I work for a cable company, supporting the cable modem/internet service. Adware and its cousin spyware is the number one issue in the calls I take.
My record so far? 1325 items detected by Ad-Aware. That's one thousand, three hundred twenty five, just to avoid confusion that there might have been a typo. I've also had several cases topping 900.
Each of these extreme cases has one thing in common as well - a pop-up blocker. Seriously, folks... pop-up blockers are NOT the answer. They are the peril-senstive sunglasses of the internet. They hide the real problem, lulling you into a false sense of security, while the real problems slowly build up behind those dark lenses, until they smacka you in the face.
I've bought about 50 broken pdas over the past few months, and restored many of them. Guess what? Probably 75% are m100 or m105. It's easy to see why, too - about 75% of the broken PDAs sold on the various auction sites are of this product line.
About 2/3 of those, the digitizer is RIP, the remainder the motherboard is shot.
I don't recommend these models.
I've worked on a few Palm Vxs, and they seem much more rugged. Of those, one digitizer was cracked, one motherboard was not functioning quite right (no backlight or contrast controls). The majority of the problems I've seen with this model is jammed buttons.
You can pick up a Vx online for about $20 more than the m105. It's thinner, slightly larger screen, same memory, internal, rechargeable battery, and more durable. For the price difference, it's an amazing device.
I have had an m500 since January, and have had no trouble at all. I found that 8 megs was more than enough for me, but I still like the thought of the SD expansion slot. I'm sure I could have survived with a Vx though! The friend who turned me on to these uses an m505, and has had no complaints about that model; I saw a number of negative comments about the screen, etc., when I went shopping though, so I steered toward the mono screens.
One thing I will recommend, regardless of the model, is a good case. The m500 is slim enough that the wallet cases are a good option, and the leather serves to absorb the impact when it gets dropped (which I've done two or three times so far, and with no damage). I'm a bit more nervous about the hard cases, but they look pretty spiff.
What really gets is that line sharing has been available for some time now (last summer, if I remember, was the deadline for LECs to provide support), using DMT tech. Covad and Rhythms both, so far as I know, have agreements with the LECs for zero-cost usage of the wire. Hence, no new loop need be ordered (and thus paid for). No tech need be dispatched (and therefore paid) to the customer to hook up wiring in the home. The customer need only plug a few filters in around his phones, and plug the DSL modem into the phone line and NIC, and go.
I know Rhythms has been doing this for some time, and Covad's announcement a day or two back about self-install kits amounts to the exact same thing.
It takes a lot of the expense out of delivering DSL. Why isn't it being used more? Hell, why isn't it being used exclusively, for any customer that qualifies?
MB
Slashdot Mirror
Pink tender morsel
stuffed inside a little box
What the hell are you?
I work for a cable company, supporting the cable modem/internet service. Adware and its cousin spyware is the number one issue in the calls I take.
My record so far? 1325 items detected by Ad-Aware. That's one thousand, three hundred twenty five, just to avoid confusion that there might have been a typo. I've also had several cases topping 900.
Each of these extreme cases has one thing in common as well - a pop-up blocker. Seriously, folks... pop-up blockers are NOT the answer. They are the peril-senstive sunglasses of the internet. They hide the real problem, lulling you into a false sense of security, while the real problems slowly build up behind those dark lenses, until they smacka you in the face.
I've bought about 50 broken pdas over the past few months, and restored many of them. Guess what? Probably 75% are m100 or m105. It's easy to see why, too - about 75% of the broken PDAs sold on the various auction sites are of this product line.
About 2/3 of those, the digitizer is RIP, the remainder the motherboard is shot.
I don't recommend these models.
I've worked on a few Palm Vxs, and they seem much more rugged. Of those, one digitizer was cracked, one motherboard was not functioning quite right (no backlight or contrast controls). The majority of the problems I've seen with this model is jammed buttons.
You can pick up a Vx online for about $20 more than the m105. It's thinner, slightly larger screen, same memory, internal, rechargeable battery, and more durable. For the price difference, it's an amazing device.
I have had an m500 since January, and have had no trouble at all. I found that 8 megs was more than enough for me, but I still like the thought of the SD expansion slot. I'm sure I could have survived with a Vx though! The friend who turned me on to these uses an m505, and has had no complaints about that model; I saw a number of negative comments about the screen, etc., when I went shopping though, so I steered toward the mono screens.
One thing I will recommend, regardless of the model, is a good case. The m500 is slim enough that the wallet cases are a good option, and the leather serves to absorb the impact when it gets dropped (which I've done two or three times so far, and with no damage). I'm a bit more nervous about the hard cases, but they look pretty spiff.
MB
What really gets is that line sharing has been available for some time now (last summer, if I remember, was the deadline for LECs to provide support), using DMT tech. Covad and Rhythms both, so far as I know, have agreements with the LECs for zero-cost usage of the wire. Hence, no new loop need be ordered (and thus paid for). No tech need be dispatched (and therefore paid) to the customer to hook up wiring in the home. The customer need only plug a few filters in around his phones, and plug the DSL modem into the phone line and NIC, and go. I know Rhythms has been doing this for some time, and Covad's announcement a day or two back about self-install kits amounts to the exact same thing. It takes a lot of the expense out of delivering DSL. Why isn't it being used more? Hell, why isn't it being used exclusively, for any customer that qualifies? MB