But I soon will be.:) The way I see it, try to limit the amount of hardware that you have. Seriously, two servers, a firewall, and all the other equipment you have going there is a bit much. I really don't know what you do with it, since you did not specify your particular area of geekiness, but I'm sure there are some ways to reduce your equipment.
For instance, you're running CAT5 in every room. Where the speed of the connection is not vital, why not give wireless a try? True, it's much slower, but for Internet browsing gaming, or mp3 streaming, it's more than enough. And a PCI card mounted in one of the servers will not be too expensive (CAD$150), a PCMCIA (CAD$60) or a dedicated access point (CAD $230). If you add the costs of of all the wires, hubs you'll come close to that.The only time when CAT5 makes sense is when you can burry them into the walls, but then you would not complain about them if you already did it.
Having two servers? Again, you did not say what they do, but maybe one will be enough? I'm not suggesting you should scrap one of them right now. But maybe for your next upgrade you can plan one that is at least as fast as both combined, while taking half the space. Same goes for the two workstations. You're just one guy, I can't see you using both at the same time. Also, if it's fast enough, you can run vmware under Linux, with as many OSes as you need. The performance hit is big, but not unbearable. And you can do all the developement under one platform, and use the other OSes for testing.
If having so many computers is a must, then use rackmount cases. Saves a hell of a lot of space. More expensive, but you can hide them all into a closet and be done with them. And they can be recycled much better than normal cases. Which brings me to my next point, keep everything as unobtrusive as possible. Computers and their associated wires can be the biggest eye sores from a woman's point of view (just a guess, but I've been proven right on more than one occasion)
And whatever you do, NEVER bring technology into the bedroom. That is the worst possible thing you will ever do. Maybe a laptop with a wireless connection will be tolerated by your significant other, but don't think that she'll be happy even with that.
I know many people who prefer to buy older PowerPCs and just plug in a G3 upgrade card. A friend of mine bought a 9600 and upgraded it to a G3 500Mhz. The entire system, including the upgrade cost him CA$750 (US$500), which was significantly cheaper than any other new Mac at an equivalent speed.
So Apple is being able to get rid of their G4 overstock, while taking off the market a large number of old, but still functional systems.
I could be wrong in this assumption, but it seems like a reasonable one.
I never did this before, but this takes the cake! Exactly how is a cordless phone battery life of any importance? News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters?
First of all, the betteries died on all the cordless phones I've ever had. However, it was never more than just a fraction of the cost (less than CAD$20 on a CAD$200-something phone). However, none of them died sooner than 3 years. By that time I was usually tired of the phone, or significantly better ones came out.
Second, maybe I'm not an average phone user, but I never ran out of batteries on any of my cordless phones. I have a Sanyo 900Mhz, and the longest conversation I had lasted 3 hours, on the hands-free speaker (works out really well to coordinate attacks in RTCW). And this is with a 3.6V 600mAh battery.
My advice? Get a better phone. None of the GE 9or the likes) crap. Frm my experience Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic make good phones. It would be pointless to get a phone with rechargeable batteries. Especially since a good set of 4 NiMH are pretty much the same price as the original phone battery.
And here's an afterthought: if you dislike cordless phones so much, why not use one with a wire? They still have those, you know?
From what I can tell, the Compaq name will be kept only on a few categories of devices, especially business class ones and consumer laptops. Everywhere else, the lines will either be discontinued or they will be rebranded.
I don't want to sound like a troll, but in a couple of years (maybe a bit more) Compaq will go the way DEC went a while back.
HP will keep it alive just long enough for customers to get used to the change. Then it will dissapear from all refferences, products and documentation. HP will stop updating the Compaq product support sites, and eventually will even stop hosting them altogether.
You don't believe me? Try a google search for DEC, and you'll see how many Compaq hosted docs and web pages you will find. A couple of years ago I needed technical info on a DEC dual P classic workstation for a school project. It would have been a pretty fast machine, and I had 2 p200Mhz available to plug into it (up from the single P90Mhz that I found inside). After 4 hours of continuous searching for the jumper settings, I gave up and salvaged another slower computer.
This is the same that will happen to Compaq soon enough. Ironic, isn't it?
I might be completely wrong, but any reaction, both positive or negative, from comercial companies has little effect on the GPL in general and GPL-ed software in particular.
For the past few years, GPL software has caught the attention of the masses. That includes big and small companies, knowledgeable users and complete newbies and even governments throughout the world. This has all started in 98 (or thereabouts), when Netscape released their source code for Navigator under the NPL. Since then, many other companies have followed suit, but without a very big impact (IMO, of course)
IBM seems to be the greatest Linux supporter so far. But most of the patches they are contribuing to the kernel are targeted solely towards their equipment (mainframes in particular). It almost does not impact myself, a lowly PC user. And it's in IBM's best interest that Linux should run on their hardware. At some point in time, they can simply give up their expensive to develop and maintain OS, and switch to Linux, which costs them a fraction of the cost. All the publicity they're pouring into Linux is targeted at getting people to accept Linux as a viable alternative.
SGI contributed their journaled file system. It's great, but it's still not completed. Reiserfs and ext3fs are far more advanced, and from what I've seen, are the preffered choices. RH with ext3fs, SuSE with Reiserfs. No distro that I'm aware ships with SGI's JFS(?). Again, no real impact on my computing experience.
Sun also wanted to released their StarOffice under GPL (or similar, I can't remember) for Linux. Then they decided to keep the source to themselves, and have OpenOffice available. Along with it, there's KOffice, SOffice, and the Gnome office apps (abiword, gnumeric, etc). I'm not counting WordPerfect, since I'm not sure if it's offered anymore by Corel. None are greatly successful, save maybe for StarOffice.
The only app that is wildly successful, and that came from a particular company is Mozilla. Not Netscape itself, but Mozilla. In Windows more people are using Netscape6.2, but under Linux very few do. But there are options to it too, Konqueror being the most proeminent, and Opera.
Those were _some_ of the positive attitudes from different companies. There are others, which I'm not going to list right now. Those ones suffice for my point.
The negative views come mostly from one source: Microsoft. But I don't see it affecting Linux as a whole, not more that it affected it in the past, when M$ was ignoring the GPL and Linux. They're lobbying governments to continue using M$ software and to stay away from Linux. And yet I don't see too many governments switching over to Linux. Those that do, would do it anyways, because of completely different reasons than the ones M$ is selling (costs, stability, non-dependence on one foreign vendor, etc).
My point (finally) is that no matter what action a certain company or government take vis-a-vis the GPL and Linux, it will not affect the movement to a great degree. True, it might advance it at a greater rate, or it might hinder it a bit. But as a whole, it will keep going. Linux will get better, nu matter if IBM contributes patches or M$ bans its use by the governments. As long as there are people who are willing to contribute their code under the GPL, there is nothing any entity can do to stop this.
So lets stop worrying what M$ might do. Many people, myself included, are going to keep running and supporting the GPL software, no matter what happens. I like the freedom it gives me far more than any incentive M$ could offer for me to give it up.
...and taking out all forms of communications on the transmission radius of the wifi card because they'd increase the spectrum from 2.400-2.483Ghz to 0-10^xGhz. (where x->infinity).
Better yet, at the same time, through some horrible fluke, all the power output of the PS would be redirected to the card, creating a massive wave of radio emissions. The said wave would fry anything in sight.
Hey, it could happen. Afterall, it's software, and knowing Microsoft, there's a bug in the drivers just waiting to byte us on the ass.
If you would have REALLY checked out the site, it says " IEradicator is the first and only utility to remove all versions of Internet Explorer from all versions of Windows 95/98/Me/2000 in 8 different languages!."
Now if I'm not mistaken "windows 2000" is the same as "win2k", so I DID use the correct version of the program, for the right OS.
I'm just very, very curious who modded the reply to my post as Informative. More like misinformative if you ask me... Oh well, my metamoderator points are going to turn up soon.
I used their IEradicator utility in Win2k on my laptop (I will NOT run Windows on my main computer, but that's another story). I think I was running Win2k without any service packs or with service pack 1. I made completely sure that my system was fully complient with IEradicator's requirements. I'm only using Mozilla, both in Linux and in Windows, so I figured removing Explorer would be a good ideea.
Well, it wasn't. After the eradication process was completed, my system was working, but with some major problems. The most annoying one was the "Add/Remove Programs" in Control Panel. That thing would not even load anymore. I did not try installing any new programs after I got the error, but I'm sure that they would not install properly (since they could not be removed anymore). I was also getting some minor error messages on bootup, but I was sure I could get rid of them if I would take the time to edit them out of the registry.
When I saw that IEradicator did not do a good job, I tried reinstalling Explorer 6. No dice. It would not install at all. No matter how hard I tried, I had to give up. I even tried installing IE5 and then 4. Those didn't work either, so I tried repairing Win2k, again, no luck. The only solution I had was to reinstall Win2k from scratch.
While Windows might be modular. I'm sure it is, otherwise patching it with service packs and updates would be close to impossible, since you'd have to upgrade the whole OS if it weren't. M$ is definitely making it damn hard to remove any of the modules.
There is no real reason why old software should have an expiry date.
First of all, there is a lot of code out there that is simply not maintained anymore. It doesn't have any major bugs, it does what it's supposed to do, so why expire it? Even if you tried, you couldn't get new versions for it. One example is tkirc. I used to love that app, but the last time it was updated was sometime in '98. I still use it whenever I feel like IRC-ing...
Second of all, older apps and distros are small and work on old computers.For example, an old Linux distribution (e.g Slack 3.x) will run without any problems on my old 486. It's small, fast, stable, and it gets the job done. In my case, running IP masquarading, a small ftp server and an ssh server. But RH 7.2 will not even install, because of the 8Mb or RAM that the 486 has. If the expiry code would be enabled in that Slack distro, it wouldn't work. So that computer would be useless, unless I took the time to trim a new distro to fit on it.
The third reason is more debatable. It's the admin's job to keep the systems updated. If his box gets hacked, he should be responsible for it, and suffer the consequences. It happened to me because of an old wu-ftp on RH6.2. I knew of the vulnerability, but I was too lazy to upgrade the package. Well, needless to say I had to reinstall that computer. Since then, I never leave any apps running or any ports open unless I know the apps are safe and I absolutely need the ports to be open.
So I say leave the software as it is, without an expity date on it. Even if the expiration is only activated if a hole is discovered, leave the app as it is. Maybe someone is using it on his personal, isolated network (or box) which nobody will ever hack into. But that someone might depend on that app for some task, and he can't live without it. I know it's a stretch, but still...
When I read the article, the first impression I got was that since it was a scientific study, it should hold some truth. However, upon closer inspection, I do not think that is the case.
The biggest reason I do not trust the findings is because the exact setting of the study is unknown. Depending on the subjects (age, background, education, social status), the actual transcripts of the study, the atmosphere of the study and the subsequent IQ tests, hell, even what the subjects had for breakfast, the end result could vary dramatically. It is very well known that studies can be skewed. I seem to remember some test showing that NT was much faster than Linux, and immediately after that, other tests proving the contrary. If you set up the test properly, even if you deal with computers, cars or people, you can get almost any result that you want. Note that I said ALMOST.
Given this, the study should be viewed with skepticism. And there are other things to consider. It is pretty obvious that if you tell somebody that he/she is a reject, a loser, and outcast, that person will get enraged. Especially if those comments come from a trustworthy professor. If you expect that while being angered you do not become more aggressive, well, Newton's law applies quite well here. Also obvious should be the fact that while in a highly emotional state (anger in this case) the brain does not function at its full logical potential. Most of its concentration is focused on the emotions. This in turn skews the IQ results, which are very much based on logic.
I took a few IQ test myself, and while in all the scores were fairly close (I didn't have anybody telling me I'm an idiot when I was taking them), the final IQ result was never the same. So there is a wide margin of error here too.
So in the end, we are left with somebody who wants to prove at all costs that rejection makes one dumb, creates a test specifically designed to get that result, and lo and behold, he does. It's a great day for science.
I don't know very much about other laptops, but I can speak from experience. I have an Armada M700, P3 750Mhz w/192Mb RAM, Ati Rage Mobility P 8Mb, 12Gb hdd, Intel EtherExpress NIC, Maestro2 sound, etc. And it's running RedHat 7.2 flawlessly.
All I had to do was insert the install CD, and everything worked perfectly from then on. Autodetected my video, sound, network, APM, etc. No error messages, no troubles with anything. After the install, everything was still running perfectly. None of the problems that a previous poster has with the text mode after starting X. The sound works (does not break, etc). Power management works too, I just have to figure out how to set it up properly, so that it actually does what I want it to do.
Now I know that this is not a brand-new model (at least not with these specs), but you can get the latest one, with pretty much the same base components. They are flawlessly supported in RedHat, even from the very start.
On top of that, Compaq business support is great. I needed a new LCD for it, and they 24/7 phone support, free overnight shipping to and from ther service centres. And everybody I talked to was very polite, knowledgeable. But always deal directly with Compaq, I had some problems with their authorised service centres.
All in all, I strongly recommend the Armada M700 series.
A friend of mine works at RIM, and I saw one of these things while it was still in developement. And I have to admit it's one great device. His did not have the Internet enabled, so I couldn't test that, but he said it's identical to the older Blackberry.
If you liked the Blackberries, then you'll love this thing. It's pretty much identical, only it has a headset jack where you plug in the handsfree mike and earphone.
Has very good reception (at least in the Toronto and Hamilton area). Also, it has good battery life, although it's far shorter than the email-only Blackberry.
All in all, a great cellphone, email, internet, PDA. Much better IMNHO than anything out there (Treo, Kyocera, even Nokia)
...is basicaly shooting itself in the foot. And not just the tech industry, but also the entertainment and everything else along with it. Honestly, is Intel expecting me to buy their products when their processors for instance won't decode a movie which is not digitally signed to their liking? Or does IBM think I'll use their hdds when they won't allow me to store said movie (or software, or music, etc)?
I live in Canada, and over here we don't have those insane issues, such as this one. At least not yet. But even if we did, there would always be options to bypass the crippled hardware.
I honestly won't care how fast my computer will be if it doesn't do what I expect it to do. And I'll look for other options.
The new Pentium Hollywood edition has copyright protection? Well, VIA is making their Samuel. Slow as hell, but it works. Maxtor, IBM, Seagate hdds don't let me store "illegal" stuff? Fujitsu makes hdds too. nVidia's cards won't display my info? Well, Ati is a pretty good alternative. And if not Ati, well, others.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The harder the US is trying to control the use of computers, the less likely are people like myself to buy said computers. Our friends in Asia will definitely have uncrippled hardware, and I have plenty of ways to acquire it. And if not Asia, then Europe. So unless the entire world decides to make it unlawfull to use uncrippled hardware (or software), there's always going to be a way around it.
Well, in that case France should charge a lot of the junk store owners in Toronto. In particular those on Church St.
I have seen plenty of Nazi war decorations (or medals, whatever they're called) for sale in those stores. And those were the cheap ones, which about a third of the Reich Army got just for fighting in the war.
And I'm sure the Nazi memorabilia is big business throughout the world. I'm not into it, so I don't know for sure, but it's a safe bet.
Going after the CEO of Yahoo for this is ridiculous. I guess there's a judge in France whith too much time on his hands.
...for a while anyways. I've always run a Linux gateway for my home network, so I figured, adding Apache would not be a big deal. And it wasn't, so I was happily hosting my own website, plus a couple more for a friend of mine.
This of course was in the good old days when Rogers Cable was not yet Rogers@home, and they were giving out static IPs. (I live in Toronto, Canada). Right now they have dynamic IPs, and they actually drop your connection on purpose, just to change your IP. Kiling dhcpcd and then restarting it solves the problem, but it's annoying nonetheless. This would definitely be a problem with DSL too.
There are some work-arounds. One is to get a domain name with dyndns.org (e.g croco.dyndns.org), which can be updated through scripts any time the IP changes. Then set your real domain name to resolve to croco.dyndns.org I haven't tried it, but it might work. Of course, it adds one more layer of latency on an already slow connection. Not to mention another failure point (what happens if dyndns craps out on you?)
Another way that I can think of is everytime the IP changes to log into your registrar and change the IP the domain resolves to. But this is tedious, unless they also support changes through scripts. I am yet to find a registrar that does.
But those are not the biggest problems (small bandwidth and dynamic IPs). The show stopper for me was the reliability of the connection. You might not notice the out times during the night or when you're at work, or simply away from your computer. But believe me, they happen. And someone trying to visit your web site will too. Worst of all is that in my case, Rogers doesn't even bother announcing the outage. The worst example? I was in the middle of my university course selection when the connection crapped out on me, and I lost all the changes I made. Needless to say, I was fuming! The fact that my web site wasn't available either was a minor issue by comparison.
So I say find yourself another decent web host, if you care about the reliability and availability of your site. There are plenty out there, good and cheap. But if you don't care if your web site might die on you without any notice, then by all means, host it yourself. It's an enjoyable experience, and you'll learn something.
Well, I must say that I was quite impressed when they were first featured on TV. The Segway is a pretty cool device. And it may be usefull too, if it weren't for a few major problems.
The first one that comes to mind is its size. Imagine riding this thing during the lunch hour in a crowded downtown area (pick the city of your choice). And you obviously have to ride it on the sidewalk. But it would not be faster (if not slower) than walking, since you wouldn't be moving faster than the rest of the people. It pretty much defeats its purpose in the suburbs or in the industrial parks. There's enough room there just to hop into your car and drive where you want to get.
The second problem, as one of the previous posts mentioned, is what happens when you suddenly hit something (more likely someone). The thing might be self balancing, but I've felt what happens when one of your rollerblades gets stuck in a groove. Your body keeps moving with the same velocity, while one (if not both) feet are firmly planted in the obstacle. A split second later you find yourself lying face forward on the pavement. I see the same thing happening with the Segway.
Third, think of its battery life (I presume it is battery powered)
I think I'll stick to my bycicle for now, thank you.
...unless you want to permanently damage your screen.
Most of the consumer-level laptops (e.g. Satelites, Presarios, etc) are made with very flimsy plastic. That's nothing new, however, that is a very important issue if you even THINK that your laptop might have to withstand any kind of abuse. And the biggest problem I've seen is with the screen lid. On the cheap laptops, the plastic is so thin and so fragile that the screen can be damaged by simply applying pressure with your finger to the outer screen casing. Nevermind putting a couple of books on top of it while jumping around.
By no means do I encourage this, but next time you're in you favourite mega pc store (FutureShop in Canada, I guess Circuit City or Staples in US), touch one of their cheaper laptops. With your palm holding the outer edge of the screen, apply some pressure to the OUTSIDE or the screen cover with one of your fingers. See how much it takes untill you can see a discoloured blob on the inside of the screen, right in the place where you're pushing.
Stop as soon as you see the discoloration. Any more pressure and you can permanently damage the LCD. Oh, and the notebook should be turned on while doing this, otherwise nothing shows.
Now if they have some corporate level notebooks, do the same. Try something like a Tecra, Armada, or the T series. I can guarantee you that you will not be able to do it. Well, if you're very strong, you might, but the amount of pressure you have to apply is much, much higher than on the consumer level notebooks.
This fact alone goes a long way to show (IMHO) how much better built some notebooks are when compared to others. And that's a general sign, it does not only relate to the screen side. A cheap notebook will have crappy components everywhere, while the more expensive ones are significantly better built.
BTW, one of the reasons I bought an Armada M700 is because of its very slim, rugged construction. Magnezium lid (short of cracking it open, nothing will damage the screed), and very high quality plastic everywhere else.
Is it just me, or did CmdrTaco forget a tag? After this article, everything below it is italic. The quoted paragraphs, the moderator comments, everything.
However, the story right above this one is displaying normaly.
BTW, don't moderate me as off topic, I'm just asking a question that would not fit anywhere else but here.
This question begs to be asked. Why isn't any company creating something like this but instead of the very, very slow S3 chips, use an Nvidia Nforce?
The Nforce is fast enough graphics-wise, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I'm playing RTCW on a dual Celeron 466 w/ TNT2 32Mb... Yeah, I can't have all the special effects, and it only runs at 640x480, BUT IT WORKS! I've spent far too many hours playing it at this cappy resolution and I loved it. Granted, and Athlon XP2000+ w/ GeForce3 would blow my computer away, but it is also a few thousands more expensive. So on an Nforce, coupled with a newer CPU would be significantly faster.
Not to mention the fact that the Nforce has good sound capabilities too. And it supports the Athlon, which is also faster than the P3.
Honestly, I'm just waiting for the day when they're going to come out with this very same computer, but with an Athlon w/ the Nforce inside, and I'm buying it. I hope SpaceWalker is listening to me...
... I can support the fact that broadband here is very available and fairly cheap. And it's been this way for about 3 years at least.
I've had a broadband connection with Rogers Cable since early 1998. Granted, my neighbourhood was one of the test zones, and I was one of the first people who got it in my area. At that time it was not available in the entire Greater Toronto Area. But for quite a while it's been available pretty much anywhere Rogers has TV cables installed. The service is pretty good, although I've had more than my share of problems, it's fast but most of all, it's cheap.
The other alternative in Toronto (and I guess the rest of Canada) is DSL. Bell Sympatico is the widest spread one, since they have the phone line monopoly. But they do lease the lines at decent prices, since there are at least 4 other companies offering DSL in my city. Again, a few years back DSL was not available everywhere, but now it is.
The funniest thing is that when I have on-going problems with my cable, I can threaten Rogers that I will move to DSL, and magically these problems get fixed. For example, I used to have a LanCity modem, which is very old and very sensitive to cable noise. I called them a couple of times, asking for a replacement from another manufacturer, but nothing happened. As soon as I mentioned Sympatico DSL, I had a Terayon modem installed by the next day.
I also mentioned the fact that broadband here is cheap. Well, on average it's about $60/month including the modem rental. That's Canadian funds, or about $40 USD. There are occasional promos, price wars, etc so you can get even better deals (sympatico had/has an offer for CAD$20/month for the first 6 months).
My point is that I enjoy my broadband connection.:)
I just hate it when somebody posts exactly what I was going to post. Had to erase a good two minutes of typing because of it.:)
Anyway, that is exactly what I am doing. I have a 13Gb hdd for the system, and a 40Gb for storage (mp3s, movies, etc). Also I have a burner and one of the removable racks you mention. And in it, there's an identical 40Gb hdd used solely for backups. I keep it safe, and I plug it in every few days to copy the new stuff to it, remove the old, etc. I know that ideally I should have more backup space than hdds I'm using, but I never really run out of space. I am always writing the very important files to CDs, sometimes in duplicate. Call me paranoid, but after losing 3 years of data because of a hdd crash and a cheap CD which refuzed to be read, I'm not taking any chances. Also, all the stuff I don't need often (less than once a month) goes to CD.
One very, very important thing though. Don't cheap out on the removable racks. Make sure that at least the lid on the one you get is mettal, and there's at least a fan in the hdd tray. All racks have one fan on the rack itself (the part that gets mounted in the case). But make sure you have another one in the tray.
I used to have a rack made out of plastic completely, and with only one fan. My Maxtor 7200rpm drive was getting HOT. And I do mean hot! Then one day I ripped the IDE cable from its mount, and I had to buy another rack. This one is with metalic lid, and 2 fans inside. Now the hdd doesn't even get warm. And the difference in price between the racks was $10 canadian (about US$7.5).
Those few extra bucks are probably going to prolong your hdd life by quite a bit.
I don't work in a cubicle, since I'm still a student. I do work however in an overcrowded computer lab at school, with no privacy, and the closes person at arm's length from me. But I do have a perfect way to get away from all the disturbances. Something tells my it might not work for you though...
I bring my mp3 player along, and I put my headphones on. Make sure you have head phones, not ear phones. The ear phones are too small, and being much closer to your ear, they produce far more damage than head phones. And I turn the mp3 player on. Not very loud, since the place is not too noisy, but still, loud enough so that it drowns everything around.
Now the choice of music is entirely up to you. In my case, Rage Against the Machine (and the likes) does the trick. Something tells me you're going to go for something completely different.
The reason it might not work, is that many workplaces (my dad's for instance) do not allow music to be played. It has to do with not being able to hear the fire alarm. Then again, he works in a nuclear power plant, so I can see why they have those rules. In your case it might be different.
Well, first of all, it sucks that AT&T forced the @home bankrupcy. But had @home's finances been in order, it wouldn't have happened. They made some bad decisions, drained their cash reserves, incured debt, and put themselves in a vulnerable position. AT&T just smelled an easy buy, and went for it. Everybody loves Capitalism, and this is its finest hour.
The sad part is that @home is pretty much dead. I was a customer of Rogers@home. Now it's just Rogers (for those who do not know, Rogers is the cable monopoly in Toronto, Canada). They made the transition, and while it was pretty messy, it's done. And you can be sure they're not moving back to @home. They took 400 000 subscribers away from the 4mil that @home had. Same for Shaw@home (which is another Canadian cable company). That's another 2-300 000 subscribers.
Not to mention AT&T, with God knows how many customers. Actually, God might know, or even google.com, but it's too late at night for me to check the actual numbers.
And those are not by far the only companies that decided to leave @home. So now Excite@home is left with less than half of its former users, maybe even less. But it has the same debt, and an even worse situation. Just the fact that they came close to shutting down and it killed their former image. If it would have been hard for it to survive before the bankrupcy, now that's pretty much impossible. So the bond holders that opposed the AT&T buyout are just as screwed, if not worse.
I might be a freak, but I use BlackBox on all my computers. From a dual Celeron 466Mhz w/512Mb RAM to a k6 200Mhz w/32Mb RAM. And on my next box, it's still going to be BB.
It is extremely light wight, extremely simple to configure (I won't call it easy, because it would sound too much like other marketing campaigns). It also accepts WindowMaker and AfterStep dock apps, has a few of its own (pager, etc). This allows you to gain some of the functionality of gnome or kde monitors, etc, without the huge memory footprint.
It is rock solid. In the year that I have been using it, it has never crashed on me. Mozilla, xmms, quake3, rtcf, and plenty other apps managed to crash my X, but never BB.
So give it a try, you might like it.
Another wm I used to use (for 3 years actually) was WindowMaker. It has most of the qualities BlackBox has, but it is a bit bigger memory-wise. And it has a way of placing icons around the border of the desktop that strarted bugging me, and I could never get rid of them. But that wasn't the main reason I switched. I guess after 3 years, I got bored with the same look, and I wanted something different...
But give it a try too, and pick the best one you like.
And to be honest, I'm stumped! I have the same Nokia 8260, on the Rogers AT&T, and I could not find a way to change the damn logo. I think this is because the Rogers network is TDMA, as opposed to GSM, and it does not support the feature.
This is based on my own observation, since I know for a fact that you can change said logo on the GSM networks in Europe (that is, I've seen this phone with different logos when I was there this summer). Also, if you've ever uploaded custom rings to the phone, you noticed that there is a GSM option, and a TDMA option. So there are definitely some differences due to the protocols used.
On a brighter note, Rogers is moving towards GSM, and while our own cell phones will sill be TDMA, it's a good sign that Rogers is getting in line with the rest of the world. Now only Bell and Telus are left on their own proprietary protocols. For those who do not know, Rogers AT&T, Telus, Bell and Fido are mobile phone companies in Canada.
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But I soon will be. :) The way I see it, try to limit the amount of hardware that you have. Seriously, two servers, a firewall, and all the other equipment you have going there is a bit much. I really don't know what you do with it, since you did not specify your particular area of geekiness, but I'm sure there are some ways to reduce your equipment.
For instance, you're running CAT5 in every room. Where the speed of the connection is not vital, why not give wireless a try? True, it's much slower, but for Internet browsing gaming, or mp3 streaming, it's more than enough. And a PCI card mounted in one of the servers will not be too expensive (CAD$150), a PCMCIA (CAD$60) or a dedicated access point (CAD $230). If you add the costs of of all the wires, hubs you'll come close to that.The only time when CAT5 makes sense is when you can burry them into the walls, but then you would not complain about them if you already did it.
Having two servers? Again, you did not say what they do, but maybe one will be enough? I'm not suggesting you should scrap one of them right now. But maybe for your next upgrade you can plan one that is at least as fast as both combined, while taking half the space. Same goes for the two workstations. You're just one guy, I can't see you using both at the same time. Also, if it's fast enough, you can run vmware under Linux, with as many OSes as you need. The performance hit is big, but not unbearable. And you can do all the developement under one platform, and use the other OSes for testing.
If having so many computers is a must, then use rackmount cases. Saves a hell of a lot of space. More expensive, but you can hide them all into a closet and be done with them. And they can be recycled much better than normal cases. Which brings me to my next point, keep everything as unobtrusive as possible. Computers and their associated wires can be the biggest eye sores from a woman's point of view (just a guess, but I've been proven right on more than one occasion)
And whatever you do, NEVER bring technology into the bedroom. That is the worst possible thing you will ever do. Maybe a laptop with a wireless connection will be tolerated by your significant other, but don't think that she'll be happy even with that.
BTW, US$1=CAD$1.5 roughly.
I know many people who prefer to buy older PowerPCs and just plug in a G3 upgrade card. A friend of mine bought a 9600 and upgraded it to a G3 500Mhz. The entire system, including the upgrade cost him CA$750 (US$500), which was significantly cheaper than any other new Mac at an equivalent speed.
So Apple is being able to get rid of their G4 overstock, while taking off the market a large number of old, but still functional systems.
I could be wrong in this assumption, but it seems like a reasonable one.
I never did this before, but this takes the cake! Exactly how is a cordless phone battery life of any importance? News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters?
First of all, the betteries died on all the cordless phones I've ever had. However, it was never more than just a fraction of the cost (less than CAD$20 on a CAD$200-something phone). However, none of them died sooner than 3 years. By that time I was usually tired of the phone, or significantly better ones came out.
Second, maybe I'm not an average phone user, but I never ran out of batteries on any of my cordless phones. I have a Sanyo 900Mhz, and the longest conversation I had lasted 3 hours, on the hands-free speaker (works out really well to coordinate attacks in RTCW). And this is with a 3.6V 600mAh battery.
My advice? Get a better phone. None of the GE 9or the likes) crap. Frm my experience Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic make good phones. It would be pointless to get a phone with rechargeable batteries. Especially since a good set of 4 NiMH are pretty much the same price as the original phone battery.
And here's an afterthought: if you dislike cordless phones so much, why not use one with a wire? They still have those, you know?
From what I can tell, the Compaq name will be kept only on a few categories of devices, especially business class ones and consumer laptops. Everywhere else, the lines will either be discontinued or they will be rebranded.
I don't want to sound like a troll, but in a couple of years (maybe a bit more) Compaq will go the way DEC went a while back.
HP will keep it alive just long enough for customers to get used to the change. Then it will dissapear from all refferences, products and documentation. HP will stop updating the Compaq product support sites, and eventually will even stop hosting them altogether.
You don't believe me? Try a google search for DEC, and you'll see how many Compaq hosted docs and web pages you will find. A couple of years ago I needed technical info on a DEC dual P classic workstation for a school project. It would have been a pretty fast machine, and I had 2 p200Mhz available to plug into it (up from the single P90Mhz that I found inside). After 4 hours of continuous searching for the jumper settings, I gave up and salvaged another slower computer.
This is the same that will happen to Compaq soon enough. Ironic, isn't it?
I might be completely wrong, but any reaction, both positive or negative, from comercial companies has little effect on the GPL in general and GPL-ed software in particular.
For the past few years, GPL software has caught the attention of the masses. That includes big and small companies, knowledgeable users and complete newbies and even governments throughout the world. This has all started in 98 (or thereabouts), when Netscape released their source code for Navigator under the NPL. Since then, many other companies have followed suit, but without a very big impact (IMO, of course)
IBM seems to be the greatest Linux supporter so far. But most of the patches they are contribuing to the kernel are targeted solely towards their equipment (mainframes in particular). It almost does not impact myself, a lowly PC user. And it's in IBM's best interest that Linux should run on their hardware. At some point in time, they can simply give up their expensive to develop and maintain OS, and switch to Linux, which costs them a fraction of the cost. All the publicity they're pouring into Linux is targeted at getting people to accept Linux as a viable alternative.
SGI contributed their journaled file system. It's great, but it's still not completed. Reiserfs and ext3fs are far more advanced, and from what I've seen, are the preffered choices. RH with ext3fs, SuSE with Reiserfs. No distro that I'm aware ships with SGI's JFS(?). Again, no real impact on my computing experience.
Sun also wanted to released their StarOffice under GPL (or similar, I can't remember) for Linux. Then they decided to keep the source to themselves, and have OpenOffice available. Along with it, there's KOffice, SOffice, and the Gnome office apps (abiword, gnumeric, etc). I'm not counting WordPerfect, since I'm not sure if it's offered anymore by Corel. None are greatly successful, save maybe for StarOffice.
The only app that is wildly successful, and that came from a particular company is Mozilla. Not Netscape itself, but Mozilla. In Windows more people are using Netscape6.2, but under Linux very few do. But there are options to it too, Konqueror being the most proeminent, and Opera.
Those were _some_ of the positive attitudes from different companies. There are others, which I'm not going to list right now. Those ones suffice for my point.
The negative views come mostly from one source: Microsoft. But I don't see it affecting Linux as a whole, not more that it affected it in the past, when M$ was ignoring the GPL and Linux. They're lobbying governments to continue using M$ software and to stay away from Linux. And yet I don't see too many governments switching over to Linux. Those that do, would do it anyways, because of completely different reasons than the ones M$ is selling (costs, stability, non-dependence on one foreign vendor, etc).
My point (finally) is that no matter what action a certain company or government take vis-a-vis the GPL and Linux, it will not affect the movement to a great degree. True, it might advance it at a greater rate, or it might hinder it a bit. But as a whole, it will keep going. Linux will get better, nu matter if IBM contributes patches or M$ bans its use by the governments. As long as there are people who are willing to contribute their code under the GPL, there is nothing any entity can do to stop this.
So lets stop worrying what M$ might do. Many people, myself included, are going to keep running and supporting the GPL software, no matter what happens. I like the freedom it gives me far more than any incentive M$ could offer for me to give it up.
...and taking out all forms of communications on the transmission radius of the wifi card because they'd increase the spectrum from 2.400-2.483Ghz to 0-10^xGhz. (where x->infinity).
Better yet, at the same time, through some horrible fluke, all the power output of the PS would be redirected to the card, creating a massive wave of radio emissions. The said wave would fry anything in sight.
Hey, it could happen. Afterall, it's software, and knowing Microsoft, there's a bug in the drivers just waiting to byte us on the ass.
BTW, I'm joking...
If you would have REALLY checked out the site, it says " IEradicator is the first and only utility to remove all versions of Internet Explorer from all versions of Windows 95/98/Me/2000 in 8 different languages!."
Now if I'm not mistaken "windows 2000" is the same as "win2k", so I DID use the correct version of the program, for the right OS.
I'm just very, very curious who modded the reply to my post as Informative. More like misinformative if you ask me... Oh well, my metamoderator points are going to turn up soon.
I used their IEradicator utility in Win2k on my laptop (I will NOT run Windows on my main computer, but that's another story). I think I was running Win2k without any service packs or with service pack 1. I made completely sure that my system was fully complient with IEradicator's requirements. I'm only using Mozilla, both in Linux and in Windows, so I figured removing Explorer would be a good ideea.
Well, it wasn't. After the eradication process was completed, my system was working, but with some major problems. The most annoying one was the "Add/Remove Programs" in Control Panel. That thing would not even load anymore. I did not try installing any new programs after I got the error, but I'm sure that they would not install properly (since they could not be removed anymore). I was also getting some minor error messages on bootup, but I was sure I could get rid of them if I would take the time to edit them out of the registry.
When I saw that IEradicator did not do a good job, I tried reinstalling Explorer 6. No dice. It would not install at all. No matter how hard I tried, I had to give up. I even tried installing IE5 and then 4. Those didn't work either, so I tried repairing Win2k, again, no luck. The only solution I had was to reinstall Win2k from scratch.
While Windows might be modular. I'm sure it is, otherwise patching it with service packs and updates would be close to impossible, since you'd have to upgrade the whole OS if it weren't. M$ is definitely making it damn hard to remove any of the modules.
There is no real reason why old software should have an expiry date.
First of all, there is a lot of code out there that is simply not maintained anymore. It doesn't have any major bugs, it does what it's supposed to do, so why expire it? Even if you tried, you couldn't get new versions for it. One example is tkirc. I used to love that app, but the last time it was updated was sometime in '98. I still use it whenever I feel like IRC-ing...
Second of all, older apps and distros are small and work on old computers.For example, an old Linux distribution (e.g Slack 3.x) will run without any problems on my old 486. It's small, fast, stable, and it gets the job done. In my case, running IP masquarading, a small ftp server and an ssh server. But RH 7.2 will not even install, because of the 8Mb or RAM that the 486 has. If the expiry code would be enabled in that Slack distro, it wouldn't work. So that computer would be useless, unless I took the time to trim a new distro to fit on it.
The third reason is more debatable. It's the admin's job to keep the systems updated. If his box gets hacked, he should be responsible for it, and suffer the consequences. It happened to me because of an old wu-ftp on RH6.2. I knew of the vulnerability, but I was too lazy to upgrade the package. Well, needless to say I had to reinstall that computer. Since then, I never leave any apps running or any ports open unless I know the apps are safe and I absolutely need the ports to be open.
So I say leave the software as it is, without an expity date on it. Even if the expiration is only activated if a hole is discovered, leave the app as it is. Maybe someone is using it on his personal, isolated network (or box) which nobody will ever hack into. But that someone might depend on that app for some task, and he can't live without it. I know it's a stretch, but still...
When I read the article, the first impression I got was that since it was a scientific study, it should hold some truth. However, upon closer inspection, I do not think that is the case.
The biggest reason I do not trust the findings is because the exact setting of the study is unknown. Depending on the subjects (age, background, education, social status), the actual transcripts of the study, the atmosphere of the study and the subsequent IQ tests, hell, even what the subjects had for breakfast, the end result could vary dramatically. It is very well known that studies can be skewed. I seem to remember some test showing that NT was much faster than Linux, and immediately after that, other tests proving the contrary. If you set up the test properly, even if you deal with computers, cars or people, you can get almost any result that you want. Note that I said ALMOST.
Given this, the study should be viewed with skepticism. And there are other things to consider. It is pretty obvious that if you tell somebody that he/she is a reject, a loser, and outcast, that person will get enraged. Especially if those comments come from a trustworthy professor. If you expect that while being angered you do not become more aggressive, well, Newton's law applies quite well here. Also obvious should be the fact that while in a highly emotional state (anger in this case) the brain does not function at its full logical potential. Most of its concentration is focused on the emotions. This in turn skews the IQ results, which are very much based on logic.
I took a few IQ test myself, and while in all the scores were fairly close (I didn't have anybody telling me I'm an idiot when I was taking them), the final IQ result was never the same. So there is a wide margin of error here too.
So in the end, we are left with somebody who wants to prove at all costs that rejection makes one dumb, creates a test specifically designed to get that result, and lo and behold, he does. It's a great day for science.
I don't think so.
I don't know very much about other laptops, but I can speak from experience. I have an Armada M700, P3 750Mhz w/192Mb RAM, Ati Rage Mobility P 8Mb, 12Gb hdd, Intel EtherExpress NIC, Maestro2 sound, etc. And it's running RedHat 7.2 flawlessly.
All I had to do was insert the install CD, and everything worked perfectly from then on. Autodetected my video, sound, network, APM, etc. No error messages, no troubles with anything. After the install, everything was still running perfectly. None of the problems that a previous poster has with the text mode after starting X. The sound works (does not break, etc). Power management works too, I just have to figure out how to set it up properly, so that it actually does what I want it to do.
Now I know that this is not a brand-new model (at least not with these specs), but you can get the latest one, with pretty much the same base components. They are flawlessly supported in RedHat, even from the very start.
On top of that, Compaq business support is great. I needed a new LCD for it, and they 24/7 phone support, free overnight shipping to and from ther service centres. And everybody I talked to was very polite, knowledgeable. But always deal directly with Compaq, I had some problems with their authorised service centres.
All in all, I strongly recommend the Armada M700 series.
A friend of mine works at RIM, and I saw one of these things while it was still in developement. And I have to admit it's one great device. His did not have the Internet enabled, so I couldn't test that, but he said it's identical to the older Blackberry.
If you liked the Blackberries, then you'll love this thing. It's pretty much identical, only it has a headset jack where you plug in the handsfree mike and earphone.
Has very good reception (at least in the Toronto and Hamilton area). Also, it has good battery life, although it's far shorter than the email-only Blackberry.
All in all, a great cellphone, email, internet, PDA. Much better IMNHO than anything out there (Treo, Kyocera, even Nokia)
...is basicaly shooting itself in the foot. And not just the tech industry, but also the entertainment and everything else along with it. Honestly, is Intel expecting me to buy their products when their processors for instance won't decode a movie which is not digitally signed to their liking? Or does IBM think I'll use their hdds when they won't allow me to store said movie (or software, or music, etc)?
I live in Canada, and over here we don't have those insane issues, such as this one. At least not yet. But even if we did, there would always be options to bypass the crippled hardware.
I honestly won't care how fast my computer will be if it doesn't do what I expect it to do. And I'll look for other options.
The new Pentium Hollywood edition has copyright protection? Well, VIA is making their Samuel. Slow as hell, but it works. Maxtor, IBM, Seagate hdds don't let me store "illegal" stuff? Fujitsu makes hdds too. nVidia's cards won't display my info? Well, Ati is a pretty good alternative. And if not Ati, well, others.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture. The harder the US is trying to control the use of computers, the less likely are people like myself to buy said computers. Our friends in Asia will definitely have uncrippled hardware, and I have plenty of ways to acquire it. And if not Asia, then Europe. So unless the entire world decides to make it unlawfull to use uncrippled hardware (or software), there's always going to be a way around it.
Well, in that case France should charge a lot of the junk store owners in Toronto. In particular those on Church St.
I have seen plenty of Nazi war decorations (or medals, whatever they're called) for sale in those stores. And those were the cheap ones, which about a third of the Reich Army got just for fighting in the war.
And I'm sure the Nazi memorabilia is big business throughout the world. I'm not into it, so I don't know for sure, but it's a safe bet.
Going after the CEO of Yahoo for this is ridiculous. I guess there's a judge in France whith too much time on his hands.
...for a while anyways. I've always run a Linux gateway for my home network, so I figured, adding Apache would not be a big deal. And it wasn't, so I was happily hosting my own website, plus a couple more for a friend of mine.
This of course was in the good old days when Rogers Cable was not yet Rogers@home, and they were giving out static IPs. (I live in Toronto, Canada). Right now they have dynamic IPs, and they actually drop your connection on purpose, just to change your IP. Kiling dhcpcd and then restarting it solves the problem, but it's annoying nonetheless. This would definitely be a problem with DSL too.
There are some work-arounds. One is to get a domain name with dyndns.org (e.g croco.dyndns.org), which can be updated through scripts any time the IP changes. Then set your real domain name to resolve to croco.dyndns.org I haven't tried it, but it might work. Of course, it adds one more layer of latency on an already slow connection. Not to mention another failure point (what happens if dyndns craps out on you?)
Another way that I can think of is everytime the IP changes to log into your registrar and change the IP the domain resolves to. But this is tedious, unless they also support changes through scripts. I am yet to find a registrar that does.
But those are not the biggest problems (small bandwidth and dynamic IPs). The show stopper for me was the reliability of the connection. You might not notice the out times during the night or when you're at work, or simply away from your computer. But believe me, they happen. And someone trying to visit your web site will too. Worst of all is that in my case, Rogers doesn't even bother announcing the outage. The worst example? I was in the middle of my university course selection when the connection crapped out on me, and I lost all the changes I made. Needless to say, I was fuming! The fact that my web site wasn't available either was a minor issue by comparison.
So I say find yourself another decent web host, if you care about the reliability and availability of your site. There are plenty out there, good and cheap. But if you don't care if your web site might die on you without any notice, then by all means, host it yourself. It's an enjoyable experience, and you'll learn something.
Well, I must say that I was quite impressed when they were first featured on TV. The Segway is a pretty cool device. And it may be usefull too, if it weren't for a few major problems.
The first one that comes to mind is its size. Imagine riding this thing during the lunch hour in a crowded downtown area (pick the city of your choice). And you obviously have to ride it on the sidewalk. But it would not be faster (if not slower) than walking, since you wouldn't be moving faster than the rest of the people. It pretty much defeats its purpose in the suburbs or in the industrial parks. There's enough room there just to hop into your car and drive where you want to get.
The second problem, as one of the previous posts mentioned, is what happens when you suddenly hit something (more likely someone). The thing might be self balancing, but I've felt what happens when one of your rollerblades gets stuck in a groove. Your body keeps moving with the same velocity, while one (if not both) feet are firmly planted in the obstacle. A split second later you find yourself lying face forward on the pavement. I see the same thing happening with the Segway.
Third, think of its battery life (I presume it is battery powered)
I think I'll stick to my bycicle for now, thank you.
...unless you want to permanently damage your screen.
Most of the consumer-level laptops (e.g. Satelites, Presarios, etc) are made with very flimsy plastic. That's nothing new, however, that is a very important issue if you even THINK that your laptop might have to withstand any kind of abuse. And the biggest problem I've seen is with the screen lid. On the cheap laptops, the plastic is so thin and so fragile that the screen can be damaged by simply applying pressure with your finger to the outer screen casing. Nevermind putting a couple of books on top of it while jumping around.
By no means do I encourage this, but next time you're in you favourite mega pc store (FutureShop in Canada, I guess Circuit City or Staples in US), touch one of their cheaper laptops. With your palm holding the outer edge of the screen, apply some pressure to the OUTSIDE or the screen cover with one of your fingers. See how much it takes untill you can see a discoloured blob on the inside of the screen, right in the place where you're pushing.
Stop as soon as you see the discoloration. Any more pressure and you can permanently damage the LCD. Oh, and the notebook should be turned on while doing this, otherwise nothing shows.
Now if they have some corporate level notebooks, do the same. Try something like a Tecra, Armada, or the T series. I can guarantee you that you will not be able to do it. Well, if you're very strong, you might, but the amount of pressure you have to apply is much, much higher than on the consumer level notebooks.
This fact alone goes a long way to show (IMHO) how much better built some notebooks are when compared to others. And that's a general sign, it does not only relate to the screen side. A cheap notebook will have crappy components everywhere, while the more expensive ones are significantly better built.
BTW, one of the reasons I bought an Armada M700 is because of its very slim, rugged construction. Magnezium lid (short of cracking it open, nothing will damage the screed), and very high quality plastic everywhere else.
Well, that's my 2c worth...
Is it just me, or did CmdrTaco forget a tag? After this article, everything below it is italic. The quoted paragraphs, the moderator comments, everything.
However, the story right above this one is displaying normaly.
BTW, don't moderate me as off topic, I'm just asking a question that would not fit anywhere else but here.
This question begs to be asked. Why isn't any company creating something like this but instead of the very, very slow S3 chips, use an Nvidia Nforce?
The Nforce is fast enough graphics-wise, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, I'm playing RTCW on a dual Celeron 466 w/ TNT2 32Mb... Yeah, I can't have all the special effects, and it only runs at 640x480, BUT IT WORKS! I've spent far too many hours playing it at this cappy resolution and I loved it. Granted, and Athlon XP2000+ w/ GeForce3 would blow my computer away, but it is also a few thousands more expensive. So on an Nforce, coupled with a newer CPU would be significantly faster.
Not to mention the fact that the Nforce has good sound capabilities too. And it supports the Athlon, which is also faster than the P3.
Honestly, I'm just waiting for the day when they're going to come out with this very same computer, but with an Athlon w/ the Nforce inside, and I'm buying it. I hope SpaceWalker is listening to me...
... I can support the fact that broadband here is very available and fairly cheap. And it's been this way for about 3 years at least.
:)
I've had a broadband connection with Rogers Cable since early 1998. Granted, my neighbourhood was one of the test zones, and I was one of the first people who got it in my area. At that time it was not available in the entire Greater Toronto Area. But for quite a while it's been available pretty much anywhere Rogers has TV cables installed. The service is pretty good, although I've had more than my share of problems, it's fast but most of all, it's cheap.
The other alternative in Toronto (and I guess the rest of Canada) is DSL. Bell Sympatico is the widest spread one, since they have the phone line monopoly. But they do lease the lines at decent prices, since there are at least 4 other companies offering DSL in my city. Again, a few years back DSL was not available everywhere, but now it is.
The funniest thing is that when I have on-going problems with my cable, I can threaten Rogers that I will move to DSL, and magically these problems get fixed. For example, I used to have a LanCity modem, which is very old and very sensitive to cable noise. I called them a couple of times, asking for a replacement from another manufacturer, but nothing happened. As soon as I mentioned Sympatico DSL, I had a Terayon modem installed by the next day.
I also mentioned the fact that broadband here is cheap. Well, on average it's about $60/month including the modem rental. That's Canadian funds, or about $40 USD. There are occasional promos, price wars, etc so you can get even better deals (sympatico had/has an offer for CAD$20/month for the first 6 months).
My point is that I enjoy my broadband connection.
I just hate it when somebody posts exactly what I was going to post. Had to erase a good two minutes of typing because of it. :)
Anyway, that is exactly what I am doing. I have a 13Gb hdd for the system, and a 40Gb for storage (mp3s, movies, etc). Also I have a burner and one of the removable racks you mention. And in it, there's an identical 40Gb hdd used solely for backups. I keep it safe, and I plug it in every few days to copy the new stuff to it, remove the old, etc. I know that ideally I should have more backup space than hdds I'm using, but I never really run out of space. I am always writing the very important files to CDs, sometimes in duplicate. Call me paranoid, but after losing 3 years of data because of a hdd crash and a cheap CD which refuzed to be read, I'm not taking any chances. Also, all the stuff I don't need often (less than once a month) goes to CD.
One very, very important thing though. Don't cheap out on the removable racks. Make sure that at least the lid on the one you get is mettal, and there's at least a fan in the hdd tray. All racks have one fan on the rack itself (the part that gets mounted in the case). But make sure you have another one in the tray.
I used to have a rack made out of plastic completely, and with only one fan. My Maxtor 7200rpm drive was getting HOT. And I do mean hot! Then one day I ripped the IDE cable from its mount, and I had to buy another rack. This one is with metalic lid, and 2 fans inside. Now the hdd doesn't even get warm. And the difference in price between the racks was $10 canadian (about US$7.5).
Those few extra bucks are probably going to prolong your hdd life by quite a bit.
I don't work in a cubicle, since I'm still a student. I do work however in an overcrowded computer lab at school, with no privacy, and the closes person at arm's length from me. But I do have a perfect way to get away from all the disturbances. Something tells my it might not work for you though...
I bring my mp3 player along, and I put my headphones on. Make sure you have head phones, not ear phones. The ear phones are too small, and being much closer to your ear, they produce far more damage than head phones. And I turn the mp3 player on. Not very loud, since the place is not too noisy, but still, loud enough so that it drowns everything around.
Now the choice of music is entirely up to you. In my case, Rage Against the Machine (and the likes) does the trick. Something tells me you're going to go for something completely different.
The reason it might not work, is that many workplaces (my dad's for instance) do not allow music to be played. It has to do with not being able to hear the fire alarm. Then again, he works in a nuclear power plant, so I can see why they have those rules. In your case it might be different.
Well, first of all, it sucks that AT&T forced the @home bankrupcy. But had @home's finances been in order, it wouldn't have happened. They made some bad decisions, drained their cash reserves, incured debt, and put themselves in a vulnerable position. AT&T just smelled an easy buy, and went for it. Everybody loves Capitalism, and this is its finest hour.
The sad part is that @home is pretty much dead. I was a customer of Rogers@home. Now it's just Rogers (for those who do not know, Rogers is the cable monopoly in Toronto, Canada). They made the transition, and while it was pretty messy, it's done. And you can be sure they're not moving back to @home. They took 400 000 subscribers away from the 4mil that @home had. Same for Shaw@home (which is another Canadian cable company). That's another 2-300 000 subscribers.
Not to mention AT&T, with God knows how many customers. Actually, God might know, or even google.com, but it's too late at night for me to check the actual numbers.
And those are not by far the only companies that decided to leave @home. So now Excite@home is left with less than half of its former users, maybe even less. But it has the same debt, and an even worse situation. Just the fact that they came close to shutting down and it killed their former image. If it would have been hard for it to survive before the bankrupcy, now that's pretty much impossible. So the bond holders that opposed the AT&T buyout are just as screwed, if not worse.
I might be a freak, but I use BlackBox on all my computers. From a dual Celeron 466Mhz w/512Mb RAM to a k6 200Mhz w/32Mb RAM. And on my next box, it's still going to be BB.
It is extremely light wight, extremely simple to configure (I won't call it easy, because it would sound too much like other marketing campaigns). It also accepts WindowMaker and AfterStep dock apps, has a few of its own (pager, etc). This allows you to gain some of the functionality of gnome or kde monitors, etc, without the huge memory footprint.
It is rock solid. In the year that I have been using it, it has never crashed on me. Mozilla, xmms, quake3, rtcf, and plenty other apps managed to crash my X, but never BB.
So give it a try, you might like it.
Another wm I used to use (for 3 years actually) was WindowMaker. It has most of the qualities BlackBox has, but it is a bit bigger memory-wise. And it has a way of placing icons around the border of the desktop that strarted bugging me, and I could never get rid of them. But that wasn't the main reason I switched. I guess after 3 years, I got bored with the same look, and I wanted something different...
But give it a try too, and pick the best one you like.
And to be honest, I'm stumped! I have the same Nokia 8260, on the Rogers AT&T, and I could not find a way to change the damn logo. I think this is because the Rogers network is TDMA, as opposed to GSM, and it does not support the feature.
This is based on my own observation, since I know for a fact that you can change said logo on the GSM networks in Europe (that is, I've seen this phone with different logos when I was there this summer). Also, if you've ever uploaded custom rings to the phone, you noticed that there is a GSM option, and a TDMA option. So there are definitely some differences due to the protocols used.
On a brighter note, Rogers is moving towards GSM, and while our own cell phones will sill be TDMA, it's a good sign that Rogers is getting in line with the rest of the world. Now only Bell and Telus are left on their own proprietary protocols. For those who do not know, Rogers AT&T, Telus, Bell and Fido are mobile phone companies in Canada.