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Many of the other Sprint phones require you to buy a $100 internet connection kit, and some of them need special software. Not sure the exact capabilities of the phones, but I'm pretty sure the software is all for windows.

StarTalk is a little command line utility that lets you transfer phone contacts in a text file format between a computer and a StarTac phone using the serial data cable. I think that the StarTac and the TimePort use the same serial interface. It's very beta, but it looks like it could be the basis for someone to write a free truesync-like program.

I have Sprint PCS service on a Motorola StarTAC phone, and love it.

It's coverage is kinda spotty, but where it does work, I can plug it into the serial port on the back of my laptop with a cable from Motorola, and I can use it to connect to the Internet from anywhere. It's slow, but it's fine for reading email, or for downloading a document or program to work on during a delayed flight. Anybody know if other phones/services able to do this nowadays?

I also wrote a program that lets me manipulate its addressbook from my Linux machine, which keeps me from having to type letters on its terrible little keypad. (see StarTalk)

I've done this for my StarTAC phone:


http://www.tir.com/~sgifford/startalk/

It includes programs to write to/from the addressbook, and a detailed analysis of the protocol used to communicate with the phone.

I'd love to take a look at your script, and see how the Samsung phones are different from Motorola. Where can I find a copy?

DISCLAIMER: Some info on this page assumes you are from the Omaha, NE area. I apologize.......

I just got into arcade collecting/building myself, so I'll try to lend a few pointers (though most of this info will be totally region-centric)

As for what kind of cabinet you want, I recommend sticking to Jamma based cabinets (most are, but the really old ones aren't). Basically, the Jamma harness provides a uniform interface to the monitor/buttons/etc, so swapping out PCB's are pretty easy. I like old Capcom games (Strider, SF 2, Final Fight), and you can find tons of them on Ebay or perhaps purchase them from a place like Central Distributing. For the really really old ones that used dedicated hardware, there are a few sites on the net that show you how to make a Jamma harness yourself, but you'd be better off buying the whole thing in a lot of cases (if you are interested in coverting a non-jamma to jamma, check out This link.

You will also want to check the condition of the monitor. It's pretty much a given that older games will have some burn in. You'll have to watch out for that. The good news is, if you have to settle for a monitor with burn in, Happ Controls has a good selection of monitors to choose from, if you need to replace it.

Personally, I like to pick up my cabinets from local outlets (like that place Central Distributing). Usually, they are more than happy to let you mess around with it and make sure all the controls work and the monitor looks sharp and the sound works, etc. In other words, you know what you are buying. :)

Once you find yourself a decent cabinet, you can start buying just the PCB's and swap them in an out (nice thing about the Jamma harness, it makes this painless, for the most part). Like I said earlier though, older games ( Pac-Man, Gyruss era) might require a bit more work.

While I realize you don't like emulation, there is a neat cabinet from Hanaho called the ArcadePC. It gives you more of the arcade "feel", while running the games from a PC under MAME or something. Sometimes, this may be your only choice :(

Here is a list of some of my favorite sites (all can be found by searching Google with the keyword 'jamma' or 'jamma pcb' or something like that

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/vide oarcade/faq/

http://nexus.nanospace.com/~spo onman/neogeo/faq.htm

http://www.ntrnet.net/~braze/ arcade/tech/repair.shtml

http:/ /directory.google.com/alpha/Top/Games/Coin-Op/Arca de_Games/Collectors/ (TONS of links)

http://members.xoom.com/organian/

If you need more info or anything, feel free to email me (remove the NOSPAM) and discuss!

Not terribly convincing. For example, the "original" metabolic pathway may have been more complicated. Different molecules that had other purposes eventually came together and accidentally produced something useful, that perhaps took the place of an existing process, perhaps even using some of the intermediate products. Later, the older process atrophied away, and stopped being produced. There's precedent for this - we've lost the ability to produce some amino acids because we get enough from our diet.

Anyway, take a look at Tierra, for example. Essentially, evolving computer programs, but the neat part is that they are open-ended - they can invent novel algorithms that the simulation's author never imagined. And they do invent novel algorithms.

They are written in a special assembly language, but not that special. The only major changes from typical assembly languages is that the opcodes have no operands and don't need to specify an exact address for some operations.

I wrote a version myself, and was amazed when the 'organisms' exploited flaws in my implementation that I didn't even know were there. They also evolved complicated algorithms (e.g. loop unrolling) that, at first blush, look like they need all the individual parts together to work correctly... like Behe asserts.

I'm not so convinced by arguments that state, "I can't imagine how this could have arisen without design, so it must have been design."

It should be entirely ANSI C, and run on anything from a 16-bit processor w/128K on up. Some of the code is a little amateurish, but it's very portable.

It's at http://www.tir.com/~sorceror/minev/in dex.html.