com/Sony_NW_E507_Network_Walkma n__1GB_/4014-6490_8-31303102.html?ttag=pdropsingle http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000830027480/

The only way to address bad info, whether lies or just bad news, is for more information. Context, corollaries, connections, discussion. The world is a complex place, where constructive growth vastly outweighs the bad actions and structures. Free expression is much more powerful than propaganda, especially when interactive and independent. So people can talk amongst ourselves about info we're getting. We've got a nascent P2P culture, on a P2P-oriented infrastructure. But it's up against the traditional media, which is highly centralized, with coroprate interests that conflict with both free expression and even stopping terrorism.

Any idea that requires perfection for execution is "utopian". But increased/improved communication is a practical reality that gains ground every day. Most Slashdotters are building the solution, both in our work, and the Slashdot discussions that work distracts us from ;). People always say "education" is the antidote to ignorance, fear and propaganda, but they're thinking of school buildings, state-sponsored/accredited teachers, more centralized official knowledge. The great strength of people is in our ability to communicate with each other, our desire for other people with whom to communicate. As we get past the huge edifice of traditional media institutions, into our global communictions mediasphere, we'll have the chance to leave terrorism as far in the past as maps with gaps labelled "here there be dragons".

For a more specific set of insights, I recommend McLuhan's War and Peace in the Global Village. McLuhan pointed out that every new tech has brought a new kind of warfare, and identifies infowar as the spawn of mass media tech. Understanding the beast is the key to hunting it. Just be sure to eat everything you kill :).

It doesn't matter what merit the lawsuit has, they just need to get TiVo to delay or stop this whole concept, and they won't stop suing until they do.

This is exactly why I like TiVo's new concept, though, because of the fact you never even consider getting a best of DVD ever again, you can make your own. Which is exactly why the big media companies are trying to stop them, cause it means less profit.

Computer Geeks

Net Seller

PC Onramp aka EPC

Directron

For comparison shopping:

Price Grabber

MySimon

In my experience a user does, in fact, need to agree to install the software. My only contention is whether or not most users realize what they're doing. That's a topic for a different debate.

If it may be said that users are intelligently agreeing to the use of WhenU's software, than there is nothing wrong with the service. In fact it's great for anyone frequently shops online and wants the best deals.

I'll end by noting that personally, I don't think that (users are intelligently agreeing...) can be said.

fatwallet.com
mysimon.com
pricewatch.com
pricegrabber.com ?

The first site is a great place to find great deals at larger retailer sites (and lots of not-so-large ones). People post what deals they find. The other ones are competitive shopping sites where you can compare prices. (Check more than one, and check the DETAILS!)

So why not use a site like My Simon which compares prices for you instead of encouraging his inane posting?

Yes, you are the only one. So go buy it already. That version has been available since August.

• mysimon
• is a good search engine that typically finds the cheapest prices for cds(and most everything else)
• deepdiscountcd
• has very cheap new CDs

For $50 more you can get another MP. The D500 from Olympus. And it's not a crappy camera either. :o)

yes, i've done this as well. 1600x1200 is way more than enough for a page of text. I haven't tried running the image through OCR software, but given that canon has twain "scanner" drivers for their cameras i'll bet it would be easy.

For glossy paper and to avoid annoying the others around you it is best to not use the flash. if you're in a low light situation, get a small tripod and a book stand.

For a very good affordable 2mp camera today i recommend the canon powershot A40; search on my simon for good prices. Any 2mp camera will probably work for your needs; but why buy a crappy one?

Why would I want to spend $369 dollars for a bluetooth headset
when I can spend $29.99 for a non-bluetooth headset?

or $399 for a bluetooth HP color inkjet
When I can spend $129.99 for a non-bluetooth HP color inkjet?

I don't think I'm inconvenienced by $200 or $340 to have a cord.

I think my sig more than says it all about these new announcements from Apple.

Roughly, when I built my home PC, I started here:

http://arstechnica.com/guide/system/index.html

They regularly update their 3 machine specifications: God Box, Hot Rod Box, and Budget Box, inorder or price and goodies, of course. But what they mostly include is advice on buying what parts, why to buy them, what to look for if you're not buying that exact part, and how to buy the parts you need for the best price. The last part is most important. You can buy the same piece of hardware you need at many places on the net. The key is getting it the cheapest. The price comparison places I've been using are:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/
http://www.mysimon.com/
http://www.pricescan.com/
http://www.dealtime.com/

Some other people said getting your cpu, mem, and mobo from one place. I'd like to say almost that. CPU and mobo, for sure. But I always buy my memory from

http://www.crucial.com

It's just not worth risking on something so cheap.

So sure, you can like the other folks have already mentioned, use pricewatch, pricegrabber, even mysimon to find good prices on QUALITY components. But don't buy cheapie stuff--the best part of building your own system is that you can use quality parts and get it done for the same price as a system manufacturer might with cheap stuff!

But then you go to a store with a good reputation, such as Dell, NewEgg, Buy.com, etc. to buy all the stuff at a higher price. The best part is when you whip out the Amex Gold card to pay for it. Then you call American Express up and tell them that you found all these items for cheaper at other websites (referencing your searches above). They kindly cut you a check for the difference.

This way, you get the best price and the best service. Ahh how wonderful.

Details on doing Amex pricematching are here which is a link on www.xpbargains.com. XPBargains is a very cool site by the way.

You can also try MySimon, with a best price of $19.05, currently.

Or, try Yahoo Books Shopping, with a best price of $20.23 at this moment.

Or, use Smartshop for a price of only $18.46.

Why we have comparison shopping portals if we still have to look at several site is beyond me, though...

You can also try MySimon, with a best price of $19.05, currently.

Or, try Yahoo Books Shopping, with a best price of $20.23 at this moment.

Or, use Smartshop for a price of only $18.46.

Why we have comparison shopping portals if we still have to look at several site is beyond me, though...

While we're at it, I'm going to post the specs on a more down-to-earth machine that I'll be building shortly. My ultimate goal is to create the ultimate workstation / gaming box that won't sound like a small aircraft when you turn it on.

$189 Seagate Barracuda IV SoftSonic 80 Gig
The 'Cuda IV is probably the quietest and one of the fastest Ultra-100 Drives in existence. A pair of 40-gig platters with Softsonic fluid-bearing motors keep the noise down below 30dB

$757 2x1.2Ghz AthlonMP
2x256 ECC DDR RAM
Tyan Tiger MP
2xThermalTake VolcanoII Cooler
The Tiger is the baby-brother of the Thunder. You get the same performance as the Thunder, without the extras, such as on-board SCSI, & integrated ethernet. You can look up specs at tyan.com.All of these components may be purchased, pretested, from Monarch Computers as an "AMD Pretested Combo;" Monarch produces very high quality boxes (my last three, actually).

$070 SD-M1502 Toshiba 16X DVD Drive
This drive's a fairly good performer, (try a google search for the model number and "review"), but what I am interested in is the noise and vibration factors. Toshiba's introduced a type of balance mechanism designed to handle unbalanced / cheap discs.

$335 Asus GeForce3 Pure 64Meg AGP
At this point, the choice of video card is purely up to the builder; I chose this one simply because it was one of the better performing, and the higher quality cards (google will tell all about this card...)

$85 SB Audigy X-Gamer!
Hey, why not? At $85, it's not a bad deal at all for a new whiz-bang sound card.
??? Speakers?
Up to you.

$014 floppy
Duh. Pick one.

$170? Lian-Li PC-60 Case
Reasons for this part: 1. It's cool. Literally.
2. It's light-weight.
3. Lian-Li cases are extremely high quality, which explains the high price.

$089 Enermax Whisper 431W EG465P-VE(FC) Power Supply
The Whisper is an ultra-quiet PS with variable speed fans. If you look at the Product Page, you can see the various nice specs on this PS.

$214 24X10X40 Plextor CD-RW
Based on various net reviews (again, google), this is the current burner of choice. That'll probably change by the time I finish typing this setence, but that's the nature of the technology.

$80 Wireless Keyboard / Optical Wireless Mouse from Logitech
As a long-time logitech fan, the Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical takes all of the good stuff from their keyboards, mice, and wireless devices and wraps it into one package. Note that RF mice are not very good for games. I've owned one of these for about a month, and can say that I have no problems with either device until I try to play DoD or Q3A, in which case my trusty Mouseman Optical comes in handy.

$1918 Subtotal sans Shipping (If the numbers don't add up, I'm gonna look really, really stupid. Oh well.) (updated price 10-13-01)

Most of my price info came from either Pricewatch or MySimon, fyi.

Isn't that the stuff from Larry Niven's Ringworld?

That stuff would seem to me to be like a long, flexible nanotube loop.

srry 'bout that last link...I can't find anything more direct.

Very interesting post. But how come Buy.com and BarnesandNoble.com haven't taken advantage of this latest uproar of an Amazon policy. If I was ecommerce director of either competitor, I would have links to the CNet article on the front page of my website. Not only that, but price comparision search engines (PriceScan MySimon PriceWatch DealTime Shopper) should be having a field day with this!

Perhaps Buy and Barnes & Noble are conducting the SAME experiment but at a more discreet level?!?!

Yet more reason to get the best price information and that layer of anonymity provided by those comparative shopping engines:

Pricewatch
My Simon
CNet Shopper

I want to upgrade a 3 year old tower that requires very non-standard RAM. Ordering direct from a vendor or manufacturer would cost about $200. Searches on meta-store engines didn't do much better. When I checked most auction sites and meta-auction engines, I got zero hits. The sellers just aren't there.

But at eBay, I find a half-dozen new listings of them every goddam week, selling around $130. All of the other sites put together can't touch eBay's volume of sellers.

So what would eBay have to gain from allowing meta engines to spider them? Nothing! They dominate the auction market. If you really want to find something at the lowest price, you have to include eBay in your search. And if you already have to go to eBay, why bother with the meta engines or the other smaller auction sites at all?