I was surprised that ohio got it before much of the us. I have had mine for a month now. They had them in the akron, ohio around may...can't remember. I really like it. It changes channels pretty well no video glitches like the other digital box (it was like watching a avi on a 386sx with 512k video). The quality is pretty good, i forget i am watching a recorded show instead of the live feed.
I use to work on IBM thinkpads back in 96 till about june of 2000. I was (still am if it didn't expire already) trained on them. The thinkpad 600's had some really bad batteries. If my memory is correct I believe there was even a service bulletin about them. I can't get that system any more but it was a special website certified techs could get into. There was a test you could do on them with a volt/ohm meter. There were 4 terminals on the battery where it connected to the laptop. I think you did the voltage check from 1 and 4 and if it was under 11 volts even after a re-charge the battery is bad. If the voltage was over 11 volts you then measured the resistance between terminals 3 and 4 . The resistance had to be in the range from something like 4 to 20 to 30k ohms. If the resistance was outside of this range you need to replace the battery. If it was correct you need to replace the system board. These batteries have a thermal fuse (of sorts) in them that regulated how much of a charge they needed. After repeated charging the heat would burn it up and battery would have a internal open circuit or short out. The place where I worked had dozens upon dozens of TP 600,E,X 760's (many types), 770,X . They were/are great laptops but those batteries in the TP600's SUCKED really bad.
I wonder what ohio's rule is. I have known quite a few people that have in dash video that could watch it while driving. The people I knew were smart enough to not watch or at least turn the display down or away and just listen to the audio. The problem as I see it is we need technical minded people in washington. The politicians that think a computer is a person that did complex firing solutions for the dept of war needs to be educated or asked to step down.
What about the other people in the car that are not driving? If I put a in-dash dvd player in my car and get the head rest replaced with in head rest video monitors for the back seat. The person sitting in the passenger seat next to the driver would be watching the in dash monitor and the people in the back seat would be watching the one's in front of their seat. I was looking at doing this to my car (my cousins husband own a car audio shop). He showed all the stuff you can do to the car which was amazing...like dolby digital, 5 channel dsp's/amps. I saw a caddy escalade he had in his shop with a couple game systems and lcd monitors... Another point I could make is what is the difference between navigator on the monitor and say the matrix?
The ones talking on the cell phone while watching tv and reaching into the back seat while driving will be cleansing the gene pool.;) When they miss the turn in the off ramp and go sailing into the air....hopefully a commercial will come on and they will see what is happening. LOL
I have used qmail for quite a few years now and it is great! Installing it and configuring it was 1000% easier then sendmail. Virtual domains are so simple in qmail. I don't even want to think about doing this with sendmail, gives me a headache just thinking about it. If you install vpopmail available from Inter7. makes the domain management even easier plus it works mysql. I know I will never switch.
I guess that would be the same argument of Linux version Microsoft. Linux may have commercial support but it is still 'free'. Inter7. (among others) provide commercial support for qmail and their products like Vpopmail (virtual mail add-on for Qmail). Vpopmail is free also. Many companies use Qmail like Netzero...if I remember correctly they use qmail for all their smtp and possibly their pop3.
I forgot about how graphical games are getting now. I am not much of a game player...not since the wolf3d doom/doomII. I noticed on some of the boxes when I was shopping for xmas that the req. for some of the games were quite high. One wanted (for good game play not the min.. suggested) p3 500 256 mb, 128mb video card. The game was on 4 cd's. I guess my minimalist is coming out. I use to be bleeding edge but I have slowed down...I damn near 30 already.:) My p4 2ghz will fit me for a while.
I will agree with you there. It just seems to be a large amount of power to be able to day to day work. With the os's getting larger and more demanding (graphically and code bloat) we will need faster cpu's but it is just a matter of when. What is going to keep the sales up is govt. and corporations that need to refresh their pc's every 3 to 5 years. For the typical computer user they are probably going to be to going from 2ghz to 5ghz, to dual 8ghz,etc etc.
That would really hurt AMD but I don't think they would be gone. Other devices that use processors maybe what keeps them a float like pda's, pvr's. The whole cpu market is going to slow down more so then now. We are at the point where you can get a nice pc for $700 and a 6 month old one for $400 which is only 4% slower then the $700 one. What can you not do with 2.0ghz p4 or AMD 2200+? I can burn a cd while listening to mp3's chatting in msn/icq with 4 or 5 browser windows open. The processor (p4 2ghz) is only at 50% if that. Point is, once every one that wants a pc has it why would they need anything else? Is 4ghz going to much more then what you have now? The server industry will help keep both chip makers running but as far as desktop/laptops go it will slow down.
I don't see the problem with cost. I would say the typical family has 1 phone line that they pay $20 to $30 a month for. Now add the dialup which is around $15 to $25 a month. When you add the two together you get about $40 a month or more. In some cases families have a second line just for the computer. In this case I don't see where price is an issue....20 for the phone and 20 for isp. You can get a cable modem for $40 to $50 a month and get faster access. They may not need faster but it doesn't tie up your phone line. It all comes down to not knowing what it is and see the HUGH price of $40 a month...
It is time to start banning some more things. We can start with banning markers. Once we have no more pens then we will start banning news services for leaking this information to the public. Now that we have no news then we need to shut down the internet. The benefit of that is we stop piracy, online gambling and porn.:)
I don't have a tivo or etc but I do use a vcr to tape the few shows I watch. When I am watching my show I fast forward over the commercial spots. Some shows I can watch in 40 mins and others only 50 depending on the amount and length of the spots. The problem is that they are now pointing out as a 'added' feature that you can skip the commercial. If I remember correctly didn't they have vcr's that have a commercial skip? Mine is 2 or 3 years old so I don't know what is on the new vcr's. The commercials don't bother me anyway when I watch live (non taped). When I am watching tv and the commercial's come on I just browse through directv's channel guide...the picture is still shown in the upper left corner of the screen but I ignore it while seeing what else is on the other 100+ channels.;)
Kinda ironic seeing that is how M$crosoft does their tech support.;) Another way to look at is that they are waiting for the check to clear before they support it.
That is a good question....It was kinda funny to me because I saw that story before I loaded slashdot and email some of my friends and basically said the same thing.;)
I'm sure they have some good ones but if they are 'really' good they don't stay and move on.
Directv carrys UPN in the cleveland ohio area at least, I am still ticked that they don't carry WB.
I want to get a dvr but I don't know which one to get. I am just half tempted to just get lifeline cable from timewarner (aka satan) just so I get my local channels on feed then just hookup a couple vcr's. I like my directv and would never go back to cable....the channel guide and picture/sound quality is worth it to me. For now I using the ole rabbit ears on my tv just for the wb.
This story should be renamed "This just in from the is this really necessary department". 20 ghz?, my fingers only type at one speed....pretty soon the slowest part of the computer is going to be human.:)
I will agree with that. ATi when it comes to their software is worse then mickeysoft. I had an all-in-wonder 32mb card and using the tv tuner part would lock my machine up. I spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone with them twice to get it to work. I finally got pissed and took it out and got a viper v770 32mb and a haupauge tv pci card....all is fine. I gave that ATi card to my friend and he had the same problems and he spent 2 hours on the phone with them.
I think this winter I will upgrade my card to a geforce3 and a 17" or 19" flat panel , if the prices come down more.
Re:I still think the DSL companies are a conspirac
on
DSL Woes
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· Score: 1
It must be the management at NEO then because I have been hearing that the cable modems are great.
I have read many times on/. that the cable modems are great. It is a shame that NEO is like the way they are. My friend told me his email goes down but only the smtp side or the pop3 fairly often and sometimes completely. The news server is the same way, it will loose groups and they reappear.
He finally had it with the mail so he using my server for mail.
Re:I still think the DSL companies are a conspirac
on
DSL Woes
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· Score: 2
Cable is not always the solution, here is the Akron area of ohio (an hour south of cleveland) the cable speeds in places really suck bad. My friend gets anywhere between 20k to 70k on transfers. He was excited the one day and emailed me saying he actually d/l'd something at 109k, the first time in a year or more.
Another friend about 40 mins from him in another city gets over 300k most of the time.
This all has to do with how many people in your area have the cable modems.
This can be all solved if TWC would get more bandwidth but TWC isn't that smart, hell they merged with AOL.
I had a cable modem for a month (it was a free trial). It started out pretty fast, pushing 200k but by the end of the month I was down to 45k.
Conspiracy maybe? Who knows. I am just going to stick with my 128k isdn, dsl is far away from me (23,000 something ft). Besides with my isdn I have the ability to run servers and I like that. TWC doesn't let you at least they don't here.
That is very true, I get pissed when I accidentally use a mac machine that isn't a free one and see the dreaded $1.5 charge against my account some machines tell you some don't. Useless is a very good way to describe that age verify scheme..I think eventually the credit card companies should have to come forward and start monitoring this. They every so often complain about their consumer outstanding debt being in the billions and growing. If they don't then I feel they are to blame for it as much as the consumer. I think they should have the credit card companies be like a middle man in e-biz sites..like the CCbill and Ibill etc sites. For example you make an account on the cc companies site using encriptions (like pgp and etc) e-mail the user of the card when a transaction is processed for that card and make his or hers reply to that be the determining factor of wether or not the transaction is going to be accepted or not. I think adding a few more steps like that to an e-biz purchase wouldn't be to troublesome for people to do. This may have some flaws and is not perfect but what do we have in place now that is any better or worse?
I don't know. Personally I don't trust them because the required info is enough to use it in a transaction. The only thing that is more scary than that is to use a mac/check card that is tied directly to your bank account. Which raises another question about this type of verification. A minor can get a checking account at a bank. With most checking accounts now days they automatically get a mac card. They are mostly support by visa or mastercard. How can these companies verify that they are a minor? To the merchant they see it as a visa/mastercard. When I got my checking account about 8 years or more ago you had to ask for mac cards (at least at the bank I used at the time). I got the card after I was 18 because of a requirement the bank had where you had to have the account open in good standing for a year before getting a card.
Whenever I see a site that wants to use my credit card to verify I am not a minor I just close that page out and forget about it. It sounds to shady to me...sorta like a clerk or other person at a department store saying "Let me hold your wallet while you try on the new pants". Is all or some of your money going to be there let alone your wallet for that matter going to be there when you get back? That is the same difference between these places wanting to verify your age by credit card. Just my $.00000002 worth (2cents after taxes and depreciation)
BBS's have evolved into telnet available systems. The thing that killed bbs's wasn't the internet, it was the sysop's that gave up. There were and still are software to convert your bbs to the internet they just didn't do it. I don't blame most of the sysop's because they were our age (20's) 10 to 15 years ago and now they have families with other responsibilites. Here is a link to a site that maintains a bbs list that has been active since '84 (i think). BBS's will never die...there will always be interest in it IMHO. Check out my friends bbs at www.dsbbs.net . Here is the link to list. www.usbbs.org
I don't know if the previous post was comparing it to mandrake 6 or 6.1 but 6.1 is pretty damn impressive...I have tried 2.2 and have 2.3 in a ISO but haven't burned it yet. I think as a linux community they are doing pretty good.
Slashdot Mirror
I was surprised that ohio got it before much of the us. I have had mine for a month now. They had them in the akron, ohio around may...can't remember.
I really like it. It changes channels pretty well no video glitches like the other digital box (it was like watching a avi on a 386sx with 512k video). The quality is pretty good, i forget i am watching a recorded show instead of the live feed.
I use to work on IBM thinkpads back in 96 till about june of 2000. I was (still am if it didn't expire already) trained on them. The thinkpad 600's had some really bad batteries. If my memory is correct I believe there was even a service bulletin about them. I can't get that system any more but it was a special website certified techs could get into.
There was a test you could do on them with a volt/ohm meter. There were 4 terminals on the battery where it connected to the laptop. I think you did the voltage check from 1 and 4 and if it was under 11 volts even after a re-charge the battery is bad. If the voltage was over 11 volts you then measured the resistance between terminals 3 and 4 . The resistance had to be in the range from something like 4 to 20 to 30k ohms. If the resistance was outside of this range you need to replace the battery. If it was correct you need to replace the system board.
These batteries have a thermal fuse (of sorts) in them that regulated how much of a charge they needed. After repeated charging the heat would burn it up and battery would have a internal open circuit or short out.
The place where I worked had dozens upon dozens of TP 600,E,X 760's (many types), 770,X . They were/are great laptops but those batteries in the TP600's SUCKED really bad.
I wonder what ohio's rule is. I have known quite a few people that have in dash video that could watch it while driving. The people I knew were smart enough to not watch or at least turn the display down or away and just listen to the audio.
The problem as I see it is we need technical minded people in washington. The politicians that think a computer is a person that did complex firing solutions for the dept of war needs to be educated or asked to step down.
What about the other people in the car that are not driving?
If I put a in-dash dvd player in my car and get the head rest replaced with in head rest video monitors for the back seat. The person sitting in the passenger seat next to the driver would be watching the in dash monitor and the people in the back seat would be watching the one's in front of their seat.
I was looking at doing this to my car (my cousins husband own a car audio shop). He showed all the stuff you can do to the car which was amazing...like dolby digital, 5 channel dsp's/amps. I saw a caddy escalade he had in his shop with a couple game systems and lcd monitors...
Another point I could make is what is the difference between navigator on the monitor and say the matrix?
The ones talking on the cell phone while watching tv and reaching into the back seat while driving will be cleansing the gene pool. ;) When they miss the turn in the off ramp and go sailing into the air....hopefully a commercial will come on and they will see what is happening. LOL
I have used qmail for quite a few years now and it is great! Installing it and configuring it was 1000% easier then sendmail. Virtual domains are so simple in qmail. I don't even want to think about doing this with sendmail, gives me a headache just thinking about it. If you install vpopmail available from
Inter7. makes the domain management even easier plus it works mysql.
I know I will never switch.
I guess that would be the same argument of Linux version Microsoft. Linux may have commercial support but it is still 'free'. Inter7. (among others) provide commercial support for qmail and their products like Vpopmail (virtual mail add-on for Qmail). Vpopmail is free also. ...if I remember correctly they use qmail for all their smtp and possibly their pop3.
Many companies use Qmail like Netzero
I forgot about how graphical games are getting now. I am not much of a game player...not since the wolf3d doom/doomII . :) My p4 2ghz will fit me for a while.
I noticed on some of the boxes when I was shopping for xmas that the req. for some of the games were quite high. One wanted (for good game play not the min.. suggested) p3 500 256 mb, 128mb video card. The game was on 4 cd's.
I guess my minimalist is coming out. I use to be bleeding edge but I have slowed down...I damn near 30 already.
I will agree with you there. It just seems to be a large amount of power to be able to day to day work. ,etc etc.
With the os's getting larger and more demanding (graphically and code bloat) we will need faster cpu's but it is just a matter of when.
What is going to keep the sales up is govt. and corporations that need to refresh their pc's every 3 to 5 years. For the typical computer user they are probably going to be to going from 2ghz to 5ghz, to dual 8ghz
That would really hurt AMD but I don't think they would be gone. Other devices that use processors maybe what keeps them a float like pda's, pvr's.
The whole cpu market is going to slow down more so then now. We are at the point where you can get a nice pc for $700 and a 6 month old one for $400 which is only 4% slower then the $700 one.
What can you not do with 2.0ghz p4 or AMD 2200+?
I can burn a cd while listening to mp3's chatting in msn/icq with 4 or 5 browser windows open. The processor (p4 2ghz) is only at 50% if that.
Point is, once every one that wants a pc has it why would they need anything else? Is 4ghz going to much more then what you have now?
The server industry will help keep both chip makers running but as far as desktop/laptops go it will slow down.
I don't see the problem with cost. I would say the typical family has 1 phone line that they pay $20 to $30 a month for. Now add the dialup which is around $15 to $25 a month. When you add the two together you get about $40 a month or more. In some cases families have a second line just for the computer. In this case I don't see where price is an issue....20 for the phone and 20 for isp. You can get a cable modem for $40 to $50 a month and get faster access. They may not need faster but it doesn't tie up your phone line.
It all comes down to not knowing what it is and see the HUGH price of $40 a month...
It is time to start banning some more things. We can start with banning markers. Once we have no more pens then we will start banning news services for leaking this information to the public. Now that we have no news then we need to shut down the internet. The benefit of that is we stop piracy, online gambling and porn. :)
I don't have a tivo or etc but I do use a vcr to tape the few shows I watch. When I am watching my show I fast forward over the commercial spots. Some shows I can watch in 40 mins and others only 50 depending on the amount and length of the spots. ;)
The problem is that they are now pointing out as a 'added' feature that you can skip the commercial. If I remember correctly didn't they have vcr's that have a commercial skip? Mine is 2 or 3 years old so I don't know what is on the new vcr's.
The commercials don't bother me anyway when I watch live (non taped). When I am watching tv and the commercial's come on I just browse through directv's channel guide...the picture is still shown in the upper left corner of the screen but I ignore it while seeing what else is on the other 100+ channels.
Kinda ironic seeing that is how M$crosoft does their tech support. ;) Another way to look at is that they are waiting for the check to clear before they support it.
That is a good question....It was kinda funny to me because I saw that story before I loaded slashdot and email some of my friends and basically said the same thing. ;)
I'm sure they have some good ones but if they are 'really' good they don't stay and move on.
Directv carrys UPN in the cleveland ohio area at least, I am still ticked that they don't carry WB.
I want to get a dvr but I don't know which one to get. I am just half tempted to just get lifeline cable from timewarner (aka satan) just so I get my local channels on feed then just hookup a couple vcr's. I like my directv and would never go back to cable....the channel guide and picture/sound quality is worth it to me. For now I using the ole rabbit ears on my tv just for the wb.
This story should be renamed "This just in from the is this really necessary department". 20 ghz?, my fingers only type at one speed....pretty soon the slowest part of the computer is going to be human. :)
I will agree with that. ATi when it comes to their software is worse then mickeysoft. I had an all-in-wonder 32mb card and using the tv tuner part would lock my machine up. I spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone with them twice to get it to work. I finally got pissed and took it out and got a viper v770 32mb and a haupauge tv pci card....all is fine. I gave that ATi card to my friend and he had the same problems and he spent 2 hours on the phone with them. I think this winter I will upgrade my card to a geforce3 and a 17" or 19" flat panel , if the prices come down more.
It must be the management at NEO then because I have been hearing that the cable modems are great. /. that the cable modems are great. It is a shame that NEO is like the way they are. My friend told me his email goes down but only the smtp side or the pop3 fairly often and sometimes completely. The news server is the same way, it will loose groups and they reappear.
I have read many times on
He finally had it with the mail so he using my server for mail.
Cable is not always the solution, here is the Akron area of ohio (an hour south of cleveland) the cable speeds in places really suck bad. My friend gets anywhere between 20k to 70k on transfers. He was excited the one day and emailed me saying he actually d/l'd something at 109k, the first time in a year or more. Another friend about 40 mins from him in another city gets over 300k most of the time. This all has to do with how many people in your area have the cable modems. This can be all solved if TWC would get more bandwidth but TWC isn't that smart, hell they merged with AOL. I had a cable modem for a month (it was a free trial). It started out pretty fast, pushing 200k but by the end of the month I was down to 45k. Conspiracy maybe? Who knows. I am just going to stick with my 128k isdn, dsl is far away from me (23,000 something ft). Besides with my isdn I have the ability to run servers and I like that. TWC doesn't let you at least they don't here.
That is very true, I get pissed when I accidentally use a mac machine that isn't a free one and see the dreaded $1.5 charge against my account some machines tell you some don't.
Useless is a very good way to describe that age verify scheme..I think eventually the credit card companies should have to come forward and start monitoring this. They every so often complain about their consumer outstanding debt being in the billions and growing. If they don't then I feel they are to blame for it as much as the consumer. I think they should have the credit card companies be like a middle man in e-biz sites..like the CCbill and Ibill etc sites.
For example you make an account on the cc companies site using encriptions (like pgp and etc) e-mail the user of the card when a transaction is processed for that card and make his or hers reply to that be the determining factor of wether or not the transaction is going to be accepted or not.
I think adding a few more steps like that to an e-biz purchase wouldn't be to troublesome for people to do.
This may have some flaws and is not perfect but what do we have in place now that is any better or worse?
I don't know. Personally I don't trust them because the required info is enough to use it in a transaction. The only thing that is more scary than that is to use a mac/check card that is tied directly to your bank account. Which raises another question about this type of verification.
A minor can get a checking account at a bank. With most checking accounts now days they automatically get a mac card. They are mostly support by visa or mastercard. How can these companies verify that they are a minor? To the merchant they see it as a visa/mastercard.
When I got my checking account about 8 years or more ago you had to ask for mac cards (at least at the bank I used at the time). I got the card after I was 18 because of a requirement the bank had where you had to have the account open in good standing for a year before getting a card.
Whenever I see a site that wants to use my credit card to verify I am not a minor I just close that page out and forget about it. It sounds to shady to me...sorta like a clerk or other person at a department store saying "Let me hold your wallet while you try on the new pants". Is all or some of your money going to be there let alone your wallet for that matter going to be there when you get back? That is the same difference between these places wanting to verify your age by credit card. Just my $.00000002 worth (2cents after taxes and depreciation)
BBS's have evolved into telnet available systems.
The thing that killed bbs's wasn't the internet, it was the sysop's that gave up. There were and still are software to convert your bbs to the internet they just didn't do it. I don't blame most of the sysop's because they were our age (20's) 10 to 15 years ago and now they have families with other responsibilites. Here is a link to a site that maintains a bbs list that has been active since '84 (i think). BBS's will never die...there will always be interest in it IMHO. Check out my friends bbs at www.dsbbs.net . Here is the link to list.
www.usbbs.org
I don't know if the previous post was comparing it to mandrake 6 or 6.1 but 6.1 is pretty damn impressive...I have tried 2.2 and have 2.3 in a ISO but haven't burned it yet. I think as a linux community they are doing pretty good.