I try hard to post often, and post well. But sometimes you just have to settle for being part of the world's top 10. Good enough just has to be "good enough".
>Your analogy was off the mark, its more like taking the body of a Model-T and replacing the engine with a nice V12.
A P3 1Ghz is about as much V12 today as a Honda Civic has a V-TEC engine...
If you're going to hack the hell out of a good machine, at least do it in style. A nice P4 2.4 Ghz, or whatever the fastest AMD chip is now would be a start. But a P3 1Ghz? That's so old it's hard to buy!
>thought we'll be seeing a lot of older stuff that's hard to find like the good and not-so good horror movies from the late 60's,the 70's and early 80's like you could find on VHS.
Go to WalMart. Seriously. Their DVDs are $5.99 CDN here, and they have the "crappiest" crap you've ever seen. My favs I saw that I got for my collection are:
Just to name a few. There's way more on the shelves there. Just look for the "crappy" movies everyone is avoiding.:-) Now, if only they had Manos, Hands of Fate or Plan 9 from Outer Space there... I'd even take a copy of Freakshow, which is, without a doubt, including student projects, the worst movie ever filmed in my town. It's the only bad movie I only watched half of (and people who know me know that says a lot). I guess watching a guy chase a dog with a bag of crack cocaine in its mouth for 15 minutes tired me.
Here's a personal reccomendation if you want cheesy movies on DVD: cybernator. A single viewing and your eyes will burn out faster than watching Trucks, Maximum Overdrive, and The Car on constant repeat(on DVD, of course).
>Well, I would be very interested in learning about this "extra" tax you speak about - I certainly can't find any reference to it anywhere.
I'm looking for it. I wish I had saved a copy of the old guide. There was a table right in the middle of it that's missing in the new copy -- it clearly stated the taxation on various prices of goods, and it was always far more than 15%. Usually about 30%. This, of course, is before brokerage (or is it? that could be the missing link)...
As soon as I find something decent I will either post it here or to my journal. I recall a CTV Goldberg (or whatever they call the guy who used to do the consumer protection style news for CTV) episode where a lady bought some books from Amazon and ended up with a bill for twice what she paid. It all ended up as taxes, brokerage, and shipping... I'll try to find more.
>Please dig up your forms for your most recent shipment and let me know exactly what this tax is called so I can learn more about it.
I certainly would, but it was almost 2 years ago when I ordered my last product stateside, so I doubt I've still got them.
I only remember the total price because I phoned up FedEx asking why the heck my package from Michigan was taking a week to get here via "overnight" shipping. When they told me it was because they were clearing through customs and that the shipping charge (including, IIRC, all tarrifs/brokerage except GST or some odd thing like that) was $75 total I blew my stack and told them to shove that package where the sun don't shine. After a lot of looking about in Canada for the same thing, I gave up and phoned them back. They hadn't destroyed the package, and I just paid the $75. [Hey, what's the choice? American DVB internet is $50/US a month, equivalent Canadian DSS (there's no DVB, AFAIK) internet is $400/CDN a month -- thank God the CRTC can only tell me not to surf Canadian websites using it, and still let me buy at least _that_ from the US tax free. Coming to think of it, actually, a good chunk of my money is/was slowly disappearing to the US with emusic.com, usenet.com, and Nebulink on my CC. All in the name of competition, I suppose].
>One place to save is in the customs brokerage fees - if you are in a city with a customs house (Montreal or Vancouver for instance) you can do the brokerage yourself and not pay anything - I would imagine that CCRA has info on that somewhere. Another option is to use the postal system since Canada Post does the brokerage for $5.
Unfortunately, there's no brokerage houses here -- the nearest border is an hour away. Trying to get US companies to ship via Mail is like pulling teeth -- I always knew about their good brokerage rates but could never use them. Unless you can convince the people on the other side to ship that way, you're SOL.
A lot of it does seem to be brokerage fees. Could it be that the old pamphlet was including them, and that I'm a little confused on exactly why the PM is at fault (is it for adding a hidden tax, or for simply allowing these gross brokerage rip off scams, or could it be that GST and PST were added to the cost of importing during the PMs reign [actually, this one strikes me as the most likely, since it's the most inane of the three])? I guess we'll never know since the only few shreds of evidence are long gone.
Oh well. Either way, there's no way there should be 15% tax on something not handled or produced in Canada, and there's no excuse to let the Canadian public get fleeced by American shippers like this, and there's no way my DVB card should have ended up costing $450 CDN. But it did and that's life. I just don't buy at all if Canada doesn't have it unless the bargain is twice the price. So much for a free trade agreement.:-/
>Okay, who on Earth thinks that they should "backup audio cds"? Come on, that's a pretty forced issue. I have several thousand audio cds, and while I'd hate to lose any of them, I don't think I'm going to be burning CDR copies of the pile.
I think so.
At $99 for a 40x burner, and $0.20 per disc, why the hell not?
Imagine if the warranty protection on everything at Best Buy was $0.20 and it only took 2 minutes to add. Would you say no? In the words of the immortal Homer, "Extended Warranty! How can I lose?".
So why say no when it comes to CDs? It takes next to no time and gives you a solid guarantee that your CD will be with you for at least the next 25 years. Can't beat that!
>Memphis is built on artesian wells. We have some of the best water in the country. They sell our water in supermarkets. In Memphis. People buy this water, in Memphis. They're drinking Tap water without the tap. And pay 2 dollars for it.
Sounds like where I live. I'm starting to think people like plastic bottle flavour. Maybe I can package it and make a fortune...
>No matter what, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
You aren't looking hard enough.
I'm sure these exist in the US, but near the bottling plant in Aberfoyle you'll find a nice, clean, clear, public, freshwater spring you can drink to your hearts content. No chlroine, no nasties, no nothing. And the whole thing must have been paid for in tax money well before I was born, judging by the age of it. I've seen about 3 or 4 of these outlets in my area, constantly running.
I live on top of a spring and only pay a nominal fee to keep the community pump running, but I could get it for free if I put in the effort. Unfortunately the city took it over lately and started adding some horrible chemicals.:-(
Then there's always the option of having a well, which I've seen a few times over.
Why pay for bottled water when you can get it for free, and extra tasty fresh (no plastic scent).:-)
And, just to mention, if the lake _isn't_ scummy, you'd be a fool to drink from it. Scum = life = good water. Clear = dead = bad water.:-)
>Do you believe that artists are entitled to payment for every copy of their work that gets distributed to a different individual?
Not according to the original interpretation of US copyright law. After 14 years it was no, and that's (I'm assuming) how much of the nation felt at the time.
>Do you believe that businesses should be allowed to distribute media that prevents the illegal copying and re-distribution of their content?
No. I have no right to be assumed a criminal when I purchase something. This is like those illegal bag searches that seem to happen whenever I enter or leave a box store in the US. Wal-Mart gave those up in Canada -- we don't like being treated like criminals.
>With art as in politics, it's all in where you draw the line.
Or is it in how the history of the law of the land was written? Fortunately, in the US (and in Canada, mostly) the rights of the individual are upheld above the rights of the state/business.
I can get movies for $19 CDN. A quality DVD-R costs me $10 CDN. Then I have to futz about with horribly broken transcoding software. And in the end I have a crappy copy that may/may not work in some DVD players.
Blech.
I actually feel most movies are worth $19, unlike most CDs.
>ever heard of a portable DVD player that lets you watch DVDs in high quality on the go?
1 + 2 = Yes.:-) The sony glasstron is translucent too, so if you walk slowly, you might not bump into things...
Read it and weep. It costs a hell of a lot to import into Canada unless you're a business. I know, I've done it enough -- it's tough to get good electronics parts in this country. And going with another carrier only shifts the responsibility of paying the brokers to it being part of shipping, rather than an extra amount at the door. $32 is pretty low -- I've seen it as high as $40 for a shipment under $100.
>$200 US is about $300 CDN which would generate about $45 in taxes. What other charges were you hit with, $50 shipping and $50 brokerage?
Well, it was shipped from Michigan to Ontario, and was in a box about the size of a large paperback novel and about the same weight. IIRC shipping was about $25 CDN. Another $25 CDN for brokerage, the rest the PMs special import tax.
This once pointed to a comprehensive set of costs to import. Interesting that now it's close to election time it's gone missing...
>and you cannot really blame the PM for the shipper's charges.
I'm looking hard for this, but the PM specifically instituted an extra tax on import goods, past the GST. And it's huge. About $50 for $100 in goods, and it went up in proportion to that.
Well... look at that. It's near election time and I just found this. The updated version of that form. Looks like they just took off the extra tax for election time. It's better than a Shawinigan slap-in-da-face, I suppose!
Of course, now they choose to limit our freedoms on stuff we can legally buy here...
"You cannot import items such as: pornography; obscene and seditious material;"...
Great... Way to sanitize the country! You go, PM! Nothing but women mounties showing it all for me!
I can assure you I've been hit by these duties multiple times. My favourite was a $70 US box of PCBs that ended up at $130 US... It was still worth it, though, since the only company that seems to sell presensitized PCBs in Canada is MG Chemicals, who charge 2x to 5x the value of any product for some reason.
[Just look on the newsgroups for some info on how bad rates to import into Canada have become since Chretien got into power].
I can try to find you an article on this extra tax if you'd like. A lot of implementing it had to do with keeping internet business and economy in Canada, IIRC. Me, if I can't find something, though, I just don't spend the money rather than find an inferior solution, which is far worse for the economy.
Doesn't count, considering the place selling the router has these, and most of us (including yourself) should have one lying around somewhere (I have 6 spare right now).
>install into unused 486
30 - 60 seconds...
>install linux
30 minutes.
>read firewall HOWTO
30 minutes.
>make ipchains rules
0 minutes. Rules equivalent to the home routers are included with the howto.
>reboot and test
0 minutes. No reboots necessary, this is linux.
>until works
Should work first time if you copied/pasted.
I was being generous in case you decided to install an entire Linux distro on the 486 rather than just what's necessary (486s are embarrasingly slow at decompressing g/bzip archives...).
Or so that's how long it took for me (1 hour). Well, it took a bit longer since I had an split up/down net connection, but for anyone else, it should be no sweat.
Jeez, I envy you people in the US, being able to order international and all. Our (idiot) Prime Minister slapped enough taxes and tariffs on "personal" imports that you have to add another 50-100% of the sticker price to get it over the border. Uggggh... My satellite DVB card sure went from $199 US to $450 CDN in a hurry (this was before the loonie was completely worth squat -- not that it was great then).
Me neither. I think their hardware isn't bad, I just think their software and telecomm engineering need some serious work. Why did it take almost 5 years to get an SSH client on something that's supposed to be "internet enabled", for example?
>As for running on Windoze CE, your are totally incorrect.
Woah there. I didn't say that. I know it runs their own OS, and I know their own OS crashes more often than my Win2k box. I used to get that "device error" or whatever that little message is that pops up with an exclamation mark beside it weekly for no reason (I'd just unholster it and it would be FUBARed again). That is when I used it... which I don't now. My Nokia cellphone offers similar features to my RIM pager at a price I can afford, and doesn't crash (not to mention it's a darn sight smaller, too!). If only I could get that nice keypad and thumbwheel that I'm sure RIM patented on another device...
Oh, one other problem I've found that's completely stupid. Where I am (RIM central, you could call it) there's two OSes for the 950/957 -- their "internet" OS and their "exchange" OS. The devices are identical, except for the OS, yet if you buy one with an OS you don't like, it's like a cellphone, you have to throw it away. At least if RIM were like palm I could buy the other OS and flash the thing. Oh well...
>Also, every device since the 5810's has been using the GSM/GPRS network (about a YEAR now)
Finally. Maybe I'll be interested again now. There's just no way I'm paying the equivalent of about $10/minute to use my handheld.:-) I'll take a look into it, that is if RIMs old products haven't killed 'em off yet (their stock looks super-shaky right now -- oh well).
>As for reliability...look at this from 9/11
That's interesting, since I live in the heart of RIM country, yet my RIM pager doesn't work inside my college -- but all my friend's cell phones do. If RIM can't even get their hometown covered, I think what you showed me was made up by a RIM marketeer and paid for by RIM to make them look good.
I've seen two-way radios that are more resilient to droupout...
Although, it is a nice feature that RIM pagers queue messages, and they download the queue pretty fast. The minute I went outside the college my RIM pager would buzz. Heh, I guess that's better than nothing.
>Perhaps you have a hard time with it because you didn't do your research?
No, just because the product I owned had 2002 features running on a 1980's network in a y2k package, IMHO.
What are you installing from/to? 5.25" floppies and a 386? It should take no more than 2 hours (including build time), IMHO, to get a basic linux firewall/router box set up.
What they meant is that a stricter compiler wouldn't allow (or would at least warn about) the use of any statement which doesn't work "naturally". Using a break might be OK, but it _shouldn't_ be the norm. IMHO, the C switch statement is broken in this regard -- however, there are times when it's "brokeness" comes in handy.
Being hard to contact isn't fraudulent, but I believe it is a good indication of possible fraudulent behaviour. Sort of like when a store quits answering the phone all of a sudden for weeks on end... you get this feeling that something isn't right there. And, strangely enough, it's never failed for me. And if paypal wants to be an internet only company, fine. They should act like it, though, and get the asses moving on the emails. An internet only company should have given him an answer in under 24 hours. If any internet only company takes more than 48 hours to get something done for me, I get antsy. This guys been waiting weeks! I've seen letters cross the atlantic and pacific oceans faster than they respond to problems. Saying "Don't like it? Take your business elsewhere." is a cop-out. I'm soon going to be running a computer company, and if it were broken into and a customers machine stolen, I wouldn't tell them "too bad, and don't bother talking to me again". I'd probably go to jail. So, if I can't cop-out, why can PayPal? Because everyone "knows" they're a bunch of crooks? That's a pathetic excuse. [ And yes, I do do my business elsewhere. I'd rather give the crack addict my money to look after than PayPal. At least I'd know where it ends up. ]
Breaking one random law does not mean you are a theif. If you break the DMCA, you are in violation of the DMCA. If you break copyright, you are in violation of copyright. You are not stealing until the law/dictionary say so.
Neither say using something you bought in any way whatsoever (wether it is illegal or not) is stealing, unless you are committing fraud, which the DMCA, AFAIK, isn't all about.
Maybe if paypal acted good-hearted, and at least put up some easy contact info so you could get some help tracking down the scammers they wouldn't have such a hard time. This is like putting your stuff in public storage, having the garage broken into, all your stuff stolen, only to find out they've replaced the attendant with an automated box and have chosen to leave you no way to contact a person. It's despicable, and it stinks of fraud.
>But it doesn't work very well there, either. If you're looking at one of these things, pass it up. There's much better products out there than anything by RIM.
Totally. The only things that the RIM equipment has going for them (at least on their 950 model) were the thumbwheel and thumb keyboard. Past that, their OS _sucks_ and crashes all the time. And, whatever moron designed their wireless system might be a good system engineer, but was a complete dumbass businessman. Why does RIM think that a system where Rogers et al. have to charge $25 a month for 70 kilobytes of data transfer is going to be popular?
RIM hit market saturation the minute every CEO got one. IMHO, unless RIM comes out with some way to get their product to work on GPRS (or some other cheaper wireless system than their proprietary one) RIM has peaked, and once you've peaked, there's only one way to go: down.
Bye RIM. If only GSM had been more popular before I bought that $400 doorstop (hey, it's for sale if anyone is interested!).
Slashdot Mirror
^^ your sig is bullshit.
It is? I lied now? I don't think so.
>1600 comments is nothing [slashdot.org]. Quit trying to brag, fucknut.
Finally, someone who beats these guys.
I try hard to post often, and post well. But sometimes you just have to settle for being part of the world's top 10. Good enough just has to be "good enough".
>Your analogy was off the mark, its more like taking the body of a Model-T and replacing the engine with a nice V12.
A P3 1Ghz is about as much V12 today as a Honda Civic has a V-TEC engine...
If you're going to hack the hell out of a good machine, at least do it in style. A nice P4 2.4 Ghz, or whatever the fastest AMD chip is now would be a start. But a P3 1Ghz? That's so old it's hard to buy!
Destroying the rarest C64 ever made to change it in to a PC?
People that do this don't deserve to have old computers. (IMHO).
This is like taking a Model-T Ford and "converting" it into a Toyota Corolla.
>I've still got some data on those I'd like to get off... -dB
:-)
I've got a controller lying about somewhere (I think -- I had a big cleaning sessions a couple of months ago). I could throw in a 20 MB Micropolis.
>thought we'll be seeing a lot of older stuff that's hard to find like the good and not-so good horror movies from the late 60's,the 70's and early 80's like you could find on VHS.
:-) Now, if only they had Manos, Hands of Fate or Plan 9 from Outer Space there... I'd even take a copy of Freakshow, which is, without a doubt, including student projects, the worst movie ever filmed in my town. It's the only bad movie I only watched half of (and people who know me know that says a lot). I guess watching a guy chase a dog with a bag of crack cocaine in its mouth for 15 minutes tired me.
Go to WalMart. Seriously. Their DVDs are $5.99 CDN here, and they have the "crappiest" crap you've ever seen. My favs I saw that I got for my collection are:
- Flying Guillotine
- Abraxas
- Naked Space
- Death Race 2000 (everyone should be forced to watch that movie once!)
Just to name a few. There's way more on the shelves there. Just look for the "crappy" movies everyone is avoiding.
Here's a personal reccomendation if you want cheesy movies on DVD: cybernator. A single viewing and your eyes will burn out faster than watching Trucks, Maximum Overdrive, and The Car on constant repeat(on DVD, of course).
>Well, I would be very interested in learning about this "extra" tax you speak about - I certainly can't find any reference to it anywhere.
:-/
I'm looking for it. I wish I had saved a copy of the old guide. There was a table right in the middle of it that's missing in the new copy -- it clearly stated the taxation on various prices of goods, and it was always far more than 15%. Usually about 30%. This, of course, is before brokerage (or is it? that could be the missing link)...
As soon as I find something decent I will either post it here or to my journal. I recall a CTV Goldberg (or whatever they call the guy who used to do the consumer protection style news for CTV) episode where a lady bought some books from Amazon and ended up with a bill for twice what she paid. It all ended up as taxes, brokerage, and shipping... I'll try to find more.
>Please dig up your forms for your most recent shipment and let me know exactly what this tax is called so I can learn more about it.
I certainly would, but it was almost 2 years ago when I ordered my last product stateside, so I doubt I've still got them.
I only remember the total price because I phoned up FedEx asking why the heck my package from Michigan was taking a week to get here via "overnight" shipping. When they told me it was because they were clearing through customs and that the shipping charge (including, IIRC, all tarrifs/brokerage except GST or some odd thing like that) was $75 total I blew my stack and told them to shove that package where the sun don't shine. After a lot of looking about in Canada for the same thing, I gave up and phoned them back. They hadn't destroyed the package, and I just paid the $75. [Hey, what's the choice? American DVB internet is $50/US a month, equivalent Canadian DSS (there's no DVB, AFAIK) internet is $400/CDN a month -- thank God the CRTC can only tell me not to surf Canadian websites using it, and still let me buy at least _that_ from the US tax free. Coming to think of it, actually, a good chunk of my money is/was slowly disappearing to the US with emusic.com, usenet.com, and Nebulink on my CC. All in the name of competition, I suppose].
>One place to save is in the customs brokerage fees - if you are in a city with a customs house (Montreal or Vancouver for instance) you can do the brokerage yourself and not pay anything - I would imagine that CCRA has info on that somewhere. Another option is to use the postal system since Canada Post does the brokerage for $5.
Unfortunately, there's no brokerage houses here -- the nearest border is an hour away. Trying to get US companies to ship via Mail is like pulling teeth -- I always knew about their good brokerage rates but could never use them. Unless you can convince the people on the other side to ship that way, you're SOL.
Here's a couple of other horror experiences on the same subject.
A lot of it does seem to be brokerage fees. Could it be that the old pamphlet was including them, and that I'm a little confused on exactly why the PM is at fault (is it for adding a hidden tax, or for simply allowing these gross brokerage rip off scams, or could it be that GST and PST were added to the cost of importing during the PMs reign [actually, this one strikes me as the most likely, since it's the most inane of the three])? I guess we'll never know since the only few shreds of evidence are long gone.
Oh well. Either way, there's no way there should be 15% tax on something not handled or produced in Canada, and there's no excuse to let the Canadian public get fleeced by American shippers like this, and there's no way my DVB card should have ended up costing $450 CDN. But it did and that's life. I just don't buy at all if Canada doesn't have it unless the bargain is twice the price. So much for a free trade agreement.
>Okay, who on Earth thinks that they should "backup audio cds"? Come on, that's a pretty forced issue. I have several thousand audio cds, and while I'd hate to lose any of them, I don't think I'm going to be burning CDR copies of the pile.
I think so.
At $99 for a 40x burner, and $0.20 per disc, why the hell not?
Imagine if the warranty protection on everything at Best Buy was $0.20 and it only took 2 minutes to add. Would you say no? In the words of the immortal Homer, "Extended Warranty! How can I lose?".
So why say no when it comes to CDs? It takes next to no time and gives you a solid guarantee that your CD will be with you for at least the next 25 years. Can't beat that!
>Memphis is built on artesian wells. We have some of the best water in the country. They sell our water in supermarkets. In Memphis. People buy this water, in Memphis. They're drinking Tap water without the tap. And pay 2 dollars for it.
Sounds like where I live. I'm starting to think people like plastic bottle flavour. Maybe I can package it and make a fortune...
>No matter what, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
:-(
:-)
:-)
You aren't looking hard enough.
I'm sure these exist in the US, but near the bottling plant in Aberfoyle you'll find a nice, clean, clear, public, freshwater spring you can drink to your hearts content. No chlroine, no nasties, no nothing. And the whole thing must have been paid for in tax money well before I was born, judging by the age of it. I've seen about 3 or 4 of these outlets in my area, constantly running.
I live on top of a spring and only pay a nominal fee to keep the community pump running, but I could get it for free if I put in the effort. Unfortunately the city took it over lately and started adding some horrible chemicals.
Then there's always the option of having a well, which I've seen a few times over.
Why pay for bottled water when you can get it for free, and extra tasty fresh (no plastic scent).
And, just to mention, if the lake _isn't_ scummy, you'd be a fool to drink from it. Scum = life = good water. Clear = dead = bad water.
>Do you believe that artists are entitled to payment for every copy of their work that gets distributed to a different individual?
Not according to the original interpretation of US copyright law. After 14 years it was no, and that's (I'm assuming) how much of the nation felt at the time.
>Do you believe that businesses should be allowed to distribute media that prevents the illegal copying and re-distribution of their content?
No. I have no right to be assumed a criminal when I purchase something. This is like those illegal bag searches that seem to happen whenever I enter or leave a box store in the US. Wal-Mart gave those up in Canada -- we don't like being treated like criminals.
>With art as in politics, it's all in where you draw the line.
Or is it in how the history of the law of the land was written? Fortunately, in the US (and in Canada, mostly) the rights of the individual are upheld above the rights of the state/business.
Not to mention the inherent value in a DVD.
:-) The sony glasstron is translucent too, so if you walk slowly, you might not bump into things...
I can get movies for $19 CDN. A quality DVD-R costs me $10 CDN. Then I have to futz about with horribly broken transcoding software. And in the end I have a crappy copy that may/may not work in some DVD players.
Blech.
I actually feel most movies are worth $19, unlike most CDs.
>ever heard of a portable DVD player that lets you watch DVDs in high quality on the go?
1 + 2 = Yes.
>Canada has very little in the way of duty or import fees for products from the USA.
That was about 7 years ago.
Here's the new rates, UPS style. And here's basic mail rates.
So, here's the breakdown for a $300 CDN item:
$32 brokerage + duties + PMs import tax + GST = $$$$.
Read it and weep. It costs a hell of a lot to import into Canada unless you're a business. I know, I've done it enough -- it's tough to get good electronics parts in this country. And going with another carrier only shifts the responsibility of paying the brokers to it being part of shipping, rather than an extra amount at the door. $32 is pretty low -- I've seen it as high as $40 for a shipment under $100.
>$200 US is about $300 CDN which would generate about $45 in taxes. What other charges were you hit with, $50 shipping and $50 brokerage?
Well, it was shipped from Michigan to Ontario, and was in a box about the size of a large paperback novel and about the same weight. IIRC shipping was about $25 CDN. Another $25 CDN for brokerage, the rest the PMs special import tax.
This once pointed to a comprehensive set of costs to import. Interesting that now it's close to election time it's gone missing...
>and you cannot really blame the PM for the shipper's charges.
I'm looking hard for this, but the PM specifically instituted an extra tax on import goods, past the GST. And it's huge. About $50 for $100 in goods, and it went up in proportion to that.
Well... look at that. It's near election time and I just found this. The updated version of that form. Looks like they just took off the extra tax for election time. It's better than a Shawinigan slap-in-da-face, I suppose!
Of course, now they choose to limit our freedoms on stuff we can legally buy here...
"You cannot import items such as: pornography; obscene and seditious material;"...
Great... Way to sanitize the country! You go, PM! Nothing but women mounties showing it all for me!
I can assure you I've been hit by these duties multiple times. My favourite was a $70 US box of PCBs that ended up at $130 US... It was still worth it, though, since the only company that seems to sell presensitized PCBs in Canada is MG Chemicals, who charge 2x to 5x the value of any product for some reason.
[Just look on the newsgroups for some info on how bad rates to import into Canada have become since Chretien got into power].
I can try to find you an article on this extra tax if you'd like. A lot of implementing it had to do with keeping internet business and economy in Canada, IIRC. Me, if I can't find something, though, I just don't spend the money rather than find an inferior solution, which is far worse for the economy.
>buy second ethernet card
Doesn't count, considering the place selling the router has these, and most of us (including yourself) should have one lying around somewhere (I have 6 spare right now).
>install into unused 486
30 - 60 seconds...
>install linux
30 minutes.
>read firewall HOWTO
30 minutes.
>make ipchains rules
0 minutes. Rules equivalent to the home routers are included with the howto.
>reboot and test
0 minutes. No reboots necessary, this is linux.
>until works
Should work first time if you copied/pasted.
I was being generous in case you decided to install an entire Linux distro on the 486 rather than just what's necessary (486s are embarrasingly slow at decompressing g/bzip archives...).
Or so that's how long it took for me (1 hour). Well, it took a bit longer since I had an split up/down net connection, but for anyone else, it should be no sweat.
>Ummm...because I have a life.
Congrats. You're #1 this week.
#1 to say something unoriginal and PKB, that is.
Jeez, I envy you people in the US, being able to order international and all. Our (idiot) Prime Minister slapped enough taxes and tariffs on "personal" imports that you have to add another 50-100% of the sticker price to get it over the border. Uggggh... My satellite DVB card sure went from $199 US to $450 CDN in a hurry (this was before the loonie was completely worth squat -- not that it was great then).
>I've never had a problem with the holster
:-) I'll take a look into it, that is if RIMs old products haven't killed 'em off yet (their stock looks super-shaky right now -- oh well).
Me neither. I think their hardware isn't bad, I just think their software and telecomm engineering need some serious work. Why did it take almost 5 years to get an SSH client on something that's supposed to be "internet enabled", for example?
>As for running on Windoze CE, your are totally incorrect.
Woah there. I didn't say that. I know it runs their own OS, and I know their own OS crashes more often than my Win2k box. I used to get that "device error" or whatever that little message is that pops up with an exclamation mark beside it weekly for no reason (I'd just unholster it and it would be FUBARed again). That is when I used it... which I don't now. My Nokia cellphone offers similar features to my RIM pager at a price I can afford, and doesn't crash (not to mention it's a darn sight smaller, too!). If only I could get that nice keypad and thumbwheel that I'm sure RIM patented on another device...
Oh, one other problem I've found that's completely stupid. Where I am (RIM central, you could call it) there's two OSes for the 950/957 -- their "internet" OS and their "exchange" OS. The devices are identical, except for the OS, yet if you buy one with an OS you don't like, it's like a cellphone, you have to throw it away. At least if RIM were like palm I could buy the other OS and flash the thing. Oh well...
>Also, every device since the 5810's has been using the GSM/GPRS network (about a YEAR now)
Finally. Maybe I'll be interested again now. There's just no way I'm paying the equivalent of about $10/minute to use my handheld.
>As for reliability...look at this from 9/11
That's interesting, since I live in the heart of RIM country, yet my RIM pager doesn't work inside my college -- but all my friend's cell phones do. If RIM can't even get their hometown covered, I think what you showed me was made up by a RIM marketeer and paid for by RIM to make them look good.
I've seen two-way radios that are more resilient to droupout...
Although, it is a nice feature that RIM pagers queue messages, and they download the queue pretty fast. The minute I went outside the college my RIM pager would buzz. Heh, I guess that's better than nothing.
>Perhaps you have a hard time with it because you didn't do your research?
No, just because the product I owned had 2002 features running on a 1980's network in a y2k package, IMHO.
8 Hours?
What are you installing from/to? 5.25" floppies and a 386? It should take no more than 2 hours (including build time), IMHO, to get a basic linux firewall/router box set up.
>I suppose you've never considered the difference between Flash and RAM technology?
No, as they're the same thing, with a different package.
Or at least Palm treats them the same, according to the co-worker that owns a clie.
What they meant is that a stricter compiler wouldn't allow (or would at least warn about) the use of any statement which doesn't work "naturally". Using a break might be OK, but it _shouldn't_ be the norm. IMHO, the C switch statement is broken in this regard -- however, there are times when it's "brokeness" comes in handy.
>it's the responsibility of every citizen to VOTE WITH THEIR DOLLARS.
So, what you're saying is the world should be run by an oligarchy of the rich who will be getting the most votes (ie: Dollars).
Interesting, but foolish.
Being hard to contact isn't fraudulent, but I believe it is a good indication of possible fraudulent behaviour. Sort of like when a store quits answering the phone all of a sudden for weeks on end... you get this feeling that something isn't right there. And, strangely enough, it's never failed for me.
And if paypal wants to be an internet only company, fine. They should act like it, though, and get the asses moving on the emails. An internet only company should have given him an answer in under 24 hours. If any internet only company takes more than 48 hours to get something done for me, I get antsy.
This guys been waiting weeks! I've seen letters cross the atlantic and pacific oceans faster than they respond to problems.
Saying "Don't like it? Take your business elsewhere." is a cop-out. I'm soon going to be running a computer company, and if it were broken into and a customers machine stolen, I wouldn't tell them "too bad, and don't bother talking to me again". I'd probably go to jail.
So, if I can't cop-out, why can PayPal? Because everyone "knows" they're a bunch of crooks? That's a pathetic excuse.
[ And yes, I do do my business elsewhere. I'd rather give the crack addict my money to look after than PayPal. At least I'd know where it ends up. ]
Breaking one random law does not mean you are a theif.
If you break the DMCA, you are in violation of the DMCA.
If you break copyright, you are in violation of copyright.
You are not stealing until the law/dictionary say so.
Neither say using something you bought in any way whatsoever (wether it is illegal or not) is stealing, unless you are committing fraud, which the DMCA, AFAIK, isn't all about.
Maybe if paypal acted good-hearted, and at least put up some easy contact info so you could get some help tracking down the scammers they wouldn't have such a hard time.
This is like putting your stuff in public storage, having the garage broken into, all your stuff stolen, only to find out they've replaced the attendant with an automated box and have chosen to leave you no way to contact a person.
It's despicable, and it stinks of fraud.
>But it doesn't work very well there, either. If you're looking at one of these things, pass it up. There's much better products out there than anything by RIM.
Totally. The only things that the RIM equipment has going for them (at least on their 950 model) were the thumbwheel and thumb keyboard. Past that, their OS _sucks_ and crashes all the time. And, whatever moron designed their wireless system might be a good system engineer, but was a complete dumbass businessman. Why does RIM think that a system where Rogers et al. have to charge $25 a month for 70 kilobytes of data transfer is going to be popular?
RIM hit market saturation the minute every CEO got one. IMHO, unless RIM comes out with some way to get their product to work on GPRS (or some other cheaper wireless system than their proprietary one) RIM has peaked, and once you've peaked, there's only one way to go: down.
Bye RIM. If only GSM had been more popular before I bought that $400 doorstop (hey, it's for sale if anyone is interested!).
You'd be lucky to set a magnesium computer case on fire.
Take a look at the punishment this NeXT cube took before it melted -- you'd probably have better luck with concrete.