I've been down this thought path. Before I get into it (In the end you realize its not worth it) - let me make two suggestions:
1) Toshiba Libretto - these puppies range from p75|133's with 32mb ram to something more decent (300ish?) - the lowest two models are the tiniest damn things you ever did see. Only quip you might have with these is small keyboard, and only 640x480 resolution.
2) Sony Picturebook (PCG-C1[X,XS,etc.]) - this ranges from pmmx 266+64|128mb ram to crusoe 667(?)+64|192mb ram. Their screens are BEAUTIFUL (1024x480 though), the video performance is good.
In case you can't tell - I have owned the lowest two models of both of these lines. I still own the picturebook, and use it daily at work. Its portability and performance are only matched by its successors. The libretto I passed on to my brother when I got the vaio, and he brought it backpacking around europe with him so he could offload and resize his pictures then upload them to a website.
--- that said ---
The only real solution for building your own laptop - unless you're going all out 100% your own hardware (insane lengthy expensive) is to go PC104/PC104Plus/Proprietary embedded systems. The advantage is you may make it so you can actually upgrade - but it sounds to me like you're looking for a keeper, and it doesn't need to be powerful. The other problems you will run into is video performance isn't a neccessity in the embedded area - so forget amazing performance. Additionally, you will have a field day connecting to an LCD and once you do you'll find you can't find an OEM LCD as nice as the ones you see in big-name laptops. It's a wonderful thought, but I suggest going with the libretto for max portability (very small dock thing gives parallel+serial for those null modems), or vaio for something with some screen real estate while holding the portability.
It's obvious to me - and maybe it's been said but not properly moderated. The compatibility is of a physical nature. That is to say, the unit will fit into a wallet made for the palm IIIxe, or a belt clip for the palm IIIxe, etc.
Being an owner of a palm IIIxe, and spending much too long searching for a good case, made me somewhat close to this fact, so it is actually a good selling point to know that there are cases out there to protect and tote yer handheld in. (although the one pictured is... ugh... seems rather unusable)
My information could be somewhat wrong or out of date - but if I'm not mistaken, one thing that postgresql yet lacks that mysql has is replication - and for a site like slashdot which is probably running multiple mysql databases, that's mightily important.
That'd be pretty cool. I've had my palm for like 6 months now, and have yet to drop it - so for all I know, it could explode when I drop it... in which case it wouldn't matter too much if the fuel cells did too.
Come to think, if they're not too expensive - it'd probably be a Bad Thing (tm) if they do explode when dropped - kids buying them by the dozen and having a go on the night before halloween.
Seriously though, I don't know - my palm works great off rechargable alkalines, don't really have many problems - batteries last easily 2 weeks (heavy use) but I change them out after 1 1/2 since alkalines last longer if not fully drained before recharged.
Well, yes 64mb is plenty to run X - but keep in mind that your OS is stored in the ROM and your programs and data are all stored in the RAM, so that 64 megs will be smacked down to 60 - 56 with basic functionality applications, and will be gone when you throw a few mp3's / gameboy emulator and roms / video's / etc. on there - so if pda's use their ram for ramdisks - where do they get their ram from?:P
It's bad general wording like this that really bothers me. Yes, the patent is ludicrously broad, but what exactly is defined as remote? I have a gateway for my cablemodem, it happens to be in another room in my house - but still in my house, is that remote? What if I link two business offices that are in seperate rental areas but the same building, or two buildings on different properties that are technically different lots? IMHO if I can read and understand a patent in less than 30 - 45 minutes, it's not a proper patent, because it's not defining its terms well enough.
I have the pcg-c1x vaio (picturebook, 266 model) and have had a libretto 50ct - both had similar issues (as the libretto's pcmcia floppy doesn't send data in the standard manner that 98% of floppys do). Long story short - you can do what I did, or try what I've learned...
What I did:
Installed Debian 2.1 - with the base install files on a separate partition (which you later bring back into the folds of linux, or leave for windows booting for those annoying windows streams) - the boot disk will [perhaps after a few tries] get to the point where you can continue with the installation. The problem is basically at some point linux stops communicating to the floppy through the bios (almost immediately) and when that happens it no longer see's it.
Try What I've Learned:
the following are the steps I go through to enable my vaio's floppy to work, I've never played with making custom boot floppies and whatnot - but I presume it would be fairly simple if you could fit the modules on the disk (or just in a custom kernel I guess).
sync
modprobe scsi_mod
modprobe sd_mod
modprobe usbcore
mount -t usbdevfs none/proc/bus/usb
echo "scsi add-single-device 1 0 0 0" >/proc/scsi/scsi
modprobe uhci
modprobe usb-storage
sleep 1 [implicit, if you script you need to sleep here]
mount -r -t vfat/dev/sda/mnt/floppy
and verify
cat/proc/scsi/scsi
that would do ya, good luck - if you do figure out a good way or directions on making a custom floppy [come to think, I didn't even look at the howto's, since my method worked] - drop me a line.
Palm IIIxe - I just picked one up for christmas (well, my g/f and I went looking, and got one for each other). It's a wonderful toy - and after the $50 rebate and the $50 electronics gift at amazon - you can pick it up for $149 [8mb palm 2bit greyscale].
Very fun toy/tool.
The palm V series is just the IIIxe in a smaller, metallic case - fine if you want the glamour. Although, admittedly, there are no good slim hard cases for the Palm III's - the Palm V does have that going for it.
Actually - on a side note, you can pick up the Palm IIIxe for only $149 right now from amazon.com. I won't get into the specifics of it, but let's just say that the palm forum at www.palmblvd.com will tell you all you need - if you're truly interested.
What the hell's with that Claudia Schiffer edition anyway? Who the heck came up with that idea?
The Aqua metallic blue is a limited edition color that was selected by Claudia herself.
Because she wasn't capable of any more input because she's never thought to organize anything - someone else does it all for her?
What makes this effort unique is that we did this in 1.5 weeks, and changed less than 100 lines of the original source code used in building GNOME for Linux.
Just another case of/. misquoting/representing and noone being able to check to see what really got said.
Embedded devices will most likely not rely on tomorrows technology to get the job done - they're special purpose devices, and as such - stable, open source code - that the developers can tweak and release, giving the device all the functionality it needs and none that it doesn't... is a good thing (tm)
>>0.8watts typical power consumption, 2.4watts maximum power consumption
> Looks like you didn't read the article.
The fact of the matter is - 'typical' power requirements tend to be just above the least, and that means very little in terms of large screen refreshes (i.e. sitting in one app and working on that for a long time, then finishing and moving on) - all the alt-tabbing between applications will cause it to go much closer to that 2.4 - and while any chipset is going to have a spike during that, his point is that they should face the fact and try to get their high-end closer to 1, not their average. I know personally I switch desktops in X a lot on my laptop, a little too much, and that causes fullscreen refreshes up the ass.
I dunno, I don't even put video cards in my servers - just give 'em ssh and make sure the serial port is listening in case you get in trouble - and you're ready to roll. I suppose you could use it as a multi-purpose machine, but to be honest - I don't see why you are running unstable on a server... and past that, I don't see why you wanted the latest and greatest if all you use it for is looking at plots and netscape. Personally, like I said, I leave X off servers and just display them on my desktop or laptop.
I think the point of the contest is that if you were to view this from your home, you would *ONLY* download 5K - no more. So meta reloads, java scripts, etc. that pull from elsewhere, the content that is elsewhere would be considered part of your submission - hence you'd be over.
On a side note - the formula allows you to have up to 20K and still be in the positive, if it's a *REALLY* good page - but personally i won't be going over 5K.
[TAB] should do ya fine there, although it's really not very 'quick' if you're stuck on a page like altavista or any portal with 200 links before it gets to the real stuff.
I hate to think I'm the first...
on
A 140GB CD-ROM?
·
· Score: 2
I hate to think I'm the first person to point this out, but if the disc is transparent, HOW DO YOU LABEL IT. I look around my place and I have various CDR's and CDRW's with backup information, install programs, etc. They all have labels - they all have labels so i can tell what's on the disc, since I can't tell by shining my laser pointer at it, and since I don't want to have to put each one in my new drive to find out. I may be jumping the gun here, but the pictures and the article sure make it look like the thing is totally see through... but i regress.
It's clear they really did the changeover so the majority of these kinds of lookups would be done over the web, where they conveniently have banner ads streaming while you use their convenient online database which takes 3-4 page loadings to get down to the real information.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been down this thought path. Before I get into it (In the end you realize its not worth it) - let me make two suggestions:
1) Toshiba Libretto - these puppies range from p75|133's with 32mb ram to something more decent (300ish?) - the lowest two models are the tiniest damn things you ever did see. Only quip you might have with these is small keyboard, and only 640x480 resolution.
2) Sony Picturebook (PCG-C1[X,XS,etc.]) - this ranges from pmmx 266+64|128mb ram to crusoe 667(?)+64|192mb ram. Their screens are BEAUTIFUL (1024x480 though), the video performance is good.
In case you can't tell - I have owned the lowest two models of both of these lines. I still own the picturebook, and use it daily at work. Its portability and performance are only matched by its successors. The libretto I passed on to my brother when I got the vaio, and he brought it backpacking around europe with him so he could offload and resize his pictures then upload them to a website.
--- that said ---
The only real solution for building your own laptop - unless you're going all out 100% your own hardware (insane lengthy expensive) is to go PC104/PC104Plus/Proprietary embedded systems. The advantage is you may make it so you can actually upgrade - but it sounds to me like you're looking for a keeper, and it doesn't need to be powerful. The other problems you will run into is video performance isn't a neccessity in the embedded area - so forget amazing performance. Additionally, you will have a field day connecting to an LCD and once you do you'll find you can't find an OEM LCD as nice as the ones you see in big-name laptops. It's a wonderful thought, but I suggest going with the libretto for max portability (very small dock thing gives parallel+serial for those null modems), or vaio for something with some screen real estate while holding the portability.
It's obvious to me - and maybe it's been said but not properly moderated. The compatibility is of a physical nature. That is to say, the unit will fit into a wallet made for the palm IIIxe, or a belt clip for the palm IIIxe, etc.
Being an owner of a palm IIIxe, and spending much too long searching for a good case, made me somewhat close to this fact, so it is actually a good selling point to know that there are cases out there to protect and tote yer handheld in. (although the one pictured is... ugh... seems rather unusable)
My information could be somewhat wrong or out of date - but if I'm not mistaken, one thing that postgresql yet lacks that mysql has is replication - and for a site like slashdot which is probably running multiple mysql databases, that's mightily important.
and doesn't explode when you drop it
That'd be pretty cool. I've had my palm for like 6 months now, and have yet to drop it - so for all I know, it could explode when I drop it... in which case it wouldn't matter too much if the fuel cells did too.
Come to think, if they're not too expensive - it'd probably be a Bad Thing (tm) if they do explode when dropped - kids buying them by the dozen and having a go on the night before halloween.
Seriously though, I don't know - my palm works great off rechargable alkalines, don't really have many problems - batteries last easily 2 weeks (heavy use) but I change them out after 1 1/2 since alkalines last longer if not fully drained before recharged.
Well, yes 64mb is plenty to run X - but keep in mind that your OS is stored in the ROM and your programs and data are all stored in the RAM, so that 64 megs will be smacked down to 60 - 56 with basic functionality applications, and will be gone when you throw a few mp3's / gameboy emulator and roms / video's / etc. on there - so if pda's use their ram for ramdisks - where do they get their ram from? :P
It's bad general wording like this that really bothers me. Yes, the patent is ludicrously broad, but what exactly is defined as remote? I have a gateway for my cablemodem, it happens to be in another room in my house - but still in my house, is that remote? What if I link two business offices that are in seperate rental areas but the same building, or two buildings on different properties that are technically different lots? IMHO if I can read and understand a patent in less than 30 - 45 minutes, it's not a proper patent, because it's not defining its terms well enough.
I have the pcg-c1x vaio (picturebook, 266 model) and have had a libretto 50ct - both had similar issues (as the libretto's pcmcia floppy doesn't send data in the standard manner that 98% of floppys do). Long story short - you can do what I did, or try what I've learned...
/proc/bus/usb
/proc/scsi/scsi
/dev/sda /mnt/floppy
/proc/scsi/scsi
What I did:
Installed Debian 2.1 - with the base install files on a separate partition (which you later bring back into the folds of linux, or leave for windows booting for those annoying windows streams) - the boot disk will [perhaps after a few tries] get to the point where you can continue with the installation. The problem is basically at some point linux stops communicating to the floppy through the bios (almost immediately) and when that happens it no longer see's it.
Try What I've Learned:
the following are the steps I go through to enable my vaio's floppy to work, I've never played with making custom boot floppies and whatnot - but I presume it would be fairly simple if you could fit the modules on the disk (or just in a custom kernel I guess).
sync
modprobe scsi_mod
modprobe sd_mod
modprobe usbcore
mount -t usbdevfs none
echo "scsi add-single-device 1 0 0 0" >
modprobe uhci
modprobe usb-storage
sleep 1 [implicit, if you script you need to sleep here]
mount -r -t vfat
and verify
cat
that would do ya, good luck - if you do figure out a good way or directions on making a custom floppy [come to think, I didn't even look at the howto's, since my method worked] - drop me a line.
Palm IIIxe - I just picked one up for christmas (well, my g/f and I went looking, and got one for each other). It's a wonderful toy - and after the $50 rebate and the $50 electronics gift at amazon - you can pick it up for $149 [8mb palm 2bit greyscale].
Very fun toy/tool.
The palm V series is just the IIIxe in a smaller, metallic case - fine if you want the glamour. Although, admittedly, there are no good slim hard cases for the Palm III's - the Palm V does have that going for it.
Actually - on a side note, you can pick up the Palm IIIxe for only $149 right now from amazon.com. I won't get into the specifics of it, but let's just say that the palm forum at www.palmblvd.com will tell you all you need - if you're truly interested.
What the hell's with that Claudia Schiffer edition anyway? Who the heck came up with that idea?
The Aqua metallic blue is a limited edition color that was selected by Claudia herself.
Because she wasn't capable of any more input because she's never thought to organize anything - someone else does it all for her?
FINALLY - we can get a sync done WITHOUT the damn serial port!
Actually, it says:
/. misquoting/representing and noone being able to check to see what really got said.
What makes this effort unique is that we did this in 1.5 weeks, and changed less than 100 lines of the original source code used in building GNOME for Linux.
Just another case of
Embedded devices will most likely not rely on tomorrows technology to get the job done - they're special purpose devices, and as such - stable, open source code - that the developers can tweak and release, giving the device all the functionality it needs and none that it doesn't... is a good thing (tm)
>>0.8watts typical power consumption, 2.4watts maximum power consumption
> Looks like you didn't read the article.
The fact of the matter is - 'typical' power requirements tend to be just above the least, and that means very little in terms of large screen refreshes (i.e. sitting in one app and working on that for a long time, then finishing and moving on) - all the alt-tabbing between applications will cause it to go much closer to that 2.4 - and while any chipset is going to have a spike during that, his point is that they should face the fact and try to get their high-end closer to 1, not their average. I know personally I switch desktops in X a lot on my laptop, a little too much, and that causes fullscreen refreshes up the ass.
I dunno, I don't even put video cards in my servers - just give 'em ssh and make sure the serial port is listening in case you get in trouble - and you're ready to roll. I suppose you could use it as a multi-purpose machine, but to be honest - I don't see why you are running unstable on a server... and past that, I don't see why you wanted the latest and greatest if all you use it for is looking at plots and netscape. Personally, like I said, I leave X off servers and just display them on my desktop or laptop.
I think the point of the contest is that if you were to view this from your home, you would *ONLY* download 5K - no more. So meta reloads, java scripts, etc. that pull from elsewhere, the content that is elsewhere would be considered part of your submission - hence you'd be over.
On a side note - the formula allows you to have up to 20K and still be in the positive, if it's a *REALLY* good page - but personally i won't be going over 5K.
[TAB] should do ya fine there, although it's really not very 'quick' if you're stuck on a page like altavista or any portal with 200 links before it gets to the real stuff.
I hate to think I'm the first person to point this out, but if the disc is transparent,
HOW DO YOU LABEL IT.
I look around my place and I have various CDR's and CDRW's with backup information, install programs, etc. They all have labels - they all have labels so i can tell what's on the disc, since I can't tell by shining my laser pointer at it, and since I don't want to have to put each one in my new drive to find out. I may be jumping the gun here, but the pictures and the article sure make it look like the thing is totally see through... but i regress.
It's clear they really did the changeover so the majority of these kinds of lookups would be done over the web, where they conveniently have banner ads streaming while you use their convenient online database which takes 3-4 page loadings to get down to the real information.
Profiteering gluttons, the American way.