Slashdot Mirror

Grue for Sale.
New & used Grue. aff
Check out the deals now!
www.ebay.com

Grue
Buy Grue online.
Shop Target.com
www.Target.com

And it's cooling a much SMALLER space. The cube fridge cools over 1 cubic foot of space. The Coolerator is cooling an area the volume of just over two six-packs.

And Coolerators are insulated, they are built in the chassis of a regular cooler. Coolers are obviously insulated, it's the reason people buy them instead of using a plastic storage box. Who would build a cooler that wasn't insulated? That'd just be insane. Even if you did it and made it work, your competitor would make an insulated version, ditch 3/4 of the expensive eletronic cooler doodads and kick your ass in the marketplace by undercutting your price by 50% and still selling at higher margins.

Read the other threads, not just this one. Peltiers are very poor. They just don't move enough energy for any given power consumption. In fact, since the energy you put in also turns to heat and you put it in right next to the "cold side", it often ends up heating up the thing you wanted to cool instead of cooling it down.

Coworker has a device like at the link. The only good thing about it is it is quiet.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-0442749-7 071848?asin=B00008O384&AFID=k40132&AFID=SMX&ref=tg t_adv_XSD10000

Look at the size of it. Does that look as large as a cube fridge to you? Other links will tell you it has about a 6-liter capacity. One cubic foot is 28 liters. And cube fridges are over 1 cubic foot. Again, see link. 1.7 cu. ft. That's 48 liters. 8 times the size of the thermoelectric fridge.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-3/qid=11 21924434/ref=sr_2_3/602-0442749-7071848?_encoding= UTF8&asin=B0009EXXWO

I did make a slight error, the first units were called Koolatrons, not coolerators. But both words are used now.

And it's cooling a much SMALLER space. The cube fridge cools over 1 cubic foot of space. The Coolerator is cooling an area the volume of just over two six-packs.

And Coolerators are insulated, they are built in the chassis of a regular cooler. Coolers are obviously insulated, it's the reason people buy them instead of using a plastic storage box. Who would build a cooler that wasn't insulated? That'd just be insane. Even if you did it and made it work, your competitor would make an insulated version, ditch 3/4 of the expensive eletronic cooler doodads and kick your ass in the marketplace by undercutting your price by 50% and still selling at higher margins.

Read the other threads, not just this one. Peltiers are very poor. They just don't move enough energy for any given power consumption. In fact, since the energy you put in also turns to heat and you put it in right next to the "cold side", it often ends up heating up the thing you wanted to cool instead of cooling it down.

Coworker has a device like at the link. The only good thing about it is it is quiet.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-0442749-7 071848?asin=B00008O384&AFID=k40132&AFID=SMX&ref=tg t_adv_XSD10000

Look at the size of it. Does that look as large as a cube fridge to you? Other links will tell you it has about a 6-liter capacity. One cubic foot is 28 liters. And cube fridges are over 1 cubic foot. Again, see link. 1.7 cu. ft. That's 48 liters. 8 times the size of the thermoelectric fridge.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-3/qid=11 21924434/ref=sr_2_3/602-0442749-7071848?_encoding= UTF8&asin=B0009EXXWO

I did make a slight error, the first units were called Koolatrons, not coolerators. But both words are used now.

From the article "Congress also wants to auction the spectrum to wireless high-speed Internet services. Such an auction is expected to raise up to $30 billion for federal coffers." Which I'm sure will be applied to our ballooning war debt.

As an added incentive, there's all the campaign contributions that the Washington hoi-poloi will get from hardware manufacturers, cable providers, wireless wanks, etc. ad nauseum.

But the long and short of it is that that cute little portable all in one TV will be relegated to semi-functional door stop status if the politicos and industry has their way.

Yeah, there are a lot of Hary Potter and Star Wars sets out there, but they still make the good stuff. I just bought my 5 year old daughter this at Target to add to her current collection. The only thing that bugs me is that the flat plates aren't part of the standard sets anymore, though you can still buy them directly from lego

Well, here's one way to make them. Imagine two slices of bread with peanut butter and jelly (also known as jam) in between, then using something like what's featured at that link to press and heat the outer edges of the bread slices together -- sealing the filling inside.

I'm sure there are other ways of making pocket sandwiches (including ways that don't involve buying hardware), but they can't be all that different.

(Now watch as someone proves me wrong.)

Hi here is a shirt for you

Hmm...

Personally, I use the Memorex spill-proof keyboard. I like the action of the keys, which have a good (though slightly weak) spring mechanism. I also like the fact that it is as small a keyboard as you are likely to find in a standard 104 key configuration. Its low cost doesn't hurt either. You can get one at target.com for about 15 bucks.

I've also heard good things about the old IBM keyboards. These have much tougher spring action, are a good bit noisier, and people swear by them. I've never used one. You can buy one at pckeyboard.com. There is an old review at dansdata.com.

As far as split key designs, I'm not aware of any that offer the features you want. There may be some, but I don't use a split keyboard and I haven't seen anybody that is passionate about any particular brand.

PQI 128MB 'intelligent stick' $29.99

True enough, but I've had minimal problems with mine driving around metropolitan Chicago. It has a slider to choose from a couple of little-used frequencies.

You didn't look very hard. I bought this one at target today for $69. Early verdict... neat but I can hear the disc spinning which is annoying... stay tuned.

Philippe Starck did do some stuff for Target a year or two ago, but it didn't sell very well and the partnership was severed.

On the other hand, Michael Graves has had a partnership with Target for a few years now, making things like home wares & home electronics (designed by Graves, manufactured by Phillips). You're probably thinking of him, I suspect...

Apple's share of the U.S. PC industry has fallen from 4.2% in mid-2002 to 2.8% in the first quarter, says IDC.

Apple pundits will generally tell you this doesn't matter... and I'm inclined to say they have a point. Average life of my 3 PCs before this one was 4 years. I bought the PB expecting it to last 6. Time will tell.

Sure, Apple flogs low-grade eMacs to schools at bargain-basement prices -- but they have big, fat CRT monitors. Ugh.

I just took a trip to the Best Buy website (let's make the poor assumption that Apple and Best Buy have the same ideas about margins and profits)... yup. CRTs are still roughly $300 cheaper than LCDs. I spent 20 seconds there, I didn't check for the quality of the monitors.

You probably seen the terrific product designs such as well-known architect Michael Graves' line of stylish housewares -- offered a budget prices.

Note that this is not a generalization . :-)

Offer a $200 bounty on a PC exchanged for a new iMac or iBook.

But I like my PC too. It's useful sometimes. For... games and stuff.

Why not offer all Mac buyers a try-and-buy program much like what some Apple resellers are offering to purchasers of high-end Xserve units.

I hear this Unix thing is unbreakable... what better way to test it than to feed it to the dogs that are the general public for free for a couple weeks! :D Realistically, I think their inventories might be a bit too short to do that.

Anyways, those are my first thoughts. At the very least the guy has some interesting ideas. I still think Apple feels they're fine with the niche they have. Reply at will. :)

"That's a good point why is it that a DVD burner costs (in Australia) $150-$200 while a DVD recorder costs ~$1200?"

Here in the USA, an 8x multiformat DVD burner is around $80-$90 if you shop online.

A DVD recorder is around $200-$300. Prices have fallen signifigantly. Look at this. $229 for a DVD recorder. Not bad at all.

So, it looks like people in Australia are just getting ripped off. DVD recorders have been under $300 for about five months now in the US.

Don't worry about it any longer. You are.

I've got a collection of about 60 PSOne disks, from "Resident Evil" through "Final Fantasy" looping into "Dance Dance Revolution" and plenty of others...

Did you take a hammer to your Playstation? They would still be quite playable on that box.

Yes, there will be "must have" games upon launch, but if comes down to space (already at a premium with 3 consoles), or cost...

It's pretty well established that people who buy consoles at launch and at original price don't care about anything but being first. The PS2 sold insanely well at launch not as a PS replacement (a Playstation could have been had for a third to half of the price), not as a DVD player (half the price and DVD playback blew), and barely to play the bad-ass launch games (they sucked). It sold because it was considered "cool" as a gamer to have one.

If Xbox has good launch games, it will sell because gamers want to play games and many want to be "first on the block."

People who are cheap can still get a PSOne for about $79-$100, and games for around $20-$30...

No, actually they can get a PSOne for $50 (before tax of course) at most. I recommend not using numbers unless you've looked some up.

Even when the PS2 came out, there were still good upcoming PSOne games to look forward to.

Sure, because there was an insane number of consoles out there. There will still be some Xbox games (likely mostly ports/multi-platform) coming out when Xbox 2 hits. They'll still be perfectly playable on the Xbox.

In short, I consider backward compatibility one of those things that everyone talks about being important despite the fact that, outside the GBA and unsuccessful Atari consoles, it's only happened once. I consider the logic that backward compatibility sells consoles to be faulty since if one wants to play the old games the old console can be had on the cheap (as others have pointed out, the Xbox will almost certainly be $100 when Xbox 2 streets).

Of course, for Slashdot to pile on this subject it's even sillier considering that every other Xbox harangue contains somewhere words to the effect that "Halo is the only game to play and I can play that on PC." Why would backward compatibility be important for a console that supposedly only has PC ports and no good exclusives?

Attempting to predict the Xbox 2's success, or lack thereof, by pointing to the lack of backward compatibility is just dumb. There's only one example (PS2) on which to base analysis and that sample size clearly isn't big enough.

Three MP, or something like 3.2, is now below $300, more like $250.

The mid-range models are now at four -- that's the current standard, more-or-less, for solid point-and-shooters.

Personally I know from experience that if you're going to want to make enlargements, you want something like four at least. Three will be okay, but there's some degradation of the image, especially if you're going up to 8x10. That's not a microscope, it's just a picture for your desk at work. A 2 MP camera is going to be painful at that size.

The MPIO FL-100 already havea mirrored surface. You can also but the FL-100 at your favorite retail outlet. No USB port though. But it does have some Linux support

Ugly Bags of Mostly Water

Actually that is a reference from Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 17: Home Soil. The phrase is a general description of humanoid life by a non-carbon life form: the microbrain. It would actually apply to Worf too.

You don't need to spend a lot of extra money for CoolMax socks. I've bought inexpensive 2-packs from Target and Ross.

If Target is any indication, smart chips are still a bit off in the future for Visa.

Napster the music-sharing service used to be cool. Now, it's nothing more than a Brand Name. That's not nine lives, that's just someone profiting off of an established name. Sad.

"More than 1,107 Target stores operate in 47 states"

Assuming you have your own desk, get a personal coffee maker for when you're in the office:

Coffee pot 1
Coffee pot 2
Coffee pot 3

It's better then instant and it's better then the crap they serve from corporate coffee machines. You can easily pick up a bag of Starbucks beans (or, for ease of use, already ground) and make what you want right at your desk.

--Dave

Assuming you have your own desk, get a personal coffee maker for when you're in the office:

Coffee pot 1
Coffee pot 2
Coffee pot 3

It's better then instant and it's better then the crap they serve from corporate coffee machines. You can easily pick up a bag of Starbucks beans (or, for ease of use, already ground) and make what you want right at your desk.

--Dave

Assuming you have your own desk, get a personal coffee maker for when you're in the office:

Coffee pot 1
Coffee pot 2
Coffee pot 3

It's better then instant and it's better then the crap they serve from corporate coffee machines. You can easily pick up a bag of Starbucks beans (or, for ease of use, already ground) and make what you want right at your desk.

--Dave

I can walk into the local mall and buy a minidisk at Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City.

You used to be able to get DAT recorders at MARS Music (before the chain went bankrupt last summer).

These are just US places. From the minidisc web sites, like MiniDisco it seems the things are even more popular outside the USA.

anyone ever consider the kind of characters that get jobs as santa in the mall? what kind of person wants to be paid to have a bunch of rugrats sit on his lap all day?

all i want for christmas is the ignorance to be gone from the world, for tech support to always know my answers, and for my freakin' slackware server to run centericq and connect to ALL the protocols ALL the time. i want a toilet that works all the time, neighbors that dont play Robert Palmer from 2AM-4AM as loud as possible, and friends who call me even when they DONT have questions about computers. i want a boyfriend who will ALWAYS be sensitive and caring, and who will rub my feet when i get home from work, and children that will cook dinner and wait on me hand and foot.and for the supermarket workers to stop striking so that life can return to normal.

realizing i'll never have it because i dont believe in santa clause is possibly one of the most depressing things ever.

gifts i'm buying for others this year:
Netflix
Personal Electronics, DVDs, and Music
Cheap toys for the relatives kids that i hate toys for my kid

Here you go... That one is $40 but there are compareable ones for $30 at costco. I find it amusing that you won't say what you got for $80.

The best argument you can make is that for $110 I could pick up a relatively cheap used 35mm P&S So now you're saying it costs the same money for a digital or comparable film hardware? Not even the strongest digital supporter will buy that BS.

Oh, and by the way, the disortion is simply a "fisheye" effect which can also be a desirable effect depending on the theme.

There's a big difference between distortion caused by a crappy lens and fisheye distortion. You implied the former. A 35mm focal length lens on a 35mm camera will not have any fisheye distortion. It sure isn't a property of a fixed focal length lens, and it has nothing at all to do with arpeture.

This posting just proves you have no idea what you're talking about.

Sorry, I didn't look at your link till after I posted. You have pointed it out very clearly here, the $219 machine that is supposed to be "quality" is a _commercial_ product, _not_ a consumer product.

Here's the current state of affairs in this regard.

Old style drink mixer

With all the charm of the originals,

Something the one you linked to doesn't have, yet this one is almost all plastic, ugh.

Here's one similar to mine

This is how things were made back then, solid, he's asking $80+ for 50 year old kitchen appliance, now let's see how much the modern version is "worth"

only $8??

Also, if you notice, that mixer end piece for the new one is plastic, where as the older one has 2 mixing end pieces (one part way up the shaft) and both are stainless steel.

Now you can say what you like about how expensive all the metal is and all that, but if everyone made them this way, then the price probably wouldn't be much different.

The point is, this is just how stuff was made back then. How stuff is made now is to be thrown away in a few years, yes you can buy quality, but back then you didn't have to pay a premium for it.

I really don't understand the gap-jawed complaints some people are expressing. Its a fourty dollar device compared to a TWO HUNDRED dollar device. Please, lets not act too surprised.

This all reminds me of the DustBuster craze in the 80s. They all plainly sucked, or failed to suck dirt, yet they sold by the millions. Even the heavy-duty Black & Deckers did little then make an annoying whine and create a weird smell.

Today, the DustBuster market is more or less dead and the ones that have survived are at Target, are a slightly more costly, are larger than the originals, and have tons more sucking power. I'm willing to bet these actually work. It took 20 years but black & decker did it :)

Will it take another 20 years to perfect the Roomba? Its not all raves you know. It easily gets confused when encountering wiring and cramped spaces, you know the traditional shelters of geeks worldwide.

Another thing to consider is the law of diminishing returns. $200 is a lot of money for most people and if this RobotVac works half as well it will undercut the Roomba in marketshare.

Yes, its cheesy and a cheap knock-off but then again so are most components in the PCs people are using to view this message.

I like you sig btw

On eof the most influencial books I ever read was this one :

The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge
Peter L. Berger
Thomas Luckmann

here

Damn it! I knew I should have read the fine print when I applied for that Target card - but I didn't realize it was going to cost me $3500! Get a free smartcard reader

3 button optical mouse with wheel

Set of screwdrivers (prolly just need a #0 and #1 phillips)

X-Acto Knife

McDonald's Straw - I am not sure if other straws will work it needs to be thermo softening while being thick enough for wear and pliable enough for use.

Personal flamethrower or lighter or soldering iron

krazy glue

about 30 minutes of your time.

Heres how to do it:

1. With the X-Acto knife make a faint score on the mouse wheel along the profile where it sticks out of the mouse
2. Remove mouse cover (typically by removing 2 screws maybe 3 in your case)
3. carefully remove the screw holding the circut board to the upper mouse casing
4. Remove the wheel and action spring noting how they were installed.
5. Trim the mouse wheel with the X-Acto knife so that it is almost flush with the mouse case (using your earlier score) - Nice thing here is you have 3 chances if you mess up at first because you can just rotate the wheel 120 degrees and have a fresh surface!
6. Cut the straw latterally so as to be able to lay it flat and cut a section off which is approximately 35% longer than the exposesed mouse wheel opening in the upper shell of the mouse
7. Heat the straw fragment (dont burn it) until it lays almost flat on your work surface (you do still want some curve)
8. place the mouse wheel back on the curcuit board with the flattened side up (away from the board
9. place the now flattened straw fragment over teh mouse wheel centering it.
10. once you have things the way you want them remove the upper cover again and the trimmed straw fragment
11. place a single tiny drop of krazy glue on the former wheel and immediately recenter the star fragment on it
12. wait a few minutes as the off gas of the glue will cloud the optics of your mouse if you re-assembled immediately.
13. Re-assemble the mouse and you now have a 3 button no wheel mouse!

3 button optical mouse with wheel

Set of screwdrivers (prolly just need a #0 and #1 phillips)

X-Acto Knife

McDonald's Straw - I am not sure if other straws will work it needs to be thermo softening while being thick enough for wear and pliable enough for use.

Personal flamethrower or lighter or soldering iron

krazy glue

about 30 minutes of your time.

Heres how to do it:

1. With the X-Acto knife make a faint score on the mouse wheel along the profile where it sticks out of the mouse
2. Remove mouse cover (typically by removing 2 screws maybe 3 in your case)
3. carefully remove the screw holding the circut board to the upper mouse casing
4. Remove the wheel and action spring noting how they were installed.
5. Trim the mouse wheel with the X-Acto knife so that it is almost flush with the mouse case (using your earlier score) - Nice thing here is you have 3 chances if you mess up at first because you can just rotate the wheel 120 degrees and have a fresh surface!
6. Cut the straw latterally so as to be able to lay it flat and cut a section off which is approximately 35% longer than the exposesed mouse wheel opening in the upper shell of the mouse
7. Heat the straw fragment (dont burn it) until it lays almost flat on your work surface (you do still want some curve)
8. place the mouse wheel back on the curcuit board with the flattened side up (away from the board
9. place the now flattened straw fragment over teh mouse wheel centering it.
10. once you have things the way you want them remove the upper cover again and the trimmed straw fragment
11. place a single tiny drop of krazy glue on the former wheel and immediately recenter the star fragment on it
12. wait a few minutes as the off gas of the glue will cloud the optics of your mouse if you re-assembled immediately.
13. Re-assemble the mouse and you now have a 3 button no wheel mouse!

And toaster ovens are so expensive these days.I wonder if Target has a 30 year financing option for these ultra expensive devices?

is Maddie's signature worth an extra USD49 over the standard iPod?

Well, considering one can by a pretty run of mill shirt for $15.00 at Target, or $185 at Neiman Marcus, I would say yes, to many consumers it's worth paying more simply for status.

I think it's a really smart move on Apple's part & plays perfectly into their geek chic motif.

-Bill

Try here.

Write to them to complain instead of writing on Shashdot. Are you unhappy about this misuse of an already existing law? Sale prices are facts, not copyrighted material. Courts have already ruled that facts devoid of any creativity (such as telephone books) can be copied.


Wal-Mart

From main web site, click Help (at top). Click Company Information (bottom). Click Contact Stores and Home Office Customer Service (bottom left).

Contact


Target

From main web site, click Help (way bottom). Click either Contact Us About Online Services (left middle), or Contact Us About Target (left further down).

Target

Target


Best Buy

From main web site, click Contact Us (left bar, bottom). Click General Questions about BestBuy.com.

Best Buy


Staples

From main web site, click Help (top right). Click Contact Us. Click Something Else.

Staples


These pages have a SUBMIT button for a reason. (because they want you to submit to them.)

If you don't write, then I'll assume you are perhaps happy about this.

Write to them to complain instead of writing on Shashdot. Are you unhappy about this misuse of an already existing law? Sale prices are facts, not copyrighted material. Courts have already ruled that facts devoid of any creativity (such as telephone books) can be copied.


Wal-Mart

From main web site, click Help (at top). Click Company Information (bottom). Click Contact Stores and Home Office Customer Service (bottom left).

Contact


Target

From main web site, click Help (way bottom). Click either Contact Us About Online Services (left middle), or Contact Us About Target (left further down).

Target

Target


Best Buy

From main web site, click Contact Us (left bar, bottom). Click General Questions about BestBuy.com.

Best Buy


Staples

From main web site, click Help (top right). Click Contact Us. Click Something Else.

Staples


These pages have a SUBMIT button for a reason. (because they want you to submit to them.)

If you don't write, then I'll assume you are perhaps happy about this.

I've seen many comments saying "Don't buy from these companies" or the like. That's fine, but be sure to let them know why you aren't buying from them!

Here are some links to:
Walmart's comment page.

Best Buy's comment page or call them at 1-888-BESTBUY.

Target's comment page or call them at 1-800-440-0680.

Staple's comment page or call 1-800-3STAPLE.

I just got a Koss Mini DVD Player for $49 and it is amazing. It plays DVD/VCD/SVCD/MP3/JPEG and is both region and macrovision free. It also lets you skip past that annoying FBI warning ;)

Some people say it gets too hot, but that is due to a crappy AC adapter. Just buy a better one and you are all set.

For more info this, check out this thread over at Anandtech Hot Deals forum.


.//chris

It's been awfully hard to keep the Space Race going since the Soviet Union self-destructed and we're left with a Russia so strapped for cash that they're considering launching a boy-band's lead singer (not that shooting Lance Bass into orbit is a Bad Thing... the Bad Thing is bringing him back).

But I think things are about to get a lot more interesting... while the US press has been busy watching our Dubya waffle belligerently about Iraq, the Chinese have been quietly building their own manned space program. Operating under secrecy that would have made the old Sovietskis proud, China has built a city outside Beijing and has already made three launches of human-capable spacecraft.

Being the last superpower is like being the top dog in the pack... it's a nice place to be, but you've got a big ol' target on your head. With Russia in complete disarray, the US busy picking fights with third-rate dictators, and the EU still finding itself, China is really the only major power still interested in becoming the top dog.

If the Chinese manned launch rumored for next year materializes as planned, the space race could begin again... or the US could keep its head up its butt and wait for all those grave predictions from the first space race to come true.

Target is an excellent place to go to meet beautiful women. Can you imagine a supermodel shopping at Walmart? Of course not.

Naturally, these beautiful women will find you immensely more attractive if your shopping cart is full of expensive items. But beware! They can tell if you have no intention of purchasing the contents of your basket, and will ignore you until you prove yourself with your Target Visa at the checkout.

Beautiful women you meet at Target, should you be lucky enough to bring one home, will be even more impressed if you have target.com as your homepage. Remember to furnish your apartment entirely with Michael Graves stuff.

That ought to do it.

Posting anonymously: for those times when StdDisclaimer.h just isn't enough.

Target is an excellent place to go to meet beautiful women. Can you imagine a supermodel shopping at Walmart? Of course not.

Naturally, these beautiful women will find you immensely more attractive if your shopping cart is full of expensive items. But beware! They can tell if you have no intention of purchasing the contents of your basket, and will ignore you until you prove yourself with your Target Visa at the checkout.

Beautiful women you meet at Target, should you be lucky enough to bring one home, will be even more impressed if you have target.com as your homepage. Remember to furnish your apartment entirely with Michael Graves stuff.

That ought to do it.

Posting anonymously: for those times when StdDisclaimer.h just isn't enough.

Koss CDVD Player by Koss

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_2/60 2-7461077-2529429?asin=B0000632FZ

And I gotta tell ya, I take this $99 beauty of that $300 Sony anyday. It plays CDs/CDRWs/MP3s AND DVD Video which you can hook up to a TV! No, you can't hook it up directly to a computer but who cares?

Recently, as of last November, they implemented a new policy for exchanges.
Basically, they will do no business with you without the sales receipt. Even if an item is defective and you want to exchange it, you can't without the receipt. (This sucks if you got something as a present, and the gift-giver lives out of town! This happened to me.)

Furthermore, they do absolutely no exchanges after 90 days, and if something goes on clearance in the meantime, you will only get the clearance price, not the price you paid.

Target's customer service totally sucks, and would be the last place I buy something now. Especially electronics!

It all depends.

Web Developer and Web Designer are two completely different things.

If you want to work at a small company, and develop from scratch, learn Perl, PHP, and PostgreSQL. These seem to be the standards. They work well (I have built several sites with PHP/PgSQL), and are pretty easy to learn, plus they are pretty good under heavy loads.

If you want to work for a larger company with more divisions than Einstein, you will need to know Java. SQL of some sort. That's about it.

I wouldn't even bother 'learning' ASP, because truth is truth, it's ridiculously simple, and can be learned in a weekend(besides, it's microsoft!!)

Look at the large sites out there: IBM, Target, and Bluelight.com. They all use J2EE compliant Application servers.

Look at some of these: Art Technology Group's Dynamo, Blue Martini, BEA's WebLogic, and IBM's WebSphere.

Some of these guys even have demo downloads, so you can see what you might be working with. Basically, learn the basics(HTML, CSS, Javascript), learn a programming language(C, C++, Perl, Java) and then start playing with the combination. Good luck, and have fun!!

My office has these thermos-based coffee brewers - they work pretty well but you never know how much coffee is actually left in the pot! Now if only I could get them to use a better quality coffee :-( I am sure you can get purchase such coffee makers in North America although I have to admit that I haven't seen them in the retail stores.

Online registry ideas:

• Eddie Bauer Home
• Target (Club Wedd)
• Linens and Things
  
  

In-store registries:

• Famous Barr (part of the May department stores)

Other places to look:

• Amazon
• Chefs Catalog

Believe it or not, some people *want* to give you expensive gifts. We registered for a few things that we really wanted (like a $450/set of pots and pans) and we got them! The most important stuff to register for is kitchen stuff and sheets/blankets/towels. Honestly, skip the technie stuff... most people (particularly family and close friends) don't want to buy you that kind of gift for your wedding.

If you have lots of in-town guests, use a local store. If you register at a place like Famous Barr, DON'T also go to Target. Its not worth the time and effort. If you have lots of out of town guests, do something like Target, but make sure that you don't duplicate. Target will allow you to return gifts, but only with a receipt.. but our experience was that they only allow an in-store exchange. Famous Barr was really good about taking stuff back, even things that might not have been bought in their store. If they don't recognize the item, they can probably tell you where it came from. You only have a week though... so you might consider asking for cash instead of gifts. Your poor wife-to-be is probably going crazy right now and the last thing she wants to do is traipse around unending aisles zapping cleaners and silverware.

Good luck and Congratulations!

P.S. Other useful wedding planning sites you might want to check out:

• The Knot
• The Wedding Channel
• Martha Stewart Online
• 2G Roses (These guys have GREAT prices on flowers)