I agree completely. Maybe this is where government should step in to protect people from their own stupidity. All that stuff for a bit of coffee is insane!
I'm using something called FREESCO (http://www.freesco.org/) It's linux with a firewall and many other features that runs off a floppy. I cobbled together some old parts to make a system to run it on and it works very well. Configuring the firewall is a command-line pain, but otherwise it's good. The support in their forums is excellent.
I prefer my H120, but PC Pro preferred the H320: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co .uk/rev iews/reviews_story.php?id=61885&searchString=h320+ h320
Forget about getting tech support from Gyration
on
Gyroscopic Wireless Mouse
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I tried to contact Gyration for support with my Ultra GT mouse. Their web-based live chat was never available during the hours they claim. I e-mailed them twice, but they ignored me. I called, was unable to reach a person, left a message. They ignored me. Finally I e-mailed them via the web chat link. After a few days I did receive a reply.
If you have a system that doesn't load your supply too heavily I highly recommend what I've done to mine.
System specs: I have a nice Enermax Whisper 350 Watt supply. Very large full tower case. Celeron 1.2 @ 1.3 GHz CPU. Only one hard drive and no fancy 3D graphics card.
I removed the two fans from the supply, as well as the top cover. I then mounted the supply on the back of my case outside. It is oriented so that the supply's heat sinks get as much convective cooling as possible. This works very well indeed. The supply doesn't get too warm. It's totally silent since there are no fans. I think it would be possible to do this with a somewhat more powerful system without the supply needing active cooling. Worst case you could mount a Panaflo 80 mm fan slowed down with some resistors to the supply to cool it.
Drawbacks: - you have to watch out where you put your fingers so you don't electrocute yourself. The paranoid may want to cover the supply with some sort of mesh. - if your supply has short power cables you might need extensions. - you won't have the supply's fan(s) drawing air through your case, so you may need to add a case fan. Instead I recommend using the CPU fan for that purpose by attaching a duct to it. In my case the duct goes to the large hole at the back of the case where the supply used to be.
Back in 2000 Michael Dell called PC users who tinker with their systems a "lunatic fringe." Now this. I'm having second thoughts about continuing to recommend Dell laptops to my clients.
Summarized from an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, 07/04/2003 p. 188: The utility company MVV Energie AG along with a company called Power Plus Communications AG have been offering power line internet access to their customers in Mannheim, Germany. They claim it is up to 15 times faster than ISDN. Only 3600 customers have been signed up so far, but they claim to be expanding to 5 new cities this year. The technology they're using is by an Israeli company called Mainnet. It uses spread spectrum transmission to overcome interference from appliances on the line. The system seems to work well, but it is interfereing with radio signals. They're having difficulty meeting German and European limits on interference. The original article is available in German here.
I remember reading about this years ago in PC Magazine. A company, whose name I can't remember, at the time offered the following service/product: You sent them your laptop. They removed the polarizing layer of the LCD. They ship the laptop back with some polarizing glasses. I think the price was a few hundred dollars.
I agree completely. I was about to write the same thing. Back to the product in question; what's the point of trying to imitate an analog task with a digital imitation? It will never sound the same!
If I was in the US I'd be quite happy with PayPal. Unfortunately they think it's OK to screw those of us outside the US.
What do they do?
When I BUY something and fund my PayPal payment with my credit card they screw me by adding extra fees simply because I'm not in the US. Their site conveniently neglects to mention the amount of these fees. For my last four transactions they varied from 2.86 to 5.6%. This means they're charging the seller AND the buyer when I buy something.
When I make purchases in the US directly with my Canadian credit cards I am never charged any fees. Only PayPal adds a substantial fee when I make payments funded by my credit card. Since they don't allow electronic transfers to my account I have no choice but to use my credit card.
When I SELL something and subsequently transfer the money to my checking account they screw me by calculating with an exchange rate very much in their favour.
Lastly, they make me look bad by refusing to give me "verified" status even though I've registered my credit card and checking account with them, and have successfully completed a bunch of transactions.
Most of my transactions are eBay auctions, so I'd love to use eBay's Billpoint instead, but for some reason very few people are signed up for the service. This leaves me with no option other than PayPal as I want to avoid the hassle of money orders and cheques.
I'm baffled by what's happening to broadband ISPs in the US. I'm not sure about the rest of Canada, but here in Montreal most households have a choice of broadband providers and I haven't heard of any of them having financial trouble - even though our rates are roughly half of those in the US!
Cable access is available from the local cable TV monopoly for US$19 / month if you buy the modem for US$100. DSL is available from the phone company for US$26 / month, and for roughly the cost of cable from two competitors. Service quality and uptime is quite good.
I'd like someone to explain to me why US companies are going bankrupt when they're offering the same services for more than twice as much money.
I've been following the situation in Germany a little bit. DSL there is a bit more expensive than in the US, but available from the phone company and several competitors. I don't think those companies are making much money, but they're not about to fold either.
I think that if Mr. Cringely is correct, the US will fall behind as the rest of the developed world switches to broadband...
Slashdot Mirror
I agree completely. Maybe this is where government should step in to protect people from their own stupidity. All that stuff for a bit of coffee is insane!
I'm using something called FREESCO (http://www.freesco.org/)
It's linux with a firewall and many other features that runs off a floppy. I cobbled together some old parts to make a system to run it on and it works very well. Configuring the firewall is a command-line pain, but otherwise it's good. The support in their forums is excellent.
These guys should learn how to properly test PSs from X-bit labs http://www.xbitlabs.com./
Patent this idea and get rich selling licenses!
I haven't read the article in question, but it's obvious what the author appears to claim won't happen. So don't worry - be happy.
Forte Free Agent, a free and excellent news reader http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php
d ucts/sku_list_za.jsp;jsessionid=BQnRnRFFu7vlwK9sR9 zM3ydKxKZB7qdA2NEZ1dOyQNX1I20o5O2I!138179110!-1062 696904!7551!7552!-2058358518!-1062696905!7551!7552
r toys/xppowertoys.mspx
ZoneAlarm is an excellent free firewall, but it does seem to nag more than before http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/catalog/pro
The Microsoft PowerToys are free add-ons for Windows, some of which are very useful http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powe
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is one of the best CD rippers, and free http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
DVDINFOPro is freeware that gives information about CD and DVD media http://www.dvdinfopro.com/
StrokeIt lets you use mouse gestures in any program http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
I prefer my H120, but PC Pro preferred the H320:o .uk/rev iews/reviews_story.php?id=61885&searchString=h320+ h320
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.c
I tried to contact Gyration for support with my Ultra GT mouse. Their web-based live chat was never available during the hours they claim. I e-mailed them twice, but they ignored me. I called, was unable to reach a person, left a message. They ignored me. Finally I e-mailed them via the web chat link. After a few days I did receive a reply.
If you have a system that doesn't load your supply too heavily I highly recommend what I've done to mine.
System specs: I have a nice Enermax Whisper 350 Watt supply. Very large full tower case. Celeron 1.2 @ 1.3 GHz CPU. Only one hard drive and no fancy 3D graphics card.
I removed the two fans from the supply, as well as the top cover. I then mounted the supply on the back of my case outside. It is oriented so that the supply's heat sinks get as much convective cooling as possible.
This works very well indeed. The supply doesn't get too warm. It's totally silent since there are no fans. I think it would be possible to do this with a somewhat more powerful system without the supply needing active cooling. Worst case you could mount a Panaflo 80 mm fan slowed down with some resistors to the supply to cool it.
Drawbacks:
- you have to watch out where you put your fingers so you don't electrocute yourself. The paranoid may want to cover the supply with some sort of mesh.
- if your supply has short power cables you might need extensions.
- you won't have the supply's fan(s) drawing air through your case, so you may need to add a case fan. Instead I recommend using the CPU fan for that purpose by attaching a duct to it. In my case the duct goes to the large hole at the back of the case where the supply used to be.
Have you tried Crazy Glue? :)
Back in 2000 Michael Dell called PC users who tinker with their systems a "lunatic fringe." Now this. I'm having second thoughts about continuing to recommend Dell laptops to my clients.
Summarized from an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, 07/04/2003 p. 188:
The utility company MVV Energie AG along with a company called Power Plus Communications AG have been offering power line internet access to their customers in Mannheim, Germany. They claim it is up to 15 times faster than ISDN. Only 3600 customers have been signed up so far, but they claim to be expanding to 5 new cities this year. The technology they're using is by an Israeli company called Mainnet. It uses spread spectrum transmission to overcome interference from appliances on the line. The system seems to work well, but it is interfereing with radio signals. They're having difficulty meeting German and European limits on interference.
The original article is available in German here.
I remember reading about this years ago in PC Magazine. A company, whose name I can't remember, at the time offered the following service/product: You sent them your laptop. They removed the polarizing layer of the LCD. They ship the laptop back with some polarizing glasses. I think the price was a few hundred dollars.
I agree completely. I was about to write the same thing.
Back to the product in question; what's the point of trying to imitate an analog task with a digital imitation? It will never sound the same!
If I was in the US I'd be quite happy with PayPal. Unfortunately they think it's OK to screw those of us outside the US.
What do they do?
When I BUY something and fund my PayPal payment with my credit card they screw me by adding extra fees simply because I'm not in the US. Their site conveniently neglects to mention the amount of these fees. For my last four transactions they varied from 2.86 to 5.6%. This means they're charging the seller AND the buyer when I buy something.
When I make purchases in the US directly with my Canadian credit cards I am never charged any fees. Only PayPal adds a substantial fee when I make payments funded by my credit card. Since they don't allow electronic transfers to my account I have no choice but to use my credit card.
When I SELL something and subsequently transfer the money to my checking account they screw me by calculating with an exchange rate very much in their favour.
Lastly, they make me look bad by refusing to give me "verified" status even though I've registered my credit card and checking account with them, and have successfully completed a bunch of transactions.
Most of my transactions are eBay auctions, so I'd love to use eBay's Billpoint instead, but for some reason very few people are signed up for the service. This leaves me with no option other than PayPal as I want to avoid the hassle of money orders and cheques.
I'm baffled by what's happening to broadband ISPs in the US. I'm not sure about the rest of Canada, but here in Montreal most households have a choice of broadband providers and I haven't heard of any of them having financial trouble - even though our rates are roughly half of those in the US!
Cable access is available from the local cable TV monopoly for US$19 / month if you buy the modem for US$100. DSL is available from the phone company for US$26 / month, and for roughly the cost of cable from two competitors. Service quality and uptime is quite good.
I'd like someone to explain to me why US companies are going bankrupt when they're offering the same services for more than twice as much money.
I've been following the situation in Germany a little bit. DSL there is a bit more expensive than in the US, but available from the phone company and several competitors. I don't think those companies are making much money, but they're not about to fold either.
I think that if Mr. Cringely is correct, the US will fall behind as the rest of the developed world switches to broadband...