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User: mikeylebeau

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Comments · 55

  1. Re:ugh on New Federal Government Stance on Internet Taxes · · Score: 1

    What I don't understand is if the federal government just set up a federal standard sales tax, we wouldn't have to fuck with all these states coming up with their own taxes and then whining when out-of-state sales don't have tax. This would solve not only what the government sees as a "problem" in the no-Internet-sales-tax issue, as well as any other interstate orders, such as mail ordering, etc. Sure, we may not like it because we'd have to pay Internet sales tax, but looking at it from the government's standpoint, I'm surprised they haven't talked about this more.

  2. Re:A picture of the thing.... on Japanese Robot Gives Backrubs, Runs Errands · · Score: 1

    Hehe as we say here in Amsterdam "typical Dutch" ;)

    But of course I'm not really supposed to say that cuz I'm American.. All you Dutch people love to make fun of yourselves but I don't think i oughta make fun of you too... ;) But you guys sure _do_ make it easy.

    Ah, who am I kidding. I love you crazy folk.

  3. Vaio Battery on Portable Fuel Cell Technology · · Score: 1

    I have a Sony Vaio Z505RX I'm typing on right now, and I snagged what they call the 4.5 hour battery or something but it actually lasts about 6 hours. Any of you frustrated about your 1.5 hour battery on the Vaio should nab one, they're well worth it. Oh and PS they make the VAIO a tad bit heavier and the battery itself is a little larger. But like I said, it makes a world of a difference.

  4. Re:what if I dont want it to run in windows? on Free Be · · Score: 1

    will there be a way I can partition it for BeFS? or will this be something that only comes with the "special edition" downloading the OS as a single file is all well and nice, but I don't want to run it off of FAT, ugh!!

    I believe this version of BeOS, free or not, will work like every other, except with the added option of trying it through Windows if you don't want to bother partitioning. Otherwise, it should come with a slimmed down version of PartitionMagic for Be that will run you through an easy wizard to create a partition for Be and then load the Be installer.

  5. Great Move for Be on Free Be · · Score: 2

    I think this will be a great thing for Be. I've been a Be supporter for quite some time and got to be friends with a few guys there, and after chatting with them I think one of Be's biggest problems is getting the word out about their OS. Not just that it exists but why it's great. I think there are plenty of people who would jump at the chance if they knew more about what makes it special. I think making a free downloadable version of the OS is the perfect way to get people to check it out, as most people who are merely curious won't go out and buy it, regardless of the low price. I also think including all the dev tools in the free version is a great way to encourage development for the OS.

    Way to go Be!

  6. Re:Why Change? on Apple to release PalmOS device? · · Score: 2

    The number IV is apparently not used because it clashes (I'm not sure, either the glyph IV or the word/number 4) with a naughty word in some Oriental language. I think it is also something to do with skipping a number to make it obvious that this is a new generation.

    Actually none of that is true, but just rumors.

    I asked a friend of mine who works for Palm Computing why they skipped numbers like that and the only reason they did it is because IV and VI, for example, look far too similar that the general public may easily confuse the two which would definitely not be a good thing for marketing. That's the only reason they ever skipped numbers like they do.

  7. Only thing left... on AOL and Time Warner Confirm Merger Plans · · Score: 1

    If they want to "complete" your Internet experience through one company, I think the only type of service they're lacking is an online grocery service such as Webvan.com.

    Now if they hook up with/acquire someone like that I think they're set.

  8. What's to stop this from working? on Uruguayan SuSE Reseller Trying to Trademark Linux · · Score: 1

    Just as this Uruguayan company has registered for the trademark on the name "LinuxTECH", which was previously un-trademarked, what's to stop this from working, seeing as how "Linux" is also a previously un-trademarked name?

  9. Re:Bang! on Sony Bets Its Future On PlayStation II Console? · · Score: 1

    Um.. I'm afraid you don't realize how powerful the PS2 is. I don't have the specs in front of me, but it's _damn_ fast. Much faster than any other console system we've seen out there and frankly, blows away the PC as a gaming console when it comes to speed and graphics. (This is not to say I really _expect_ it to blow away the PC's market, but all I'm saying is the quality of the graphics is beyond what we've seen on the regular consumer PC.) Also, they haven't even managed to emulate the Dreamcast very well yet, and struggled quite a bit with the N64. Those systems are _kilometers_ behind the PS2 in terms of power, so I don't think we'll see any emulation of the PS2, at least for _quite_ some time.

  10. Will this spawn UT cheats? on Open Source Elements of Unreal Tournament Released · · Score: 1

    I know that the release of open source code for, what was it, Quake 2?, created a bunch of new compiles of the software with cheats for multiplayer. I wonder if this UT source release will allow for that sort of thing? If it does, what will the UT people do to counteract this problem?

    Just some food for thought.

  11. Re:Someone should make Linux-branded diapers on Windows 99 Beer and Cigarettes · · Score: 1

    Alright! An adult on Slashdot who's not so insecure that they have to take it out on their 16-year-old peers.. ("peers" used intentionally :)

  12. Re:Spelling Mistake (not) on Citifi.com Denies Alternate Browser Access · · Score: 1

    Nevertheless the correct English spelling is "denies".

    Funny thing about languages... They tend to _manipulate_ things for their own purposes, not always true to their roots. :)

  13. Re:Spelling Mistake (not) on Citifi.com Denies Alternate Browser Access · · Score: 1

    You're welcome... Just a dumb little pet peeve of mine. :) How come I don't get no "Informative" points for that? :( hehe..

  14. Re:VW.com also! on Audi Pulls Website Because Of Y2K · · Score: 1

    As is audi.com. (Not the USA site.)

  15. Spelling Mistake on Citifi.com Denies Alternate Browser Access · · Score: 1

    In that article title... it's "denies" not "denys". :)

  16. The Term Y2K on When Does Y2K Begin? · · Score: 1

    I wish everyone would stop using the term Y2K... I'm quite sick of hearing it.

    I don't remember who it was that said it, but someone said "The need to abbreviate Year 2000 to Y2K is just the sort of reason we're having the 2-digit year problem in the first place."

  17. Re:Change the date! on When Does Y2K Begin? · · Score: 1

    Actually, Mr. Coward Sir, if you get yourself an account on Slashdot (It's easy, free and fun! Sign up now!) then you can set the preferences to show you so-called "military" time as opposed to AM/PM, which I'm quite partial to myself now that I've been living in Europe for 4 months.

    Enjoy!

  18. Re:Fry's == BestBuy if Costco == CircleK on On Keeping Geeks in a Metropolitan Area · · Score: 1

    My brother and I decided that Fry's is some sort of center of the universe in which you can get _anything_ you want. Absolutely anything.

    "Ethiopian children? Oh, I think that's on Aisle 23..."

  19. Re:What the heck is OmniSky? on User Review of OmniSky Wireless service for Palm V · · Score: 1

    OmniSky (www.omnisky.com) is merely the network that is used for wireless Palm net access with the particular hardware for the Palm V discussed in this article. Palms do not in fact have built in modems; there are external modems available for the Palm, but the big deal about this technology is that wireless net access is now becoming a feasible thing for the Palm, and there's actually a market for competition between forms of access now. That's a big plus because it will drive prices down and quality up (theoretically... :).

  20. Re:How does this compare to a Palm VII? on User Review of OmniSky Wireless service for Palm V · · Score: 1

    I say if you've already got a Palm V go for the Palm V add-on piece for $399. A Palm VII will set you back $499 whereas this add-on piece will only be another $399, and will give you more flexibility of service. (See my earlier post.) Also, the Palm V with add-on is a good bit smaller than a Palm VII.

    Good luck on a decision. :)

  21. Re:ooooh I like on User Review of OmniSky Wireless service for Palm V · · Score: 1

    Oh and if it was a bit confusing as to why I said I _have_ a Palm VII and then was discussing how I _had_ such and such a service, that's because now I don't really use the wireless function of it because I live in Amsterdam whereas I lived in Los Altos, CA when I first bought the thing and of course the Palm.Net service is only nationwide. Does anyone know of any European solutions with a Palm VII? I doubt they exist but just in case...

  22. Re:ooooh I like on User Review of OmniSky Wireless service for Palm V · · Score: 2

    Apparently, it's a cellular modem, probably 9600 baud.

    That's not true, actually.. Surprisingly, the Palm VII (and I've had one now for a good 5-6 months) runs off a radio signal, not a cellular modem. There's no modem part involved (i.e. no modulating/demodulating).

    You're correct about there being no full TCP/IP implementation. You can't run any normal TCP/IP application, but only the special PQA's (Palm Query Applications) which are basically just extremely simple HTML-based apps which can request very simple HTML pages from an actual HTTP server. However, the Palm VII itself doesn't actually hit the HTTP server, but goes through the Palm.Net proxy server, which reads the requested page and (1) strips the page of all images unless otherwise told by the page (via a metatag META NAME="PalmComputingPlatform" CONTENT="YES" is it I believe (this is knowledge from some time back I haven't used in a while)) and (2) then compresses the page into a format the Palm VII can decompress in order to use as little precious bandwidth as possible.

    See, that's the trick about PQA's. They follow the usual "minimalist" strategy of Palm Computing, which is to avoid all the fancy things that only attract attention and don't really serve any major function and stick to the things that are really useful and do them well. The Palm VII was initially, and still is, criticized for this, however, in this age of the Internet in which many people are caught up by the idea of bigger, better, and flashier. However Palm realized that the most viable option for them was to take a step back from all that and find a type of wireless service that was viable for the world of today (or at least the world of 6 months to a year ago, and we all know how different that can be from the world of today when we're talking electronics). It wasn't yet feasible to create a wireless service with unlimited access, or at least wasn't easy to pull off, so they created a service that was based on how many KB you used in a month. I had the 150 K/month plan for $24.95/mo I believe it was, and while this seems like nothing (the size of the Slashdot front page perhaps? :), when you're using a PQA it really is quite a bit, unless you're doing lots of massive data downloading, such as lots and lots of email. I found it honestly hard to run through 150KB/month.

    However, if I understand the Palm V with the OmniSky wireless service, it allows you to use PQA's (which was previously not possible as the Palm VII ran Palm OS 3.2, which handled PQA's, and all the other Palms ran Palm OS 3.0 or 3.1) and I'm not sure how they managed this through a Palm V (but I knew it could be done with enough expertise) and can also run regular TCP/IP programs, i.e. AvantGo, ProxiWeb, or an email client. Correct me if I'm wrong about that, but I think that makes for quite a flexible environment. You can choose the OmniSky per-KB plan (I don't remember exactly what the costs are but I'm sure they're available at OmniSky.com) and just use PQA's (with the flexibility of being able to use any browser, etc in an emergency) or you could choose the more expensive unlimited plan and have the ability to use PQA's or regular TCP/IP progs no matter what.

    FWIW, I find PQA's much nicer to run on a Palm screen than full-fledged web pages, because PQA's are optimized for a black and white screen of that size whereas most webpages certainly are not and a poor job is usually done of representing them on a 160x160 pixels screen. Also, I'm not sure what the speed of this new Palm V wireless modem is, but PQA's also load much faster on a slow connection than a large web page would.

    Anyway hope this info's useful to someone, and I didn't just waste 15 minutes typing it all up. :)

  23. No contact? on Mars Polar Lander Remains Silent · · Score: 0

    No response from the lander? Hmm... maybe it was running NT, anyone think of that?

  24. Microsoft Using Apache? on Latest Netcraft survey shows Apache increase · · Score: 1

    What's up with these reports I've heard of some MS pages running on Apache?

    The force is truly all-powerful. *g*

    -Mikey

  25. Interesting... on Your Next Pointer Device? · · Score: 1

    Straight from the page:

    There were no repetitive strain injuries caused by the usage of the mouse until we got the PC.

    Um.. Well considering that when we got the PC, we got the mouse, I guess there weren't many mouse-related injuries...before the mouse. Ha!

    But seriously, this mouse could be sorta nice for basic computing but when it comes to gaming and stuff you'd just need a mouse, hands down. So I'm happy with a regular ol' IntelliMouse Pro from now on.