Slashdot Mirror

Actually the supreme keyswitch technology is electric capacitance such as that found on the Happy Hacking Professional keyboard from Fujitsu. The keyswitch passes between two metal plates to discharge an electic current that signals a key press. No physical contact takes place nor is necessary so you will have the longest, most consistent life and best responsiveness. This is usually backed up by a metal spring technology (such as the IBM Model M) to give tactile feedback.

If the Optimus doesn't use electic capatitance then it hardly deserves to be the "premium" keyboard. Then again I think the whole OLED thing is stupid and keycaps should be blank except for the bumps on F and J (on QWERTY). Print on keycaps is a crutch and the solution isn't to make better print! People just need to learn how to type. Computers should come with blank keycaps and an on-screen keyboard map so people don't get in the habit of looking at the keyboard and instead learn to look at the screen.

If your system still supports PS/2 and you want The Original then I advise looking into getting an older Model M from Clicky Keyboards. I got one of these for about $50. I would get a Customizer from Unicomp if my system only supported USB or I wanted to future proof myself against buying another keyboard in the future. Even then the Happy Hacking Professional is just too tempting.

Those ER-20's are pretty darn nice for the price. Speech frequencies are not as heavily attenuated as a foam earplug. After a minute or three of having them, they sound "natural", it's about as close to sounding like you aren't wearing an earplug as you can get without shelling out for the custom molded versions. A single pair will last about a year of heavy usage (30+ hours a week). I buy them buy them 10 at a time and will gladly give them to anybody who will actually wear them. That said, they do have a substantial downside: they really aren't blocking a lot of sound. If your environment regularly hits in the high 90's dB(a) and you want a reusable silicone plug, I recommend trying the SilentEar plugs. You must get the proper size for your ear or they will not work.
As for disposable earplugs, the Howard Leight Max plugs are quite comfy and are NRR 33, the MaxLite plugs are even more comfortable and the NRR is only reduced to 30. The MaxLites are my go-to plug when things get loud and speech/music intelligibility is not an issue. The MaxLites are one of the few plugs I can wear while sleeping without discomfort. (nightshift + low-rent apartment = sleepless "nights")
Never settle for an uncomfortable ear plug. There are hundreds of different style and material variations and even trying out 20 different types will still be a fraction of the cost of the cheapest noise-canceling 'phones.
I am a repeat customer of the linked store.

Noise canceling headphones are not hearing protection, are not designed for hearing protection, and should not be treated as such.

Those ER-20's are pretty darn nice for the price. Speech frequencies are not as heavily attenuated as a foam earplug. After a minute or three of having them, they sound "natural", it's about as close to sounding like you aren't wearing an earplug as you can get without shelling out for the custom molded versions. A single pair will last about a year of heavy usage (30+ hours a week). I buy them buy them 10 at a time and will gladly give them to anybody who will actually wear them. That said, they do have a substantial downside: they really aren't blocking a lot of sound. If your environment regularly hits in the high 90's dB(a) and you want a reusable silicone plug, I recommend trying the SilentEar plugs. You must get the proper size for your ear or they will not work.
As for disposable earplugs, the Howard Leight Max plugs are quite comfy and are NRR 33, the MaxLite plugs are even more comfortable and the NRR is only reduced to 30. The MaxLites are my go-to plug when things get loud and speech/music intelligibility is not an issue. The MaxLites are one of the few plugs I can wear while sleeping without discomfort. (nightshift + low-rent apartment = sleepless "nights")
Never settle for an uncomfortable ear plug. There are hundreds of different style and material variations and even trying out 20 different types will still be a fraction of the cost of the cheapest noise-canceling 'phones.
I am a repeat customer of the linked store.

Noise canceling headphones are not hearing protection, are not designed for hearing protection, and should not be treated as such.

Those ER-20's are pretty darn nice for the price. Speech frequencies are not as heavily attenuated as a foam earplug. After a minute or three of having them, they sound "natural", it's about as close to sounding like you aren't wearing an earplug as you can get without shelling out for the custom molded versions. A single pair will last about a year of heavy usage (30+ hours a week). I buy them buy them 10 at a time and will gladly give them to anybody who will actually wear them. That said, they do have a substantial downside: they really aren't blocking a lot of sound. If your environment regularly hits in the high 90's dB(a) and you want a reusable silicone plug, I recommend trying the SilentEar plugs. You must get the proper size for your ear or they will not work.
As for disposable earplugs, the Howard Leight Max plugs are quite comfy and are NRR 33, the MaxLite plugs are even more comfortable and the NRR is only reduced to 30. The MaxLites are my go-to plug when things get loud and speech/music intelligibility is not an issue. The MaxLites are one of the few plugs I can wear while sleeping without discomfort. (nightshift + low-rent apartment = sleepless "nights")
Never settle for an uncomfortable ear plug. There are hundreds of different style and material variations and even trying out 20 different types will still be a fraction of the cost of the cheapest noise-canceling 'phones.
I am a repeat customer of the linked store.

Noise canceling headphones are not hearing protection, are not designed for hearing protection, and should not be treated as such.

Those ER-20's are pretty darn nice for the price. Speech frequencies are not as heavily attenuated as a foam earplug. After a minute or three of having them, they sound "natural", it's about as close to sounding like you aren't wearing an earplug as you can get without shelling out for the custom molded versions. A single pair will last about a year of heavy usage (30+ hours a week). I buy them buy them 10 at a time and will gladly give them to anybody who will actually wear them. That said, they do have a substantial downside: they really aren't blocking a lot of sound. If your environment regularly hits in the high 90's dB(a) and you want a reusable silicone plug, I recommend trying the SilentEar plugs. You must get the proper size for your ear or they will not work.
As for disposable earplugs, the Howard Leight Max plugs are quite comfy and are NRR 33, the MaxLite plugs are even more comfortable and the NRR is only reduced to 30. The MaxLites are my go-to plug when things get loud and speech/music intelligibility is not an issue. The MaxLites are one of the few plugs I can wear while sleeping without discomfort. (nightshift + low-rent apartment = sleepless "nights")
Never settle for an uncomfortable ear plug. There are hundreds of different style and material variations and even trying out 20 different types will still be a fraction of the cost of the cheapest noise-canceling 'phones.
I am a repeat customer of the linked store.

Noise canceling headphones are not hearing protection, are not designed for hearing protection, and should not be treated as such.

Don't.

The real capability has vanished in the (bitter) course of time.

CC.

You may not like the stupid yellow foam earplugs, but there are better alternitves. Check out http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/profmusearpl1 .html for instance. The idea is that they are both more comforatble and allow you to hear better even while reducing the volume. All of the musicians I have mixed for LOVE them and I've tried them and found them to be much more comfortable than regular foam plugs. In fact, I find having a large headset on, is uncomfortable for long periods and adds strain to your neck. Check them out, they aren't too expensive. (and I have no affilation with this paticular store, it's just the first site I found)

For when I really need to concentrate:

          MAX(c) polyurethane foam earplugs (NRR 33)
      + Elvex UltraSonic HB-650 tactical hearing protectors (NRR 29)

http://earplugstore.stores.yahoo.net/holemaxuffop. html
http://www.elvex.com/tactical-hearing-protection-e armuffs.htm

The article only mentions The Typing of the Dead as an honorable mention, but I'd have to say that it's probably my favorite Dreamcast game. It sounds really odd -- using your typing prowess to battle zombies -- but it's surprisingly fun. It's particularly fun if you have two keyboards, so you and a friend can scream at each other as you're frantically typing.

Also, if you're like me and have a bunch of PS/2 keyboards already sitting around, there's a Dreamcast-PS/2 adapter you can get. It doesn't cost much less than a dedicated Dreamcast keyboard, but it results in less clutter.

what about a 3840 x 2400 resolution (9.2 megapixel) monitor?

Obligatory link to the poster. And it's "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

There is a solution to the keypad on the right...

Either a Logitech diNovo desktop, which has a separate keypad (unfortunately, it comes with a righty mouse,) or a Happy Hacker keyboard plus a notebook-style external keypad.

Less than 1/50th the price. Not insignificantly, 22lbs is light enough to carry if it breaks down. The lightest Segway is 70lbs. When it breaks down (or, more often, shuts down with an Out Of Cheese error), you might as well call a tow-truck.

Pretty much anywhere on the east coast within 100 miles, especially for a night launch. I happened to be in Daytona for spring break one year when they had a night launch with, IIRC, a new moon, and it was spectacular even from 60 miles away. The whole beach was pretty well lit up for about half a minute or so. I'm not sure if the next launch is planned for day or night (probably day since night launches are fairly infrequent), but I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad view from Daytona even during the day.

But if you want to get closer, there's plenty of hotels right across the bay: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=hotels&nea r=kennedy+space+center&ie=UTF8&z=11&ll=28.583316,- 80.709686&spn=0.304493,0.468292&om=1

Directions to the KSC are here: http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/KSC/directions.a sp

And if you want to get really close, you can buy tickets here.

They have a store for purchasing tickets:

http://kennedyspacecenter.stores.yahoo.net/

Also saw this when searching for the causeway passes, which seems to indicate that you might have to go some other way:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/question s/faq.html

Think of it. You battle your brother in law for who gets to/has to host Thanksgiving that year. The one who wins, is the one who kept his head! Just don't let Jack Thompson get ahold of this.

I'm seriously going to cry when PS/2 ports go extinct and USB adapaters stop supporting Vista DRM or whatever

In case you don't read upthread, you can buy brand new keyboards with the CAPSLOCK and CTRL keys swapped. And even better, they're high-quality buckling spring keyboards, direct descendents of the IBM Model M. http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/linux101.html

DISCLAIMER: I am not affiliated with this site, but I love my Model M keyboards.

http://pfuca-store.stores.yahoo.net/haphackeylit1. html

Vi users probably want one of these keyboards. No dedicated caps lock key.

'Linux' model buckling spring keyboard

Answer me this, when in the modern Mac era has apple ever showed it's computers being used by buisnessmen in ties...

Probably not modern enough, but there is http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/redlightrunner/crow dcontrol.mov and http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/Apple Movies/mov/serious_computer.html, not to mention all the Newton ads showing execs on the go. For a more current frame of reference, Apple has http://www.apple.com/macatwork/ on their web site.

A cheap web cam: http://insidecomputer.stores.yahoo.net/usbwebcamwe p.html $7
This book: http://www.nerdbooks.com/item.php?id=1852336668 $45
GCC compiler: http://gcc.gnu.org/ $0
A lot of time: http://www.time.org/ $0
----------------------
$52 + tax, shipping, etc.

And there you go.

Or just go here: http://www.it4tomorrow.de/shop/index.php?lang=ENG& list=KAT14
Or read this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/06040 4091149.htm
Which will lead you here: http://www.cogain.org/
Which will lead you here: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/developm ent/

Now, from there, I'm stuck. I can't find any more information on the OWL. But it was invented in 1987 and could be mass produced for around $10 (according to the link), so I see potential there.

Layne

Actually, the cheapest I found for a 50pk was $1.45 ea. with free shipping, which is still sort of pricey, but a not-insignificant 27.5% below $2. I found name brands around $1.80, which is still 10% less than $2.

Also you don't have to buy them on spindles to get them at or below $2/ea:

http://meritline.stores.yahoo.net/single-sample-du al-layer-dvd-dl-r-media.html
recordingstore.com

This is very interesting. An important part of the "web-mapping war" relates to two important characteristics: (1) how the API are complete and easy to use and what's the licence, and (2) how well Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, Ask, etc. successfully integrates many services together. It is not only about satellite imagery resolution, it's also about the API and licenses and services integration.

About the new commercial use for Yahoo! Maps and API (from slashgeo):
" Yahoo! Maps now allowing commercial use. From Yahoo!: "Until today, the APIs were available only for non-commercial use unless you applied for an exception. The concept of commercial and non-commercial has gone away and exceptions are no longer necessary in most cases. We have given you explicit Usage Policies to help guide you. Whether on your business website, blog or personal site, you no longer have to ask for permission." There's also a new Official Yahoo! Maps blog "

But that's not the end. Starting this week, the new Google Earth licence does not allow you to install Google Earth at work at all, even for personal use. Again from slashgeo:
"The Ogle Earth blog indicates that if you use Google Earth at work (the free version), you're in illegality. From the site: "1. USE OF SOFTWARE The Software is made available to you for your personal, non-commercial use only. You may not use the Software or the geographical information made available for display using the Software, or any prints or screen outputs generated with the Software in any commercial or business environment or for any commercial or business purposes for yourself or any third parties. "

Oh yeah, and unrelated to the story but still very interesting, you can geocode your Picasa photos using Google Earth. I'll stop there. See my sig to learn more ;-)

Get a panasonic toughbook. Well-nigh indestructible and made to work in the sun. Something with the way they do their LCD. You can find older ones cheaper than this

http://telrepco.stores.yahoo.net/pantougcf1.html

Many models are sealed against dirt and moisture and have touchpads that can be used with gloves, in the rain. I've got a CF-27 and the thing's built like a tonka truck!

I never got why the Daskeyboard was so "popular". One could pay slightly less for a proper IBM Model M buckling spring keyboard (or a clone of one), like they sell here or here.

Never mind, I am behind the times, the XP-120 is no longer made. I meant the Ultra-120 heatsink:

http://svcompucycle.stores.yahoo.net/ultra-120.htm l

Well, here are three posibilities. None are perfect, but I'm guessing they are workable:

1. Desktop usage:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keywo rd=2105
And a 2 or 4 port PATA raid card,
or
http://www.topmicrousa.com/st-123cf.html
and a SATA capable motherboard or SATA raid card.

The second has the advantage of being easily hotswappable.

Disadvantage: Not as cheap as you might like. Probably $50-$100 investment required.

2. Notebook usage:
http://americanesuperstore.stores.yahoo.net/cfad-0 03.html
Get two. Assumes your notebook has 2 PCMCIA slots, and you don't mind wasting them both.

Advantage? Internal
Disadvantage? No open PCMCIA slots. Most modern notebooks (unlike my Inspiron 8200) only have 1. Notebook must support booting from PCMCIA IDE

3. Notebook usage:
http://www.lexar.com/readers/pro_reader.html
Lexar daisy chainnable USB/Fireware CF reader.

Advantage? Does exactly what you want.
Disadvantage? Probably pricey. (~$80) External. Notebook must support booting from USB/Firewire.

Other items of note:
http://www.sprysoft.com/card-reader-internal/p_288 29.html

This allows you to plug in a combination of flash devices. SD, CF, whatever else. You could probably get up to 10 or so GB. Requires a 5.25" bay.

http://www.lexar.com/ufc/index.html

If you are really handy with wiring inside your notebook, you could probably stack these tiny Lexar USB Flashcards. They are slightly larger than a USB port; pretty damn small, in other words.

I guess I misunderstood you the first time (in terms of price/convenience), but I know the tech is out there. A couple guys with some basic soldering capabilities could probably through your dream, 2.5" IDE/Flash adapter together in a matter of days, with either using the IDE connection, or slapping together something via internal USB. Either way, what you are asking for is probably only not avaliable because of lack of market demand.

I've got one of their standard 104-key models, and it's quite nice. Not quite as nice as my Avant Stellar (the reborn Northgate OmniKey), but certainly worth the money. I tend to spend more money on my peripherals, simply because I keep them longer than I keep computers.

It's just too bad that Unicomp's Linux keyboard (with the control key to the left of the A, where $DIETY intended) isn't available with USB. They do custom orders, though, hopefully it wouldn't be too expensive to get that layout.

The "light" model has dedicated arrow keys, is about the same size, and costs only $69.

I have that keyboard and I absolutely love it.

If you're buying a keyboard with blank keys do yourself a favor and get the Happy Hacking blank keytop model

Das Keyboard contains a major conceptual flaw- What good is a keyboard with blank keys if you can't touch type on it? The Happy Hacking keyboard places ALL 101 KEYS within touch-typing range. I've been a happy customer of this keyboard for years- It has a fantastic key action, is very compact and allows for very fast programming if you learn to use it well.

Plus, if you're an emacs geek, it allows for perfect ctrl key placement that is perfect for emacs navigation.

Das Keyboard, on the other hand, looks like something a wussy vi user would type on!

:)

... but the drive, if sold by itself, probably would cost a couple thousand dollars...

Um, no. Have you priced flash storage recently? It's not 1995 anymore! :)

As was mentioned in one of the first comments, you can pick up a 32GB SSD in a laptop form factor for $159.

Also, people have mentioned the power savings and additional ruggedization that this drive can provide, but let's also not forget that it's silent. Laptop drive noise generally doesn't account for much, but if you're doing a little late night computing in bed with another person trying to sleep, the little clacking of the drive head can be pretty pronounced in the silence.

You can get this drive: IBM Thinkpad 60GB HDD(STD)5400RPM - 08K9700 for $160.00 on sale now... it's not solid state but it does come with a surprise (note the STD acronymn ;-)!!!!!!

"Life is like a box of chocolates, ya neva' know what you gonna get..."

Everything you wanted from a laptop: faster boot times, quicker storage access, less noise, longer battery life...

This impressive framework promises to make AJAX available to the masses and is one more step towards Google becoming the de facto Internet platform provider."

Erm, actually they're playing catch up. From what I can tell, GWT is rather inferior to YUI.

Then you could get a date while wearing them.

Sadly, with these that will never happen.

This confirms Yahoo! want to be a serious provider of Location-awareness tools, such as Google and Microsoft are.

Spatially enabled Yahoo! tools now includes:
- This Local News announcement
- Yahoo! Maps, including APIs (more reading).
- Flickr (/. story about the acquisition) maps (undoubtly a similar service will soon be provided by Yahoo!)
- Probably other I forgot?

I doubt Yahoo! will join the Virtual Globes frenzy. With Google Earth, Windows Live, NASA WorldWind (and Punt), the competition is already fierce.

What are you talking about? The closest PC is an Aopen MiniPC, which uses the old Pentium M Dothan, not the new dual core, and is several hundred dollars MORE expensive.

We are living in a world where the Mac is cheaper AND more powerful than the similar PC. The comparable system from AOpen is $686 to Apple's $599!
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/myaopen/MINIPC.html http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/myaopen/MINIPC.html

http://www.apple.com/macmini/whatsinside.html

Many of my concerns with AJAX are not inherent to it; they are problems inherent to any software development. Hence the analogy to Flash. As a specific example, Flash provides all sorts of features for accessibility: I should be able to use a well-written Flash app very easily; the app should integrate seamlessly with my browsing. However, this takes a lot of effort, and (in my experience) practically no developers are willing to make this effort.

Hence my concern (one of them, at least) that AJAX will turn into yet another platform for the development of unintuitive, inconsistent interfaces. I am curious if anyone is working on a decent set of libraries for performing standard AJAX tasks (along the lines of this, which has been making the rounds recently).

Not quite.

Using JSON, JavaScript can load data from any address, when XMLHttpRequest requires you to stay in the same domain. Besides, JSON is JavaScript native and is therefore much easier to consume, for example, using MochiKit. As for the generator, it is trivial to convert native data to JSON data in a wide range of programming languages, including all the major server side scripting languages, like Python and Java. Yahoo has released a lot of their APIs on JSON and some excellent Python WebApp Framework has built-in support to speak to the client scripts in JSON.

Any decent webdev entering the field should know about http status codes, HEAD requests and all that. Also it should be noted that article didn't even mention how many times state 3 is hit for a particular request - I got caught by that one once.

That was interesting. Thanks for the link. It looks like yahoo is using JSON for their wire protocol. I find that to be interesting for two reasons. The first is that it is not an XML based protocol. The second reason is that JSON is also the wire protocol for the ironically named AJAX.NET.

I wonder who else is developing JSON based APIs and if that is going to be the next big thing?

Very true. Their developer APIs are the best of any major offering.

Check them out here

Their stated goal is to have startups use their APIs as the foundation for new sites/tech.

BSD License: http://developer.yahoo.net/yui/license.txt

Yahoo are releasing this stuff under the BSD License.

The Yahoo UIL page and the Google Code pages are both useful and coincidentally look quite similar.

The real power of delicious is that they allow you to get your tags back in a multitude of ways - HTML, RSS and JSON. This means you can integrate your tags into your content to create a better browsing experience. (JSON is also the preferred data interchange method for Yahoo.)

Delicious also allow you to tap into the "hive mind" by using a generic mode whereby you can see tags/URLs for all users, not just your own account. Somewhat perversely, Joshua announced that they have stopped supporting this mode with JSON - leaving only RSS. In fact, Joshua stated that the /json/tag/* was just an "accident" in the first place!

Anyone got any theories as to why that is? Why publish "socialised content" as (much heavier) RSS feeds but disallow lightweight JSON feeds? Is it to drive users to Yahoo? Or stop third party searches and other add-ons? Maybe it's the more prosaic "we forgot to put it in the specs, now we can't be arsed supporting it 'cause it's someone else's baby now."

Some comments here wonder what value RSS provides? RSS offers much more than syndicated news feeds, it helps control your information overload. Two examples follow. First, Dr. Dobbs article shows how to build your own RSS with Ruby to track information when certain events occur. Dave Thomas writes artcles and books about Ruby. He says "You can use RSS to collect and summarize information from your projects and from your life" in the Dr. Dobbs article.

Second, Yahoo maps documentation says, "The XML used by the Yahoo! Maps Simple API is based on geoRSS 2.0." Here is another link about GeoRSS and worldKit, a map built using shockwave flash. You publish your map content, and GeoRSS for every point you want on the map.

IMHO, GeoRSS is becoming a de facto standard, becoming part of many blogs, and content managment systems, like Plone. and, BTW, Good luck with all your adventures this New Year.