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no such problem for adelaide australia with internode and its citylan service - https://hotspot.internode.on.net/partners/citylan/ basically covers the entire city center http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/scripts/nc.dll? ADCC:STANDARD::pc=PC_143 and they have free access at the airport http://www.aal.com.au/t1/wifi.aspx as well - all in all - adelaide is a great place to be if you want wifi - can sit in cafe's and hook in all over the city - and with the added bonus of air-stream http://www.air-stream.org.au/ you can get free internet basically city wide as unofficiall the air-stream network is hooked up to the citylan so you can get online without a problem

(sorry missing link)
http://www.users.on.net/~luffy/diamonds/cultural/m athematics.php

it's got to have at least, say, an 8" diagonal screen with 1024x768 to be even slightly useful (and the more pixels, the better).

Depends on what you're using it for. My Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 (link is not my site, BTW) has a screen about 4 inches diagonal. It's highly portable and I use it a lot for writing (poems, stories, essays - text entry as opposed to heavy formatting). I have even taken it on camping trips, USB cabled to my cell phone to check mail and have emergency login capabilities to the server at work. (This is for "car camping", not backpacking; when I go to the woods the rest of the world can go to hell for a few days.)

I have to set the font size very small to get an 80x25 terminal, but it's good enough for a quick login and restart the hung process sort of operation. Battery life is good and I can recharge it from a USB-style socket - so with a 12VDC-to-USB adaptor I'm set for the road.

It runs Linux and I love the clamshell form factor. And people often stop and ask about it and admire it.

Uh...there are lots of telcos in Australia that will give you ADSL2+. I'm living in little ol' Adelaide and I can get ADSL2+ http://www.internode.on.net/.

I though the was plenty of software out there to automatically adjust the time on PC using Internet time servers, so why would anybody spend there money with those greedy ass wipes at M$.

This piece of software http://www.users.on.net/~johnson/internode/ provides all you need, if you are with the right ISP.

interesting; how does the copyleft license of Glide influence this? Do they follow it?

Internode has just set up free wireless access in Adelaide and Darwin Airports.
Here are some links to their press releases:
http://www.internode.on.net/about/news/20060814-da rwinairport.htm
http://www.internode.on.net/about/news/20051009-ad elaideairport.htm

Internode has just set up free wireless access in Adelaide and Darwin Airports.
Here are some links to their press releases:
http://www.internode.on.net/about/news/20060814-da rwinairport.htm
http://www.internode.on.net/about/news/20051009-ad elaideairport.htm

Itunes 7 still doesn't support streaming AAC+ yet it plays AAC+ video files.. bizarre

ie http://radio.internode.on.net:8120/

The manufacturer is Sharp, and they no longer distribute them in the US.

However, there are distributors that import them and do the English language conversion, such as conics.net.

The SL-C3xxx clamshell models with built-in harddrives rock. It's like having a laptop that was exposed to a shrink ray.

I installed KO/Pi on mine as an scheduler/organizer, and use the provided "Hancom Word" word processor to maintain my journal and do other writing. I got a WiFi card for it, and I can even hook up my cell phone via it's USB port and do a SSH session from anywhere I can get a signal.

I think their success in Japan versus the U.S. is due to the fact that in Japan, the clamshell form factor seems to be very common for electronic dictonaries, while Americans are still looking for something that looks like a Palm Pilot. It's a shame and a crime that such a wonderful piece of technology, which draws admiring stares whereever I go, isn't more widely available in the U.S.

NetBSD has verified exec option, it doesn't prevent you from being exploited if the kernel is compromised though.
But NetBSD's kernel is extremely well written and as far as I've seen is the one with the best track record of all open source kernels.
Together with the Systrace (by NetBSD developer Niels Provos) you can build extremely secure systems that are super portable.

FreeBSD has similar functionality with its TrustedBSD framework.

I would say NetBSD or FreeBSD is your best bet.

Maybe you can make a Linux install with a subset of the same functionality through SELinux, but I dubt it will be as nice as the NetBSD route.

http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/graph/index.htm

If a person lives within 1.7km of wire from their nearest concentrator, then they can get 20MBps.

If you think "almost everyone" lives within 1.7km of wire from their nearest concentrator, I think you're wrong.

Over time, as more remote concentrators are installed, most people in dense areas will be able to get something like this. But right now, I can't imagine that over half of the people in your country live that close.

In Australia we are not even allowed to know what is being censored/filtered. The ISP's are given a list and they are not allowed to release it.

This url refers to newsgroups that are blocked: http://www.internode.on.net/content/premium-news/# Are_there_any_newsgroups_you_blo

For those interested in how computers play a role in all of this, it can be a great advantage. Allow me to paste the conclusion from my learning site and then pimp it.

Using computers to discover Japanese is all about choice. You can choose the words you look up faster, choose your dictionary, choose what online texts and video you would like to look at, choose which words are cool or relevant to today's culture, choose to stick to copying and pasting from documents or use kanji handwriting recognition dictionaries with printed texts. Assume that anything is possible and know what to search for. These are ways Japanese language learning had not established before because computers themselves never had those choices.

http://www.users.on.net/~luffy/diamonds/other/japa nese/computerlearning.php

Just for students already started, google is one of the most overlooked tools... you won't always need someone to tell you whether you sentence is right if google tells you 50,000 other people think it is at least "good enough" :P

From my ISP ,

Dear Internode customer,

We're writing to let you know that we're about to turn on some filtering (protection) on HOME and SOHO Internet connections.

This is to help reduce the volume of email spam (junk email) and some other Internet 'worms' and viruses. The filtering will be activated on April 3rd 2006.

For more detail please read on below: .............

At Internode, we hate email spam and the challenges often called 'network worms' as much as you do.

Internode is about to commence a new initiative to further fight the incidence and spread of these things on the Internet.

If you are unsure about what the rest of this bulletin means... just relax... this means that you probably need to take no action at this time!

* What we will do

From 3rd April 2006, customers using HOME and SOHO services (via broadband or dialup access) will enjoy the increased network protection provided by these simple changes:

1) Windows File Sharing Ports Filtered

Access to some common Microsoft Windows file sharing service ports (commonly used by computer 'worms' and viruses to attack Windows PCs attached to the Internet) will be filtered out of your Internet connection.

2) Outbound email (email that you send out to other people) will need to be sent via the Internode mail server

Sending email via the normal Internode mail server (mail.internode.on.net or securemail.internode.on.net) will continue to work as normal, with no changes needed to do this.

However, using other email servers to send email (which is not the usual or recommended way to do so) will no longer be possible after the filters are put in place.

Note: this does not affect incoming email (email that you receive from other servers, places and people).

* How you can opt-out if you don't want Internode to do these things

For most of our customers, this initiative will require no action at all by you.

Some of the more 'technical' members of our customer base may have specific technical requirements that conflict with the presence of the new filtering processes noted above.

If you do not wish Internode to provide these filtering services on your Internet connection, it is very easy to 'opt out' (disable the filtering).

To opt out, log in to the Internode online accounts facility, which is here:

http://accounts.internode.on.net/cgi-bin/login

and then select 'Enable/Disable Network Port Filtering'

You can do this today, prior to the deployment of the filtering process on April 3rd.

Again, if you are unsure what this all means to you, chances are that you should simply keep enjoying your Internet service as normal, taking no action in response to this bulletin.

Regards,

  The Internode Team

_______________________________________________
This is the Internode-Bulletins mailing list

For Internode technical support, please visit: http://support.internode.on.net/

To adjust list settings or view list archives, please visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/int ernode-bulletins

To be removed from this list:
send email to internode-bulletins-request@lists.internode.on.net
with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

From my ISP ,

Dear Internode customer,

We're writing to let you know that we're about to turn on some filtering (protection) on HOME and SOHO Internet connections.

This is to help reduce the volume of email spam (junk email) and some other Internet 'worms' and viruses. The filtering will be activated on April 3rd 2006.

For more detail please read on below: .............

At Internode, we hate email spam and the challenges often called 'network worms' as much as you do.

Internode is about to commence a new initiative to further fight the incidence and spread of these things on the Internet.

If you are unsure about what the rest of this bulletin means... just relax... this means that you probably need to take no action at this time!

* What we will do

From 3rd April 2006, customers using HOME and SOHO services (via broadband or dialup access) will enjoy the increased network protection provided by these simple changes:

1) Windows File Sharing Ports Filtered

Access to some common Microsoft Windows file sharing service ports (commonly used by computer 'worms' and viruses to attack Windows PCs attached to the Internet) will be filtered out of your Internet connection.

2) Outbound email (email that you send out to other people) will need to be sent via the Internode mail server

Sending email via the normal Internode mail server (mail.internode.on.net or securemail.internode.on.net) will continue to work as normal, with no changes needed to do this.

However, using other email servers to send email (which is not the usual or recommended way to do so) will no longer be possible after the filters are put in place.

Note: this does not affect incoming email (email that you receive from other servers, places and people).

* How you can opt-out if you don't want Internode to do these things

For most of our customers, this initiative will require no action at all by you.

Some of the more 'technical' members of our customer base may have specific technical requirements that conflict with the presence of the new filtering processes noted above.

If you do not wish Internode to provide these filtering services on your Internet connection, it is very easy to 'opt out' (disable the filtering).

To opt out, log in to the Internode online accounts facility, which is here:

http://accounts.internode.on.net/cgi-bin/login

and then select 'Enable/Disable Network Port Filtering'

You can do this today, prior to the deployment of the filtering process on April 3rd.

Again, if you are unsure what this all means to you, chances are that you should simply keep enjoying your Internet service as normal, taking no action in response to this bulletin.

Regards,

  The Internode Team

_______________________________________________
This is the Internode-Bulletins mailing list

For Internode technical support, please visit: http://support.internode.on.net/

To adjust list settings or view list archives, please visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/int ernode-bulletins

To be removed from this list:
send email to internode-bulletins-request@lists.internode.on.net
with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

From my ISP ,

Dear Internode customer,

We're writing to let you know that we're about to turn on some filtering (protection) on HOME and SOHO Internet connections.

This is to help reduce the volume of email spam (junk email) and some other Internet 'worms' and viruses. The filtering will be activated on April 3rd 2006.

For more detail please read on below: .............

At Internode, we hate email spam and the challenges often called 'network worms' as much as you do.

Internode is about to commence a new initiative to further fight the incidence and spread of these things on the Internet.

If you are unsure about what the rest of this bulletin means... just relax... this means that you probably need to take no action at this time!

* What we will do

From 3rd April 2006, customers using HOME and SOHO services (via broadband or dialup access) will enjoy the increased network protection provided by these simple changes:

1) Windows File Sharing Ports Filtered

Access to some common Microsoft Windows file sharing service ports (commonly used by computer 'worms' and viruses to attack Windows PCs attached to the Internet) will be filtered out of your Internet connection.

2) Outbound email (email that you send out to other people) will need to be sent via the Internode mail server

Sending email via the normal Internode mail server (mail.internode.on.net or securemail.internode.on.net) will continue to work as normal, with no changes needed to do this.

However, using other email servers to send email (which is not the usual or recommended way to do so) will no longer be possible after the filters are put in place.

Note: this does not affect incoming email (email that you receive from other servers, places and people).

* How you can opt-out if you don't want Internode to do these things

For most of our customers, this initiative will require no action at all by you.

Some of the more 'technical' members of our customer base may have specific technical requirements that conflict with the presence of the new filtering processes noted above.

If you do not wish Internode to provide these filtering services on your Internet connection, it is very easy to 'opt out' (disable the filtering).

To opt out, log in to the Internode online accounts facility, which is here:

http://accounts.internode.on.net/cgi-bin/login

and then select 'Enable/Disable Network Port Filtering'

You can do this today, prior to the deployment of the filtering process on April 3rd.

Again, if you are unsure what this all means to you, chances are that you should simply keep enjoying your Internet service as normal, taking no action in response to this bulletin.

Regards,

  The Internode Team

_______________________________________________
This is the Internode-Bulletins mailing list

For Internode technical support, please visit: http://support.internode.on.net/

To adjust list settings or view list archives, please visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/int ernode-bulletins

To be removed from this list:
send email to internode-bulletins-request@lists.internode.on.net
with the word 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

http://www.users.on.net/triforce/d3dbench.zip
http://www.users.on.net/triforce/d3dbenchsrc.zip

http://www.users.on.net/triforce/d3dbench.zip
http://www.users.on.net/triforce/d3dbenchsrc.zip

I've been an iPrimus ADSL residential and business customer since their first ADSL product - which was 1.5Mbit, unlimited data, for something around A$120/month - an absolute bargain at the time (2001). They soon realised that unlimited data was an unsupportable offer and drastically restricted it (along with all other ISPs).

Anyway, the plans cited above are competitive with other major ISPs: Netspace's comparable plan is $69.95, though quotas rise to 50GB (split between peak and off-peak). Bigpond offers a 512kbps 'unlimited' (really 10GB, after that, it slows to 64kbps) also from $69.95. Their 20GB/1.5Mbps plan starts from $129.95, or more than 8 times the service in Toronto (and it's still not unlimited). Internode's 40GB/512kbps is exactly the same price.

As for 'ii', do you have that service installed? Is it generally available like the other ADSL providers? Are you trying to compare apples and oranges? I'm discussing products available today, not ADSL2 and other exotics that might be available in the future.

I've been an iPrimus ADSL residential and business customer since their first ADSL product - which was 1.5Mbit, unlimited data, for something around A$120/month - an absolute bargain at the time (2001). They soon realised that unlimited data was an unsupportable offer and drastically restricted it (along with all other ISPs).

Anyway, the plans cited above are competitive with other major ISPs: Netspace's comparable plan is $69.95, though quotas rise to 50GB (split between peak and off-peak). Bigpond offers a 512kbps 'unlimited' (really 10GB, after that, it slows to 64kbps) also from $69.95. Their 20GB/1.5Mbps plan starts from $129.95, or more than 8 times the service in Toronto (and it's still not unlimited). Internode's 40GB/512kbps is exactly the same price.

As for 'ii', do you have that service installed? Is it generally available like the other ADSL providers? Are you trying to compare apples and oranges? I'm discussing products available today, not ADSL2 and other exotics that might be available in the future.

Pretty soon you will have the computer in your pocket that you plug into the monitor.

You can almost do this with the newer Sharp Zaurus models. Pocketsized Linux box, 4 GB drive...you can even hook up a USB keyboard and mouse to it.

Supposedly there is an VGA output option, but no one seems to be able to get it to work. You could probably get it going to display on your desktop machine with VNC or with X Windows somehow.

The Zaurus C3000 rocks. For the past few months it's replaced my trusty pencila and notebook for writing poetry and journaling. Gets lots on envious looks when people see mine; unfortnately they're not marketed in the U.S., but a few companies import them and convert them to English from Japanese.

(The clamshell form factor for small electronics is much more common in Japan, widely used for electronic dictionaries and translators.)

Use ADSL/cable in Brazil to get amazing 256 kbps. The fastest services are around 1 Mbps. Let's see some prices for this really advanced service:

- cable modem, 1200 kbps: R$ 149,90
- adsl, 1000kbps: R$ 178,90

Now for some math: the average monthly income for a Brazilian is R$ 800,00. I don't know how much is the average income in England, but I'll assume it is £1600,00. That means the ~1Mbps "fast" internet costs here 0.19AI (average incomes) and in England, the 5-25 Mbps broadband costs 0.015AI. If one averages ADSL2+ at around 8000 Mpbs, we get, in England, a price of 0.0019AI/Mbps, while in Brazil, we get 0.19AI/Mbps, 100 times the value found for England.

Unfortunately, this post has no conclusion.

I already have it... :)

This is being provided by almost every ISP in australia except Tel$tra
It is of course very distance dependant
Basically they just have ADSL2+ DLSAMs and they let you run at the maximum speed allowed by the ADSL 2+ specification, so you only get the maximum speed (24000/1000) if you are close enough to the DSLAM for it to work at that speed, since im quite far away from the DSLAM i only get about 5000/1000, but thats a hell of a lot faster than 1500/256, which is the maximum avaiable on Tel$tra DSLAMs

http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/graph/index.htm A Nice Little Graph with distance/speed :)

I've already moderated in this thread, but what they hey...

This is based on ADSL2+, same as the service offered by Internode, iiNet or Adam in Australia. Internode really led the way and were the first to roll out DSLAMs that would offer up to 24 Mbps download speeds and about 1 Mbps upload. iiNet, although they offer ADSL2+, limit it to 12 Mbps download.

Now, I suspect the reason for this is that while 24Mbps is the theoretical maximum download speed over ADSL2+, you're only going to get that speed if you have a perfect line and live really close to the exchange. If you're even 2km away, then you're speed is going to drop a fair bit: granted, you'll still get about 15Mbps, but not the 24Mbps advertised. My guess is that iiNet just finds it easier to guarantee 12Mbps rather than trying to explain that, "well, you might get 24Mpbs, but there's all these other factors and we can't guarantee it, and no, we don't know exactly what speed you'll end up with."

There was a really good graph on this here, which shows deteriorating performance as you move further from the exchange.

The other thing about this that really interests me is that Australia was derided and we complained for so long about how far behind the rest of the world we were when it came to broadband, but it now looks like we're really catching up - maybe in large part as we have good companies like Internode who are very tech-minded, still small enough to focus on service rather than just the almighty buck, and who actually want to provide good services to people.

I've already moderated in this thread, but what they hey...

This is based on ADSL2+, same as the service offered by Internode, iiNet or Adam in Australia. Internode really led the way and were the first to roll out DSLAMs that would offer up to 24 Mbps download speeds and about 1 Mbps upload. iiNet, although they offer ADSL2+, limit it to 12 Mbps download.

Now, I suspect the reason for this is that while 24Mbps is the theoretical maximum download speed over ADSL2+, you're only going to get that speed if you have a perfect line and live really close to the exchange. If you're even 2km away, then you're speed is going to drop a fair bit: granted, you'll still get about 15Mbps, but not the 24Mbps advertised. My guess is that iiNet just finds it easier to guarantee 12Mbps rather than trying to explain that, "well, you might get 24Mpbs, but there's all these other factors and we can't guarantee it, and no, we don't know exactly what speed you'll end up with."

There was a really good graph on this here, which shows deteriorating performance as you move further from the exchange.

The other thing about this that really interests me is that Australia was derided and we complained for so long about how far behind the rest of the world we were when it came to broadband, but it now looks like we're really catching up - maybe in large part as we have good companies like Internode who are very tech-minded, still small enough to focus on service rather than just the almighty buck, and who actually want to provide good services to people.

There's one, big, fundamental difference in the services provided. Internode caps the amount of data you're allowed to download (15-60 gigs, depending on how much you pay). Meanwhile, Be has no download cap whatsoever. This, I think, makes Be's service significantly better.

Internode have offered this in Australia for some time. Wish it was available where I am, but i'm stuck on 12000/1000 with iinet (no, i don't work for either of them, but i've been a happy customer of both)

If you are using Proxomitron and Grypen's Latest Filters for Proxomitron, then this sites "IE only requirement" becomes VERY easy to bypass.

How do you we do this once Proxomitron and Gryphen's filters are installed? Easy! Open up

User - Include - Exclude.txt

Then add the following into this file.

www.fema.gov $SET(keyword=.js.ajs.code.flash.popup.iesite.)

Once this is done - you can now visit the site using any god damn browser you want. In my case I tested the registration page under Opera, Firefox, and Mozilla, and as far as FEMA site was concerned, this was my user agent.

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)

So really, I don't know why moronic webmasters, especially for a government or government related site, want to pull shit like this for users whom may not know how to get around "IE only" requirements.

All I can say is use Proxomitron for Windows and Grypen's Proxomitron Filters for effecitve cookie filtering along with a whole whack of other filters for ad's and anything else malicious.

I dunno -- do you look at Linus in a bathing suit and think "Gee, if this only involved Bruce Perens! And patents!"

[warning: bad sarcasm ahead]

Welcome to Australia. Firstly, do you live in an area where the local telco exchange has third party DSLAMs installed? If so, forget whats mentioned below. You can get up to 24mbit ADSL2 you lucky barstard.

You don't? We'll, your're like me. Welcome to telco monopoly by default. Whats a Baby Bell? Sorry, Baby Bell everywhere in the country only means one word: "Toolstra". Pity, we're stuck with only up to 1.5mbit ADSL.

(I'm on 512/128k ADSL with 15gb cap for $50 which ain't too bad, but where my ISP has installed their own DSLAMs people are getting up to 24mbits for the same price).

Cable? Whats that? Unlike our friends in America the whole country isn't cabled in DOCSIS lovin'. It took a while for the Pay TV battlers to figure out their shit didn't sell (and still doesn't), rolling two networks in the one street is stupid and the local city councils don't like them. Lucky? $70 for 10mbit/128k with 12gb. Less lucky because the only cable provider is a certain evil telco whos initals are N.C? ADSL pricing and speeds for you!

Live in outer suburbs? On a farm? On pair gain? Sorry, ISDN is for you. Want something faster? Geostationary orbit sattelites provide you with unencrypted data transmission for crappy prices. Just move somewhere else dammit.

Want access on to go? GPRS? $50AUD p/m on top of voice plan for 500mb. Don't want to pay $50? Sorry, anywhere from 0.11-2.2c/KB for j00.

Lousy Telstra. Want to roll your own network in regional Australia? sorry, thats a monopoly too. My ISP had to use microwave.

While the SL-5500 was an interesting hackable toy, the SL-C860 is a joy to use and a really useful bit of kit

Just got an SL-C3000. (Not my site, just to be clear.)

It rocks. This is the droid I've been looking for.

Well, I just whipped up one that looks for the number of "dupe!!" posts ... it works for this article, anyway :-)

All it does on this version is just put a big ol' red "DUPLICATE ARTICLE" just before the start of the comments... which is probably enough for me.

I've put it up here

It's a quick hack of the NO BS slashdot script which is handy in itself. :-)

I asked my friend about it and heres the url http://www.users.on.net/~jvizard/myne/XPmoboUG/ its a bunch of screenshots that show you want to do and have some instructions on the pics. You might be able to repair an install with it too, probably depends on how bad the problems are.

Surely the UK and US would have at least... http://www.internode.on.net/adsl2/index.htm I've been using 24Mbit for a while...

Install Acme::Bushisms and you will be able to see that my perl rebuttal is no more dangerous than our glorious leader!

Resource Hacker is a nice tool for editing the resource files in windows binary files. It lets you replace dialogs, icons, etc. Probably works with DLLs, but I haven't used it recently.

NetBSD includes a feature called Verified Exec which refuses to allow anything to run that doesn't validate against a stored hash. Good for the paranoid amongst us (or would be, if they didn't all use OpenBSD).

I hope my ISP and AppleTalk.au don't mind - But here is Quick mirror to take the load off AppleTalk

http://users.on.net/~matrox/appletalk.htm

Actually this was my belief when I was about 9, that I would get into computers some way or another and make big bucks out of it, the year was 1995-1996, I had my first introduction to the Macintosh Colour classic and the IBM clones, 386's and 486's.

I went through public school believing that someday I would be able to peer inside a computer and actually work on one or at least program for one, This ended up affecting my last year at primary and I missed out on a great deal of study for my last year.

Then I started cheating with a calculator in mathematics, my mother allowed me to buy one from the local super market, a small Casio black Solar powered one which was very easily concealed, the simple argument that the teachers permitted the use of them at school, my mother never confirmed this, Mathematics this being my lighter subject I was projected as being top of the class and sent to High school in that fashion.

Now high school came along and I was forced to re-do another maths test which put me at the bottom of the class in mathematics, being humiliated and tormented by not only dropping from my "computer fame" (even just being involved in computers was a boon for popularity at primary school) aswell as bullies at High school (I was not only obese but also tall) I called it quits and dropped out of high school in my third month of my first year.

So I was given a choice in the principles office, I can either stay and jog through the humiliation and torment of high school or I can have a choice of staying at home and studying there with Distance education.

I went with Distance education I will regret that for the rest of my life, if however short.

Computers was the worst thing that ever happened to me, I was introduced to a computer yet again, megar thing Colour classic, but it was enough to get me hooked at playing the computer games again, SEVEN years have passed since that day that I was introduced to Distance education.

Funny thing is, it wasn't the Apple that got me hooked to computer games, it was the fucking three IBM computers they left in the "computer room" right adjunct to year 5 and year 6's class rooms.

Last thing I heared just before I left for high school that year 5 had received internet access on a new PowerPC.

My parents didn't give a rats ass about me and they still don't, they've considered themselves retired and useless for the past twenty years, after my father's car accident when he was working at BHP he had a major car accident which cost him his back and job as a labourer at BHP, now he can't go anywhere without two sticks soon it will be a wheelchair.

My father did however introduce me to the commodore 64 and commodore 16 (my first computer) and then later on the Amiga 500 then the IBM 386, then the Amiga 600, then the IBM 486 and then eventually 1998 came along and I got my first pentium.

You can see my megar life wasted at this url: http://users.on.net/~freax/gallery/index.html

Funny thing is, throughout this entire ordeal, no one decided that it was time for me to go back to high school.

Yet here I am, 21 years of age in 2005 and still trying to get my high school certificate that I should have gotten in 1999.

I'm going to assume that everyone here thought that I was a genius, when infact I was and never will be.

But I'm about to make a descision which will yet again decide the rest of my life, I just made the descision that all of that computer knowledge at which I had collected between leaving high school and today shouldn't be wasted, but the fact remains all of it only amounts to a megar pc repairers job or maybe, just maybe, an administration career over countless windows drones.

But I only have two choices, waste another year getting my year 10 or go for a Tech support course at the local TAFE campus, I'm too poor to go straight to University and I'm too underqualified to get into any of the

Screenshots

Screenshots

I only want it if it talks like Talkie!

So? How is this relevant? It's still a strong competitor in the Office market.

Being from Australia and travelled, Australia is cool but I would still move Japan up the list to above Australia (and England down). Not done Sweden as yet. Add Jordan to that, and when possible Syria, too much really neat stuff to see. Japan has neat stuff to see and really cute neat stuff to buy. For our trip diaries check out http://www.users.on.net/~medge they are full of opinions, but transcribed as is, no post editing at all.

A good friend of mine recently completed work on a 6 thousand light computer controlled light display.

Custom built all the electronics, and wrote a number of custom programs to control the lights.

Best thing is? Being able to sit on the street with a laptop and terminal service into his light controlling computer and control the lights :D

$59/m for 256/64? Crap value. Unless your a money tight leecher.

I'm paying $59 for 512/128 with Internode for 16gb (after that is shaping to 64k). Definitely worth it and I haven't had much troubles with it.

Anyway, Australia IS the home of bad broadband pricing. Apparently Telstra charges hell per MB for AGVC backhaul access for ADSL to the point that 24/7 downloading on a 1.5/256 line will cost $900. Providers are setting up their own DSLAMs where they have the most customers and they probably are getting a fatter profit out of them too.

Anyone got something with more meat?