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Fry's always has this curious computer for $200. It's running some Linux distro called "ThizLinux". I think it's Taiwanese. It's from a company called GQ, which until recently only seemed to make cables and a few smaller items (like mouses). It's only a VIA C3 800, which is part of the reason it's only $200. They have offered other types of systems before, I think Linux is good for moving an ultra-cheap machine rather than cutting $50 off the pricetag of a full blown machine.

Fry's always has this curious computer for $200. It's running some Linux distro called "ThizLinux". I think it's Taiwanese. It's from a company called GQ, which until recently only seemed to make cables and a few smaller items (like mouses). It's only a VIA C3 800, which is part of the reason it's only $200. They have offered other types of systems before, I think Linux is good for moving an ultra-cheap machine rather than cutting $50 off the pricetag of a full blown machine.

First, my neighbor bought one of their low end, very cheap PC's loaded with ThizLinux.

What total crap. ThizLinux is sucky at best.
We'll skip the bottom of the bargain barrel PC and get to the Linux.

I went over and took one look at ThizLinux and popped in a Mandrake CD. Problem solved.

Fry's does NOT support Linux.
They sell it but they do NOT support it.

I've been in Fry's *many* times and the knotheads that work there can't find their own ass with both hands and a flashlight.

However, in the software section they did have SUSE 8.2 and Redhat 9 for sale.
**--BUT--**, they had ALL the Linux boxes in the section displayed as "UTILITIES"....
That was right next to the display "OPERATING SYSTEMS" that was loaded to the gills with XP boxes. So, they are misleading people by the way they present the product. People that have no knowledge of Linux, and most people fall into this category, would not look at the Linux boxes because they are mislabeled as "utilities" rather than as a operating system, which it *IS*..

Fry's is guilty of something here, I would wager that they did this under the direction of an M$ memo... I pointed out the misleading displays to a manager and got a shrug and a dumb look. A month later nothing had changed.

If you want to buy a machine without M$ on it from Fry's you have to DEMAND it, they will resist but they will cave in if you hammer the shit out of them. They'll give you ThizLinux, you can Thiz it out the window or Thiz it across the room into the circular file and load a good distro of your choice. But don't let them BS you into XP..

And if you want a boxed, retail distro, get Suse or Redhat there. I just wish they would put Mandrake on the shelf too, I would buy it.

--
me

XP Home: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063039
XP Pro: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063019

Apple doesn't do "upgrade editions". Every time they sell a copy of their OS, they sell it as a full retail purchase. It's a bit of a bummer, but considering that their full retail price is a little over half what XP Pro full retail costs, and less than twice what XP Home Upgrade Edition costs, (XP Home is so neutered! Who'd want it?) it's clear that OS X is a bargain.

And, mais bien sur, Mandrake Linux, a worthy competitor to either one, is available for free download or $54 for the Powerpack Edition 7 CD-ROM set or 1 DVD-ROM set. Red Hat, for those who are conscientiously objecting to anything French, can be had without support in the basic pack for $40. For those who don't like Mandrake but do like KDE, SuSE is at the exact price point.

There is also ample evidence, even without MacOS X's liberal use of the codebase, that BSD isn't dying, exaggerated reports to the contrary.

XP Home: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063039
XP Pro: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063019

Apple doesn't do "upgrade editions". Every time they sell a copy of their OS, they sell it as a full retail purchase. It's a bit of a bummer, but considering that their full retail price is a little over half what XP Pro full retail costs, and less than twice what XP Home Upgrade Edition costs, (XP Home is so neutered! Who'd want it?) it's clear that OS X is a bargain.

And, mais bien sur, Mandrake Linux, a worthy competitor to either one, is available for free download or $54 for the Powerpack Edition 7 CD-ROM set or 1 DVD-ROM set. Red Hat, for those who are conscientiously objecting to anything French, can be had without support in the basic pack for $40. For those who don't like Mandrake but do like KDE, SuSE is at the exact price point.

There is also ample evidence, even without MacOS X's liberal use of the codebase, that BSD isn't dying, exaggerated reports to the contrary.

XP Home: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063039
XP Pro: http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3063019

Apple doesn't do "upgrade editions". Every time they sell a copy of their OS, they sell it as a full retail purchase. It's a bit of a bummer, but considering that their full retail price is a little over half what XP Pro full retail costs, and less than twice what XP Home Upgrade Edition costs, (XP Home is so neutered! Who'd want it?) it's clear that OS X is a bargain.

And, mais bien sur, Mandrake Linux, a worthy competitor to either one, is available for free download or $54 for the Powerpack Edition 7 CD-ROM set or 1 DVD-ROM set. Red Hat, for those who are conscientiously objecting to anything French, can be had without support in the basic pack for $40. For those who don't like Mandrake but do like KDE, SuSE is at the exact price point.

There is also ample evidence, even without MacOS X's liberal use of the codebase, that BSD isn't dying, exaggerated reports to the contrary.

3. Local exchanges. Even more extreme than a private network, people might make direct device-to-device copies. Go over to a friend's house and download their entire music collection to your laptop.

I could have sworn I saw something at Fry's the other day for under $15. However, the closest thing I could find on the web was $18.
Anyway, that is well within the buying power range of the average kid.

I bought a $37 Sipix Digital Cam which is pretty much identical to the Vivitar one used in the article.

It took one AAA battery but on a little sticker on the battery case it said it was rated for 3V. Which explains why it was crap. It was horribly under powered. Out of a several dozen pictures all of two came out. I took it back and got the AipTek Trio for $10 more and it works far better. Every picture I take comes out fine. It takes 2 AAA but that makes all the difference.

Ben

I bought a $37 Sipix Digital Cam which is pretty much identical to the Vivitar one used in the article.

It took one AAA battery but on a little sticker on the battery case it said it was rated for 3V. Which explains why it was crap. It was horribly under powered. Out of a several dozen pictures all of two came out. I took it back and got the AipTek Trio for $10 more and it works far better. Every picture I take comes out fine. It takes 2 AAA but that makes all the difference.

Ben

Well, 2 of these @ $240 would give you plenty of room for growth.

That leaves $99,520 for making them available...

aside from the typical california perks (weather, diversity, rad food, etc) this is where you can see lots of companies that make cool shit and museums that show cool shit. there are several hostels in the area, and public transportation is decent, although renting a car for a day or two might be advisable if you're trekking out to business park country. a quick google search turns up a decent article on geeky destinations around the valley, worth checking out for the list at the end. there are some guide sites out there tha cover lots of this stuff: let the big g be your friend.

you could do the super mega geeky thing, of course, and get pictures of yourself in front of company signs around they valley - we're riddled with them from san jose to san mateo. give corporate people a holler via email far enough ahead of time and you might even score a tour or the location of a museum. email SGI and ask if tours/demos are available for the Reality Center. visit fry's electronics for a geek-mecca epiphany (i suggest the cavenous san jose location); but beware, traveler, for to ask for help of a sales associate at fry's is to ask satan to take a little piece of your soul. this is also the time of your journey where you'll be asking "i wonder how much money i have, and how much it would cost to ship some hardware home..."

san francisco is beautiful and cool and yadda yadda; check out the museums, the parks and the nightlife. the exploratorium is big and WAY FREAKIN' COOL. make sure to get a good afternoon for just that and the nice area around it. check out the SFMOMA and the whole area around there - right across the street is the geeky-cool Sony Metreon with a sony store that has pretty much everything they carry in north america, plus big expensive video games and theaters. san francisco is also the terminal for many green tortoise bus tours that take you to beautiful parks around the west coast (quickly cementing your preference for it, trust me). they also have a hostel and buses that take you to seattle, portland and los angeles.

other things to do in california... rent a car and drive the coast on hwy 1 - if you can, from san francisco to los angeles! it is quite solidly some of the most beautiful coastline in the world, from smooth white beaches in the south to how-the-hell-did-they-wrap-a-road-around-that sharp rocks in the north. skip disneyland in southern california and go to six flags or universal studios. do all the usual touristy stuff, and check out venice beach, i'm sure you'll run into some crazy aussies there, plus there's a hostel nearby. visit a national park (do this on green tortoise, probably). get clam chowder at the jenner inn in jenner, ca. avoid the central valley (the "midwest" of the united states pretty much starts 60 miles inland california).

also, you'll be sorely disappointed to find that 99% of the country thinks that fosters is what all aussies drink. some well stocked british or hipster pubs might have VB, as well as the occasional aussie pub. bring your own marmite/vegemite/donteverconfuseitfornutellamite, because you australians are just freaky. no one knows what a "cone" is, we call them "bowls." if you're a crazy eastern aussie, like all the others i've met, people will probably love you and buy you drinks and tell you about the great fosters commercials you've been missing. the chicks (guys?) will dig you. if you're from the west... i don't know.

good luck!

GMRS is very similar to FRS, but with more channels and higher power limits. It seems many people aren't aware that in the U.S. users of GMRS radios are supposed to be licensed at ~$80/5 years. Most users of cheap GMRS radios don't know/care that they are supposed to be periodicaly broadcasting their callsign, and these can't be used just like high-power FRS radios.

WPXQ778

use emule to download files in a distributed fashion. It is almost impossible to get a malicious file this way. Especialy if you hang out on web sites that post hashes of known good files. Emule also supports lists to block networks run by people that attack P2P file sharing clients.

If you have a virus scanner and software firewall, it is smooth sailing. Just throw in a cheap CD burner to save your downloads!

There have been rumors that Fry's is going to expand beyond the West Coast; I've heard they might be coming to Atlanta in the next year or two. Haven't heard anything about your part of the country, though.

There's always Outpost.com (formerly Cyberian Outpost), which Fry's bought a year or two ago. However, it's a best a very poor simulation of the true Fry's experience.

"I wonder how long it will be before fuel cells are used on homebuilt experimentals."--- Not long at all I think, considering you can buy a model car kit at Fry's for about $100 USD [I saw it back in January for $130 USD] Now that it's dropped a bit I'll probably pick it up and play around with it.

There are non-Sony Memory Sticks, and as for devices - there certainly are third party readers (mainly all-in-one USB devices for every format under the sun) so Sony can't be too mean about letting people use the format.

Look, I really do agree that it'd be nicer if they went with something like CompactFlash, but the main thing that really mystifies me is that they've got this whole Memory Stick thing going on, but didn't use it in one of the most obvious places.

I'll believe it when I see it on the peg at Wal*Mart.

Wonder which we'll see on the shelves first: this thing or Serial ATA? Which, by the way, has been on backorder for the last 6 months or so.

If anything deserves an award in the "Promises, promises" category (excepting Duke Nukem Whenever; that's earned several), it's Serial ATA.

Has anyone out there actually got their hands on a Serial ATA drive, PURCHASED from a retail source? I mean, several online shops LIST them, but nobody seems to actually HAVE them.

I take that back. In researching for this post, I actually DID find a place that lists them in stock. Let's hope they are telling the truth! Also, let's hope their order system can survive a slashdotting, since they seem to be the only place in the world that has them. I'm sure they'll be backordered by tomorrow.

Whose side are you on? Traffic's bad enough without all the extra permatourists...and the only place I've seen hiring in Wilsonville is Fry's Electronics.

Fry's sells this stuff too. It's funny because a coworker tried to buy one and the salesman didn't really want to sell it. The disclaimer is pretty clear; "they operate normally in most systems." Does normal include occasional crashes?

Most of these small PCs I've looked at have been >$300 (the one linked in the story doesn't list a price), and haven't been fast enough for my needs, so I looked and found a better solution: Mini-ITX.

These motherboards are only 100 dollars and a little more than 6 inches square. They have integrated video, 800MHz VIA C3 processors, ethernet, TV out, sound, and 2 IDE busses. And the fact that they use C3 processors, they only consume 10 watts, for the whole motherboard! You can get more info here:

http://mini-itx.com/
http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3349552
http://www.via.com.tw/en/VInternet/mini_itx.jsp

Orange

All right. Since nothing is working, I'd recommend spending money to get a new printer. It could cost you upwards of $50, though. Example.

I did find an XP-like wm for linux, at XPde.com. I don't have
XP itself, due to the cost ( can buy a new pc with linux already on it for about $250.00) and the fact that I cannot put it on more than one machine. I'm sure anyone viewing this thread would like more information on the alternate window managers available for XP. As I said before, I like to run something like icewm to save resources, and perhaps the XP crowd would also like to do something along that line.

They do exist. In fact, MS has just recently gotten more heavily into networking hardware...particularly WiFi. Couldn't tell you if their stuff is good or bad, but it's out there.

Outpost.com! Just think of them as the Amazon that everyone forgot.

What I would like to see is a bluetooth adapter that plugs into the wall socket to provide powerline network access to my home server to any bluetooth enabled device in the room.

Why go to the bother of conjuring up a powerline-to-Bluetooth adapter when you can plug a USB Bluetooth dongle into your server? Bluetooth should have sufficient range to cover a decent-sized home if you put the server in a central location. Read this for info on one way to get this kind of setup working under Linux. It's oriented at getting Internet access over Bluetooth to a Palm Tungsten T, but it should be a good start for enabling other types of usage. After figuring out that bluefw needs leading zeroes on the bus and device numbers, I got this USB Bluetooth dongle set up yesterday so that I can check mail, browse the web, and log into VNC and SSH servers with my Palm.

So far, none of these technologies have progressed beyond the prototype or tiny screen level.

Outpost.com has a 15.1" 1024x768 TFT for $230 after rebate; 17" for $550, 19" for $900, 20" for $2000.

Okay, I see what you mean. Sheesh; from 19 to 20 inch diagonal is eleven hundred bucks?!?

If you want a small, low power platform, look at the latest from Via, which contains 933 MHz processor (C3), USB2, audio, video, TV, ethernet, 1x PCI, in a 17cmx17cm form-factor for $160 from Fry's.

It definatly blows away that transmeta one: giving more functionality for a fraction of the cost. You can even get slower (~600 MHz) versions which are totally fanless.

It's not just small companies. Fry's Electronics has several large stores in California, Texas, Oregon, and Arizona. However, for a long time, the only website they had was frys.com, which only pointed to their ISP services. They had a link to the addresses of the brick and mortar stores, but that's all.

They've recently opened outpost.com, which finally gives people a way to purchase goods on-line. But it is still separate from the brick-and-mortar stores, in that it is strictly an e-commerce site. In fact, even though they have the Fry's Electronics logo on the site, I see no reference to the stores on the site (though I only looked for about 5 minutes). Contrast that to Best Buy or Circuit City, each of which has a store locator prominently located on their web site.

I went with the VIA EPIA 800, which features an 800 MHz VIA C3 CPU with on-board TV-out (and much more) for a mere US$120. And it's tiny for a full-featured computer, just 170mm x 170mm.

Plus, it has built-in audio, on-board Ethernet (though I've plugged in a wireless PCI card), USB, etc. -- great for a project like this. And it runs GNU/Linux like a champ.

I put it in a US$90 black mini-ITX case so it doesn't look like a computer -- it looks like an A/V component, fitting right in with the VCR and the cable box.

Finally, it runs very cool and very quiet (or it will once I remove the noisy hard disk and make it boot off the network instead) -- just one small CPU fan required. The CPU isn't that powerful -- mostly around the speed of a 600MHz Celeron, and the FPU is a little weaker than that -- but it's plenty of power for me.

There's a lot more info about this and similar hardware at mini-itx.com. I think a big market is developing around these little boxes.

Making links is not hard.

<href="http://url.goes.here/">This will become a link.</a>

A nice hard drive in a USB 2.0 enclosure, like this one is my preferred method for backups. It's portable, expandable, and compatible with any USB-graced machine. It's also as cheap and as reliable (hard drive-wise) as you're willing to pay.

Actually, Fry's Electronics and Outpost.com sell this:

VIA EPIA-800 Mini ITX

It's a motherboard and CPU combo in a mini-ITX form factor.

300 to 400 euros is WAY too much money for what you get, when you compare with things like the Via Epia motherboard (available for $130 at outpost. The Via Epia has an 800 Mhz x86 processor, SDRAM slots, is 18 cm on a side, and has practically everything you need but memory, storage and an ATX power supply. They even have a completely fanless 500 MHz version (althouh you can't get that version from Fry's).

Radio Shack?! What's the catalog number? I bought the Kiki Joy and it works super on my PC with WindowsXP. It supports Force Feedback and I heard those dancing pads work with it, too.

Actually, there are quite a few PSX->USB convertors that will work without modding your pad. These convertors map the PSX directional input to USB buttons, so you don't have the L+R or U+D axes problem.

I know these work from experience
I hear these work
And I hear these work too

Actually their web address for the online store is not www.Frys.com like so many have quickly posted. The actual online store address is Outpost.com since Fry's bought them out a while ago. Their brick & mortar stores are only here in So Cal as far as I know.

Their prices are usually very good, but almost all of their stuff in the store at good prices is either refurbished, or has been returned before. It seems like about half of their stock on the shelves has return stickers on it. And the customer service there REALLY sucks, assuming you can even find an employee who speaks English.

They do have good deals quite a bit though, I've just learned you have to be careful buying from them.

Son of a bitch, I'm lame.. linky linky.

And /. requires I wait 2 mins yadda yadda, bite me damnit filters

My NOTEBOOK has higher resolution than that.

FYI: Fallout 1/2 for $9.95. Saw it in my local Fry's ad. Slashdot this game, please. It is excellent, and getting Fallout 1/2 for the same price is a great deal. According to the WineX people, Fallout 1 and 2 are both rated at "4", which means some glitches, but still very playable, possible installation weirdness.

Fresh and tasty Debian packages of WineX 2.0 (which supports Max Payne FLAWLESSLY) are available for the price of a $5 (1 month subscription). If I were you, I'd sign up for the 6 month plan. I did (it just ran out), and I have not been disapointed. If you do sign up, hook me up with the 'refer-a-friend' thing and reference 'ramses0' if you think about it.

--Robert

This reminds me, a Fry's Electronics had an ad in the paper today that I was really tempted by. Their website, Outpost.com, has the same product for about twice the price. Anyway, the deal is you get a Duron 950 CPU with a motherboard and case with a 300W PSU for $99. Add a fan, drives, video card, and RAM, and you have yourself a pretty killer machine for around $300. That's less than the GF3 Ti500, and it would require some top of the line games to notice much of a difference. Anyway, check it out, outpost has it listed for $179.00 but I can pick it up at Fry's for $99.

This reminds me, a Fry's Electronics had an ad in the paper today that I was really tempted by. Their website, Outpost.com, has the same product for about twice the price. Anyway, the deal is you get a Duron 950 CPU with a motherboard and case with a 300W PSU for $99. Add a fan, drives, video card, and RAM, and you have yourself a pretty killer machine for around $300. That's less than the GF3 Ti500, and it would require some top of the line games to notice much of a difference. Anyway, check it out, outpost has it listed for $179.00 but I can pick it up at Fry's for $99.

Please tell me where you shop. I have a SCSI adapter in my computer (it came with the last prebuilt desktop that I bought), and I know SCSI is better, and I wanted more space, so I priced SCSI drives. I checked outpost.com, and here are the prices that I found:

The most expensive IDE hard drive: Caviar 100GB EIDE Ultra/ATA100 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - Retail

Similarly priced SCSI drives don't get above 18GB (check here)

I realize that outpost.com probably doesn't have the cheapest prices. But wherever you find cheaper SCSI drives, you'll find cheaper IDE drives. If you can prove me wrong, please reply; I'd love to have more SCSI drives.

Please tell me where you shop. I have a SCSI adapter in my computer (it came with the last prebuilt desktop that I bought), and I know SCSI is better, and I wanted more space, so I priced SCSI drives. I checked outpost.com, and here are the prices that I found:

The most expensive IDE hard drive: Caviar 100GB EIDE Ultra/ATA100 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - Retail

Similarly priced SCSI drives don't get above 18GB (check here)

I realize that outpost.com probably doesn't have the cheapest prices. But wherever you find cheaper SCSI drives, you'll find cheaper IDE drives. If you can prove me wrong, please reply; I'd love to have more SCSI drives.

$0.19/ea- 700 MB GQ 32x 50 pack spindle @ $9.50
$0.30/ea- 700 MB TEAC 8x 50 pack spindle @ $14.99

$0.19/ea- 700 MB GQ 32x 50 pack spindle @ $9.50
$0.30/ea- 700 MB TEAC 8x 50 pack spindle @ $14.99

$0.19/ea- 700 MB GQ 32x 50 pack spindle @ $9.50
$0.30/ea- 700 MB TEAC 8x 50 pack spindle @ $14.99

Plus, how much of that cost is actually Windows? No one knows, no one's talking.

Well, a quick look on Newegg shows that Windows XP purchased with hardware runs $140 for a single copy. A jump to look at current prices for Office XP shows us $180 when purchased with software. OK, not the greatest price, but not the hundreds of dollars that you might think. After all, to compare OSes (not office apps, because StarOffice takes the cake there) RedHat 7.2 Professional is selling for $199.99 over at Outpost.com. Hmm. As far as a consumer goes, this is the equivalent purchase. Yes, there are cheaper distros out there. Yes, we here know that you can download ISOs of various distros for "free", but that's not a valid comparison. Consumers as a whole are not going to do that -- they want point and click, graphical installation programs like Windows has given them for years.

Given this info, Windows isn't all THAT expensive. If the cost is $140 for XP as a single purchase, I'm sure the big PC builders like Dell, Gateway, Compaq get them in lots of 10,000 for much, much cheaper. So the whole cost of your OS is probably a very small part of your overall system price, depending on how much your system really is.

As a gamer, I'd probably build a system around $2500, maybe more. This is without Office -- if you go to Dell's (or others') site, they'll charge you at least $200 to upgrade to Office XP. But let's say they get XP for $100 :

$100 / $2500 * 100% = 4% of the price of my system. I think most people would be willing to pay an extra 4% to get something they're already familiar with. At any rate, it's certainly not a major portion of the cost of the computer.

greg

This thread on I-appliance talks about the VIA Shuttle, which is halfway between a laptop and a desktop.

anadantech - outpost, with 1GHz Celeron, $330