Slashdot Mirror

Right. Now we just have to actually reach "no monopolies" and "no restrictions on competition", because the cost of building an initial set of cell towers is most certainly restricting new players from entering the market.

Making transceivers doesn't cost much actually, the costly part is locating towers. However with higher powered transceivers fewer towers are needed. Regulations though set maximum power levels. Another way to reduce the number of towers and transceivers needed is using shortwave broadcasting. I used to get a kick out of listening to Radio Moscow on shortwave, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. And I lived in Florida then. When disasters happen knocking out land-line communications, shortwave radios are used. Still today Radio Shack sells shortwave receivers, of course I'd rather go to Skycraft to buy the parts then build one myself.

Another way cellphone service is and was restricted is by the use of System Identification Numbers, or SIDs. Licensing is required.

Falcon

If you are already on vacation in Orlando, convince your family to go to Skycraft Parts & Surplus.

http://skycraftsurplus.com/

They are off of I-4 and Fairbanks near downtown, you can't miss the giant UFO on the roof.

They get a lot of old NASA/Lockheed gear, plus everything from de-soldered 74-series DIPs to Oscilloscopes to Electric Motors.

Did Word push compeating product out because it was better or because it came bundled with PCs? I bet it's the later.

Not really. Microsoft bundled MS DOS and Windows 3.x with PCs, but never, to my knowledge and memory, bundled Word 6.0 or Excel. It started happening, I think, only after Office 97 was built and MS's OEM sales machine spun up.

After spending about 1/2 hour searching I didn't find a reference to when MS started offering application bundles with hardware and I don't know when they did.

Until then PC manufacturers didn't care about the software; I don't even remember if they installed any OS on the HDD or not.

DOS did come installed on new PCs. Compaq, IBM, and Zenith (yes Zenith used to make PCs. Apparently they still do in India, they're sold all over the world except Canada and the US), along with other OEMs sold PCs with the OS already installed.

Wikipedia says that Word won because it was better. I used WordPerfect myself at that time, and I must say that WP was not as slick as Word.

Back then I don't recall what I was using, but I started with MacWrite. DOS didn't have anything like it.

Word is still with us; WordPerfect, on the other hand, not so much

It only has a small market but WordPerfect is still with us, In April 2008 Corel released their "WordPerfect Office X4 office suite containing the new X4 version of WordPerfect which includes support for PDF, OpenDocument and Office Open XML."

Actually I bet if I look the only suite the major OEMs will bundle with Windows PCs is MS Office.

No, actually there is another office suite called Microsoft Works

Okay, I phrased it wrong. Perhaps I would of been closer if I said OEMs would only bundle MS office suits, I hadn't thought of MS Works.

most people that buy computers at Fry's don't need MS Office anyway

There is no Fry's near me, that I know of, but stores around here that sell PCs sell they with bundles. Fry's has general electronics too doesn't it? The place I loved going to, when I lived near there, was Skycraft Parts and Surplus. If you're a hobbyist and want to build something electrical or electronic if they didn't have the part you'd have to order it. And it wasn't just electrical and electronic parts but military surplus as well, even backpacks, empty ammo boxes, and tents as well as marine equipment.

It is common, though, to find trial versions of Office

Yea, my Mac came with a trial-ware version of MS Office, 2007 I think.

Falcon

license, so that a EE can pass with flying colors without studying.

Do they still require the person to be able to build their own transceiver? Or is it just a bunch of regulations entry level licenses require? If it's just regulations I wonder why they even bother. I'd need to review or study but I want to relearn, because of an accident my memory was damaged, how to build radios. I picked up an electronics learning lab for this, unfortunately all I could find was a digital lab, I didn't see any analogue labs. However I only went to local shops, if I look online such as at Jameco I probably would find analogue labs, but I'd rather be able to return it locally if it doesn't work. I used to like going to Skycraft in Orlando, FL, but I moved away and don't know of any places like it locally.

Falcon

If you're ever in the Orlando area, Skycraft is awesome. They have pretty much everything. It's right off of I-4 on Fairbanks.

They have an online store, too.

Nope.

Tested with a Dell E1705. We had 22.3 volts between case screw and ground.

Outlet showed proper wiring with one of those little Quick test Circuit Testers
http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/ProductImages/sk206 9.jpg (circuit tester image).

If a CPU/mobo combo was going to cost you as much as a whole new OEM machine, you need to shop somewhere else. Normal price range for a combo is around 1/3rd the price of an equivalent OEM system.

I don't recall what CPU/mobos I looked at but the mobos were about $100, towards the lower end in cost and a cpu $150, again lower end. My new PC cost $250 and it had a $50 mailin rebate. Now I did get more RAM, it only came with 128 MB, and a second hdd as the one it came with was only 40GB. I got 1GB ram for $100 and a 750GB hdd for $300. So the total cost was $650. Unfortunately it's only optical drive was a cd, so I've been looking for a dvd. However I haven't found a dl dvd that is compatible with linux, which was preinstalled. I'd also like to add firewire 800. As I plan on getting a Macbook Pro I figure I can forgo these though.

Oh as for where I looked, I don't know of good places to get electrical/electronic parts around here so I went to Best Buy, CompUSA, Microcenter, and a few other chains. I wish I knew of someplace like Skycraft. I used to go there, brick and mortor store, to look for components and surplus equipment.

Typewriter or shaver?

If you're in the house plug it into AC. If you're in your car, use the car cord. If you're really confused, plug this http://www.skycraftsurplus.com/index.asp?PageActio n=VIEWPROD&ProdID=460 (also at RS, but I can't find it on the site) into AC, then plug the car cord into that.

Or plug this http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produc tId=2365254&cp=2032056&pg=3&f=Taxonomy%2FRSK%2F203 2056&categoryId=2032056&kw=car&kwCatId=2032056&num ProdsPerPage=20&parentPage=search (12V to 120V car inverter, in case the link sux) into the lighter socket and plug the AC cord into that.

The preceding solutions are stackable if you have a lot of free time that would otherwise be channeled into evil acts.

Do you happen to live in CA? I've heard some good stuff about Fly's Electronics, this is the first tyme I've heard anything negative. Looking at their location and hours webpage I see they're only in 9 states and I'm not in any of them. One place I loved to go to when I lived in FL was Skycraft. Parts weren't always where they were supposed to be but their employees knew both electronics and where you would find the parts you needed.

In orlando Fl. there's a store something like this called Skycraft. All kinds of stuff, from circuit boards all piled up in a box (no telling what they're from), rack mount instruments (seismic instruments, radio gear etc.) bulk wire and even some NASA surplus'd items. WW doesn't have a web presence, do they? I might have to stop in if I'm ever up there, sounds like a geek's tourist trap if ever there was one...