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But will these other companies handle grievances any better? For example, uBid's HTML is broken and displays badly on a major web browser. Would they fix it if I report the problem? Would it be good enough to report it to their webmaster? Or would I have to report it to the CEO?

I know, I know, they're powerful and all, but when a company becomes too ignorant and irritates its customers too much (by that I mean the sellers) they inevitably give the competition (even if they're only small start-ups) a huge chance to start taking over. Here in Australia, alternative sites like Oztion have started to become much bigger since ebay started screwing its sellers. It is getting to the point where they are nearly a local alternative for sellers (especially for sellers who don't sell overseas anyway). Especially since evays little paypal experiment many sellers are looking for alternatives. In New Zealand there's Trademe, and it is also becoming bigger and better every day. As ebay becomes more and more reckless, sites like Bidtopia, eBid, OnlineAuctions, WeBidz and uBid will start seeing more and more sellers flock to them as they are getting sick of ebay screwing them around. Serves 'em right...

I know, I know, they're powerful and all, but when a company becomes too ignorant and irritates its customers too much (by that I mean the sellers) they inevitably give the competition (even if they're only small start-ups) a huge chance to start taking over. Here in Australia, alternative sites like Oztion have started to become much bigger since ebay started screwing its sellers. It is getting to the point where they are nearly a local alternative for sellers (especially for sellers who don't sell overseas anyway). Especially since evays little paypal experiment many sellers are looking for alternatives. In New Zealand there's Trademe, and it is also becoming bigger and better every day. As ebay becomes more and more reckless, sites like Bidtopia, eBid, OnlineAuctions, WeBidz and uBid will start seeing more and more sellers flock to them as they are getting sick of ebay screwing them around. Serves 'em right...

I've used uBid periodically, It's got some features that actually make it more desirable. For example, it handles auctions of multiple of the same items better, and if someone bids in the last 15 minutes of the auction, it will extend bidding five minutes continuously until people stop bidding. Just like a real auction. http://www.ubid.com/

It's not a monopoly when there are several alternatives available, dipshit.

I'm sorry that we haven't invented quickly enough to satisfy you. I'll email the folks at Google and tell them to be more clever.

But just in case you've forgotten, here are some novel software concepts and applications from the last few years:

• The web OS
• iTunes
• BitTorrent
• The mobile ad-hoc wireless network
• Voice over IP (as a decentralized, "no one owns the network" concept - much different from telecoms)
• Massively multiplayer gaming, with thousands of people simultaneously participating
• The Onion Router (Tor), and other anonymizing network concepts
• YouTube, as a large, free host of user-generated video
• Consumer-grade GPS
• GPS-based traffic analysis and routing

I could go on, but I think my point is manifest. These things are qualitatively different than precursors from a decade ago. Characterizing these things as tepid rehashes of age-old ideas is the height of dismissive cynicism.

For instance, the bayesian spam filtering we all know and love is patented by Microsoft.

You do realize that patents have characteristics like "scope," right? That Microsoft might have patented its particular implementation of a Bayesian filter, but that it hasn't (and can't) patent the general notion of Bayesian logic?

A hundred years ago, Samuel Morse applied for and was (rightfully) granted a patent on the telegraph. But he also tried to patent the general concept of "sending alphanumeric characters via electromagnetism." This was rejected as impossibly broad. Today we would still deny such an application on several grounds (lack of "enablement," an inadequate "written description," etc.)

Showing thumbnails in online auctions? Patented by eBay.

Yeah, it sucks that uBid can't show thumbnails for its auctions. Oh, wait - it does.

And it sucks that Amazon Auctions can't show thumbnails, either. Whoops - it does, too.

Can you at least double-check these claims before you post them?

All these companies have a huge arsenal at their disposal, and they can direct it at anyone they like. They don't usually direct it at little guys because there's no money, and they usually don't direct it at big guys because of mutually-assured destruction.

Thank you. You have just shot down many arguments against the patent system.

Many of the criticisms of patent law are completely unsupported by the realities of the system. In my experience, most doom-and-gloom forecasters are pretty unenlightened for the actual workings of the system. They just read a brief snippet about it and shoot from the hip.

Did you notice how IBM counter-sued SCO for patent infringement?

And that is a completely legitimate and well-known use of patents. It's defensive patenting. What's wrong with that? A gun can be used to commit cold-blooded murder, or it can be used for self-defense.

When you boil it down, software patents are just a tax.

STAC Electronics. Ever hear of them? No? How about Stacker? Still no? Does DoubleSpace sound familiar?

Let me tell you a story. Back in the early 90's, hard drive space was still pretty small - you could fill up your hard drive by writing a bunch of documents. Sure, you could compress them, but that was a pain in the ass, because you had to do it manually.

Enter STAC Electronics. They invented an automated system for compressing data on your hard drive. The files look and work the same to you (except for a small access delay), but you have a lot more hard drive space.

It was gee-whiz cool, and it helped a lot of people. The p

HP has been selling laptops with dual HD bays for over a year, I think. Check out their dv8000 (Turion or Core Duo) and dv9000 (Turion X2 or Core 2 Duo) lines. They aren't terribly expensive, have decent battery life (I get 3+ hours), and offer the performance improvements of dual drives (striped data partition anybody?) You can also use them for data backup, or to easily migrate data (pull the drive out of an old laptop and put it in as the secondary). You have been able to buy them preconfigured with up to 2x120GB for months now, and with 160GB and 200GB drives now available, you can potentially get up to 400GB internal laptop storage.

uBid.com has been selling the dv8000 for quite a while; most are under $1000. Even those without dual drives already should have the second bay waiting; buy one of the fancy, new drives and use it for data storage, for example.

I've noticed that right now there are a shitload of *very* heavy duty Proliants available (Ebay, ubid, etc.) that are all coming off 5 year leases from dot-com companies with too much money and not enough sense. I got myself a nice Christmas present just recently for an insanely low price.

one example of a ps2 keyboard can be found here: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/bre/blacplay2key.html mouse: http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId =601416162&s=uwb70000 adapter for keyboard and mouse for xbox http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=&product s_id=5438 these products do exist, and i suppose if you didn't own a computer, it might be a pretty decent deal

I've found some good deals on www.ubid.com. I picked up a 4 port KVM switch for $20 when they were going for $200+ at the time elsewhere. The bid-butler auctions are best. Set you max bid and let it re-bid for you up to the amount you set as others bid.

I've never had to return anything I bought from them and it arrived in perfect condition (well, as perfect as can be expected on a refurbed monitor I bought).

My home lab has two Dell Precision 210 workstations, with a KVM box to a common monitor. I bought them used on UBid for about $300 each. They still work great, even after a corporation banged on them a couple of years.

What I really like about them is the "no tools" cases. I can flip up/open just about everything just by releasing latches. I wish the cabling was longer, but they've been good for me.

My TiVO was less than that ($80) from ubid.com

The Boundless WebPlayer might be something you'd be interested in. You can stick in a harddrive, plug in a USB nic, and you'd be ready to go. A buddy of mine managed to do all that, and he aint to swift. (hi ben)

I bought some older PIII/550's from uBid and got a great price. Competition is pretty intense, but if you follow the auctions for your desired machine type, especially in the evening and on weekends, you can usually find a particular auction with few bidders. Selection is not always the best, but if they have what you want it's a good deal. Good luck!

I was able to buy one on ubid for $260! Of course, it was part of a 200-something shipment, so everybody got them cheap.

I currently have the Infinity RS-10's as my front speakers.
These monsters are increadible. I purchased them for a very nice price of $700 for the pair at Ubid.com.
You can sometimes find very good deals on receivers and speakers there.

Another good site to check is audioreview.com. It has information on a LOT of audio components.

Enjoy!

Byzandula

Certainly sounds reasonable. I've found Omnipoint to be good when you are in coverage range. I'm near the Philadelphia, PA area in the US, and get good coverage out to the suburbs. I've was in Singapore once since joining Omnipoint, and rented an international capable handset directly from them for the trip. Very reasonable for 30 days or less, ~$40+insurance if you want it. You want to get them to set up the international roaming option about a month before you leave to avoid trouble, 'cuz I called them every couple days for two weeks prior to my trip trying to guarantee it would work when I got out of the country. And it still wasn't enabled until my second day there. But after that it was fine.

Rates are reasonable (personal opinion), but you'll pay less than $1.00 minute if you give them the $2-3/month international fee for picking a country to roam in. You could end up paying more than that from some hotel land lines, so I consider their rates reasonable. My voicemail notification worked also. And you can cancel the $2-3/month after you travel if you are an infrequent traveller.

I carried the Ericson i888, and it worked just like my normal Ericson, only it could roam on GSM 900. I flew through SFO, Tokyo/Narita (no coverage, no GSM) to Singapore and had coverage everywhere but Japan.

I'm purchasing a Motorola L7089 (L2000 Asian) because it does tri-band, whereas the Ericson is only dual band. Both phones have infrared data capability, which I plan on trying out once I get the Motorola.

And the Sony Viao looks like a good choice. I just picked one up, and a SuSE Linux install went fairly well, although the Viao's (Z505RX) floppy/cdrom standard equipment make it a little tough to install on. Check out Linux Laptops for great help on setup and which laptops have been tested.

I also found good deals on the Viao's at Ubid and Ebay.

I think Sony VAIOs already have this feature.
That day while going thru the Ubid
auction site, I found the new Sony VAIO >340
machines had advertised this feature of handwriting
recognition on the touchpad (though the Sony VAIO I have,
(F-250 cute one, but OK display!) doesn't have this feature!)

-Sas

Again I repeat where do you find these prices. I'm not smoking anything I'd just like to know. For reference check out this page at U-Bid.com or this page at ibm.com Which is the only version of this comp listed on IBM's site. The dealer may have told you it was a z50 but according to IBM it's not. (still a damn good little pda) As for it running Netbsd I won't argue that. I mentioned I didn't know. I only work with FreeBSD myself. Not that NetBSD is bad just I don't use it at work. Again I'm not disputing the price, just can't find that price for the z50, companion PDA yes, z50 no.