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I don't have a smartphone. I can't justify the expense of the hardware or the monthly connectivity cost,

Tracfone. The smartphone itself is very cheap, here's one for $90, another for $40. They're not great top-of-the-line iphone quality, but quite serviceable for basic phone/text/email/web use.

A Tracfone is $20 per 90 days, plus the local E911 fee. Figure $7/month. Not a lot of minutes/texts/data, but I don't use my phone for much besides the occasional "my kid got hurt" phone call or text. The texting is vastly superior to those old clamshell phones, And it's getting to the point where you can't find a payphone anymore. Plus, occasionally, I really need to see the weather radar (is this road flooded out?) or check some detail on my email. One of these cheap phones is a lifesaver...

Depends on the channel. Some are overflowing with adverts, while others are ad-free.

And some channels are nothing but continuous advertisement, 24/7/365.

Welcome to variety. :)

How many sites even -offer- USPS as a shipping option?

The largest online retailer uses them for Super Saver and standard shipping. I also see a lot of QVC returns by USPS, and they ship to customers via UPS or USPS.

Oooooo....a $100 laptop!!! Big deal. Here is everything you need to put together a perfectly capable $100 laptop today.

Battary Powered Monitor (Item# E21591) = $33.12
6v Battary powerd Computer that has a HUGE library of educational/business/entertainment software = $24.99
Hand crank generator for charging the battaries = $39.95
Total = $98.06

Now if I can find all of the components to put together a $100 laptop in 15 minutes, I'm sure someone smarter than me could do it better. This is $100 with a huge amount of waste. Extra light, built in radio, siren, and compass. Not to mention the cost that was added for retail profit, and the cost of putting together three seperate packages.

Some may whine that 'It's only an 8-bit computer' or 'It's already outdated'. Well, the $100 laptops that are being proposed are propriotary machines that are also very outdated today. With a C-64 based laptop, at least the end users would have access to actual software. I think these people would be perfectly happy having the standard of living we had in the 80's, and that is what the C-64 would bring.

What this tells me is that there are some people out there that are going to try to make a lot of money by asking for dontation that are way out of line for what they are providing.

Commodore brand purchased by US company

Looks like they're now being described a Dutch company with an American branch.

Meantime, the 30-in-1 C64 joystick built by an amazing C64 developer to be hackable to allow keyboard and disk drive hookup is still $30 or $26/ea for two, thank-you-very-much. And it looks like there's a new version to be released soon too!

It is also interesting to see the most popular web sites. Start by typing www. into google suggest. The top 10 are:

1. www.yahoo.com - Search/Directory
2. www.hotmail.com - Email
3. www.google.com - Search
4. www.ebay.com - Shopping
5. www.msn.com - Portal
6. www.aol.com - Portal
7. www.ebay.co.uk - Shopping
8. www.irs.gov - Government
9. www.mapquest.com - Maps
10. www.amazon.com - Shopping

Typing one more letter shows you the top sites for that letter. Here is the top for each letter:

• a is for www.aol.com - Portal
• b is for www.bbc.co.uk - News
• c is for www.cnn.com - News
• d is for www.dictionary.com - Reference
• e is for www.ebay.com - Shopping
• f is for www.food.gov.uk - Government
• g is for www.google.com - Search
• h is for www.hotmail.com - Email
• i is for www.irs.gov - Government
• j is for www.juno.com - Internet service provider
• k is for www.kbb.com - Consumer information
• l is for www.lyrics.com - Music
• m is for www.msn.com - Portal
• n is for www.nick.com - Kids
• o is for www.orbitz.com - Travel
• p is for www.pogo.com - Games
• q is for www.qvc.com - Shopping
• r is for www.rotten.com - Information
• s is for www.sears.com - Shopping (sorry slashdot)
• t is for www.target.com - Shopping
• u is for www.usps.com - Government
• v is for www.verizon.com - Telephone service
• w is for www.weather.com - Weather
• x is for www.xanga.com - Blogs
• y is for www.yahoo.com - Portal
• z is for www.zappos.com - Shopping

This is some random commentary to make sure that my post has enough characters per line on average to get by the lameness filter. Just a few more words should do it. Then I will be over the limit. Maybe you would like to hear a bit about my projects: Attesoro - A internationalization editor for Java programs. Coinmill - A currency conversion website with many currencies, and features such as abilty to parse English sentences asking for currency conversion. Java Utilities - Utilities for common task in the Java programming language such as parsing CSV files and string manipulation.

Playstation Twos have been out for years now, everybody's got one. Alright, so here comes a portable PS2...

My question is, where are kids going these days where there aren't any A/V inputs? PS2 portability was already achieved before the PSP.

Take all the 8-15 year olds in America, subtract the kids with TVs in their bedrooms, subtract the ones with A/V inputs in their parents' SUVs, subtract the ones with LCD extenders for their PS2s, and who do you have left?

The remaining 8-15 year olds go places, reluctantly, but they don't have 250.00 dollars to spend on a console they already own (and games they already own) except around birthdays and Christmas.

So that leaves the 16-25 year olds, but these adolescents don't play video games in the backseats of their parents' Volvos or at Grandma's house like 8-15 year olds; they play the classic PS2 on the big TV in the apartment/dorm/house they almost never leave. Furthermore, I suspect they're even less likely to be duped into repurchasing their 300 to 500 dollar software collections.

So this PSP thing makes a fancy gift, but I just don't see anybody running out in a frenzy to snatch one for themself. Sales will pick up around the holidays, but Sony should not expect kids in Springfield, Santa Barbara or Scottsdale will react like kids in Tokyo.

That's nothing! The Commodore 64 is STILL being made!

hehe

...and let's not forget, Emulate the C64 hardware so you can one day create a C64 30-in-1 game joystick and sell it on QVC

Already have them:

http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp?nest=%2Fasp%2F isItemNumberRedirect.asp&search=SQ&frames=y&referr er=QVC&txtDesc=commodore+64&SearchClass=

Bzzt. They have two-player games for it. If you RTFA, there's a Set of 2 Commodore 64 30-in-1 Classic Plug & Play Video Game available as well, in which the second joystick plugs into the first joystick. Certainly the reason is a combination of space limitations and lack of ability to license those games at a reasonable cost.

Link

$40.

It's not all THAT bad.
It's not like there are other useless channels out there.

I considered a USB coffee cup warmer for my husband until I read that it only keeps coffee lukewarm. I also considered the WFS-1 wifi detector, which is far superior to the Kensington model, but I nixed that because it doesn't distinguish between open and closed networks.

If we were filling stockings for grown-ups, I'd have gotten a bunch of Cyberguy Power Strip Liberators, which double your outlet access and are only $2.39 each. I have some and love them.

I was going to get my puzzle-loving brother-in-law a Shmuzzle Puzzle, but the U.S. rerelease, which had been scheduled for Dec. 3 on QVC has been postponed indefinitely. Canadians can buy them over the counter.

Some of the geekier presents I ordered for my nieces and nephews, all of whom are of course brilliant:

• Harry Potter Wizard Chess and Chess for Juniors for 8 year old.
• Skyrail Suspension Marble Run for artistic 9yo and engineering 5yo.
• Smart the Dog LEGO set for 9yo (also considered Motor the Monkey set.
• Techno Blocks, "the world's only preschool remote-control construction toy", for my 5yo engineer.
• Terry Pratchett's delightful Bromeliad (fun for ages 5 to adult) to begin reading aloud and then leave behind.
• Grow-a-Frog kit for 8yo naturalist.
• Geometric and creative Images coloring kit for artistic 6yo.
• Cattus Petasatus [Cat in the Hat] and a Latin dictionary for a sister-in-law.
• 500-in-1 electronic project lab for grown sister-in-law because you're never too old to learn. (Note the large discount over the Amazon price.)
• Disney's Princess Magical Dress Up software to encourage my 6yo niece to wrest the family computer from her 8yo brother (although that may be futile, since we're also giving him a Real One Arcade subscription).

Slightly less geeky gifts:

• Family Classics 50 Movie Mega Pack 12-DVDs at only $29.99

Anything like these?

games 1

games 2

QVC is one of the vendors selling them online.

Come on, It's at the top of the fricking page. The editors really need to do a better job picking these Ask /. questions.

Oddly enough, QVC has been selling the "N64 controller lookalike" you speak of. You can find it here though it says it is "waitlist only" - probably a lot of aunts, uncles and grandparents cheaping out on the little ones. ;)

Oddly enough, QVC has been selling the "N64 controller lookalike" you speak of. You can find it here though it says it is "waitlist only" - probably a lot of aunts, uncles and grandparents cheaping out on the little ones. ;)

The NES version is on QVC. I caught this flipping through the channels yesterday morning.

There doesn't seem to be much info on them, but the price of these things (~$22!) make me think they're not paying any licensing fees to the many companies whose games are included.

Available from http://www.qvc.com. Why not look in the clearance section and save loads of money :-).

QVC sells another alternative to diamonds called Diamonique. They sparkle more then your average diamond and cost a fraction of the price. How do you really want to show you love for somebody, by giving her a good sized ring that shines like nothing she's ever seen before that both economical and practical? Or will you blow $5000 on a real diamond that would be half the size of a pea? Love isn't about how much you can spend a glorified rock, is about what you can give her that will make her feel special. Besides, you won't have to worry about where the diamond in question really came from.

QVC sells another alternative to diamonds called Diamonique. They sparkle more then your average diamond and cost a fraction of the price. How do you really want to show you love for somebody, by giving her a good sized ring that shines like nothing she's ever seen before that both economical and practical? Or will you blow $5000 on a real diamond that would be half the size of a pea? Love isn't about how much you can spend a glorified rock, is about what you can give her that will make her feel special. Besides, you won't have to worry about where the diamond in question really came from.

Hey did you see this page? It says the lights are actually LCD lights... this must be an amazing technology.

In fact, the Freeze-Frame function is gone. It has been replaced by a "Serve Me A Commercial" function. Press the same button you've always pressed for Freeze Frame and now you get to look at a Coca-Cola commercial or some such for 25 minutes.

How did this happen? Replay TV downloaded the change one night, along with the TV log updates. No notice was given, and no choice was offered. They just stripped away basic functionality and replaced it with something that brought them more revenue.

At the very least, I think this is going to enrage a lot of people who use "traditional" appliances (TVs, VCRs, washing machines, etc.) and don't expect the functionality to suddenly change on them with no notice, and more importantly, to have a freature which they presumably paid for be replaced by something useless to them!

It would be like pressing the "mute" button on your TV's remote control and having the channel changed to QVC or something.

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The Evil One. QVC. Uses the television to sell crap to people with no taste.

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