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check the prices on self-installed memory, it's well over double what you can get the same memory from ANYwhere else

Well duh. Buy from someone else, then. Newegg, perhaps, or Macsolutions, or OWC. All much cheaper than Apple.

The KWGR614 was the single worst router I have ever used. VPN, chat, P2P, and any other application that required other than port 80 never worked, it liked to drop connections for no reason, and has received not a single firmware update to date. At least Newegg was nice enough to give me my money back so I could buy a Linksys. The only success it achieved was setting the bar extremely low for this new open source offering.

Yes, that should not be a problem.

First however, you need a decent router:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Network+-+Wireless+Routers-_-LINKSYS-_-33124190

In that respect make sure you get the WRT54GL version.

Cisco, has gutted the normal WRT54G and so far has destroyed its quality and usefulness. (Much like the crap it sells anyway.) They have pulled out the memory, destroyed the ability to put better antennas on the unit, etc.

In short, they want to make sure they get as much money as possible, and your wireless sucks ass.

CISCO has SO FAR left the WRT54GL alone, and it is an exceptional beast, once you flash it with dd-wrt.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

You want the package in this directory:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/down.php?path=downloads%2Fv24%2FBroadcom%2FLinksys%2FWRT54GL_1.1/

Pick the voip generic package. (dd-wrt.v24_voip_generic.bin )

Then select the .bin file above as the target flash upgrade in the normal admin page for the WRT54GL.

Wait 5 minutes for the process to complete, and try to pull a web page from it. If you get a web page, wipe the config with the resessed button on the back of the unit, wait 2 minutes, then power cycle the unit.

It should come up as 192.168.1.1 and login with "root" and "admin" as the password.

-Hack

First I will add a plug for https://www.bloglines.com/ â" RSS feeds where ever I can log in, via HTTPS. Great for those feeds I read whenever & everywhere; and for those I only check when waiting to board the airplane. In my bloglines collection I have around 400 feeds, which will grow after looking through these threads. :) Some selections that hopefully no one else has mentioned:

Amusement:
http://failblog.wordpress.com/feed/
All about the Fail

http://lolbots.com/?feed=rss2
Robots making the LOLz, though not updated often.

http://lolgeeks.com/?feed=rss2
Geeks making the LOLz, though not updated often.

The latest limerick database entries - http://peeron.com/tickers/limerickdb.xml

The Triumph of Bullshit - http://bullshit.tumblr.com/rss

Diesel Sweeties by R Stevens - http://www.dieselsweeties.com/ds-unifeed.xml

PHD Comics - http://www.phdcomics.com/gradfeed.php
Ever spent time in academia? You will relate to this web comic.

Unshelved - http://www.unshelved.com/rss.aspx
A web comic about a library. Ssssshhhuusshh!

Indexed - http://indexed.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Take two (or more) topics and compare them using graphs & charts â" full of insight & lolz.

Computerworld Shark Tank News - http://feeds.computerworld.com/Computerworld/Shark/Tank
Many stories, full of humor and face palm

Overheard in the Office - http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/atom.xml
Instead of what was overheard in New York, now worldwide and from your office.

Common geek topics (those blogs that seem to hit all the topics days or weeks before you see them on Slashdot):
Didnt You Hear... http://www.didntyouhear.com/feed/

The Daily WTF - http://thedailywtf.com/rss.aspx

Global Nerdy - http://globalnerdy.com/feed/

Shopping:
http://content.dealnews.com/dealnews/rss/todays-edition.xml
Many of those geek toys you need

Newegg.com daily deals: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=DailyDeals&nm_mc=OTC-RSS
Need I say more?

Slickdeals: http://www.slickdeals.net/rss.php
Need I say more?

Woot! http://www.woot.com/blog/rss.aspx

Dumb political stuff:
Homeland Stupidity: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HomelandStupidity
Government gaffes, bureaucratic blunders and incumbent incompetence

Groklaw: http://www.groklaw.net/backend/GrokLaw.rdf

Declan McCullagh's Politech http://www.politechbot.com/info/rss/politech.xml
Also not updated often, but on target when it is.

Cryptome: http://cryptome.org/cryptome.xml
You can get lost here for hours

Music:
House of Blues: http://hob.com/venues/clubvenues/lasvegas/
The RSS feed for the local House of B

I would run ethernet between the rooms and use a usb over ethernet solution like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800997018 from IOGear. This would allow you to locate the wireless receiver in your entertainment room and run ethernet through the walls to your server room.

It's amazing what you can do with a few of these (a hundred bucks at fry's) and some these, a few of these and some creative sheet metal work on one of these.

You'll need a few other bits too. If you get carried away it would look something like this. If you keep your wits nobody would know it from a typical filing cabinet except that instead of storing files it renders frames with 32 cores running at 2.6GHz or launches your precious VMs.

And you can still remote to it with your mini notebook from the beach.

I keep wondering why people buy 30" computer monitors... is there something wrong with a 1080p 46" TV set? they sell DVD to hdmi cables, and many sets have a PC input.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001098 $1,299 = 30"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889234003 $1,199 = 47"

that particular set has a PC connection, 2 dvi ports and 1 hdmi, and here's the kicker, the difference in response time? .5 ms the Samsung has 6ms the Westinghouse has 6.5ms

i've heard before that Westinghouse displays are basically big PC monitors, with a TV tuner attached.

now i know, a HDTV generally only supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, and 480i on the HD inputs, and since this one has PC inputs on the pc input it accepts 1920 x 1080, 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 on the PC input... finding a RGB PC cable is easy, i used to specifically pick out PC monitors with replaceable cables, in case the cable got cut/kinked or the end pins broken.. so i already have cables from old monitors!

is it really worth it to support 2560x1600 resolution? especially since modern (single card setups) gaming cards can't even handle 1080p on modern game engines.. and even with multi card support, the CPU winds up being a limiting factor... OCing to 4 ghz with some extreme cooling solution, like the xp-120 or water cooling... is probably the only way to really push frame rates, even with a SLI/crossfire solution.

I keep wondering why people buy 30" computer monitors... is there something wrong with a 1080p 46" TV set? they sell DVD to hdmi cables, and many sets have a PC input.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001098 $1,299 = 30"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889234003 $1,199 = 47"

that particular set has a PC connection, 2 dvi ports and 1 hdmi, and here's the kicker, the difference in response time? .5 ms the Samsung has 6ms the Westinghouse has 6.5ms

i've heard before that Westinghouse displays are basically big PC monitors, with a TV tuner attached.

now i know, a HDTV generally only supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, and 480i on the HD inputs, and since this one has PC inputs on the pc input it accepts 1920 x 1080, 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 on the PC input... finding a RGB PC cable is easy, i used to specifically pick out PC monitors with replaceable cables, in case the cable got cut/kinked or the end pins broken.. so i already have cables from old monitors!

is it really worth it to support 2560x1600 resolution? especially since modern (single card setups) gaming cards can't even handle 1080p on modern game engines.. and even with multi card support, the CPU winds up being a limiting factor... OCing to 4 ghz with some extreme cooling solution, like the xp-120 or water cooling... is probably the only way to really push frame rates, even with a SLI/crossfire solution.

The Asus Eee PC I'm posting this from was four hundred dollars from newegg. It's not perfect, but as a student, it's great for web browsing, notetaking, etc.

Sounds like these guys and Monster Cable should talk shop.

• Gigabit Killer NIC ($230)
• Gigabit D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router ($160)

All the High end networking stuff you need! insane speed on both wired and lan. Youll probably be alittle in shock at this thing when you ralize that the bottleneck is on your modem... this thing can handle a lot of load and when it comes down to it you just might want to tell your ISP to speed you up!

• Gigabit Killer NIC ($230)
• Gigabit D-Link Xtreme N Gaming Router ($160)

All the High end networking stuff you need! insane speed on both wired and lan. Youll probably be alittle in shock at this thing when you ralize that the bottleneck is on your modem... this thing can handle a lot of load and when it comes down to it you just might want to tell your ISP to speed you up!

So you get a USB cable that has a repeater in it.

I think the repeater is a one-port USB hub, so they could be daisy chained for a while, as long as they get enough power from the original port. Maybe have a powered USB hub that the wireless receiver plugs into.

Or you use a USB-Ethernet Extender, which sends the USB signals over an Ethernet cable. I don't think that is USB over IP, so you probably can't plug that into an ethernet switch at all.

So you get a USB cable that has a repeater in it.

I think the repeater is a one-port USB hub, so they could be daisy chained for a while, as long as they get enough power from the original port. Maybe have a powered USB hub that the wireless receiver plugs into.

Or you use a USB-Ethernet Extender, which sends the USB signals over an Ethernet cable. I don't think that is USB over IP, so you probably can't plug that into an ethernet switch at all.

That card you got looks identical to my card. But though mine says "SBT-SRD4", the Sabrent SBT-SRD4 NewEgg sells looks a little different (the jumper block at the left end is missing on mine and yours).

What mobo are you using?

You didn't specify processor, so:

Intel

AMD

There was only one AMD board and 35 Intel boards that have 8 SATA2 ports. I'll leave it to you to decide which board to choose. I happen to have an Intel "Bad Axe 2" (975XBX2) board and love it, though I don't have anywhere near 8 drives in it at the moment.

These are just what I found with newegg. You can do your own searching from there. :)

You didn't specify processor, so:

Intel

AMD

There was only one AMD board and 35 Intel boards that have 8 SATA2 ports. I'll leave it to you to decide which board to choose. I happen to have an Intel "Bad Axe 2" (975XBX2) board and love it, though I don't have anywhere near 8 drives in it at the moment.

These are just what I found with newegg. You can do your own searching from there. :)

Dunno, last time I checked, OpenOffice could save in the .doc format (which is MS Office compatible, btw). So you don't really need to spend $449 on getting that done.

Also, according to Newegg, Office isn't $449

Try one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820189033
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134462
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134484

The $5 premium isn't too bad.

I have a 128 MB version of the same line, and I swear the thing is indestructible, despite being made out of two plastic halves that are glued together. One reason might be that there is a write protect switch on the drive, so the inside needs to be held to the inside a little better. I didn't really check the drives I linked to see if they have switches.

Try one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820189033
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134462
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134484

The $5 premium isn't too bad.

I have a 128 MB version of the same line, and I swear the thing is indestructible, despite being made out of two plastic halves that are glued together. One reason might be that there is a write protect switch on the drive, so the inside needs to be held to the inside a little better. I didn't really check the drives I linked to see if they have switches.

Try one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820189033
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134462
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134484

The $5 premium isn't too bad.

I have a 128 MB version of the same line, and I swear the thing is indestructible, despite being made out of two plastic halves that are glued together. One reason might be that there is a write protect switch on the drive, so the inside needs to be held to the inside a little better. I didn't really check the drives I linked to see if they have switches.

Yeah... getting an external USB DVD Drive is *so* expensive... I'm not sure how I was able to buy one for my wife... oh, wait, maybe I just spent $50 at newegg.

Speaking of cheap routers,if anyone needs an uber cheap router either to have a spare or just to set up a network on the cheap,may I suggest this one. I picked this one up a couple of weeks ago and surprisingly it purrs like a kitten. Doesn't choke on file transfers, has a nice interface for router adjustments, and stays very cool to the touch. Just don't expect it to look like the picture,as apparently that was the old model. The model you actually get is a tiny square that you can fit in your pocket and lays flat,as opposed to on its side in the picture. And with an after rebate price of $12 you really can't beat it. Hell,I couldn't even find a hub for that price! I figured being that cheap I'd have to use my Win2K pro box as a gateway and let my boys strictly use this for their LAN games,but no matter what I throw at it she just purrs like a kitten. But anyway that is my 02c,YMMV

Must be another CO day here. While we are at it, let me add my totally obvious comments. Instead of spending atleast 400-450$ on a PS3, you can build yourself a proper PC with components from newegg and download Ubuntu and install it for a superior Linux experience. What's that you say? You want a Blu-ray drive? Here's one that's not so expensive.

You don't want a BDROM and you can't be bothered to put together a PC? Say hello to Zonbu and their line of line of cheaper machines.

Zonbu not upto your taste? Perhaps Madtux might help.

That was from 3mins of Googling - you get my drift. Linux on PS3 is almost as old as Linux on PS2 (one with HDD). Anyone remember Linux on xbox?

I am not sure who or what I should be insulting here - the selection of this story or Popular Mechanics. Oh and 129$ from newegg for a BDROM drive is cheap enough for me (HTPC and all) - Give it a couple of months and you will get sub 100$ BDROM drives and as any serious gamer knows, it's not the console price that will get ya - it's the games as they come out but I digress. Back to watching Monty Python on Hulu...

It's true.

Even the most expensive retail version of Windows for PCs (Vista Ultimate) at non-upgrade pricing is at most $320 (directly from Microsoft) and available for as low as $220. The retail version of Vista Home Premium (non-upgrade) is $200-$260. Upgrade and OEM versions are even cheaper.

Microsoft Word 2007 is at most $230 (retail, non-upgrade) or $110 (upgrade) for non-volume business users ($193 and $90 at Amazon). Home users (up to three per household) can get Office 2007 Home & Student (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) for at most $150 ($95 at Amazon).

I agree that many people will be just fine with cheaper (or free) alternatives for their OS and word processor, but exaggerating and bullshitting like O'Reilly or Michael Moore doesn't help make the point.

You mean a $100 OS (probably even less if you get it bundled with a PC from a big-name manufacturer), and a $100 office suite. Nice troll, though.

You mean a $100 OS (probably even less if you get it bundled with a PC from a big-name manufacturer), and a $100 office suite. Nice troll, though.

No problem!

The state of the art for CF at the moment seems to be 32GB, not 8.

And yes, the microdrives were triumphs of miniaturization, and they were produced for years. But, the smaller the form factor the drive, the more expensive it was per megabyte or gigabyte.

Due to the cost and the fact that a 1" drive isn't that much smaller than a 1.5", and the spread of a common high speed external interface(USB & Firewire), they lost their niche, became rare enough to get the 'special purpose' price tag, and died against flash.

Even the 1.5" has ceased production if I remember right - they were used in the Ipods, but now Apple(and others) can build their 40GB or so capacity with flash just as cheaply, and often cheaper(no returns due to shock failed HD).

have you built many computers? with all of the systems i've put together, bundling wires is the most reasonable way to make the hardware manageable. additionally, the use of aftermarket cooling devices is often essential when you are planning to run your hardware at maximum capacity 24/7. if the plan for the hardware is something that the manufacturer never envisioned (which is clearly the case), then you have to find appropriate solutions. in the future, you may want to look a little more closely before jumping straight into harsh criticism.

personally, i think their heat issue could be solved with 1/2" tubes and water.

"I bet I only access at most 20 gb of that most of the time. Even making a say, 32gb or 64gb buffer would work great for how I use the computer - I'd be running entirely off the SSD part most of the time."

Actually you'd be surprised how far just a 10gb buffer would go, and ram is getting cheap enough that it's possible to do that now. You can buy 4gb DDR2 ram for $70. That's 12gb for about $200. With 12gb of ram most people could store nearly every application within RAM (or just Vista by itself), that is if the OS will recognize 12gb (32-bit XP & Vista doesn't).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220247

The that one from newegg is smaller and half the cost. I still love my dime sized PQI 2GB drive though, it fits in my wallet and doesn't cause it bulge.

There is an easier place to keep track of such things:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives

Newegg doesn't always have the best prices, and they aren't always pain free, but they are usually pain free and almost always have competitive prices.

There are plenty of 4 GB half sticks, especially if you don't care extra for Crucial:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309421175&bop=And&Pagesize=50

Some are downright tiny:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208342
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211252

There is an easier place to keep track of such things:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives

Newegg doesn't always have the best prices, and they aren't always pain free, but they are usually pain free and almost always have competitive prices.

There are plenty of 4 GB half sticks, especially if you don't care extra for Crucial:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309421175&bop=And&Pagesize=50

Some are downright tiny:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208342
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211252

There is an easier place to keep track of such things:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives

Newegg doesn't always have the best prices, and they aren't always pain free, but they are usually pain free and almost always have competitive prices.

There are plenty of 4 GB half sticks, especially if you don't care extra for Crucial:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309421175&bop=And&Pagesize=50

Some are downright tiny:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208342
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211252

There is an easier place to keep track of such things:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives

Newegg doesn't always have the best prices, and they aren't always pain free, but they are usually pain free and almost always have competitive prices.

There are plenty of 4 GB half sticks, especially if you don't care extra for Crucial:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309421175&bop=And&Pagesize=50

Some are downright tiny:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208342
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211252

There is an easier place to keep track of such things:

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=522&name=USB-Flash-Drives

Newegg doesn't always have the best prices, and they aren't always pain free, but they are usually pain free and almost always have competitive prices.

There are plenty of 4 GB half sticks, especially if you don't care extra for Crucial:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522%201309421175&bop=And&Pagesize=50

Some are downright tiny:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208342
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609295
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211252

Thats a PQI-style connector on the end. The real PQI drives are a much better deal. Twice as much storage, same price, including shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141265

And as far as small goes, these are smaller (although less capacity):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141275

Thats a PQI-style connector on the end. The real PQI drives are a much better deal. Twice as much storage, same price, including shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141265

And as far as small goes, these are smaller (although less capacity):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141275

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2013240522+1309421175&name=4GB

Dam, even a 15 second foray to Newegg turns up no fewer than 4 drives that are small, have a capacity of 4 gigs, and are well rated.

Whats next, "This man in a lab coat says ____'s "Male Enhancement" product really works"

Before I go into monologue mode, it looks like Dell already has something in the ultra slim ultra cheap arena. Dell EPP Inspiron 530S starts under $400, ok not as cheap as the Asus solution, but still.

You are comparing to the wrong technology. SLC drives are extremely expensive, but this is a MLC drive. You should look at these items instead to extrapolate cost:

Super Talent MLC Solid State Disks on Newegg

The Samsung drive is much higher performance than these, but the fabrication costs should not be too far off. I'd guess $1500 for the 256 GB model when it comes out.

This drive could cost $5,000 based on a 128GB drive for $3,050 and 64GB drives from $900 to $1,150.

NewEgg search for Solid State SATA disks

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=636&Category=15&name=Solid-State-Disks

Have you even looked. I see at least three 64GB ones. and one 128GB. Price is their biggest disadvantage.

Um, what's that about the "Win" part?