I haven't had a chance to use a Zaurus + Opera + WiFi connection yet, but I'm started to get interested in the clamshell ones. Those would be very nice, with a serial cable (null modem or not) and a CF Ethernet or WiFi card and use it for not only configuring switches or routers, but also to admin servers in a meeting without having to tote or borrow a laptop from someone else.
Another option is that if you have a cell phone that doesn't have Bluetooth but supports a serial connection, there are a lot of serial adapters available that you can use your phone as a modem (in a sense) and connect to GPRS that way. Worse case, if the phone has an IRDA port, you can connect it via IRDA and get okay speeds (I have a GSM phone but elected not to get GPRS due to cost, and I use IRDA with my Jornada and get enough speed to view a couple of pages, but not fast enough to do a remote sync with my desktop at work).
A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to dink around with the Tungsten C at CompUSA and browsed around to a couple of sites, including Slashdot, and the web browser seems to render pages a lot better than Pocket IE included with the Pocket PC OS. Pocket IE is closer to IE3/IE4 than current versions of IE (though IE in CE.NET, which isn't available for Pocket PC hardware, is closer).
Either browsers do not support pop-up windows, which is both good (for pop-up and pop-under ads) and bad (if you are using a webmail system that depends on pop-up windows). Also, trying to read something on a 320x240 screen is a wee bit difficult. The Tungsten C's display (320x320) gives a little more real estate for rendering web pages, though the fonts used my take a little getting used to if you are used to Verdana, Times or Bitstream's Vera.
Speed-wise, the Tungsten C seems a bit faster and more responsive when browsing the web than an iPaq with the same processor, memory and built-in WiFi. For me, the location of the navigation disc is a bit too low for me, but after using it for a couple of minutes, I got used to it.
As far as a previous poster's question on why 802.11b instead of 802.11g? I think there are a couple of reasons right now: 802.11g eats up more power (thus run a bit warmer) and the chips used for it aren't as compact as 802.11b chips... that and I'm not sure how much I/O is provided between the processor and the bus that the WiFi controller would connect to (which could end up being a bottleneck). That and I think almost all of the 802.11g PC Cards available right now are CardBus only, which I don't think any PDA (clamshell or not) supports.
Part of it is that the x86 architecture isn't exactly the cleanest nor the smallest architecture to build processors for. The PowerPC architecture is much cleaner and can be smaller than x86 because it's closer to RISC and doesn't need all of the decode/encode/pipeline/etc. units required in current P4 or Athlon processors, or even in the C3.
Yeah... it's not quite as low-power as the Eden platform is or the 800Mhz C3 processors. Most of the higher-end Ezra-T and now the Nehemiah require active cooling, so it can't be used too much as a quiet computing platform (though there is the neat slimcase that uses it's side fins as the processor's heatsink and is quiet).
A Celeron, mostly the Tualatin-based ones, would be a better option and provide some additional expansion slots. You can even underclock the Celeron if you really wanted to keep it running cool as well, and maybe use a really nice heatsink to keep it somewhat cool.
If Geek.com and Sandpile.org are correct, the Transmeta TM5800 is just 3mm^2 larger than the Nehemiah processor, yet has much more cache on-die (128KB L1; 512KB L2) and the rest is logic.
It also seems that the Transmeta processor has an average power usage of around 7W whereas the Nehamiah (according to Digit Life) has an idle power usage of ~5W and a max of around 15-20W.
Re:And now, a translation...
on
Gentoo Reviewed
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· Score: 1
I understand that... for what I use FreeBSD for is primarily for mail, file, FTP, web and FTP servers, so that's something I don't have to worry about too much.
I also don't need that many applications under FreeBSD on my BSD workstations. OpenOffice.org, JDK 1.3.1, rdesktop/VNC, vim/gvim, Apache, PHP and Python all run without any problems on FreeBSD... so it meets my needs there. But where it hasn't fit my needs just yet is FireWire support (it's there but not all controllers are supported right now) can be met with Mac OS X and possibly Linux...
Re:And now, a translation...
on
Gentoo Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
Same could be said about FreeBSD as you can also compile and build packages on a fast machine, plop it onto a central store and use pkg_add to install it on as many machines as you want. The same idea also works for kernels.
Re:What are the odds that Ogg will replace mp3?
on
Ogg Now An RFC
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· Score: 1
It's not license-free, but rather patent-free and does not have any licensing fees or royalty requirements. The utilities to create Ogg Vorbis files are under the GNU GPL and the libraries and SDKs are under a BSD-like license. You can find more in the Ogg Vorbis FAQ.
I can't remember exactly which release of FreeBSD changed it (4.6-RELEASE I think) so that although Sendmail is enabled by default, but it only listens on the local interface (though I'm not sure if the default regular sendmail enable flag has relaying off or on by default).
Turning Sendmail off for good on any machine that doesn't need it (4.6 and later) is as easy as adding the following to/etc/rc.conf:
sendmail_enable="NONE"
It's also helpful to allow one to start another MTA other than Sendmail (like qmail or Postfix) via an rc.d script.
After having a couple of calls regarding the Permissioned Media "trojan" from users at work (which will still install even if you decline the Software Install prompt at the warning), I decided to look around the Net for ways to block it. I stumbled across Symantec's listing of the "trojan", which provided a list of IP addresses.
So I setup outbound deny rules on the firewall for those IP addresses and DNS servers related to Permissioned Media. That stopped the problem until they started to host the download off of other IP addresses and servers... so I went back to SARC document and added the new IP addresses to the block list. For two weeks, I checked the page twice a day to see if the list changed. Since then, the problem stopped.
As far as HotBar is concerned, I setup the internal DNS caching server to be authoritative for the hotbar.com zone and pointed it to a non-active IP in the local subnet. That fixed much of the problem of people installing it...:)
Buying some Sun UltraSPARC II processors with 8MB eCache is also like playing dice with your business if the processor was equipped with faulty cache chips (or chips that would flake out in certain environments). I believe Sun also had an issue with their UltraSPARC III processor where you could apply a microcode update or a patch which effectively knocked the performance of the chip off by a bit.
At least Intel has accepted that it's a real issue rather than a customer problem and providing a workaround and a fix to the processors. Anyway, the Itanium 2 is not a first-run chip, rather a re-work of the original Itanium (though a far amount of the design came from HP which was then tuned and produced by Intel).
that ignore SCMS or any other form of "copy protection" scheme that they have put in place in the consumer version of the products a nightmare for the RIAA? I don't think so... it would be a nightmare if pro-level equipment are mandated to have such restrictions!
I think the device is a progression from DAT, just like how there are hard-drive modules for DV video cameras as another storage device to store recorded data. Tape is fine, but not if you need to record long sessions or need to be able to work on them using NLE or audio tools without having to do some form of DV tape or DAT tape to file transfer as an interim step.
First, it seems that this would make record and studio execs happy since this is using IEEE 1394:
The 1394 interface is a key interconnect for sending copy protected digital video between TVs, set-tops and other systems.
So you have pretty good speed wireless connections plus some nice little bits to make sure that you may or may not be able to sniff the signal and redistribute it elsewhere.
Anyway, this seems to be the next step up from Bluetooth (which is more of a wireless replacement of USB) for connecting wireless DVD players to a projector or TV, or play media files from a wireless 1394 hard drive or a computer sitting in your AV rack.
Solaris 9 includes Sun's Secure Shell server software which is their version of OpenSSH and uses the same configuration and setup as OpenSSH (with some minor modifications of course).
BTW - here's the picture of the Zen. The USB port is a miniature plug and the 4-pin SB1394 (they include a 6-pin to 4-pin cable in the box) plug to the right.
Nope... I have the Jukebox 3 and it only has a 4-pin FireWire plug on the back and the Zen ought to be the same way.. Reading through the FAQ, it does seem that the Zen does support charging via USB.
According to the Zen's spec page, the Nomad Zen has a built-in LiIon battery and probably can't be charged via USB 2.0 or via FireWire like the iPod can. I think the FireWire version of the Zen uses a 4-pin i.Link-style connector (FireWire without power).
The Nomad Jukebox 3 has two spots for LiIon battery packs (which are rather small and fairly light) and uses a 4-pin FireWire connector, so no power pins for charging that way.
In fact yes... that is if I copy over all of MP3s (which come from CDs that I have purchased, new or used) in my collection onto it... but would I want to? Not really. Playlist management and choosing songs would be a pain on the road... that and I just don't listen to all gazillion songs...
The only gripe I have with the Jukebox line of players is not the hardware but rather the bloated and buggy Creative PlayCenter software. It's no where as clean as iTunes... but Red Chair Software has a kick-ass program that replaces PlayCenter and has some additional capabilities like viewing and streaming files over a Web-based interface and SQL-like queries on your MP3 files. The program is Notmad Explorer and is available in freeware (limited functionality) and payware... (sorry, not free as in libre either).
Also the Nomad Jukebox 3 (not the current Zen) has optical-in recording to MP3 or wave. It's not as simple as pressing record on a portable MiniDisc recorder, but it works in a pinch.
Some of the older Compaq iPaq and HP Jornada Pocket PC PDAs had the same issue where you would here a pop right after a sound was played. Firmware fixes were released to reduce or eliminate the problem, which changed how the mini-amp for the built-in speaker (listening to sound via a headphone didn't have the same issue or was so minor that it couldn't be heard) was powered off.
The issue with the iPod might just be that the embedded OS is possibly powering down the mini-amp between songs or could be a glitch with the sound chip between the buffers. Probably a good chance that it can be eliminated or at least make it much more subtle by a firmware fix... or it may be problems with said mini-amp.
I believe the about:whatever has been disabled (with the key ones like about:blank and about:mozilla) by one of the patches in the IE6 "branch" as typing about:<input type foo> or using the HTML:
<a href="about:<input type foo>">Click Here</a>
just cases my installs of IE6 to come up with "Action canceled". Testing it under IE5.5 (with the latest patches) does indeed crash the browser.
They actually mention that there will be something like that on the outside as well as the inside. From the article:
To address this problem, the iLoo will be outfitted with a plasma display and waterproof keyboard outside the box, so that those waiting in line can check their Hotmail accounts.
What I hope is that the iLoo is soundproofed enough so that we don't have to hear people munging or "taming their wild side".
Slashdot Mirror
heh... of course some people think that also think that the original Palm Zire is cute and useful :)
I haven't had a chance to use a Zaurus + Opera + WiFi connection yet, but I'm started to get interested in the clamshell ones. Those would be very nice, with a serial cable (null modem or not) and a CF Ethernet or WiFi card and use it for not only configuring switches or routers, but also to admin servers in a meeting without having to tote or borrow a laptop from someone else.
Another option is that if you have a cell phone that doesn't have Bluetooth but supports a serial connection, there are a lot of serial adapters available that you can use your phone as a modem (in a sense) and connect to GPRS that way. Worse case, if the phone has an IRDA port, you can connect it via IRDA and get okay speeds (I have a GSM phone but elected not to get GPRS due to cost, and I use IRDA with my Jornada and get enough speed to view a couple of pages, but not fast enough to do a remote sync with my desktop at work).
A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to dink around with the Tungsten C at CompUSA and browsed around to a couple of sites, including Slashdot, and the web browser seems to render pages a lot better than Pocket IE included with the Pocket PC OS. Pocket IE is closer to IE3/IE4 than current versions of IE (though IE in CE.NET, which isn't available for Pocket PC hardware, is closer).
Either browsers do not support pop-up windows, which is both good (for pop-up and pop-under ads) and bad (if you are using a webmail system that depends on pop-up windows). Also, trying to read something on a 320x240 screen is a wee bit difficult. The Tungsten C's display (320x320) gives a little more real estate for rendering web pages, though the fonts used my take a little getting used to if you are used to Verdana, Times or Bitstream's Vera.
Speed-wise, the Tungsten C seems a bit faster and more responsive when browsing the web than an iPaq with the same processor, memory and built-in WiFi. For me, the location of the navigation disc is a bit too low for me, but after using it for a couple of minutes, I got used to it.
As far as a previous poster's question on why 802.11b instead of 802.11g? I think there are a couple of reasons right now: 802.11g eats up more power (thus run a bit warmer) and the chips used for it aren't as compact as 802.11b chips... that and I'm not sure how much I/O is provided between the processor and the bus that the WiFi controller would connect to (which could end up being a bottleneck). That and I think almost all of the 802.11g PC Cards available right now are CardBus only, which I don't think any PDA (clamshell or not) supports.
Part of it is that the x86 architecture isn't exactly the cleanest nor the smallest architecture to build processors for. The PowerPC architecture is much cleaner and can be smaller than x86 because it's closer to RISC and doesn't need all of the decode/encode/pipeline/etc. units required in current P4 or Athlon processors, or even in the C3.
Yeah... it's not quite as low-power as the Eden platform is or the 800Mhz C3 processors. Most of the higher-end Ezra-T and now the Nehemiah require active cooling, so it can't be used too much as a quiet computing platform (though there is the neat slimcase that uses it's side fins as the processor's heatsink and is quiet).
A Celeron, mostly the Tualatin-based ones, would be a better option and provide some additional expansion slots. You can even underclock the Celeron if you really wanted to keep it running cool as well, and maybe use a really nice heatsink to keep it somewhat cool.
It also seems that the Transmeta processor has an average power usage of around 7W whereas the Nehamiah (according to Digit Life) has an idle power usage of ~5W and a max of around 15-20W.
I understand that... for what I use FreeBSD for is primarily for mail, file, FTP, web and FTP servers, so that's something I don't have to worry about too much.
I also don't need that many applications under FreeBSD on my BSD workstations. OpenOffice.org, JDK 1.3.1, rdesktop/VNC, vim/gvim, Apache, PHP and Python all run without any problems on FreeBSD... so it meets my needs there. But where it hasn't fit my needs just yet is FireWire support (it's there but not all controllers are supported right now) can be met with Mac OS X and possibly Linux...
Same could be said about FreeBSD as you can also compile and build packages on a fast machine, plop it onto a central store and use pkg_add to install it on as many machines as you want. The same idea also works for kernels.
It's not license-free, but rather patent-free and does not have any licensing fees or royalty requirements. The utilities to create Ogg Vorbis files are under the GNU GPL and the libraries and SDKs are under a BSD-like license. You can find more in the Ogg Vorbis FAQ.
Turning Sendmail off for good on any machine that doesn't need it (4.6 and later) is as easy as adding the following to /etc/rc.conf:
It's also helpful to allow one to start another MTA other than Sendmail (like qmail or Postfix) via an rc.d script.That's because Narrator can dictate the lyrics better than some artists can sing ;)
Maybe I can finally understand some of the words that are sung that get mangled or purposely obfuscated.
So I setup outbound deny rules on the firewall for those IP addresses and DNS servers related to Permissioned Media. That stopped the problem until they started to host the download off of other IP addresses and servers... so I went back to SARC document and added the new IP addresses to the block list. For two weeks, I checked the page twice a day to see if the list changed. Since then, the problem stopped.
As far as HotBar is concerned, I setup the internal DNS caching server to be authoritative for the hotbar.com zone and pointed it to a non-active IP in the local subnet. That fixed much of the problem of people installing it... :)
At least Intel has accepted that it's a real issue rather than a customer problem and providing a workaround and a fix to the processors. Anyway, the Itanium 2 is not a first-run chip, rather a re-work of the original Itanium (though a far amount of the design came from HP which was then tuned and produced by Intel).
that ignore SCMS or any other form of "copy protection" scheme that they have put in place in the consumer version of the products a nightmare for the RIAA? I don't think so... it would be a nightmare if pro-level equipment are mandated to have such restrictions!
I think the device is a progression from DAT, just like how there are hard-drive modules for DV video cameras as another storage device to store recorded data. Tape is fine, but not if you need to record long sessions or need to be able to work on them using NLE or audio tools without having to do some form of DV tape or DAT tape to file transfer as an interim step.
Anyway, this seems to be the next step up from Bluetooth (which is more of a wireless replacement of USB) for connecting wireless DVD players to a projector or TV, or play media files from a wireless 1394 hard drive or a computer sitting in your AV rack.
Solaris 9 includes Sun's Secure Shell server software which is their version of OpenSSH and uses the same configuration and setup as OpenSSH (with some minor modifications of course).
BTW - here's the picture of the Zen. The USB port is a miniature plug and the 4-pin SB1394 (they include a 6-pin to 4-pin cable in the box) plug to the right.
Nope... I have the Jukebox 3 and it only has a 4-pin FireWire plug on the back and the Zen ought to be the same way.. Reading through the FAQ, it does seem that the Zen does support charging via USB.
The Nomad Jukebox 3 has two spots for LiIon battery packs (which are rather small and fairly light) and uses a 4-pin FireWire connector, so no power pins for charging that way.
In fact yes... that is if I copy over all of MP3s (which come from CDs that I have purchased, new or used) in my collection onto it... but would I want to? Not really. Playlist management and choosing songs would be a pain on the road... that and I just don't listen to all gazillion songs...
Also the Nomad Jukebox 3 (not the current Zen) has optical-in recording to MP3 or wave. It's not as simple as pressing record on a portable MiniDisc recorder, but it works in a pinch.
Some of the older Compaq iPaq and HP Jornada Pocket PC PDAs had the same issue where you would here a pop right after a sound was played. Firmware fixes were released to reduce or eliminate the problem, which changed how the mini-amp for the built-in speaker (listening to sound via a headphone didn't have the same issue or was so minor that it couldn't be heard) was powered off.
The issue with the iPod might just be that the embedded OS is possibly powering down the mini-amp between songs or could be a glitch with the sound chip between the buffers. Probably a good chance that it can be eliminated or at least make it much more subtle by a firmware fix... or it may be problems with said mini-amp.