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Ebooks have one thing going for them: instant availability. I do a lot of shopping on Amazon but the one thing that always bothers me with them is the time it takes to get their books shipped to me. If I buy an e-book, it's usually as simple as just downloading it. Some of them I turn into hardcopies, others are just fun to read during long hours in the train.

And then there are a few that are so good I want to have them on my bookshelf. Think of the Napeoleon Hill classic..

What's the REAL Reason McDonald's Will Take Your Plastic?

Linux has always run on multiple processor architectures which meant that it wasn't possible for it to make use of any processor specifics that make it difficult to port it to a new architecture. Linux runs on both little endian machines line X86 and Alpha and big endian machines line PPC and SPARC. It has also ran on 64 bit machines for years like Alpha, SPARC, and MIPS. As a result there was no real challenge to port it to AMD64 (well, maybe overstating here, but basically there were no real difficulties). All that was needed was a version of that GCC can produce output for AMD64.

Windows (fill in your version here) has always been an x86 only OS. There was a port to Alpha but it was not well supported and only a few souls on the planet had one. Since then NT/2K/XP focused entirely on the x86. The side effect has been that it has accumlated thousands of lines of code that will only work on a 32 bit architecture. Microsoft has to hunt down every pointer in their windows code, which is vast. Even with Microsoft's resources it's going to take them a while before they have a fully 64bit version of Windows.


Want to know why McDonalds accepts credit cards all of a sudden?

I had a hard time getting my own segway. (the p version, the I version costs almost twice as much). Apparently amazon doesn't ship these things outside of the USA. Fortunately, a friend in the US helped out by buying the thing for me (and one for himself I might add) and have it shipped.

You don't want to know what it cost me to have it shipped. (Twice, once from amazon to my friend, and then from my friend to Europe)

I actually thought about setting up a business as a reseller of these things. Fortunately my girlfriend stopped me :-)

Want to know why McDonalds accepts credit cards all of a sudden?

I sure didn't. If I ever got such a message it would be less than seconds until my fingers hit the delete button.


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

unzip;strip;touch;finger;mount;fsck;more;yes;unmou nt;sleep
You forgot date and grep. Many times, a woman likes a bit of foreplay.

Lukas Grunwald? RFID must be big in germany. At work we have a book by another German, Klaus Finkenzeller (RFID Handbook). I'm not really into these things but a collegue of mine told me it's sort of his bible (and then asked me if we could switch jobs)


Surf the Magical Mystery Wave!

Performance advantage is not an issue here. These are low budget items and having more performance doesn't matter, a lower price does. As someone correctly pointed out, it's often better to buy an older high-end processor than a newer low-end. For Dell, as a seller, this is different, they can't sell pcs with dated processors, it doesn't fit their image.


Click on the Amazing Waves Link!

I thought this was already confirmed by netcraft? :-)

So who is this guy Elliott?

Ok, I've heard this before and you're probably right. But isn't it so that they shoud be sued for exactly this, instead of some law which obviously does not apply to them?


Curious about THIS LINK?

Really, the article states that paypal didn't hold up to some regulations which require them to have some kind of service in case a deal goes wrong. I buy something from you, and it appears to be broken. Now I should be able to resolve this through paypal. This might be good for the customer, but from paypal's view this is nuts. They are just an intermediary that handles the monetary transactions.

As an analogy, suppose you pay something using an ATM, you can't honestly expect the bank to resolve your problems with the product you just bought.


Come on, CLICK HERE. I know you want to do it.

It could even launch warnings on the user's screen for a few days ("Hey dummy! Click here to protect yourself!")

This will do nothing about the bandwidth problem. In an ideal world this wouldn't be necessary, but since we're not living in one I prefer this approach where the bandwidth is wasted once per exploit.

Too bad the number of possible exploits is unbounded...


Why don't you CLICK HERE? Maybe some doom3 stuff behind it...

It's much more. You can record and watch the beginning of a movie while the movie is still on. It will learn your viewing habits and automatically record all the shows you tend to watch, for up to 140 hours. It's sort of a search engine for your TV really. Plus you can view your photo's and listen to your music on the TV via the tivo. You'll want one :-)


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

How about when they're not next to eachother? I'm living in Europe and the prices we have to pay here for *any* kind of hardware are way higher than their American counterparts. A kvm switch for 150 euros anyone? These days that's about $180. But you can buy the exact same device at US shops for less than $100. Sure, shipping costs and taxes will bite you. But still, for us Europeans it generally makes sense to look around in the US. Especially so since most computer parts are small and cost less than $15 to have it shipped.


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

It's a question of priorities and focus. If you want to become a top EQ player, or doom or whatever, you can do that. Even if you work 60 or 80 hours a week. People with a focus on things they really want generally tend to get what they want.

Of course, the average wage slave doesn't have this focus. Most of them have a wife, children, or a social life perhaps.

But don't dismiss this as impossible. It is amazing what people can accomplish if they really want something.


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

I happen to own Secure Architectures with openBSD. While it covers a lot of ground found in other admin books as well, there are some nice things to be found here. Especially the comments on how-not-to-do-it were sometimes... well let's say useful :-)

Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

While I don't know what M$ + NSA put in the closed windows source that could potentially hurt other nations, it is clear that open source doesn't have this problem. If it would have malacious code, it would be open to everybody to fix it. That, I believe is a greater strength than the weakness it represents (which is to infest it with malicious code.)


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

Actually, it's a Peltier device. Peltier devices, also known as thermoelectric (TE) modules, are small solid-state devices that function as heat pumps. A "typical" unit is a few millimeters thick by a few millimeters to a few centimeters square. It is a sandwich formed by two ceramic plates with an array of small Bismuth Telluride cubes ("couples") in between. When a DC current is applied heat is moved from one side of the device to the other - where it must be removed with a heatsink. The "cold" side is commonly used to cool an electronic device such as a microprocessor or a photodetector. If the current is reversed the device makes an excellent heater.


Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

Never mind, I prefer the BOOK anyway.

Click on the Mystery Futures Link!

Actually, Microsoft coming late to the game is part of its success. They take a concept that has proved to be a success and extend it with their own additions. The (in)famous "embrace and extend strategy".

Sure, sometimes it backfires or fails miserably. But then again, if you don't risk now and then, you will not make significant gains either. Microsoft knows this all too well.


Click here for the Mystery Futures Link!

Blowing into the organ pipe produces a flow of air.

Flowing air excites vibrations in the cavity of the whistle.

The vibrations flow into the surrounding air as sound waves.

In a klystron:

The electron gun produces a flow of electrons.

The bunching cavities regulate the speed of the electrons so that they arrive in bunches at the output cavity.

The bunches of electrons excite microwaves in the output cavity of the klystron.

The microwaves flow into the waveguide , which transports them to the accelerator.

The electrons are absorbed in the beam stop.

Click here for the Mystery Futures Link!