Opera does the tab things too, via the 'Windows' tab on the hotlist (or ctrl-alt-Z for 'undo close tab'). I usually have this open instead of using the page bar, it works really nicely (also, it gives you scrollbars when you have more than a screenfull of pages open).
The 4-port card alone will cost 2-3x as much as a gigabit card. Then you need all those switch ports on a switch which supports bonding. If there's only a handful of high-bandwidth machines, I can't see much point in doing anything other than using gigabit with a low-cost switch GS105, etc).
In UK, when EU voltages were 'harmonised', the normal supply at 240v was already within the permitted range, so only the nominal voltage was changed to 230v, the actual supply voltage remained at 240v. See this article for more details and potential problems of this approach.
Re:Good luck finding cheap internal modems
on
Micro ATX and Linux?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
3.3v or universal would be good too, for people wanting a modem suitable for use with a Soekris... This thread came up recently, suggestions included USB (some of which you might have space for in the case), PCI->MiniPCI adapters, and a suggestion of a Hayes 03367 (probably no 3.3v, unless the notch is placed wrongly, but sounds smaller than usual and hardware-based).
- Don't depend on mass transit. Amtrak isn't exactly the most efficent company.
You do see very different sides to the country depending on whether or not you have private transport... varies depending on where you are though, SF city was a bit of a nightmare with a car (pay very careful attention to street cleaning signs which are apt to be hidden slightly out of sight). But many other places are impossible without one.
One recommendation, if you're travelling around CA, the train journey from San Luis Obispo leaving at some ridiculous time in the morning to San Diego was well worth getting up for... and the drive (mostly) along the coast from SD to SF was totally totally mad.
The AC is pretty much correct about invasive questions at immigration, though I can't say we had any problems with cavity searches... and they don't seem to like it if two people walk up to the INS staff at the same time unless they're married.
More handy tips: if you enter on a visa waiver form and it says to return it when you leave the country, crossing a land border and returning within the 90 days doesn't count, as we found out after going to quite a lot of trouble to find someone at the US embassy in Mexico to return ours to, then had to queue multiple times at different places at the San Ysidro crossing to get back into the country. Oh yes. It's almost as if they don't want you to come back...
Routing/etc is a pretty common use for this kit, but plenty of other projects are well-suited, often much better than more common PC hardware due to some unusual features - the Elan chip on the net45xx has a high-res timer supported by FreeBSD, particularly nice for accurate timing (NTP or for other reasons)... The programmable 'error' LED could be used for indicating web hits on a personal homepage, show new email (some drivers support Morse code, so you could even indicate the sender's name), or various more useful things. There are 8 general-purpose I/O lines on the 45xx (12 on the 48xx) which gives a lot of options for control systems (home/greenhouse, lighting/heating/fans, model/robot controls, who knows...). The hardware watchdog timer on-board is quite a rare feature on kit this cheap too, and this and the unique serial-BIOS can be a lifesaver on remotely-installed kit.
Obviously they're not general-purpose computers (I doubt you'd want one for a file/DB server...) but there's still a lot that can be done with them, and the feature-set isn't available on some of the other small systems around the same price point (e.g. Nagasaki, VIA EPIA, Bonatech lex) - though of course, these have some features not built-in to Soekris boxes (e.g. onboard sound). Mind you, for e.g. a simple firewall or wireless AP, I don't think there's another small+silent PC that can compete with the price of a 4501 since the recent drop in price.
If you're in Europe, ordering from kd85.com reduces shipping costs (though in the UK, it may well still be cheaper to buy from the US, since the exchange rate is good at the moment, and shipping isn't all that expensive, though you do have to budget for VAT and around ~10 handling fee to Airborne/UPS, so a group-buy might make sense).
Apple's keyboards are pretty nice, I've got an iMac one on my PC... actually prefer it to the Model-M now, it's a bit easier on my fingers. Both the iMac and Model-M have the great feature of the keycaps are all the same height, very useful for dvorak (as I type on both layouts the visual indication is useful to switch my brain into the right mode;-)
The power set for the quiet EPIA cases usually comprises of a laptop-style small 'brick' rather than a wall-wart, and a DC-DC converter. The brick would usually output something like 15-18v to feed into the converter and down to +/-5/12v supplied over ATX and a couple of Molex. They are usually rated 55-60w (though Travla have 90-120w with a virtually-silent temperature controlled fan on the brick) and are either supplied separately or with the case.
You can of course power an EPIA Mini-ITX from a normal ATX supply (and even in a normal ATX case). Of course it won't be super-quiet, but it will still use much less power than an Intel/AMD alternative... people who are more concerned by cost+power use than size+fan noise can still build a system for not too much money, making these great systems for 'off-the-grid' use.
The EPIAs are really nice systems... quite amazing to see something so small just boot up, let alone run 'proper' programs! (Wonder when they'll go full-circle and print a keyboard straight on the board so you can use them early-80s-home-computer-stylee...:)
The floating-point on the current fanless boards isn't too speedy (main effect: ssh logins take a little longer than you'd expect, nothing that's a real problem though). The EPIA boards with processors with the newer 'Nehemiah' core with faster FPU and hardware pseudo-random number generator (and more pipeline stages, SSE, better cache) currently all have fans - would be nice to see a board based on the ESP7000 (fanless Nehemiah chip) sometime..
If you ever want to change banks, HSBC is a good place to go.
I don't agree.
Most major banks definitely seem to have a definite 'profits are king' attitude. Student accounts are often a pretty good deal, but most people I know who were students got to see a bit of a different side after they graduated or dropped out. I've heard rather a lot of criticism of HSBC..
Personally I've had very good luck with Smile (Co-op's online bank, better interest rates than their main bank but they don't send statements through the post - not necessarily a bad thing though!). I ran a second current account with them after I realised how bad the main banks really are (was with natwest, started looking for another bank after some cold coffee landed on me out of a first floor window of their local corporate banking branch!), it wasn't long before I decided to switch completely and haven't regretted it. Haven't tried a Mac but Opera's fine.
I haven't particularly fancied going to uni myself, but a quick glance suggests their student account is probably quite a good deal - good free overdraft - no free railcard but they're not much good on Apex tickets anyway..(and there's always thumbs for the ultimate in cut-price travel:-)
IMHO if they restricted this to delivery only over non-transit bandwidth (i.e. only to peers) they could probably *reduce* their transit bandwidth costs by encouraging more ISPs to peer with them...
Since July this year, most BBC national and regional transmissions (except for certain sporting events with limited rights) are broadcast in-the-clear on Astra 2D.
Fortunately for you the beam of 2D covers France quite nicely.
Yes, it works with any standard VNC viewer. You'll miss the file-transfer, chat, and server-side window scaling provided by the UltraVNC client, but you still benefit from lower server CPU by installing the separate video-hook driver.
With Win* servers, the problem is the method used to detect screen updates. Try ultravnc with the video-hook driver.
As you mentioned wifi, another possibility is that the data-rate might be too fast for the signal conditions. For normal file-sharing etc, or if there are many wireless clients, you might well be better off with the higher data rate, but for interactive protocols you really don't want any packets with errors, as they involve quite some latency. If you suspect this, run a long (or flood) ping and look at the standard deviation figures, if they're high you might want to try dropping speed to 5.5mb.
One slightly more useful uprade to a player would be 15-pin VGA connectors so you can watch films on a standard monitor using a hardware player. Ideally with a input too (passthrough when the player's not in use, so it can be easily shared with a PC). Bet it would increase sales too.
Before you take it to the film shop, let it sit for a day to get it back to room temperature. Also, when you get it developed, you may want to ask them not to cut the negatives (keep it as one long strip). This will make it easier for you to scan the negatives: less feeding of the short strips.
It's probably better to send developed film. It's difficult enough to avoid having hand-carried film xrayed, if you are mailing to countries with strict checking for agricultural or terrorist materials this is pretty much unavoidable through the post. You don't have to get prints made (although, this may be a good idea if you want to be sure there's a good shot of somewhere special before moving on). Although, poor quality prints don't necessarily mean the negative is bad - there are many additional variables affecting quality of prints which don't apply to developing.
If the film is kept in a long strip for ease of scanning / later printing, probably the best way to transport it is (carefully:-) wound onto a spool in the original case.
There's a lot to be said for a compact film camera... 'photo-snobs' might look down on them but in many ways they are a lot better for travel than an SLR.
Although there are times you'll want a longer lens, there will probably be plenty more times you wish you had something smaller - lots of days you really won't want to lug a full setup with you, and mightn't feel totally happy about leaving it in accommodation. There are good compacts around (maybe investigate some of the Ricoh range, the GR look like a potential candidate for a nice travel camera if you like wide-angle lenses, some have optional manual focus too, rather unusual for a compact).
Having tried various types of camera I'd much prefer film over digital for travel - no LCD presenting a large, highly-breakable fragile area - no *highly* visible backlight, which draws a lot more attention to you - vastly reduced battery worries (but if you do go for a digital, something that can be run or at very least recharged from AA cells is a great idea) - etc....
I do also get the impression that digital cameras encourage people to spend more time taking pictures hoping they'll get something 'just right'. Shoot, review, shoot, review, but really it doesn't matter, it's not important (-: You definitely don't want to miss out on what's going on around you just for the sake of photographs...
A few general tips, obviously this will not be the same for all travellers, but generally... you *don't* need a big bag... 35-45 litre or so is probably a good compromise (and usually still able to fit under benches, tables in cafes, etc, which you'll probably find useful), maybe you'll want a little more if you're travelling around somewhere really cold (rather than going there and staying put for a while - in which case buy warm things there!). If you don't need something on further legs of the trip - leave it there or trade it!
I really don't think it would be good to be one of the rather-too-many people struggling with a full 60-70 litre pack. In a busy bus-station. In rush hour. Somewhere ReallyFsckingHot. Etc. Cut down on bulk and weight. If in doubt, leave it at home, if it's important you'll be able to buy it on the way anyway (and it'll probably be more suitable for where you're staying, too - especially e.g. clothing). Cut down on hassly/fiddly things. Most important, have fun, oh and ermmm, if you're from the US, please at least *try* not to be too loud! (-:
I think they're using a VHF TV channel, if it's got enough capacity to transmit analogue TV, it should have enough to handle a fairly respectable amount of data.
The fact that something is VHF just specifies what frequency band it's using, not how much of that band (i.e. bandwidth - measured in Hz, KHz, MHz) it's using.
RF bandwidth is not, btw, directly related to 'data bandwidth' which is more properly known as throughput. The amount of throughput from a given bandwidth depends on other factors including the type of modulation. Think of the modem modulations V34 and V32 - they both use the same bandwidth but different modulations, resulting in different throughput. Then compare with ADSL, which achieves faster speeds by using a larger frequency range.
(btw, some types of modulation have useful characteristics such as immunity to certain types of interference, it's often a trade-off though).
It's probably not the world's best description but it'll point you vaguely in the right direction I hope! Or at least prompt someone else to do better if I got it really wrong..
Thing is for most of the quality music programmes, the compression is so hideous you wouldn't really want to listen to them. *And* the Ogg streams are still gone, so DAB/DTV (or FM if you're reasonably lucky with your signal) are the only way to go there...
Slashdot Mirror
Opera does the tab things too, via the 'Windows' tab on the hotlist (or ctrl-alt-Z for 'undo close tab'). I usually have this open instead of using the page bar, it works really nicely (also, it gives you scrollbars when you have more than a screenfull of pages open).
But the URL format is so much quicker to type if you want to do a quick search from a machine with no fast way to search google.
There are no switches on most recent European power supplies (they're either ~230v only, or auto-sense).
The 4-port card alone will cost 2-3x as much as a gigabit card. Then you need all those switch ports on a switch which supports bonding. If there's only a handful of high-bandwidth machines, I can't see much point in doing anything other than using gigabit with a low-cost switch GS105, etc).
In UK, when EU voltages were 'harmonised', the normal supply at 240v was already within the permitted range, so only the nominal voltage was changed to 230v, the actual supply voltage remained at 240v. See this article for more details and potential problems of this approach.
about tab support.
PEBuilder.
3.3v or universal would be good too, for people wanting a modem suitable for use with a Soekris ... This thread came up recently, suggestions included USB (some of which you might have space for in the case), PCI->MiniPCI adapters, and a suggestion of a Hayes 03367 (probably no 3.3v, unless the notch is placed wrongly, but sounds smaller than usual and hardware-based).
The majority of websites requiring your email address don't allow you to enter + as a character.
Bouncing high scoring mail works pretty well, as long as you do it right.
You do see very different sides to the country depending on whether or not you have private transport... varies depending on where you are though, SF city was a bit of a nightmare with a car (pay very careful attention to street cleaning signs which are apt to be hidden slightly out of sight). But many other places are impossible without one.
One recommendation, if you're travelling around CA, the train journey from San Luis Obispo leaving at some ridiculous time in the morning to San Diego was well worth getting up for... and the drive (mostly) along the coast from SD to SF was totally totally mad.
The AC is pretty much correct about invasive questions at immigration, though I can't say we had any problems with cavity searches ... and they don't seem to like it if two people walk up to the INS staff at the same time unless they're married.
More handy tips: if you enter on a visa waiver form and it says to return it when you leave the country, crossing a land border and returning within the 90 days doesn't count, as we found out after going to quite a lot of trouble to find someone at the US embassy in Mexico to return ours to, then had to queue multiple times at different places at the San Ysidro crossing to get back into the country. Oh yes. It's almost as if they don't want you to come back...
Routing/etc is a pretty common use for this kit, but plenty of other projects are well-suited, often much better than more common PC hardware due to some unusual features - the Elan chip on the net45xx has a high-res timer supported by FreeBSD, particularly nice for accurate timing (NTP or for other reasons)... The programmable 'error' LED could be used for indicating web hits on a personal homepage, show new email (some drivers support Morse code, so you could even indicate the sender's name), or various more useful things. There are 8 general-purpose I/O lines on the 45xx (12 on the 48xx) which gives a lot of options for control systems (home/greenhouse, lighting/heating/fans, model/robot controls, who knows...). The hardware watchdog timer on-board is quite a rare feature on kit this cheap too, and this and the unique serial-BIOS can be a lifesaver on remotely-installed kit.
Obviously they're not general-purpose computers (I doubt you'd want one for a file/DB server...) but there's still a lot that can be done with them, and the feature-set isn't available on some of the other small systems around the same price point (e.g. Nagasaki, VIA EPIA, Bonatech lex) - though of course, these have some features not built-in to Soekris boxes (e.g. onboard sound). Mind you, for e.g. a simple firewall or wireless AP, I don't think there's another small+silent PC that can compete with the price of a 4501 since the recent drop in price.
If you're in Europe, ordering from kd85.com reduces shipping costs (though in the UK, it may well still be cheaper to buy from the US, since the exchange rate is good at the moment, and shipping isn't all that expensive, though you do have to budget for VAT and around ~10 handling fee to Airborne/UPS, so a group-buy might make sense).
s/private key through dns/public key through dns/
Apple's keyboards are pretty nice, I've got an iMac one on my PC... actually prefer it to the Model-M now, it's a bit easier on my fingers. Both the iMac and Model-M have the great feature of the keycaps are all the same height, very useful for dvorak (as I type on both layouts the visual indication is useful to switch my brain into the right mode ;-)
You can of course power an EPIA Mini-ITX from a normal ATX supply (and even in a normal ATX case). Of course it won't be super-quiet, but it will still use much less power than an Intel/AMD alternative... people who are more concerned by cost+power use than size+fan noise can still build a system for not too much money, making these great systems for 'off-the-grid' use.
The EPIAs are really nice systems ... quite amazing to see something so small just boot up, let alone run 'proper' programs! (Wonder when they'll go full-circle and print a keyboard straight on the board so you can use them early-80s-home-computer-stylee... :)
The floating-point on the current fanless boards isn't too speedy (main effect: ssh logins take a little longer than you'd expect, nothing that's a real problem though). The EPIA boards with processors with the newer 'Nehemiah' core with faster FPU and hardware pseudo-random number generator (and more pipeline stages, SSE, better cache) currently all have fans - would be nice to see a board based on the ESP7000 (fanless Nehemiah chip) sometime..
Most major banks definitely seem to have a definite 'profits are king' attitude. Student accounts are often a pretty good deal, but most people I know who were students got to see a bit of a different side after they graduated or dropped out. I've heard rather a lot of criticism of HSBC..
Personally I've had very good luck with Smile (Co-op's online bank, better interest rates than their main bank but they don't send statements through the post - not necessarily a bad thing though!). I ran a second current account with them after I realised how bad the main banks really are (was with natwest, started looking for another bank after some cold coffee landed on me out of a first floor window of their local corporate banking branch!), it wasn't long before I decided to switch completely and haven't regretted it. Haven't tried a Mac but Opera's fine.
I haven't particularly fancied going to uni myself, but a quick glance suggests their student account is probably quite a good deal - good free overdraft - no free railcard but they're not much good on Apex tickets anyway..(and there's always thumbs for the ultimate in cut-price travel :-)
IMHO if they restricted this to delivery only over non-transit bandwidth (i.e. only to peers) they could probably *reduce* their transit bandwidth costs by encouraging more ISPs to peer with them...
Fortunately for you the beam of 2D covers France quite nicely.
All you need is a standard DVB-S receiver and dish - probably 60cm for Paris. Here are the programming details you'll need.
Yes, it works with any standard VNC viewer. You'll miss the file-transfer, chat, and server-side window scaling provided by the UltraVNC client, but you still benefit from lower server CPU by installing the separate video-hook driver.
As you mentioned wifi, another possibility is that the data-rate might be too fast for the signal conditions. For normal file-sharing etc, or if there are many wireless clients, you might well be better off with the higher data rate, but for interactive protocols you really don't want any packets with errors, as they involve quite some latency. If you suspect this, run a long (or flood) ping and look at the standard deviation figures, if they're high you might want to try dropping speed to 5.5mb.
One slightly more useful uprade to a player would be 15-pin VGA connectors so you can watch films on a standard monitor using a hardware player. Ideally with a input too (passthrough when the player's not in use, so it can be easily shared with a PC). Bet it would increase sales too.
If the film is kept in a long strip for ease of scanning / later printing, probably the best way to transport it is (carefully :-) wound onto a spool in the original case.
There's a lot to be said for a compact film camera... 'photo-snobs' might look down on them but in many ways they are a lot better for travel than an SLR. Although there are times you'll want a longer lens, there will probably be plenty more times you wish you had something smaller - lots of days you really won't want to lug a full setup with you, and mightn't feel totally happy about leaving it in accommodation. There are good compacts around (maybe investigate some of the Ricoh range, the GR look like a potential candidate for a nice travel camera if you like wide-angle lenses, some have optional manual focus too, rather unusual for a compact).
Having tried various types of camera I'd much prefer film over digital for travel - no LCD presenting a large, highly-breakable fragile area - no *highly* visible backlight, which draws a lot more attention to you - vastly reduced battery worries (but if you do go for a digital, something that can be run or at very least recharged from AA cells is a great idea) - etc....
I do also get the impression that digital cameras encourage people to spend more time taking pictures hoping they'll get something 'just right'. Shoot, review, shoot, review, but really it doesn't matter, it's not important (-: You definitely don't want to miss out on what's going on around you just for the sake of photographs...
A few general tips, obviously this will not be the same for all travellers, but generally ... you *don't* need a big bag ... 35-45 litre or so is probably a good compromise (and usually still able to fit under benches, tables in cafes, etc, which you'll probably find useful), maybe you'll want a little more if you're travelling around somewhere really cold (rather than going there and staying put for a while - in which case buy warm things there!). If you don't need something on further legs of the trip - leave it there or trade it!
I really don't think it would be good to be one of the rather-too-many people struggling with a full 60-70 litre pack. In a busy bus-station. In rush hour. Somewhere ReallyFsckingHot. Etc. Cut down on bulk and weight. If in doubt, leave it at home, if it's important you'll be able to buy it on the way anyway (and it'll probably be more suitable for where you're staying, too - especially e.g. clothing). Cut down on hassly/fiddly things. Most important, have fun, oh and ermmm, if you're from the US, please at least *try* not to be too loud! (-:
Take a look at Edward Hasbrouck's tips for travellers page too...
I think they're using a VHF TV channel, if it's got enough capacity to transmit analogue TV, it should have enough to handle a fairly respectable amount of data.
The fact that something is VHF just specifies what frequency band it's using, not how much of that band (i.e. bandwidth - measured in Hz, KHz, MHz) it's using.
RF bandwidth is not, btw, directly related to 'data bandwidth' which is more properly known as throughput. The amount of throughput from a given bandwidth depends on other factors including the type of modulation. Think of the modem modulations V34 and V32 - they both use the same bandwidth but different modulations, resulting in different throughput. Then compare with ADSL, which achieves faster speeds by using a larger frequency range.
(btw, some types of modulation have useful characteristics such as immunity to certain types of interference, it's often a trade-off though).
It's probably not the world's best description but it'll point you vaguely in the right direction I hope! Or at least prompt someone else to do better if I got it really wrong..
Thing is for most of the quality music programmes, the compression is so hideous you wouldn't really want to listen to them. *And* the Ogg streams are still gone, so DAB/DTV (or FM if you're reasonably lucky with your signal) are the only way to go there...