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Just get a cheap wireless access point or router.
They're highly configurable and may come in handy for many other things.
Fry's Outpost has some for $29, and once in a while even drops below $17! (for the Airlink AR315W)

If you want one that you can do an incredible amount of stuff with, get a Linksys WRT54G... there are many Linux distros people have made for it (runs Linux from the factory) that add tons of features. There's also instructions on adding a serial port for a console.

I hear you, I remember when they were promising optical disks that would hold as much data as hundreds of floppy disks, and would be 100x bigger than that 5 megabyte hard drive in your PC. Where are they?!?!?!

Then you had promises that they would release optical disks that would hold gigabytes...that's right GIGABYTES, of data. Did they ever show up?

Even just a few years ago, we heard about this 'pixie dust' stuff for hard drives. This technology was supposed to make hard drive density high enough that you could go down to your local Fry's, and for a few hundred dollars buy a terrabyte drive. When will the empty promises end?!?!?!

512mb, USB2.0, LCD display, FM radio, voice record, simple phone book, etc. $29.99(on sale) USD @ Fry's. AVB Player

http://www.addonshop.com/
http://www.sub300.com/
http://www.linare.com/
http://www.linspire.com/
http://www.linuxcertified.com/
http://www.microtelpc.com/
http://www.outpost.com/
http://shoprcubed.com/
http://www.systemax.com/divisions.htm
http://www.walmart.com/
http://www.xandros.com/
http://tuxmobil.org/
http://www.us.debian.org/distrib/pre-installed
http://www.linux.org/vendor/system/index.html

I want to add that you should hook yourself up to a cheap source of replacement keyboards.

http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3069669?site=sr:S EARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Keep a couple handy at all times.

The major computer OEMs such as Dell, HP, and
Gateway are refusing to offer CONSUMERS a
non-Microsoft choice.
These OEMs are anti-competitve and
anti-consumer-choice. They continue to maintain Microsoft's desktop
monopoly.

I suggest not doing business with these companies until they offer a serious non-Microsoft choice to CONSUMERS.

Here are some companies that DO offer consumers a choice.

http://www.systemax.com/divisions.htm
http://www.microtelpc.com/
http://www.linuxcertified.com/

http://www.outpost.com/ (search for linspire)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=395 1&path=0%3A3944%3A3951
http://www.sub300.com/Skins/greyTech/greyTech_inde x.aspx
http://www.linare.com/
http://www.linspire.com/featured_partner/featured_ partner.php
http://www.us.debian.org/distrib/pre-installed
http://www.linux.org/vendor/system/index.html

But if you went to the US, you might have a problem with the strong US vs Canadian dollar. And the price of the trip (well, unless you just pick them up when you happen to be out of the country) would probably outweight the taxes.

It's not that bad any more. An $0.82 dollar means basically the savings of not paying sales tax are gone. It was a terrible deal at $0.70, but it's much easier to do by mail than crossing the border.

[U.S.] MAXELL 48X CD-R 100-SPINDLE: $29.99 USD = $36.92 CDN
[CDN ] Maxell 100-Pack 48X 700MB CD-R: $48.71 USD = $59.99 CDN

I couldn't be bothered to do it myself, but it does look to be a bit cheaper.

that nobody has mentioned Fry's electronics. You might have to stop by their retail locations for most of the good deals, but they still have some great prices on most everything and you can check various forums for sales flyer scans. You can check out their online store here.

Shoplocal is another decent site for various electronic goods, you can check sales via zip code search, very handy site indeed.

Of course, I think every geek knows the standard site for street prices has to be the good ol' pricewatch.

-Seasons: almost wintah; wintah; still wintah; and construction.
-You can allways tell a mass. person by the way they talk or their driving (or lack of).
-Practice saying "worcester" (wus-ster)
-Park ya caa in havaad yaad.
-Don't complan about the winter. It will be your friend. (Uhh i cant get to work today im under 5' of snow...)
-Going south means going to boston.
-You can visit Dublin and London all in the same afternoon.
-Frys
-Get a shovel. A good one.

A local shop sells refurb 21" CRTs for $79.

LCDs of that size are too new to be available as refurbs. The cheapest 20" LCD here

http://shop4.outpost.com/catreq/3376

is $794 (+ shipping). (It happens to be the Apple Cinema Display.)

Maybe you haven't explored into the realm of DVD players lately, but you can find them for under $40 or even $20 after rebate. Even name brand players are available at under $40. Even a 5-disc DVD/MP3 changer can be had for under $60. I've seen simple players in stores for $30, no rebate. Or use pricewatch.com or pricegrabber.com to do even better than the simple examples I gave. And prices will only drop.

And if you've had 3 break in 3 years, yes you HAVE had bad luck. Even the cheap Taiwanese and Korean commodity crap doesn't regularly fail after that short a period. I have a few scattered around in the house with unpronouncable brand names that have served for 3 years strong.

The point is, if I can save $50-$70 on the Revolution because it doesn't play DVDs, great! Using my console as a DVD player would effectively lessen the lifetime of my console with regards to PLAYING CONSOLE GAMES. I suppose if your luck is that crappy, then YMMV. But if your luck is that crappy, I'd be weary of evening bothering with the Revolution at all. ;)

Tyan Thunder K8QS Pro Quad Socket 940 Motherboard AMD Solution Motherboard - Operton Motherboard: Outpost #: 4311135 http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4311135/

-Chipset: AMD-8131
-Processor Support: Quad Socket 940 for AMD Opteron 800 Series Processors
-Memory Support: Up to 32GB Registered PC3200 DDR
-Expansion Slot: Two 64-bit 66/33 MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit 133/100/66/33 MHz PCI-X, One 32-bit PCI Slots
-Other Features: GigaLAN, Integrated Video, SCSI

if you have the money to fork over, pick one of these up at your local Fry's Electronics or try fry's online at http://www.outpost.com/

Tyan Thunder K8QS Pro Quad Socket 940 Motherboard AMD Solution Motherboard - Operton Motherboard: Outpost #: 4311135 http://shop2.outpost.com/product/4311135/

-Chipset: AMD-8131
-Processor Support: Quad Socket 940 for AMD Opteron 800 Series Processors
-Memory Support: Up to 32GB Registered PC3200 DDR
-Expansion Slot: Two 64-bit 66/33 MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit 133/100/66/33 MHz PCI-X, One 32-bit PCI Slots
-Other Features: GigaLAN, Integrated Video, SCSI

if you have the money to fork over, pick one of these up at your local Fry's Electronics or try fry's online at http://www.outpost.com/

Show us this marvelous machine that costs $450 and includes a complete operating system and equivalent software to match iLife and AppleWorks (or iWork for another $80), and an LCD monitor that won't make your eyes bleed, and 512MB of RAM that's worth having. Seriously, show us this machine.

I'm not him, but whatever.

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4199563?site=sr:S EARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Plus this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=20-161-615&depa=1
And this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=24-160-137&depa=1

Computer: $280
RAM: $35
Monitor: $176
Total: $491 (So maybe the guy quoting $450 was pushing it a little, but not much)

Comes with Linspire, OpenOffice, Gimp, etc. For the sort of person who'd be buying this, it's a LOT better software package than Windows XP (good ease of use, virus / spyware immunity, already has an office suite, etc).

I've seen this very computer in the Sunday ads for $180, which with the RAM and Monitor would come out at $391.

But...the Mac mini looks cooler, you can install Linux on it like a PC if you want to, fits in smaller spaces, can run OSX (probably it's biggest attraction), and mac people won't look down on you if you have it.

Yes, Seagate drives are typically more expensive

Outpost.com is almost perpetually running $50 rebates on all manners of Seagate drives over the past few weeks. I'm not affiliated, but I grabbed one a while back, just thought I'd pass it on.

Looking for a mini keyring tool that does just about everything and has locking blades. The SeberTech M4 SeberTool is great.

I own a couple of them and have had them for 3 years so far. The fit in your wallet or coin pocket. I buy one for each of my staff and have been known to give them to friends for christmas.

I buy mine at Fry's http://shop4.outpost.com/product/2522351 but you can find them elsewhere.

Outpost.com claims that too:
40 GB
20 GB

I've sent them 3 e-mails since Thanksgiving. I eventually gave up.

Scott

Outpost.com claims that too:
40 GB
20 GB

I've sent them 3 e-mails since Thanksgiving. I eventually gave up.

Scott

• A store in the UK has a motherboard for £18.99 ($35). It includes sound, video, USB 2.0, and ethernet, plus the usual stuff.
  
• Outpost.com offers 128MB of PC2100 RAM for $20.
  
• Ebay has a bunch of 4.3GB IDEs with a "buy it now" price of $7. Let's assume new would be twice that at $14 if we could get it.
  
• A case + power will run you at least $22.
  
• I found floppy drives for $6.50.
  Throw in a network cable for half a buck's worth of parts.
  

You may not be able to find a decent PC for $100 today but it won't be long until it will go for $100.

I can get beige box specials in Australia that are under US$300 and cheaper if I want to buy the parts. 64M GeForce FX cards are worth what about AU$35? With the different market in the US, It seems that such a pc should cost even less. In fact this was the cheapest thing at fry's outpost at $179.

.
here

Just plug it in and turn it on -- no wep. You will have to spend some money on a lawyer for defense, but you will win and it will be cheaper than settling with the Ack Acks!

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056572

thats a 802.11G card for $15. Yes its really G. No i dont know if it runs on linux but it does run fine on windows once the drivers are installed. And yes that website DOES shit internationally.

also check out the USB one for $17:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056582

PCMCIA wireless card for $15:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056562

and the wireless G router for $25:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056592/

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056572

thats a 802.11G card for $15. Yes its really G. No i dont know if it runs on linux but it does run fine on windows once the drivers are installed. And yes that website DOES shit internationally.

also check out the USB one for $17:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056582

PCMCIA wireless card for $15:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056562

and the wireless G router for $25:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056592/

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056572

thats a 802.11G card for $15. Yes its really G. No i dont know if it runs on linux but it does run fine on windows once the drivers are installed. And yes that website DOES shit internationally.

also check out the USB one for $17:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056582

PCMCIA wireless card for $15:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056562

and the wireless G router for $25:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056592/

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056572

thats a 802.11G card for $15. Yes its really G. No i dont know if it runs on linux but it does run fine on windows once the drivers are installed. And yes that website DOES shit internationally.

also check out the USB one for $17:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056582

PCMCIA wireless card for $15:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056562

and the wireless G router for $25:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4056592/

Just so you know, every 3.5" drive enclosure I've ever seen requires a separate power supply. 3.5" disks require too much power to be reliably run from USB or firewire. This is one reason why a 2.5" drive solution is much better for portability.

So, take $130 of hardware and add $90 for my time to put the drive in the enclosure, install Mandrake, etc. and it doesn't seem like such a bad deal to me.

Subject: I want to build a 1.5TB storage array for MythTV

Recently ran into the account of a guy who built his own 1.2TB RAID50-based storage array for $1600. I really like the idea and have been thinking about following suit.

Like Finnie, I want to be able to store huge amounts of DivX/Xvid files online. In addition to the storage array, I also plan to build a separate MythTV box, which among other things will let me play them at will. My 200GB Series 1 TiVo's been serving me well for more than four years, but I really like the idea of being able to seamlessly integrate my AVI collection with TV recordings, and from what I gather MythTV has finally matured enough to be a realistic TiVo alternative.

I have been 100% Linux at home for almost a decade and am quite comfortable with most of the technical aspects of the project.

I'm planning on making the following changes to Finnie's build configuration:

• Instead of 200GB ATA, use 250GB SATA drives for a total of 1.5TB. Outpost.com offers a Western Digital 250GB SATA drive for $170. I just missed the chance to get a $30 rebate off each drive, but I'm sure Fatwallet will alert me to a similar opportunity sooner or later.
  
• Accordingly, get a HighPoint SATA RAID card instead of the specified RocketRAID 454 ATA RAID card. I think the RocketRAID 1640 is the way to go.
  
• Instead of ext3, use XFS as the file system.
  

My questions:

• If I connect the storage array to my Linksys WRT54G router, will 100Mbps Ethernet be fast enough to pump the AVI files to the MythTV box without dropping frames?
  
• Conversely, will 100Mbps Ethernet be sufficient to let me use the storage array as the primary storage medium for MythTV's recordings? What about HDTV encodings (using the pcHDTV Linux-only card)? Or do I have to upgrade to a Gigabit Ethernet router? Or would the encoder card and MythTV software have to run on the storage array itself in order to achieve acceptable performance? (Actually, I'm not opposed to doing so, if one box can simultaneously handle both storage and MythTV tasks.)
  
• Anything else that I'm missing or should keep in mind?
  

Thank you for illustrating my point. A computer for $299 Here and a monitor for $79.99 Here.

So if you have just $380 to put in a computer (think student here, his very first computer, the one that'll start molding his brain), then what could you possibly choose?

And keep in mind that outpost.com was the first website I tried. There _has_ to be less expensive. But we are already at less than 50% of the price of the lower Mac!!!!

Thank you for illustrating my point. A computer for $299 Here and a monitor for $79.99 Here.

So if you have just $380 to put in a computer (think student here, his very first computer, the one that'll start molding his brain), then what could you possibly choose?

And keep in mind that outpost.com was the first website I tried. There _has_ to be less expensive. But we are already at less than 50% of the price of the lower Mac!!!!

I've been waiting for a 2 line 5.8 phone for almost a year, making due with a 900 mhz single line phone for the time being. With a home office, 2 phone lines and 802.11b the 2.4 ghz phones were out. Finally in stock is the Uniden TRU8866. Best deal on phone & handsets was Frys.

I personally don't know what I'd do without my Palm. I use it basically to do everything I used to do in a paper and pencil organizer, and the difference between a 5 pound DayRunner and a 6 ounce m125 is pretty obvious. It's nice that you can also do other things like play cute little games on it and have an entire dictionary and thesaurus on it too.

If any of you reading this are in the Western US, Fry's is selling a Palm IIIxe in their stores for $30 after rebate. I have had good luck with these factory refurbed units. The XE has 8MB of Flash which, as you know, is split between files and programs and the OS. This device can have its OS upgraded to PalmOS v.4.1, which is pretty damn modern. You don't get the SDIO/SD/MMC slot I get, but that is a minor convenience.

Actually if you want to spend $80 you can get a a refurbed m125 like mine through Fry's online presence, Outpost.Com. I don't know if they are available in stores, but you can ask a salesperson to look up SKU number 3748726 on one of the machines on the floor. I like mine.

It occurred to me, as I type this with my Microsoft Natural Keyboard (TM) (R) (btw, only 23.95 at Fry's (TM) (R)), that product placement in blogs, such as Blogger (TM) (R), Livejournal (TM) (R), and Diaryland (TM) (R) may be one of the things in store for the future.

Sorry, but it's gone.

However, you can get it cheaper here.

Yikes! This product looks identical. Even figuring for the exchange rate, you guys are getting ripped. I could buy them in the US at retail and still sell for less than AUD299. Interested in importing some? :)

(thanks to a later poster who provided the US link.)

I've been meaning to get one for myself, but haven't yet found the time.

Fuel Cell Kit

I just ordered one today. Check FatWallet.com's Hot Deals forum for deals such as this all the time. If I was more on-the-ball, I could have gotten a WAP for free after rebate in weeks past.

It's not cheap, but Frye's has a completely built cabinet for the low low price of .

It's not cheap, but Frye's has a completely built cabinet for the low low price of .

Linux doesn't support the vibration and shock features in the dual shock controllers *yet*. There are people slowly working on it but last I read it has alot to do with the XFree guys since it's an X11 joystick driver.

I've got a Kiky-X playstation2->usb convertor, bought it for $10 at Frys and it works great in linux. Mandrake 9.2 detected it right away, knew what it was, and added a /dev/js0 just like it should. It's a little laggy at times but it's this particular adapter that's slow, others are rumored to be better.

About no games to play in linux, I guess that's true if you don't have WineX or a 3d card or live in a spider hole with no internet access. I've been playing Half Life, Counterstrike, Quake3, Urban Terror, my entire Mame complete collection, HOMAM, Unreal Tournament (and the newest one), the list goes on and on. Plus I have ePSXe and have copied all my playstation 1 games to .bin files so the emulator loads them without me feeding my cdrom the actual disc. Works perfectly also.

I think at this point there are more games available for Linux than MacOSX.

-rw: the most compatable format out there that can be read by 99.999% of the readers out there

+rw: newer and almost as compatable around 95% or so as long as your OS or third party app supports packet writing.

I think you're confusing recordable and rewritable. -R is the most compatible, followed by +R, -RW, and +RW.

Burners that handle both + and - formats are getting cheap. Fry's has a 4x dual-format burner for just under $100 now (it's cheaper in-store than on their website)...tested it on the MythTV box I'm putting together, and while dvdrecord and cdrecord-prodvd don't work too well with it, dvd+rw-tools (which now burns - media as well) works great with it.

My friend gave me an HD that he didn't need anymore, and it had a password set. My laptop did not recognize the drive when I didn't enter the password and my friend didn't remember his password.

Just by dumb luck, I happen to have an external USB enclosure and I figured what the hell. I put the drive in this and it worked fine as an external drive. However no amount of fdisk'ing, low level formatting or anything would remove the password. Oh well, it makes for a great Ghost'ing/portable hd that works (with fat16 or fat32) with just about every major OS out there.

I believe it stores the information in some sort of NVRAM on the hard disk. Using a dumber implementation of IDE (I.E. the USB Enclosure) got around it, so it must require the BIOS to honor the password stored in NVRAM. Don't know much else.

Systemax pc's are pretty good, been around awhile, basic solid machines. If you already use AOL, thats a nice system with monitor for 299. Wonder how much the ink cartridges are... The mobo seems to be very cheap, would be nice for more specs.

Doing a quick pricewatch search shows the pc is an average deal, and system max uses quality oem hardware, your choice.

But I'd rather go over to Outpost.com (frys) and get something like amd200+mb for 100 bux, get a nice case for 40 bux, some memory, hd and gfx card for about 350 for that price. Pick up a used 17 inch monitor for 20 bux at RePC.

There are good deals, but you have to look. I found used dual P2's for 250 bux with scsi drives. Awesome linux/bsd servers.

Systemax pc's are pretty good, been around awhile, basic solid machines. If you already use AOL, thats a nice system with monitor for 299. Wonder how much the ink cartridges are... The mobo seems to be very cheap, would be nice for more specs.

Doing a quick pricewatch search shows the pc is an average deal, and system max uses quality oem hardware, your choice.

But I'd rather go over to Outpost.com (frys) and get something like amd200+mb for 100 bux, get a nice case for 40 bux, some memory, hd and gfx card for about 350 for that price. Pick up a used 17 inch monitor for 20 bux at RePC.

There are good deals, but you have to look. I found used dual P2's for 250 bux with scsi drives. Awesome linux/bsd servers.

But these rules were created before many advances were made.

For instance, you aren't likely to find everything you want at an online store in three clicks. If you are looking for jewelry or specialty blank CD media, you may get to your category in three clicks, but there are still a dozen clicks beyond that to see the full contents of the category.

I would be interested in seeing what kind of tasks users were asked to perform and rate their "three-clickability" (terrible term). Almost anything involving a store, inventory, or selection process voids that "rule" for the end result, but not for the category.

Perhaps it should be rephrased that the user should be able to get to any content-space in three clicks instead of a page.

Pricewatch gets you to content in two clicks.
Outpost has three clicks to content on the sections I checked - one click, really - two for refining.
ice.com has one click to content, and then two for refining.
Barnes & Noble has three clicks to content.
Even eBay has three clicks to content.

The answer is none. None more wrong.

In today's Fry's ad, I spotted another netcam called the Veo Xirlink. It's $180 with a $25 rebate -- net of $155. It's also available at the same price from Outpost.

The specs look pretty good:

• Built-in Webserver
• Pan/Tilt (120 degree Pan, 80degree Tilt)
• Built-in Mic
• 1 lux low light sensitivity (I'm told that means it's good in dark rooms)

In today's Fry's ad, I spotted another netcam called the Veo Xirlink. It's $180 with a $25 rebate -- net of $155. It's also available at the same price from Outpost.

The specs look pretty good:

• Built-in Webserver
• Pan/Tilt (120 degree Pan, 80degree Tilt)
• Built-in Mic
• 1 lux low light sensitivity (I'm told that means it's good in dark rooms)

Why does HP's current calculator lineup suck?

Why not buy a complete prebuilt computer for that much? Like such [outpost.com] ? I guess they're targeting the lazy people... like me...