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Having a computer controlling the engine is fine. You can still work on your car if you buy a vag-com tool, or a program for your laptop which does the same.
I bought a 2000 vw diesel and a vag com tool and I work on my own car like everyone else on Fred's TDI page.
A car with no user access to the engine is fine for someone who leases a new car every 2-3 years, but I expect mine to last at least 10 years and at least 300,000 miles, if not forever
(the one drawback of a computer controlled diesel is that it is no longer electrically independent. If the alternator dies on a long trip across the desert at night, I am limited by battery life.)

As for an EMP pulse, well in that event my guns will probably be more useful than my car anyway.

Your typical motion sensor lock runs for $50 list, probably less on the street. Add an entry-level GPS receiver, retailing for around $120. Toss in extra money to support a transceiver that broadcasts the notebook's position (remember, the GPS unit by itself just lets the notebook know where it is; you have to have some way for it to send that location to you), tamper-proofing/camoflage (how good's your GPS receiver if the thief just snaps off your antenna?), monthly charges for monitoring and a call center, and you're probably looking at $400 or more plus subscription. That might be peanuts for a car of $20,000+, but on your $1000 laptop, that's a significant chunk of change.

The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between the laptop and its owner (about 15 feet) before the gizmo works.

"There are lots of systems out there that have just a thing that detects motion, so it blasts a siren just like the car alarms that no one listens to these days," said Mitchell.

I disagree that loud laptop alarms won't be effective because they're unnoticed -- after all, the places they'd be used would most likely be study areas or libraries, which are typically very quiet. A 105 decibel alarm in such an area would certainly get people's attention. The problem is that it'd be terribly obnoxious as well. Personally, I think if someone did use one of these somewhere like a library, it'd work great scaring off the would-be thief but not so great against the subsequent mob coming to bash it into silence with textbooks and binders ...

... when it was reported last year by ZDNET / news.com / Network Fusion / pcmag... that Microsoft were to buy a Romanian antivirus company !

Doesn't this lose the main advantages of USB: Devices drawing power from the bus
Someone ought to tell them that the most successfull USB devices are:

• Keyboard light
• Fan, Fan again
• Coffee mug heater
• Vibrating thingy
• Hello kitty USB hub
• X-mas tree
• Germ filter

It's amazing how helpful the "~" can be when doing searches. Prefixing a word with a tilde will search for that word and many of its synonyms. Very helpful when doing things like:

linux ~tutorial

Also, I think this list of google tricks was listed on /. a while ago.

Did this guy pay the slightest bit of attention when the law was drafted?

Then again, this is the same "tech" columnist who bitches about taxi lines at CES, clearly a major issue in the world of computing.

Yeah, this is great news and it only proves that IBM's in it for real. IBM is also creating a _desktop_ version of Linux - Blue Linux. It's not out yet, but PC Magazine's John Dvorak has already seen it.

HERE's the PC magazine article about it.

I've got an IBM Thinkpad 240X that's also an ultra-portable, and I absolutely LOVE it. Though it's small (12" screen), the keyboard is fantastic (as are all Thinkpads) and it's rock solid (as are all Thinkpads)

Interesting story! HERE'S the link. Just click.

Three states have been around awhile it's called Tri-state Logic. Gordon Moore gave an interview in PC Magazine. He discussed multi-state logic, but said it was a non issue. He said that neural networks were much more important breakthrough.

Changing IE's default search behaviour

I went to Autosearch settings, and changed the setting to "Do not search from the address bar". Now I can type in "flafflemuffins" and it'll try to go to http://flafflemuffins/

I'm still staying with Opera, but this could come in handy for testing URLs on a local LAN with IE.

Robyn Peterson is a guy.

"I wish she'd talked about each keyboard's tactile feedback"

She is actually a he ...

But, yes, a little more depth would be nice ;)

I'm a guy albeit with a girl's name. :)

I dont think he is a woman :)

Here's the print version of the article, a lot easier on the server and nowhere near the clutter on the normal page:

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,3048,a=116413 ,00.asp

Not very likely - take a look at, say, the e.Digital Odyssey, which has been selling with no problems.
Odyssey

could be quite the nice feature!

Here [PC Mag] is a blurb about 1080p screens that Samsung is coming out with. 57" LCD at the bottom.

Why 30"? What's wrong with this (although it supports HDCP) or this.

First read this. Then check out this puppy. Droolworthy.

I think the rest of Slashdot will agree with me that the two chicks in this picture were the hottest of those shown in PC Mag's collection of pictures. The mood-ring chick easily takes second place.

I think the rest of Slashdot will agree with me that the two chicks in this picture were the hottest of those shown in PC Mag's collection of pictures. The mood-ring chick easily takes second place.

And speaking of things you can mount. Here's yet another highlight.

LCD flat panel displays :)

The biggest highlight for me is getting rid of the fat pervert in the MSN butterfly wings, and replacing him with this improved model

I might just turn up to the next CES

nude macgirls webcam

Here's a pretty decent picture of it.

Toshiba's .85 inch, 2-4GB hard drive

PC Magazine calls video performace "spotty". I was not referring to "internet streaming", but of the many reviews for these 802.11b media hub type devices, which almost always reference the poor video quality.

Er. You're getting the 94xx series processors and 97x-series processors confused. Yes, the Opteron runs neck and neck with G4 servers.

Err. No, I'm not. And Opteron (or any other current generation x86'ish chip) does not run anywhere near neck and neck with G4 servers, they run way faster.

The G5 has a massively different system architecture, and you cannot say "because it beats G4s it'll beat G5s".

I'm well aware of the fact that G5 is a new system and haven't drawn that kind of conclusions.

Real-world tests of Opteron servers has shown them to be very strange beasts. Freakishly fast as some tasks, very slow at others.

From anything I've seen this far, more like: freakishly fast on most tasks, pretty average on others, and by no means slow on anything.

I'd accuse AMD of pulling the old graphic card scam - benchmarks run very fast even though real world differences are minimal - but dear lord, that would be a hellishly expensive scam to pull off.

Graphics card scams are done on drivers or by "optimizing" the benchmark software in question. And usually they get faster results by leaving out some computations that are not visible, that's impossible on general purpose CPU. And you don't have any "drivers" to do it either, nor can you make benchmarkers use your own optimized software.

No, there's no scam here.

I run an AthlonXP and steer people towards AMD systems left and right, but the Opteron is proving to be a very odd design.

How, and why exactly? Opteron is a rather conservative incremental design on Athlon core, nothing radically new except for the 64-bitness.

And as thus, it's not really even "version 1.0"

BTW, when calling someone to the mat for making blanket untrue statements, just contradicting their statement for not providing references isn't enough, unless you provide them yourself. It's a case of he-said she-said, and frankly, your word amounts to a hill of beans to me (as does the other guy).

I've got better things to do than try to prove someone like grandparent who has already made up his mind and won't listen to anyone, no matter the truth. Especially as it really is damn hard to find trustworthy results, any credible sources haven't touched this debate with a 10-foot pole.

But if you wish. Let's start with some SPECmark tests, you know the same Apple used to claim G5 was faster than anything else at the launch (Opteron scores were mysteriously missing, and they've later been accused of tampering with P4 scores as well).

SPECint_base 2000:
Dual G5 2.0GHz - 800
Opteron 148 (2.2GHz) - 1304
Opteron 146 (2.0GHz) - 1115

SPECint_rate_base 2000:
Dual G5 2.0GHz - 17.2
Opteron 148 (2.2GHz) - 15.1
Opteron 146 (2.0GHz) - 12.9

SPECfp_base 2000:
Dual G5 2.0GHz - 840
Opteron 148 (2.2GHz) - 1505
Opteron 146 (2.0GHz) - 1217

SPECfp_rate_base 2000:
Dual G5 2.0GHz - 15.7
Opteron 148 (2.2GHz) - 17.5
Opteron 146 (2.0GHz) - 13.6

So lookee what we have here. Dual G5 can barely hold it's own against single Opteron at rate tests and is completely decimated in base tests. I won't bother with dual opteron numbers, but they scale well and leave G5 behind every time. They're at spec.org for everyone to see.

So... ok, now you're probably yeah, sure, nice set of numbers but what about real world applications? Well. The fact still stands there aren't many, or any benchmarks out there that I trust but let's dig some of the trash anyway.

(mostly) favoring opteron:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1274637,00.as p
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112749,p g,8,00.asp

vastly favoring G5:
http://www.barefeats

Although Kyle did a good job, there's also some more details on ExtremeTech, and on the Ziff-Davis CES report site here.

I don't think so. $70 per unit leaves little money for all the other components and that "profit" thing. That is unless the device will depend on subscriptions.

Rather, I think people are overlook the Cornice Storage Element. It's rumored to go for $50/1.5Gig per unit in quantity. Likely Apple could dicker them down a bit.

Since Apple is supposed to announce it soon, they need something for Steve Jobs to wave around on stage. That doesn't sound good for a unit that was just recently announced.

With Sun Open Sourcing the things that make this type of product easy to use, couldn't anyone just build one out of a cheap or old Debian/Gentoo-based PC?

= 9J =

With Sun Open Sourcing the things that make this type of product easy to use, couldn't anyone just build one out of a cheap or old Debian/Gentoo-based PC?

= 9J =

Our brainy heroine and penguin loving paralegal babe, PJ at Groklaw, posted an article covering some New Year's trend spotting. Some of the goodies:

1. Invester's Business Daily makes up its Top 10 Tech Stories of the year without mentioning Microsoft in any context.

2. A speculation comes from Chris Gulker in an IT Managers Journal article that Microsoft will introduce an MSLinux when Longhorn turns out to be unsellable. (Good thing or bad thing? I think good, if it happened.)

3. The example of Smart Displays, where per-user licensing inhibits even Microsoft's innovation, as cited in a Register article:

"The final nail in its coffin was Microsoft's absurd decision to kow-tow to the tin god of its licensing agreements. If you took your smart display downstairs, nobody in the den with the computer could use it. Single user licence, repeated Microsoft marketing droids. 'We can't compromise our standard licensing policy."

4. From the counter example of what can be, in the MagicBike project of the Parsons School of Design, PJ muses: "The idea is, when everyone gets to play, innovation is the result. Innovation doesn't come from money or walled-in projects, although money can help implement ideas. Innovation comes from people, and as George Bernard Shaw once pointed out, talent can show up simply anywhere, where you least expect it. The lower the barrier to entry, the more likely you are to get wonderful ideas. It's one reason I keep it possible to leave anonymous comments on Groklaw, despite the down side to that."

5. Vince Cerf's vision of the ubiquitous net is cited, reaching even to other planets.

PJ concludes: "Yes, [Microsoft] must adapt in order to be part of the future. I think it's a given that no one wants a wireless product that can only legally connect to one PC predetermined during setup. Not after somebody sent the mayor an email from a bike in Union Square station in NYC. Or even read about it. Once you have the concept and you see what is possible, you know what you know, and Brand X doesn't work for you after that. Like the song says, there's nothing like the real thing."

I know most of these points have been previously featured on /., but I like the compilation of them as a converging threat to Microsoft's paradigms that may cause significant rethinking in 2004.

Besides, I think I have a crush on PJ... :-)

The barometer no one mentioned on /. so far is how many PCs were sold? In 25 years we hit 1 billion by 2002. And 2 billion by 2008.
I wonder what are the numbers of cars, tvs, stereos sold compared PCs? Don't they all eventually end up at the dump/junkyard?

I would strongly recommend a Timbuk2 Commute. I have one for my 15" powerbook and I can confidently say it is the best bag I have ever owned. It fits the powerbook perfectly; offering a snug fit and a lot of protection. It also gives you plenty of room for other stuff. I use it to carry everything at college. It's a tad expensive (for me at least) at $100, but worth every penny. I expect it to last quite awhile. PC Magazine gives it 4 of 5 stars.

Personally, I feel like the word "commentary" implies that the text will be more analytical, akin to a news analysis piece, than merely an "opinion". But that's just my opin-- well, you get the idea.

Also, the thought of a liquid methanol next to all those hot electronics make me wince.

Akmed to airport security: "I told you, I'm a laptop battery salesman..."

The original article appears on PCMag.com and readers are tearing into the author in the forums.

The original article appears on PCMag.com and readers are tearing into the author in the forums.

Then you can go here to discuss what a steaming load this "commentary" is. Oh, my gosh. Someone who already has access to your network can put a malicious machine on it that will lead to your Mac being owned when it reboots. That's so freakin' simple. Not like those astonishingly difficult Windows attacks of sending emails, setting up websites and/or having users download spyware. The sky is obviously falling. AAAAAHHHHHHH!

Then you can go here to discuss what a steaming load this "commentary" is. Oh, my gosh. Someone who already has access to your network can put a malicious machine on it that will lead to your Mac being owned when it reboots. That's so freakin' simple. Not like those astonishingly difficult Windows attacks of sending emails, setting up websites and/or having users download spyware. The sky is obviously falling. AAAAAHHHHHHH!

I know there's no need to resort to ad hominem attacks as the article in itself is flimsy enough, but it does point to the pedigree of the author.

In another of his articles The Fog of XP dated 6th Aug 2003 he talks about his desktop XP machine and the fact that at this date he'd not even installed SP1, despite it being available for nearly 12 months !!!

He's either not very clued up or uses "journalistic license", either way he loses respect

His email address: Lance_Ulanoff@ziffdavis.com

His brief bio here

12.10.2003
Internet Explorer Spoofing Vulnerability Found
12.10.2003
Security Experts Warn of New Way to Attack Windows

This same "exploit" Apple claims is normal. One "exploit" will not make Mac users eat crow. Let's see some real OS X viruses and Apple having to release so many patches that it moves to a monthly bug release program first.

Excellent comments. Please post them in our forum:
http://discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag/start/?msg=32413

-----Original Message-----
From: ***
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 10:24 AM
To: Ulanoff, Lance
Subject: Eureka

Hello.

in your piece at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1408953,00.as p,
you have this to say in conclusion:

Ultimately, those on the Mac fringe have to face facts: Panther and Jaguar were not better at outrunning vulnerabilities than Windows. I expect other gaps will emerge, and while the Mac OS may still draw far fewer attacks, this discovery might suck a little wind (or is it Windows?) out of Mac radicals' sails. They can scarcely claim this was a minor hole. OS root access is serious stuff. How cocky are you feeling now, Mac elite? Hmm. Suddenly it's gotten pretty quiet around here.

So, that's all it takes for you? One potentially serious loophole in an
OS to declare it "no better at outrunning vulnerabilities than
windows"?

Have you recently counted the number of Cert advisory reports that have
come out for XP? Last I checked, more than a month ago, it was in the
40-some range. For XP alone. This year only. For the past few weeks,
those reports have come in bundles of 3-to-5 at a time. Nearly every
other week.

While gaining root access is serious on a Unix machine, you also need
to point out the fact that to be able to gain access to this loophole,
you absolutely need to be on the same subnet as the compromised
computer. Therefore shielding 60%-some percent of home Mac installation
(as those connect to the interner through some phone connection like
PPP) and a great deal (don't have numbers) of the remaining 40% still
not at risk, provided their Cable or ISDN, [A]DSL ISPs have done their
work properly.

It's not like one could attack the entire machine simply by sending an
email containing some VBL script. Right?

Of course I'm a Mac head. And I'm still as cocky as I've been since
roughly 1988. Because every time I see those IT folks around here
struggling to keep the company running when the next wave of Win
trouble appears, I'll be smiling at my desk, uninterrupted, and
occasionally offering to help (okay... I'm just pointing them to some
Linux site or Apple.com... but hey... I seriously believe that would
help
them).

Keep us entertained.

Have a good day.

My 6 year old eTower 533id is still kicking, with a fresh upgrade of 128mb of new ram. Otherwise all original equipment. It now dual boots Win98 and Debian with no problem.

But that's all anecdotal, I don't know if there's a better survey out there, but the most recent PC Magazine reliability survey showed eMachine down near the bottom, but as good as many others and better in some cases. Still their overall grade remains an E.

I admit, the upgradability of eMachines is weak, though I don't see how it is any worse than low end desktops from any maker - who all sell boards with everything integrated and thus, impossible to upgrade.

My use of a desktop, and esp. the 3D Desktop is very personal, and I use a lot of tools to achieve what I want. It would take a long time to convey what I do, but let me try to start by answering your specific questions ...

Most people's desktops just seem to be a rather disorganised collection of shortcuts and temporary documents

This is true as M$ could never really communicate what they were trying to do with the Desktop Metaphor. And their tendency to define "special folders" and then hide them in the Windows subfolder was not very helpful ... And I think in their Win XP version they have tried to retrace their steps - emphasizing a clean desktop, automatically removing unused icons etc ... Personally I believe, M$ screwed by taking this approach and have wasted the whole paradigm of Desktop ..

It would help if Windows didn't forget where your desktop icons were when you do things like change res, but even so it just seems like a dumping ground.

I use a program called Iconlock which gives me the option os saving in the Right-Click Context Menu of the Desktop. Looks now it is hard to get a free copy but I have an older and free version of it. Let me know and I can upload it somewhere for you. Otherwise you might find better substitutes that achieve the same goal. Iconlock lets you save the various arrangements of the icons ... The saving mechanism is quite extensive, and more you use it the more powerful it becomes esp when you redefine the Desktop folders.

You could use TweakUI to redefine your Desktop. Use the program to define ANY folder (not just c:\win\desktop) to become your desktop. It does make you Log On/Off but it is a minor irritant. That way you can get whatever icons you want on your Desktop using TweakUI, and then resort to the saved Icon arrangement using Iconlock.

The apps I use everyday go on the quick launch bar.

QuickLaunch is my place of choice for Icons. Notwithstanding the fact that people say too many icons there make it load slow- I have about 130 icons, and I am doing just Fine. It is nice because no matter where you are, you can always hit the Windows button on the Keyboard, and all your shortcuts are immediately there ...

As it stands I find an incontinuity between the spatial desktop and the list based files/folders in a file manager.

This is the crux of the problem, and there is no complete solution to it. In fact you have to balance the flow of information from 1D listing, to 2D X-Y plane, (and extending it with Virtual Desktop Manager like JS Pager using the Natural Skin) to the 3D using 3Dtop. Actually the 3Dtop window is just a window and you can make it just one of the virtual windows on the JS Pager ..... In each of the 1D, 2D, and 3D, there are nestings and recursions of information, and also there are pseudo layers, i.e.1.5 D, 2.5D, and you also have to look at the temporal aspect. So, it does take a little while to be able to make a packet of information move from one type of dispaly to another, and as you can't preserve all the information tradeoff's have to be made. It is these tradeoff's that make it hard to describe my system.

Then I use programs like Peepshowlite to be able to cut thru layers, and the Peepshow Full program lets you make multiple incisions ...

To control which windows stay on the top, and to control their transparency I use the program PowerMenu ...

Anyway, I know you must be thoroughly confused by now, but all of these and many more utilities come