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Lets face it, there are only four ways you are going to get that call.

1. You already know the star, or someone who knows the star.
2. You work for Geek Squad or some other large tech support chain.
3. You happen to be at the right place at the right time.
4. You hack the star's equipment and insert your name under their before-never-noticed tech-support entry in their address book.

Lets rexamine number 2. Stars travel a lot. So how do they find you when they happen to be in your area? You need to be able to list yourself somewhere as being in that area AND be able to make a "star quality" ad that intriques them. The only way I know of to do that is to list yourself for free in Page's Computer Services Directory.

Disclaimer: I do work for Page Computers, but I hope the posting was funny and on topic.

Local is better, in my opinion. I think that you would do just as well with part time help from your local "tech guy". It all depends on your needs. Certainly it would help with the trust issue a bit more if you got to know your sysadmin personally. Also, systems work is very often hardware related, so that requires in office visits.

You can search for local service providers in Page's Computer Services Directory at http://DIRECTORY.pagecomputers.com. Any service provider can add their own listing for free.

Currently you have to signup to get real results, because the site in beta test, but in the very near future it will be completely public and will even have ratings and reviews for the companies listed.

Disclaimer: I work for Page Computers.

Local is better, in my opinion. I think that you would do just as well with part time help from your local "tech guy". It all depends on your needs. Certainly it would help with the trust issue a bit more if you got to know your sysadmin personally. Also, systems work is very often hardware related, so that requires in office visits.

You can search for local service providers in Page's Computer Services Directory at http://DIRECTORY.pagecomputers.com. Any service provider can add their own listing for free.

Currently you have to signup to get real results, because the site in beta test, but in the very near future it will be completely public and will even have ratings and reviews for the companies listed.

Disclaimer: I work for Page Computers.

To get wireless usb running with Linux, buy a wireless dongle with a Ralink chipset in it and use the drivers at http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main _Page

For example, I bought one of these,
http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/store/Product_acc essoriesx.asp?catalog_name=Unclassified&category_n ame=32g32c302s1287&product_id=624257 , grabbed, compiled (very easy), and installed the rt2570 sources, and the thing worked perfectly as a network device under both Suse 9.3 and Fedora 4.

The rt2x00 web site said that the drivers would soon be integrated into every kernel release, so it may be in Suse 10 already. Check subdirectories of /lib/modules for the existence of rt2570.ko. If it's in there, then you shouldn't have to download/compile anything -- the usb dongle will just work.

I can make a 50km link using a night and day "top of the line" camera http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/store/product.asp ?catalog_name=Security+Devices&category_name=87g87 c453s1852&product_id=691230
...and that includes instalation!

http://www.mwave.com/ has some decent prices. For hard-to-find items I turn to http://newsite.pagecomputers.com/ like a Tyan S2895 with all the parts, including recommended cases, ram, AMD 675's (yes two)...

It pains me to suddenly see so many of our competitors get free advertising on the front page when our site PageComputers.com is very competitive with all, and better than most, on price and service. The fact is that there is usually very little difference in prices once you start looking at the top handful of resellers. The margins are razor thin and we all rely on selling huge volume. PageComputers knows that the only advantage a company can gain in this market is to have excellent customer service and an excellent website. Improving both of these is THE major focus of our company right now. We have been around since long before the dot com bust and boom. We survived by never going public and not buying into the hype. We focused on one thing and we did it well, and continue to do it well. We sell computers and related products, parts, and accessories for very low prices with excellent customer service. In the very least our prices are always competitive, and very often we have the best price, so please don't forget our site when shopping.

BTW, I am posting anonymously for two reasons. 1.) I typed this fast and it wasn't reviewed by the company. 2.) I lost my ID and password when I changed from MS to Fedora recently and I haven't recovered it yet.

It pains me to suddenly see so many of our competitors get free advertising on the front page when our site PageComputers.com is very competitive with all, and better than most, on price and service. The fact is that there is usually very little difference in prices once you start looking at the top handful of resellers. The margins are razor thin and we all rely on selling huge volume. PageComputers knows that the only advantage a company can gain in this market is to have excellent customer service and an excellent website. Improving both of these is THE major focus of our company right now. We have been around since long before the dot com bust and boom. We survived by never going public and not buying into the hype. We focused on one thing and we did it well, and continue to do it well. We sell computers and related products, parts, and accessories for very low prices with excellent customer service. In the very least our prices are always competitive, and very often we have the best price, so please don't forget our site when shopping.

BTW, I am posting anonymously for two reasons. 1.) I typed this fast and it wasn't reviewed by the company. 2.) I lost my ID and password when I changed from MS to Fedora recently and I haven't recovered it yet.

Who doesn't have an old Windows 9X disk sitting around.

Who can still find his or her old Windows 98se or ME disc? And who can find one that isn't scratched so bad it's unreadable?

For a home user Windows XP might as well just be $99.

It appears that unlike Microsoft's Windows XP Professional operating system, Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition operating system will not work well with Intel's newest Pentium brand processor. The new CPU has a "hyperthreading" feature that lets two threads share one set of datapaths, for performance that lies somewhere between one CPU and two. It appears as two processors to the operating system, but XP Home supports only one logical processor, unlike XP Pro which supports two. XP Home also does not support a remote desktop similar to that of XP Pro or any X11 based system.

And if you are buying a PC and plan to use Windows anyway why not buy it with the machine and get the benefit of the OEM price.

With the OEM discount, the price of Windows XP Professional comes down to about $141 per seat (based on this 3-pack). If Walmart.com were to sell the $200 PCs with Windows XP installed, the price would rise to $340, and the Windows license would make up over 40 percent of the price of the computer.