This happened to me.
Several years ago a friend gave me a no-name pentiumX-233 that I use as web/email/firewall/proxy/etc box. It runs e-smith.
Sometimes when it reboots (it rarely reboots thanx to Linux) it plays "Fur Elise".
Pretty weird the first time it happened. I never figured out what caused it because a power-cycle would fix it.
Now thanks to the M$ knowledge base I can sleep better knowing that the machine is not posessed with the spirit of Ludwig Van Beethoven!
I read F451 back in high school for fun. I never was assigned to read it.
I read it again sometime in the last 20 years on paper.
I most recently read it couple of years ago on a PDA.
The most mind-blowing experience was when I listened to it as MP3s on my PC.
It was so ironic to be consuming the book without any paper or even print.
Next time will be on paper!
Steve Levy's 'Hackers' did a lot for me. That was pre-internet but during the BBS stage.
For several years my ISP used Star Wars theme music.
It's something that I'd never listen on my own but for some reason it made the hold time not so bad.
That was the early days for them and sometimes I was on hold for a looong time waiting to sort out billing issues.
A couple of years ago they changed over to all ads for their service and it's not near as nice.
Business must be better because now the hold time now is usually a minute or less.
Waaaaaay back in the early '80s I read an article in OMNI magazine that talked about how shuttle astronauts that played video games were better at working with the giant robotic arm. The article used the term 'telepresence' to describe the ability.
Makes perfect sense to me that a laproscopic surgeon would benefit the same way. The whole operation is done remotely with a video camera and instruments controlled from outside the patient's body.
I had two or three C64 systems that had an external 20MB hard drive connected.
Some company had developed a SCSI interface that plugged into the C64's interface port and had some clippies that grabbed onto a couple of places on the motherboard.
This gizmo created used some sort of funny partition trick to let you access all of that space.
I used these systems to develop commercial software for the C64 in BASIC way back when.
Sorry I don't remember more details, it was many years ago.
The 1541 floppy drive had 360K of storage.
Commodore later produced some 3.5 inch drives that I think had more storage space. There were also some memory upgrade cartridges available. I don't remember the capacities.
For a while I had a PET that had 2 external floppies that each had 1 MB of storage!
I have a friend who uses T-Mobile's dataservice this way. He has a bluetooth enabled laptop and Zaurus and can get online pretty much anywhere.
Another buddy has a PCMCIA card in his laptop and a service from Sprint (I think?) that gives him wireless access anywhere. The data service alone is $40/month with a limited transfer amount. It's faster than T-Mobile but cost more.
For mostly email I'd say the T-Mobile solution is the way to go.
Don't charge anything for it, not even a tip jar.
Advertise the service and encourage them to stay longer and buy more coffee and invite friends to switch from StarBucks to your shop.
Have them give you their MAC address and add them to the access list. Block those who abuse. Of course publish the rules first and give them the rules when they give you the MAC.
e-smith is a very easy to setup/use/admin firewall/gateway/router/etc that will run on little hardware and do all you want (plus more) for free.
You could even add a printer to the e-smith box to really attract the business users. Put a tip jar next to the printer.
Got a new Dell desktop box at work yesterday. Whizzy 2.2 gigahertz CPU and 512MB RAM.
Today I booted up XP to make sure the hardware worked. First time I ever used XP. Almost got sick.
Case opened without removing any screws. Removed cables from HD but left drive in place. Inserted HD that I brought from home. Dell even supplied extra rails inside the case to make it easy to install the drive.
Installed Mandrake 9.2. No more spyware or nasty XP.
If the suits insist on XP I just have to move the cables back to the original HD.
Ya, I know that I can multiboot, but this way I don't risk frying the XP drive if I'm never gonna touch it. Better to keep it safely unplugged.
I just saw a CF WiFI card at CompuUSA that has a rebate that takes it from $79 to $29. It's only good until the March 20th.
I don't have a Z and don't know if this card works with it or not, but the price looks right!
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This happened to me.
Several years ago a friend gave me a no-name pentiumX-233 that I use as web/email/firewall/proxy/etc box. It runs e-smith.
Sometimes when it reboots (it rarely reboots thanx to Linux) it plays "Fur Elise".
Pretty weird the first time it happened. I never figured out what caused it because a power-cycle would fix it.
Now thanks to the M$ knowledge base I can sleep better knowing that the machine is not posessed with the spirit of Ludwig Van Beethoven!
I read F451 back in high school for fun. I never was assigned to read it. I read it again sometime in the last 20 years on paper. I most recently read it couple of years ago on a PDA. The most mind-blowing experience was when I listened to it as MP3s on my PC. It was so ironic to be consuming the book without any paper or even print. Next time will be on paper!
Steve Levy's 'Hackers' did a lot for me. That was pre-internet but during the BBS stage.
For several years my ISP used Star Wars theme music. It's something that I'd never listen on my own but for some reason it made the hold time not so bad. That was the early days for them and sometimes I was on hold for a looong time waiting to sort out billing issues.
A couple of years ago they changed over to all ads for their service and it's not near as nice. Business must be better because now the hold time now is usually a minute or less.
Waaaaaay back in the early '80s I read an article in OMNI magazine that talked about how shuttle astronauts that played video games were better at working with the giant robotic arm. The article used the term 'telepresence' to describe the ability.
Makes perfect sense to me that a laproscopic surgeon would benefit the same way. The whole operation is done remotely with a video camera and instruments controlled from outside the patient's body.
I had two or three C64 systems that had an external 20MB hard drive connected.
Some company had developed a SCSI interface that plugged into the C64's interface port and had some clippies that grabbed onto a couple of places on the motherboard.
This gizmo created used some sort of funny partition trick to let you access all of that space.
I used these systems to develop commercial software for the C64 in BASIC way back when.
Sorry I don't remember more details, it was many years ago.
The 1541 floppy drive had 360K of storage. Commodore later produced some 3.5 inch drives that I think had more storage space. There were also some memory upgrade cartridges available. I don't remember the capacities.
For a while I had a PET that had 2 external floppies that each had 1 MB of storage!
I have a friend who uses T-Mobile's dataservice this way. He has a bluetooth enabled laptop and Zaurus and can get online pretty much anywhere.
Another buddy has a PCMCIA card in his laptop and a service from Sprint (I think?) that gives him wireless access anywhere. The data service alone is $40/month with a limited transfer amount. It's faster than T-Mobile but cost more.
For mostly email I'd say the T-Mobile solution is the way to go.
Don't charge anything for it, not even a tip jar. Advertise the service and encourage them to stay longer and buy more coffee and invite friends to switch from StarBucks to your shop.
Have them give you their MAC address and add them to the access list. Block those who abuse. Of course publish the rules first and give them the rules when they give you the MAC.
e-smith is a very easy to setup/use/admin firewall/gateway/router/etc that will run on little hardware and do all you want (plus more) for free. You could even add a printer to the e-smith box to really attract the business users. Put a tip jar next to the printer.
Got a new Dell desktop box at work yesterday. Whizzy 2.2 gigahertz CPU and 512MB RAM.
Today I booted up XP to make sure the hardware worked. First time I ever used XP. Almost got sick.
Case opened without removing any screws. Removed cables from HD but left drive in place. Inserted HD that I brought from home. Dell even supplied extra rails inside the case to make it easy to install the drive.
Installed Mandrake 9.2. No more spyware or nasty XP.
If the suits insist on XP I just have to move the cables back to the original HD.
Ya, I know that I can multiboot, but this way I don't risk frying the XP drive if I'm never gonna touch it. Better to keep it safely unplugged.
It's been a while, so I can't be specific, but there are definite references to Unix in 'A Deepness in the Sky'.
I just saw a CF WiFI card at CompuUSA that has a rebate that takes it from $79 to $29. It's only good until the March 20th. I don't have a Z and don't know if this card works with it or not, but the price looks right!
I do everyday. Handspring Visor Deluxe or Palm IIIc. And hopefully a Z soon!