CorpGov wants to track everyone. Everywhere. Always. Cash is difficult to monitor. With your Personal Tracking Device in your pocket, and your identify-linking electronic purchases absolutely tagged to you and you alone, CorpGov feasts. They get to do whatever they want with everything you do that they can track, and what is more definitive and commercially valuable than what you buy? And where? And when? So of course CorpGov is doing everything it can to sow the seeds of doubt about the safety of carrying cash, which they cannot so easily track. As if they held your interests in mind at all, let alone paramount. 'Cash Is Dangerous' is true to the degree that you are Sheeple.
Kobo rarely even gets mentioned in ereader discussions, but it is better than any other device on the market for myriad reasons, chief among which are that: (1) it reads just about every format ebooks have ever used; (2) It is arguably more easily independent of any vendor lock-in, walled-garden BS than any other ereader; and (3) it *functions* better than most ereaders in the first place.
Combined with Calibre, nothing can touch it. I have the Kobo Aura H2O with well over 1000 hours use and that device has definitely qualified among the 'cold dead fingers' realm of my possessions. Note that I avoid all non-locally-controllable anything like the plague, especially including walled-garden, proprietary-diseased clouds and their ilk, where I am supposed to trust some third party -- who holds my wellbeing in the lowest possible regard -- to act in my best interests. No thank you. The Kobo line is as close to Open Hardware ereaders as we are likely to see in the near future.
I concur, the Logitech K800 has been a delightful surprise throughout the more than three years I have owned it. Though I am not a gamer, I used to be a typesetter and routinely cruised at 120 wpm on multi-thousand-dollar typesetting machines with superb and rugged keyboards (I can't type that fast anymore; it takes more practice). Consequently I am ruthlessly picky about keyboards, and while the K800 does not resemble those typesetter ones, it does offer stroke and action better than any *computer* keyboard I have ever used, including the IBM Model M. The keyboard is silent, the battery lasts for weeks even when left constantly powered on, the backlight is far more useful and responsive than I had imagined, and so far there is no noticeable wear on keys or their markings, apart from the spacebar having a shiny place where my thumb hits it. Cleaning is easy; switch it off, wipe it down, switch it back on. Very highly recommended.
I build home systems sometimes for clients, and the Wife Factor is frequently the most critical aspect. This has been true since I started in 1985, but is more true now as computers have become essential to so many households.
In my experience, the Fractal Design cases (e.g, the Define R4) have two wife-pleasing qualities: (1) They are simple, elegant, unadorned museum quality sculpture-like mini-monoliths; and (2) They are literally almost completely silent. I don't mean merely quiet, I mean you cannot tell whether the system is on or off. This is with fans, not water cooling.
Understand that this may not solve your real problem, which may be the mere presence of the machine in the living room. What it will do is force an honest exposure of the real issue, and besides that you'll still have a great case you can migrate components into and out of for years and years. Also it means you don't need a new rig, just new clothes for for the rig you already have.
Note that I do not have any relationship with that company aside from buying their cases for some system builds where they fit best. I will say that they are superbly designed inside, and the designers obviously build systems themselves. You'll know what I mean if you get one.
I have an Osbourne, the 801st IBM PC ever built, a Compaq III lunchbox... you get the idea. Clones I built around XT-grade and AT-grade components. Old oscilloscopes used to see if we could detect emissions from nuclear weapons carried on USSR navy ships docked in ports, later adapted for saner uses.
Sitting amongst those piles of what to anyone else would be junk, knowing you built all of it and set it to useful purpose during its time, is... well. The feeling you describe.
I used to be able to read Just-O-Writer paper tape and make corrections for lines in a news story, bypassing regular procedure and cutting in common words with scissors and tape from other stories. This was yellow paper tape about an inch wide with holes punched in each line for one character.
Paper tape would be very difficult for NSA et al to infiltrate;-)
It is stark evidence of regression mentality that IRC got included in this 'list' in the first place.
Those who use it, in channels that are useful to them, know and understand that IRC remains wheel-like in terms of usefulness that need not be reinvented.
Freenode is an excellent example.
I suspect that those who disparage IRC haven't even the wherewithal to buy clues to understand how so much of the infrastructure and applications built using it, and upon which they depend in the same way that we depend upon breathable air, rely upon IRC channels to develop and maintain those underpinnings.
Some of them actually do have use, for example, if I add a NIC or three and put ClearOS on them to make an actual gateway/firewall/etc so I can put the client's compromised, obsolete, data-theft-oriented, crippled, piece of crap, 'free' end user 'router' (i.e., router-like device in the same sense as a Chicken McNugget bears relation to an actual Chicken) in Bridged Ethernet mode and protect them from an incredible percentage of malware.
It doesn't matter that they 'run like crap'. It isn't possible for the overwhelming majority of end users to ever make those old PCs even break a sweat when the PCs are replacing their 'routers'.
This solution becomes problematic basically in three cases: (1) physical space is at a premium; (2) noise is a problem in living space; and/or (3) power consumption is a huge issue.
Mine certainly will. I have thirteen of them, and ten still work.
That said, and as a former typesetter (you may know what that is, but most here won't) who cruised at 120 wpm on a 16-character LED 'display' on typesetting machines, and who loved the Model M as the most perfect approximation of industry-level typesetting keyboard feel and responsiveness...... try a Logitech K800.
It's a completely different kettle of fish. But I haven't been this pleased with a single component since... well, I don't remember. The Fractal Design cases are a recent competitor in this category, but before that I can't remember a component that elicited 'pry it loose from my cold dead fingers' lust like the K800 keyboard.
In my opinion it provides Cisco-like capability on any old PC you have lying around. That old PC almost certainly has more power and capability than any typical end-user-grade router in the $30 to $120 market.
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with ClearFoundation except that of a user since 2003.
You think *your* examples are bad??!
Well, brace yourselves for *this* horrendously inexcusable progress bar failure!!
It has been *FIVE YEARS* since this perfectly reasonable and absolutely vital functional operation was requested:
https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/1000... and *FIVE YEARS!* later, not a single release candidate has been forthcoming from the slacker devs of the Transmission project!
It is an outrage! How much longer must the Entitled End Users of the world suffer at the idle hands of callous and indifferent devs??!!
Pardon me, I must go and lie down before I dehydrate myself from the righteous mouth-frothing of the oppressed.
While I cannot imagine any one product will do all the things you mentioned as requirements, you might find most of the functions available in ClearOS (formerly known as ClarkConnect). You manage it primarily from a web-based interface which has pretty good granularity in terms of specific functions for specific users, and of course you can use the linux command line as well. These things are great for parking between the Intertubes and WinOS boxen, and I've been using them since 2003 for home and small business clients. Also, it will run on whatever ancient relic you have stashed in the basement computer graveyard. I have no connection with ClearOS other than as a user.
It has been some months since I read the manual for this thing -- to help a client in Italy solve a connection problem -- but I remember being impressed by its feature set and the granularity of control it offers, not least among them QOS.
I have no hands-on experience with this router, nor have I had time to read the responses already here. Hope this helps.
http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2800.html
Congratulations on your new cage! That sounds odd when said.
I don't contribute much, apart from exposing/. to those who might benefit but haven't yet found it.
I will take this opportunity to say "Thank you!" for more than a decade of the single most entertaining, informative, rewarding, gee-whiz stuff I have gotten from any site, ever. You guys do a splendid job, and I hope you will continue that effort, and that culture, forever.
Slashdot Mirror
CorpGov wants to track everyone. Everywhere. Always. Cash is difficult to monitor. With your Personal Tracking Device in your pocket, and your identify-linking electronic purchases absolutely tagged to you and you alone, CorpGov feasts. They get to do whatever they want with everything you do that they can track, and what is more definitive and commercially valuable than what you buy? And where? And when? So of course CorpGov is doing everything it can to sow the seeds of doubt about the safety of carrying cash, which they cannot so easily track. As if they held your interests in mind at all, let alone paramount. 'Cash Is Dangerous' is true to the degree that you are Sheeple.
Kobo rarely even gets mentioned in ereader discussions, but it is better than any other device on the market for myriad reasons, chief among which are that: (1) it reads just about every format ebooks have ever used; (2) It is arguably more easily independent of any vendor lock-in, walled-garden BS than any other ereader; and (3) it *functions* better than most ereaders in the first place.
Combined with Calibre, nothing can touch it. I have the Kobo Aura H2O with well over 1000 hours use and that device has definitely qualified among the 'cold dead fingers' realm of my possessions. Note that I avoid all non-locally-controllable anything like the plague, especially including walled-garden, proprietary-diseased clouds and their ilk, where I am supposed to trust some third party -- who holds my wellbeing in the lowest possible regard -- to act in my best interests. No thank you. The Kobo line is as close to Open Hardware ereaders as we are likely to see in the near future.
WinOS 10 is not so much an operating system as it is a thin client designed to control a product.
The product is you.
I concur, the Logitech K800 has been a delightful surprise throughout the more than three years I have owned it. Though I am not a gamer, I used to be a typesetter and routinely cruised at 120 wpm on multi-thousand-dollar typesetting machines with superb and rugged keyboards (I can't type that fast anymore; it takes more practice). Consequently I am ruthlessly picky about keyboards, and while the K800 does not resemble those typesetter ones, it does offer stroke and action better than any *computer* keyboard I have ever used, including the IBM Model M. The keyboard is silent, the battery lasts for weeks even when left constantly powered on, the backlight is far more useful and responsive than I had imagined, and so far there is no noticeable wear on keys or their markings, apart from the spacebar having a shiny place where my thumb hits it. Cleaning is easy; switch it off, wipe it down, switch it back on. Very highly recommended.
I build home systems sometimes for clients, and the Wife Factor is frequently the most critical aspect. This has been true since I started in 1985, but is more true now as computers have become essential to so many households.
In my experience, the Fractal Design cases (e.g, the Define R4) have two wife-pleasing qualities:
(1) They are simple, elegant, unadorned museum quality sculpture-like mini-monoliths; and
(2) They are literally almost completely silent. I don't mean merely quiet, I mean you cannot tell whether the system is on or off. This is with fans, not water cooling.
Understand that this may not solve your real problem, which may be the mere presence of the machine in the living room. What it will do is force an honest exposure of the real issue, and besides that you'll still have a great case you can migrate components into and out of for years and years. Also it means you don't need a new rig, just new clothes for for the rig you already have.
Note that I do not have any relationship with that company aside from buying their cases for some system builds where they fit best. I will say that they are superbly designed inside, and the designers obviously build systems themselves. You'll know what I mean if you get one.
Kindred soul.
I have an Osbourne, the 801st IBM PC ever built, a Compaq III lunchbox... you get the idea. Clones I built around XT-grade and AT-grade components. Old oscilloscopes used to see if we could detect emissions from nuclear weapons carried on USSR navy ships docked in ports, later adapted for saner uses.
Sitting amongst those piles of what to anyone else would be junk, knowing you built all of it and set it to useful purpose during its time, is ... well. The feeling you describe.
I used to be able to read Just-O-Writer paper tape and make corrections for lines in a news story, bypassing regular procedure and cutting in common words with scissors and tape from other stories. This was yellow paper tape about an inch wide with holes punched in each line for one character.
Paper tape would be very difficult for NSA et al to infiltrate ;-)
RBBS!
PCBoard!
Wildcat!!
PC Pursuit!
*Three* entire .GIF pr0n images in a *single night* of 2400 baud wondrousness!
The Cloud!
Vaporize *your* data *today*!!!
It is stark evidence of regression mentality that IRC got included in this 'list' in the first place.
Those who use it, in channels that are useful to them, know and understand that IRC remains wheel-like in terms of usefulness that need not be reinvented.
Freenode is an excellent example.
I suspect that those who disparage IRC haven't even the wherewithal to buy clues to understand how so much of the infrastructure and applications built using it, and upon which they depend in the same way that we depend upon breathable air, rely upon IRC channels to develop and maintain those underpinnings.
See my reply to 'IBM Model M'. You might be interested. ... and nano rules
I do this too.
Some of them actually do have use, for example, if I add a NIC or three and put ClearOS on them to make an actual gateway/firewall/etc so I can put the client's compromised, obsolete, data-theft-oriented, crippled, piece of crap, 'free' end user 'router' (i.e., router-like device in the same sense as a Chicken McNugget bears relation to an actual Chicken) in Bridged Ethernet mode and protect them from an incredible percentage of malware.
It doesn't matter that they 'run like crap'. It isn't possible for the overwhelming majority of end users to ever make those old PCs even break a sweat when the PCs are replacing their 'routers'.
This solution becomes problematic basically in three cases: (1) physical space is at a premium; (2) noise is a problem in living space; and/or (3) power consumption is a huge issue.
Mine certainly will. I have thirteen of them, and ten still work.
That said, and as a former typesetter (you may know what that is, but most here won't) who cruised at 120 wpm on a 16-character LED 'display' on typesetting machines, and who loved the Model M as the most perfect approximation of industry-level typesetting keyboard feel and responsiveness... ... try a Logitech K800.
It's a completely different kettle of fish. But I haven't been this pleased with a single component since ... well, I don't remember. The Fractal Design cases are a recent competitor in this category, but before that I can't remember a component that elicited 'pry it loose from my cold dead fingers' lust like the K800 keyboard.
The Cloud! Vaporize *your* data *today*!!!
You could do worse than take a look at http://www.clearfoundation.com/ and the community edition of ClearOS.
In my opinion it provides Cisco-like capability on any old PC you have lying around. That old PC almost certainly has more power and capability than any typical end-user-grade router in the $30 to $120 market.
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with ClearFoundation except that of a user since 2003.
You think *your* examples are bad??! Well, brace yourselves for *this* horrendously inexcusable progress bar failure!! It has been *FIVE YEARS* since this perfectly reasonable and absolutely vital functional operation was requested: https://trac.transmissionbt.com/ticket/1000 ... and *FIVE YEARS!* later, not a single release candidate has been forthcoming from the slacker devs of the Transmission project!
It is an outrage! How much longer must the Entitled End Users of the world suffer at the idle hands of callous and indifferent devs??!!
Pardon me, I must go and lie down before I dehydrate myself from the righteous mouth-frothing of the oppressed.
While I cannot imagine any one product will do all the things you mentioned as requirements, you might find most of the functions available in ClearOS (formerly known as ClarkConnect). You manage it primarily from a web-based interface which has pretty good granularity in terms of specific functions for specific users, and of course you can use the linux command line as well. These things are great for parking between the Intertubes and WinOS boxen, and I've been using them since 2003 for home and small business clients. Also, it will run on whatever ancient relic you have stashed in the basement computer graveyard. I have no connection with ClearOS other than as a user.
It has been some months since I read the manual for this thing -- to help a client in Italy solve a connection problem -- but I remember being impressed by its feature set and the granularity of control it offers, not least among them QOS. I have no hands-on experience with this router, nor have I had time to read the responses already here. Hope this helps. http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2800.html
Congratulations on your new cage! That sounds odd when said. I don't contribute much, apart from exposing /. to those who might benefit but haven't yet found it.
I will take this opportunity to say "Thank you!" for more than a decade of the single most entertaining, informative, rewarding, gee-whiz stuff I have gotten from any site, ever. You guys do a splendid job, and I hope you will continue that effort, and that culture, forever.
Um, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner is not actually a senator, but a congressman. http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/