i finally decided to take the risk and begin SP3 installation, and i decided to read the EULA in its entirety rather than just trusting the community's response to it.
* The OS Product or OS Components contain components that
enable and facilitate the use of certain Internet-based
services. You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may
automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its
components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades
or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically
downloaded to your computer.
the first sentence in this section seems to indicate that the software component is the channel used to transfer the ambiguous "updates" and "fixes". logically, the software component in question can be removed or disabled to prevent Microsoft's possible subversive measures. if the backdoor can't be disabled, then it is the only backdoor on my system that can be exploited. i'm not comfortable with that.
the section immediately following the above makes me almost laugh because i own 10 legal licenses for Windows 2000 Server (of which i have used 3 to my understanding of the term "licenses").
"DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, MICROSOFT AND ITS SUPPLIERS PROVIDE TO YOU THE OS COMPONENTS, AND ANY (IF ANY) SUPPORT SERVICES RELATED TO THE OS COMPONENTS ("SUPPORT SERVICES") AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS; AND MICROSOFT AND ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM WITH RESPECT TO THE OS COMPONENTS AND SUPPORT SERVICES ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY (IF ANY) WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF OR RELATED TO: TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, LACK OF VIRUSES, ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF RESPONSES, RESULTS, LACK OF NEGLIGENCE OR LACK OF WORKMANLIKE EFFORT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, AND CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THE OS COMPONENTS AND ANY SUPPORT SERVICES REMAINS WITH YOU."
this makes me cringe a little. it indicates to me that they are fully aware of all faults in the OS, and that they have not fixed them and they're just going to ship it to you that way. the government should instruct them to REMOVE this part. then we can rest easy knowing that they're responsible for every damn thing that happens. i'd love to see that.
the rest is more liability stuff that can be easily inferred, since it's in every EULA that i've read.
note that i've quoted this verbatum, and i feel a little more comfortable installing the servicepack. a little. it still upsets me that the first section i quoted makes the statement that is there. maybe some smart fellow (like a whitehat hacker maybe) finds a way to disable the "software component" mentioned in the EULA....?
I personally use NoteTab for just about everythnig from note-keeping to times when I need to look at several text documents at the same time. For web development, I quite love Macromedia's HomeSite, but since I can't afford to own a legal copy (shh... don't tell), EVRSoft's 1st Page 2000 is far from being a step down. It's free, it's fast, and it has similar features and feel as HomeSite. (But after kludging around with Cold Fusion, I will probably not go back to HomeSite. ColdFusion Studio still gives me nightmares.) Then for C/C++ development, I'm still looking for the right editor. I'm picking up Emacs on Linux, but for Windoze dev work, I need something with a filename other than MSDEV.EXE. I've come to hate that file with everything in me. But if you're a lazy coder like me, C++ Builder (or Kylix 3 in Linux) is definitely the way to go.
this is the last thing we want. a national religion is WHY WE ARE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. this country was founded to escape the persecution of the Church of England and the churches of other nations.
when a church is endorsed by the government, it's the end of the nation. that's what Jefferson was talking about when he mentioned a "separation of church and state" (which, BTW, it NOT IN ANY GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT, INCLUDING THE CONSTITUTION.)
the problem with abolishing the pledge will lead to the abolition of anything that includes the same concept of the country being under God. the declaration of independednce says "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights", and as you mentioned, money says "in God we Trust." it says that in the entrance to the Senate Assembly hall, too. the top of the Washington monument says "Praise the Lord!" many important documents relevant to the foundation of the government would be rendered unconstitutional, such as the Gettysberg Address, among other things. court oaths would be changed: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help you God?" many government proceedings which are opened with prayer would be restructured. the circuit courts which open with "God help this honorable court" or something like that would change their proceedings.
this is a hell of a lot deeper than anyone here seems to realize. Judeo-Christian faith is the basis which the government was built on. it is the history on which the nation was founded. you can't simply strike it out. i don't think they'd let you.
you yourself are programmed by atheist ideas, just as Christian children are programmed by Christian ideas, evolutionist students are programmed with evolutionist ideas. programming is the basis of the propogation of any idea. you name it.
the government doesn't advocate the Judeo-Christian beliefs that it was founded on. it opens a door (one which can not be closed) for people of any religion to follow their own convictions, including Atheists.
follow the advice of the Atheists yourself: "keep your beliefs to yourself and leave me alone!" (a statement i have heard more times than i'd like.) what you call for is the abolishment of a statement which enstills patriotism in the people who recite it daily; a patriotism that caused us to bring forward the WTC flag at the Winter Games at SLC2k2. that which you want to abolish is that which makes this country the country it is.
Turkey is predominantly Islamic. muslims run the country. they're not suppressing the IFNs you refer to, but the Christians both within and without the country. to keep their children "unpolluted." just like in china. and any other country that enforces strict censorships like this.
and if you think i haven't done the homework, wake up and smell the cheese. i'm probably more right than you want to admit.
the bill of rights was written by Christians, and all of the founding fathers professed to be Christian. the first amendment says "Congress shall make no law" infringing on the rights of religion, speech and press. note the use of the word "religion", not "Christianity" or "Catholicism" or somesuch thing. it's a Christian-created governmental system and seems QUITE non-denominational.
I've never seen a mouse half as cool as this. Admittedly, the feedback functionality is Windoze-only, but it was built into Tribes 2 and Black&White when they were released. IIRC, there's a patch for HalfLife, CS, and others that adds the feedback to them.
And believe me, feeling your mortar cannon's kick every time you shoot will forever spoil you.
Administrator on Win2k and WinXP are very different from root on a *nix. Win2k and WinXP both treat Administrator as a normal user, but this normal user has certain permissions that allow them to install/remove any software, read/write any file, or even delete a system file (which Windoze quickly replaces with a fresh copy). AFAIK, Administrator doesn't pose any serious security problems unless your computer is one accessed by more than one user - like a spouse or children. create an account for each and stay logged out when away from the computer.
my only recommendation is MAKE SURE IIS IS NOT INSTALLED. script kiddies and horny teens can gain Administrator access without a password. (unless you're insane and actually want to USE it.)
it's true that most of the technology we have has military roots. the first real computers were built to crack the german's Enigma. the first network was created to share research of all kinds, including weapons development. the first weapon was solely used to commit the first murder.
if we were to take your argument at face value, then you're telling us to go back to the damn stone age.
you don't SOUND done. your arguments are moot. the entire planet (aside from the more sensible Canucks) see the US as the most powerful nation on earth. they're shit-scared of us. the leaders of every damn nation on earth is shaking right now, but they won't admit it. the only ones that aren't shaking probably are the mexicans (because they get so much free money) and Canucks (because they're cool) and the Japanese (bcause they make cool geek gear).
and i don't know if you noticed, but all US military hardware is built in the US. the ONLY reason Intel, AMD, and a hundred other manufacturers make their stuff abroad is because they get cheap (read: slave) labor. read the "made in" label on Intel chips. they've been made in the south pacific for YEARS. RedHat isn't chinese or communist. the chinese distro is.
uhm, wake up and smell the cheese. the TNT2 is ancient. the V3 was a full generation ahead of the TNT2. it'd be a little more intelligent to compare it to a card from the same generation like the Voodoo^2 or something.
the TNT2 is OUT. the Voodoo^3 is OUT. look at where nVidia is NOW, not where they were 3 years ago (which is about how old my "cutting edge" voodoo^2 is).
as i see it, there is no "battle." the performance lines are clearly drawn. the latest generation video chips from ATI and nVidia show that.
i'm rather partial to the 3DLabs Oxygen myself, though i am an nVidia user.
on Mandrake Linux 8.1 with the latest WINE compiles, Starcraft runs VERY slow and VERY choppy. sound is easily fixed by using the native dsound.dll from DirectX 7 or 8, but the video is still painfully slow.
i would expect Starcraft would run slow on most WINE configurations, but i'm still experimenting with WINE on my machine. i haven't found very many games working, much less playing properly. (though i have gotten The Playa to play video - without sound - rather smoothly...)
with the latest drivers, linux is 10 times as stable as windows on my machine. (i think this has something to do with my AGP controller, but i have yet to confirm this.)
i'm thinking of trying to do performance modifications to the drivers and see if i can get a higher framerate in Blender than i should.... o_O
their drivers are distributed in source form (.tar.gz and.src.rpm) as well as binary form for various distros. IIRC, there aren't any binary files in the source packages, but i might have overlooked a.o file somewhere. for the most part, the source is "open", just not "open-source".
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# 531-byte qrpff-fast, Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz
# MPEG 2 PS VOB file on stdin -> descrambled output on stdout
# arguments: title key bytes in least to most-significant order
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;$ t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=(
$m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])$t^ =(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16
-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);if ((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h
=5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--$ h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$
d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])>8^($f=$t&($d&g t;>12^$d>>4^
$d^$d/8))>8^($t&($g=($q=$e>>14&7^$e)^$q*8 ^$q
(($h>>=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print +x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval
beyond that, this month's issue of Wired magazine (in the Infoporn section, of course), proudly displays a map of the continental US showing the locations of major Wi-Fi networks.
unfortunately, it fails to show the WAN that a local ISP just rolled out. last i checked, it was doing quite well.... and this is way out in the desert boonies in southern Idaho!
Electronics Now (more recently named Poptronics) published a cover article on this very subject. It's in the September '97 issue. I'm quite certain you could find it at any library that carries magazines - our local public library doesn't destroy magazines until they're 5 years old, so you might be in luck if your public library has a similar policy.
The project is a very simple one. Microphones are mounted (with epoxy?) on the outside of the headphones, and their cable runs down along with the headphone cable. The control box has a phase adjustment knob that allows you to adjust for the distance between the microphone and speaker elements for maximum effectiveness.
I haven't built the project myself, but if you have enough of an interest in electronics, you can build it yourself quite easily with parts from the local Radio Shack.
by the way, during a discussion with one Qwest tech support operator, she specifically said, "OK, here's your username and password. and if you call again, don't let ANY of them tell you you're on MSN. you're not. you're on Qwest.net."
i've subscribed to Qwest DSL, and though a hellish argument with Qwest employees, i managed to get Qwest.net access, and to my knowledge, i will not be switched to MSN. this is, of course, due to the fact that i'll be using "every OS under the sun" as i put it 3 months ago (which was over a month before i finally got access).
it appears that MSN internet access is only "available" to Windoze users. i guess their service is "incompatible" with other OSes. were it not for good Mr. Torvalds, i would still be enslaved under Mr. Gates' tyrranical rule.
beleive me, i'll be switching to our local power company's ISP the minute Qwest gives me any lip. i'll do so after giving several Qwest employees a thorough verbal pounding.
i'm not entirely familiar with the specifics, but i know you can't get the 25-mile range out of the 5.7 GHz band like you can out of the 2.4 GHz band. the speed difference is phenomenal though - 54-75mbps as opposed to 11mbps. some hardware i saw released recently (it was posted on/., but i don't have the URL off-hand) allows for a little over 100mbps in "turbo mode".
i work at a small ISP in Idaho, where we're currently rolling out a wireless network with Lucent Orinoco and Avaya hardware, and we have a huge problem with the old trees in some of these neighborhoods. i expect this problem would be worse with the higher wireless bands. we're waiting for Wi-LAN to release their 3.5 GHz wireless hardware in the US, as we'd love to roll that out.
personally, i would suggest using 802.11b hardware and wait for the 3.5GHz hardware. but that's the opinion of a sysadmin's useless assistant. ^_^
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i finally decided to take the risk and begin SP3 installation, and i decided to read the EULA in its entirety rather than just trusting the community's response to it.
* The OS Product or OS Components contain components that
enable and facilitate the use of certain Internet-based
services. You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may
automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its
components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades
or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically
downloaded to your computer.
the first sentence in this section seems to indicate that the software component is the channel used to transfer the ambiguous "updates" and "fixes". logically, the software component in question can be removed or disabled to prevent Microsoft's possible subversive measures. if the backdoor can't be disabled, then it is the only backdoor on my system that can be exploited. i'm not comfortable with that.
the section immediately following the above makes me almost laugh because i own 10 legal licenses for Windows 2000 Server (of which i have used 3 to my understanding of the term "licenses").
"DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. TO THE MAXIMUM
EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, MICROSOFT
AND ITS SUPPLIERS PROVIDE TO YOU THE OS
COMPONENTS, AND ANY (IF ANY) SUPPORT SERVICES
RELATED TO THE OS COMPONENTS ("SUPPORT
SERVICES") AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS; AND
MICROSOFT AND ITS SUPPLIERS HEREBY DISCLAIM
WITH RESPECT TO THE OS COMPONENTS AND
SUPPORT SERVICES ALL WARRANTIES AND
CONDITIONS, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR
STATUTORY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
ANY (IF ANY) WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF OR
RELATED TO: TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT,
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE, LACK OF VIRUSES, ACCURACY OR
COMPLETENESS OF RESPONSES, RESULTS, LACK OF
NEGLIGENCE OR LACK OF WORKMANLIKE EFFORT,
QUIET ENJOYMENT, QUIET POSSESSION, AND
CORRESPONDENCE TO DESCRIPTION. THE ENTIRE
RISK ARISING OUT OF USE OR PERFORMANCE OF
THE OS COMPONENTS AND ANY SUPPORT SERVICES
REMAINS WITH YOU."
this makes me cringe a little. it indicates to me that they are fully aware of all faults in the OS, and that they have not fixed them and they're just going to ship it to you that way. the government should instruct them to REMOVE this part. then we can rest easy knowing that they're responsible for every damn thing that happens. i'd love to see that.
the rest is more liability stuff that can be easily inferred, since it's in every EULA that i've read.
note that i've quoted this verbatum, and i feel a little more comfortable installing the servicepack. a little. it still upsets me that the first section i quoted makes the statement that is there. maybe some smart fellow (like a whitehat hacker maybe) finds a way to disable the "software component" mentioned in the EULA....?
i want to play my DOS games. they're still on floppies.
:(
but sonce my floppy drive failed, i haven't so much as looked at them.
I personally use NoteTab for just about everythnig from note-keeping to times when I need to look at several text documents at the same time. For web development, I quite love Macromedia's HomeSite, but since I can't afford to own a legal copy (shh... don't tell), EVRSoft's 1st Page 2000 is far from being a step down. It's free, it's fast, and it has similar features and feel as HomeSite. (But after kludging around with Cold Fusion, I will probably not go back to HomeSite. ColdFusion Studio still gives me nightmares.) Then for C/C++ development, I'm still looking for the right editor. I'm picking up Emacs on Linux, but for Windoze dev work, I need something with a filename other than MSDEV.EXE. I've come to hate that file with everything in me. But if you're a lazy coder like me, C++ Builder (or Kylix 3 in Linux) is definitely the way to go.
this is the last thing we want. a national religion is WHY WE ARE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE. this country was founded to escape the persecution of the Church of England and the churches of other nations.
when a church is endorsed by the government, it's the end of the nation. that's what Jefferson was talking about when he mentioned a "separation of church and state" (which, BTW, it NOT IN ANY GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT, INCLUDING THE CONSTITUTION.)
the problem with abolishing the pledge will lead to the abolition of anything that includes the same concept of the country being under God. the declaration of independednce says "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights", and as you mentioned, money says "in God we Trust." it says that in the entrance to the Senate Assembly hall, too. the top of the Washington monument says "Praise the Lord!" many important documents relevant to the foundation of the government would be rendered unconstitutional, such as the Gettysberg Address, among other things. court oaths would be changed: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help you God?" many government proceedings which are opened with prayer would be restructured. the circuit courts which open with "God help this honorable court" or something like that would change their proceedings.
this is a hell of a lot deeper than anyone here seems to realize. Judeo-Christian faith is the basis which the government was built on. it is the history on which the nation was founded. you can't simply strike it out. i don't think they'd let you.
you yourself are programmed by atheist ideas, just as Christian children are programmed by Christian ideas, evolutionist students are programmed with evolutionist ideas. programming is the basis of the propogation of any idea. you name it.
the government doesn't advocate the Judeo-Christian beliefs that it was founded on. it opens a door (one which can not be closed) for people of any religion to follow their own convictions, including Atheists.
follow the advice of the Atheists yourself: "keep your beliefs to yourself and leave me alone!" (a statement i have heard more times than i'd like.) what you call for is the abolishment of a statement which enstills patriotism in the people who recite it daily; a patriotism that caused us to bring forward the WTC flag at the Winter Games at SLC2k2. that which you want to abolish is that which makes this country the country it is.
i'd grab my handy-dandy C-64 programmer's manual and study the schematic diagram (big thing it is).
now where did i put that damn thing?
Turkey is predominantly Islamic. muslims run the country. they're not suppressing the IFNs you refer to, but the Christians both within and without the country. to keep their children "unpolluted." just like in china. and any other country that enforces strict censorships like this.
and if you think i haven't done the homework, wake up and smell the cheese. i'm probably more right than you want to admit.
the bill of rights was written by Christians, and all of the founding fathers professed to be Christian. the first amendment says "Congress shall make no law" infringing on the rights of religion, speech and press. note the use of the word "religion", not "Christianity" or "Catholicism" or somesuch thing. it's a Christian-created governmental system and seems QUITE non-denominational.
I've never seen a mouse half as cool as this. Admittedly, the feedback functionality is Windoze-only, but it was built into Tribes 2 and Black&White when they were released. IIRC, there's a patch for HalfLife, CS, and others that adds the feedback to them.
And believe me, feeling your mortar cannon's kick every time you shoot will forever spoil you.
Administrator on Win2k and WinXP are very different from root on a *nix. Win2k and WinXP both treat Administrator as a normal user, but this normal user has certain permissions that allow them to install/remove any software, read/write any file, or even delete a system file (which Windoze quickly replaces with a fresh copy). AFAIK, Administrator doesn't pose any serious security problems unless your computer is one accessed by more than one user - like a spouse or children. create an account for each and stay logged out when away from the computer.
my only recommendation is MAKE SURE IIS IS NOT INSTALLED. script kiddies and horny teens can gain Administrator access without a password. (unless you're insane and actually want to USE it.)
it's true that most of the technology we have has military roots. the first real computers were built to crack the german's Enigma. the first network was created to share research of all kinds, including weapons development. the first weapon was solely used to commit the first murder.
if we were to take your argument at face value, then you're telling us to go back to the damn stone age.
go back to your hole.
you don't SOUND done. your arguments are moot. the entire planet (aside from the more sensible Canucks) see the US as the most powerful nation on earth. they're shit-scared of us. the leaders of every damn nation on earth is shaking right now, but they won't admit it. the only ones that aren't shaking probably are the mexicans (because they get so much free money) and Canucks (because they're cool) and the Japanese (bcause they make cool geek gear).
and i don't know if you noticed, but all US military hardware is built in the US. the ONLY reason Intel, AMD, and a hundred other manufacturers make their stuff abroad is because they get cheap (read: slave) labor. read the "made in" label on Intel chips. they've been made in the south pacific for YEARS. RedHat isn't chinese or communist. the chinese distro is.
frankly, you're just a trolling flamebait.
uhm, wake up and smell the cheese. the TNT2 is ancient. the V3 was a full generation ahead of the TNT2. it'd be a little more intelligent to compare it to a card from the same generation like the Voodoo^2 or something.
the TNT2 is OUT. the Voodoo^3 is OUT. look at where nVidia is NOW, not where they were 3 years ago (which is about how old my "cutting edge" voodoo^2 is).
as i see it, there is no "battle." the performance lines are clearly drawn. the latest generation video chips from ATI and nVidia show that.
i'm rather partial to the 3DLabs Oxygen myself, though i am an nVidia user.
oh, BTW, this is on a K6-3 450 with a GeForce 2 GTS and the latest nVidia drivers
on Mandrake Linux 8.1 with the latest WINE compiles, Starcraft runs VERY slow and VERY choppy. sound is easily fixed by using the native dsound.dll from DirectX 7 or 8, but the video is still painfully slow.
i would expect Starcraft would run slow on most WINE configurations, but i'm still experimenting with WINE on my machine. i haven't found very many games working, much less playing properly. (though i have gotten The Playa to play video - without sound - rather smoothly...)
with the latest drivers, linux is 10 times as stable as windows on my machine. (i think this has something to do with my AGP controller, but i have yet to confirm this.)
i'm thinking of trying to do performance modifications to the drivers and see if i can get a higher framerate in Blender than i should.... o_O
their drivers are distributed in source form (.tar.gz and .src.rpm) as well as binary form for various distros. IIRC, there aren't any binary files in the source packages, but i might have overlooked a .o file somewhere. for the most part, the source is "open", just not "open-source".
this was posted some months ago:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w$ t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=(f ((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h$ h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$
# 531-byte qrpff-fast, Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz
# MPEG 2 PS VOB file on stdin -> descrambled output on stdout
# arguments: title key bytes in least to most-significant order
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;
$m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])$t^ =(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16
-2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);i
=5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--
d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])>8^($f=$t&($d&g t;>12^$d>>4^
$d^$d/8))>8^($t&($g=($q=$e>>14&7^$e)^$q*8 ^$q (($h>>=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print +x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval
oooo, hey, a hand-held Nintendo 64!
beyond that, this month's issue of Wired magazine (in the Infoporn section, of course), proudly displays a map of the continental US showing the locations of major Wi-Fi networks.
unfortunately, it fails to show the WAN that a local ISP just rolled out. last i checked, it was doing quite well.... and this is way out in the desert boonies in southern Idaho!
Electronics Now (more recently named Poptronics) published a cover article on this very subject. It's in the September '97 issue. I'm quite certain you could find it at any library that carries magazines - our local public library doesn't destroy magazines until they're 5 years old, so you might be in luck if your public library has a similar policy.
The project is a very simple one. Microphones are mounted (with epoxy?) on the outside of the headphones, and their cable runs down along with the headphone cable. The control box has a phase adjustment knob that allows you to adjust for the distance between the microphone and speaker elements for maximum effectiveness.
I haven't built the project myself, but if you have enough of an interest in electronics, you can build it yourself quite easily with parts from the local Radio Shack.
by the way, during a discussion with one Qwest tech support operator, she specifically said, "OK, here's your username and password. and if you call again, don't let ANY of them tell you you're on MSN. you're not. you're on Qwest.net."
that sounded pretty final.
i've subscribed to Qwest DSL, and though a hellish argument with Qwest employees, i managed to get Qwest.net access, and to my knowledge, i will not be switched to MSN. this is, of course, due to the fact that i'll be using "every OS under the sun" as i put it 3 months ago (which was over a month before i finally got access).
it appears that MSN internet access is only "available" to Windoze users. i guess their service is "incompatible" with other OSes. were it not for good Mr. Torvalds, i would still be enslaved under Mr. Gates' tyrranical rule.
beleive me, i'll be switching to our local power company's ISP the minute Qwest gives me any lip. i'll do so after giving several Qwest employees a thorough verbal pounding.
i'm not entirely familiar with the specifics, but i know you can't get the 25-mile range out of the 5.7 GHz band like you can out of the 2.4 GHz band. the speed difference is phenomenal though - 54-75mbps as opposed to 11mbps. some hardware i saw released recently (it was posted on /., but i don't have the URL off-hand) allows for a little over 100mbps in "turbo mode".
i work at a small ISP in Idaho, where we're currently rolling out a wireless network with Lucent Orinoco and Avaya hardware, and we have a huge problem with the old trees in some of these neighborhoods. i expect this problem would be worse with the higher wireless bands. we're waiting for Wi-LAN to release their 3.5 GHz wireless hardware in the US, as we'd love to roll that out.
personally, i would suggest using 802.11b hardware and wait for the 3.5GHz hardware. but that's the opinion of a sysadmin's useless assistant. ^_^