I think it was the Fisher company that developed the Space Pen, I remember touring their plant in Las Vegas when I was a Boy Scout...
They've got more uses than just space, I use mine for writing on paper that's gotten greasy, or on some shiny labels. They also work upside down, under water, and in extreme temperatures.
The point being you don't need to worry about the cards or anything. Just plug it in, it goes. (Most) Windows display cards that can do multiple monitor support cost MUCH more than just buying two run of the mill cards.
Wrong. Windows has had multiple monitor support since Windows 98 (or maybe 98SE). I use it every day at work, and you don't need a "fancy" card. I use the old Voodoo 3 2000 PCI out of my Pentium 233mmx, in conjunction with any number of AGP cards, GeForce, Voodoo 3, Matrox, ATI, you name it, it works for the most part. Pretty much any video card manufactured in the last three years will work just fine, if that doesn't meet your definition of "run of the mill" cards, then I don't know what does.
What you're probably being confused by is thinking that this ability requires a Matrox card with two VGA outputs. You don't need a fancy card like that, pretty much any two cards will work just fine.
My normal setup at my old job was a 21 inch Gateway CRT, attached to my TNT2 AGP card, and a 15 inch Apple LCD attached to my Voodoo 3 PCI card. Yes, Apple. The blue and white LCD panels work fine with PC's.
You can even get pretty cheap corporate PC's with dual head support. Just configure a Dell Optiplex GX110 or 115, add the TNT2 PCI card, and you're all set, since the motherboard has an onboard AGP video chipset as well. You just need to enable it in Windows, plug in a second monitor, and you've got loads of screen real estate.
Don't underestimate how useful this is, try it, even if all you've got is an old 15 inch CRT, you'll find it useful, I guarantee it. ---
I got my TiVo about two weeks ago. It's absolutely fantastic. I hope that this means that TiVo is doing well. If you'd like to get a TiVo for free, they've got an essay contest going on right now, just write 250 words at this site, they give away at least 10 per day. I know four people who have won.
If you're interested, you can also read my review of my TiVo. I'm seriously thinking about putting in a bigger drive, my weenie 14 hour model simply isn't big enough to cover me being gone for 4 days at a time. Everyone who I've let play with my TiVo said "This is cool, I have to get one". It's one of those devices that is hard to explain in 30 seconds to a non-technical user, but let them play with it for a bit, and they realize the possibilities. ---
Linux doesn't have this problem to begin with, if you are setting up a desktop system for someone and you don't want them to install software, you simply do not give them the root password. They can still download, install and run software, but only in thier home directory and only with thier own user permissions. Which means; no formating the hard drive, deleting or altering system files and few if any virus.
You can do the same thing on an NT/Win2K/Whistler system, you just don't give the user "Administrator" or "Power User" rights. The problems come in when some appliations require that the user have that level of rights to be able to function. I've had problems with Adobe PageMaker and ImageReady not working with just plain "user" rights. So, as a SysAdmin, you wind up giving some people higher rights than you'd like to because they have tools they need to use that weren't properly tested by the vendor. But, you've opened the door up to them installing all sorts of crap on their system.
I personally hate After Dark the most, it's the fastest way to screw up your Windows machine... ---
Why is it that Microsoft code is "assumed" (and you know what that means) to be BETTER than 3rd party code? I can't think of ANY app I've ever bought that was buggier than the first Windows `98, or the original Office 2000. Office 2000 was so annoying it made me switch to Star Office on my `Doze machine...
The point of having Microsoft certified apps isn't that Microsoft's code is better than another vendor's. The point is making sure that the vendors conform to Microsoft's way of doing things. There's one HUGE reason to do this, and it's all about.dll files. Microsoft certified apps won't write their.dll files into places they shouldn't, like the system folders. This is a huge problem on some Windows systems, depending on your particular mix of applications. Having an app be Microsoft Certified gives you at least some assurance that it won't hose your computer due to sloppiness on the part of the vendor.
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What I'd like to see is internet connectivity taken more seriously when it comes to downtime. When your phone goes out, your power goes out, or even your cable TV goes out, someone is usually at your house to fix it within 24 hours. When your cable modem goes out (I have @Home) they tell you that they can have someone there in two weeks. TWO WEEKS?!?! Fortunately, a call to the local cable office can get you someone sooner, but most people don't know that, and the local office will always try to send anyone with a problem to the national number. If you make a pain in the ass of yourself, they'll get out there in a day or two.
With the growing number of people using the 'net for communications, shopping, auctions, paying bills, etc., when will it become a "critical" service, to the point that companies will fix it ASAP when there is a problem?
Am I just overreacting because I'm a high-end user, and most people don't care if their net access is down for half a month? I don't think so, but it's hard to say... ---
Actually, voter turnout dropped around 1900 because of the institution of the secret ballot.
In the olden days, you had to walk over to the Democrat's table to vote for Democrats, and to the Republican's table for vice versa. Your vote was open, and it gave a large incentive for people to vote. Voting for the "correct" candidate would get you political favors in small-town America. The Mayor knew for certain that you voted for him, and you knew for certain that he'd know if you didn't.
After the institution of the secret ballot, your incentive to vote for one candidate over another is lessened. You're no longer likely to get preferential treatment based on how you voted, or discriminated against for not voting. The end result is a smaller incentive to vote, and lessened penalties for not voting.
Factor in things like the Voting Rights Act which (justly!) made more people eligible voters, regardless of whether or not they actually do vote, and you get the reasons why voter turnout has been dropping steadily for the last century.
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I can't even believe anyone would legitimately argue that foreign bodies should have any say in our domestic government. Even taking into account the influence that the US has on the rest of the world, only a retarded gorilla would see the US as a nation whose elected officials have to answer to anyone *but* it's citizens.
There's a simple solution for people of other nations who want to vote for our President. Apply for statehood.
Seriously, get a majority of your fellow citizens in Botswana, or wherever, to petition the US for membership. We haven't had a new state in fifty years, Puerto Rico doesn't want to play, and you can be instant American citizens... ---
Imagine walking into an airport and instead of looking up at the TV screens you look down at your Palm organiser which shows you where your plane is boarding and that it's 5 minutes late. It knows the flight number because you told it and when you arrived at the airport you entered their Microlan and your Palm interroageted their systems.
It gets even cooler. Imagine all the places a Bluetooth'ed device could save you time. Pretty much anywhere you stand in line and give basic information. The rent-a-car counter, any university office, Radio Shack (why do you need to know my phone number to sell me batteries?). You could have all of your relevant information entered or double-checked, so that all the person behind the counter has to do is hand you your keys/batteries/whatever.
You could even use it at McDonald's to speed up the drive through... ---
Contrary to what people believe, Hydro is not a zero emissions system. The dams lower and raise water levels, screwing thing up for the surroundings.
The turbines are cooled by the water that pushes them and to an extent, contribute to raise water temperatures.
I'd say we could all walk everywhere from now on, but that wouldn't be zero emissions either. I'd warm the air wherever I went, since my body temperature is higher than the October weather here in Iowa. I'd live microsopic shoe remnants wherever I stepped, not to mention footprints if it was soft dirt.
Now just imagine if I had chili for lunch!! ---
Geuss what, not all of us want to pay for your medical bills. If you didn't save properly in your youth and prepare for retirement, then quite frankly, fuck you. If you don't have enough money to survive thats your own damn fault and I sure as hell do not want to be forking over my money that I could be using to prevent myself from being in that same position.
Fortunately, I did save enough to buy a gun, thanks NRA! And now, since I don't have any money left for retirement, and I may freeze/starve to death this winter, I'm going to come to your house, kill you, and take all of your stuff!
You can't just turn people out into the street!
And believe it or not, socialism is not a dirty word. You already pay for someone else's medical care, that's what health insurance is all about! ---
Umm, I don't thinkt that was a bug with Windows NT 4.0 there buddy, I've run my servers and workstations for well over six months without reboots, the glitch was in Win95. ---
As soon as the business market figures out AMD is making good products and that AMD chips are not the second-rate, unstable things that they used to be I think they will take a larger cut of Intel's market share than they are now.
AMD's not going to get a lot of Intel's business until they get some more workstation-class OEMs producing machines with the Athlons in them. I'm picking out 30 new machines today at work, and I'm not looking at any Athlons. Why? Dell doesn't make any Athlon machines. Gateway doesn't have any business machines, only their home-market Select series. Micron? Nope...
I'll buy them, I'm happy with my Duron 600 at home, and if they're cheaper, it's a no brainer. But AMD is going to have to break Intel's stranglehold on the business OEM before I can buy them! ---
Also, don't forget us beta-testers. Yes, I've beta tested many times for Microsoft, and have been rewarded with free copies of several versions of Windows. Why would I need another copy with my new computer?
Then again, when was the last time I bought a "name-brand" computer for home? About 1991, a Leading-Edge 386SX-16. After that, they've all been built by yours truly... ---
I've still got both of my TI99/4A computers, and they work great. I've got both the standard beige model, and the black/chrome one. I've even got the speech synthesizer attachment! Ahh, the days of playing Parsec, Hunt the Wumpus, and Slymoids come back to me now...
The stupid adapter to make Atari 2600 joysticks work with the thing rarely functioned, I usually wound up not being able to move my guy in one direction or the other, but I mastered the keyboard controls. I think I still have the tape recorder and necessary cables to hook that up, then you could actually play BIG games that loaded from the cassette tape.
I had a big book of BASIC programs that I messed with, actually learned quite a bit about programming BASIC just from playing around with those, but the machines have sat under my parents' and grandparents' basement TV's for about 10 years now, neglected and gathering dust. They're right next to the pong machine...
I never knew anyone who had one of those, besides myself, everyone had C64's... ---
Yes. I believe the University of Iowa and Iowa State are both Big-10 colleges and one of which (can't remember which one) had a very active Internet-based BBS over 10 years ago. That and Rutger's Quartz BBS were big time sinks for me then. =)
Close! Iowa State University, located in Ames, (my alma mater) is in the Big 12. The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, is in the Big 10. The third state school is the University of Northern Iowa, where I work, is located in Cedar Falls, but I don't reccomend going there.:)
The BBS you speak of is the legendary ISCA. You can telnet to it at whip.isca.uiowa.edu
It used to be really popular, circa 1995, when there'd be 1500 people on at a time, and hundreds more waiting in the queue, but now it's usually around 300-500 at most.
Even the bigger cities can't get anything abouve 56k. I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction, but I wonder how many other regions in the United States don't have access to a high-speed connection?
Whoa there horsie, we're not all in the sticks. I live in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and am typing this on my nice AT&T @Home cable modem. Cedar Falls Utilities offers their own service as well. You can get DSL in West Ames, and I know Des Moines has AT&T@Home as well.
My grandparents, in Ventura, Iowa, are limited to dial-up, and the best they can get, due to the phone line quality, is 26,400. Now that's painfully slow. They're only about 3 miles from the elevator though, so depending on range, this could work... ---
Scripting News is a very legit site, even though it may not be familiar to many of the Linux crowd. I was the one who submitted the story, and I verified it at CNN's site before doing so, but I did not take a screen shot. I did, however, ICQ a friend of mine who does web work on CNN's site, and point her at the Scripting News site.
I doubt Liz did anything about it, she's pretty new there, and low on the totem pole, but I figured I could help her out at the same time as embarassing CNN, if she was able to get them to fix it early.:) ---
What case did you use to clip the Visor to your belt? I had this one. I bought it from HandSpring, and it rather sucked. It's pretty cheaply made, it should retail for $4.95, not $20! I broke the clip about 3 weeks after I got it, and it never really fit snugly on my belt. I think I'd prefer one that the belt actually looped through, rather than clipped on.
I need to get my Batman Factor up to three. I only have my Leatherman and my Nokia 5120 on my belt right now... ---
Hmm, since the last DOS game I played was Duke Nukem 3D, I'd say that DOS gaming is pretty much dead. Has there been a major title released for DOS in the last 3 years? Not that I can remember, so I highly doubt that MSFT has any designs on the gaming market with this move.
In my opinion, Windows ME is for people who want to run crappy programs on new PC's. If you wanted to run good programs on a new PC, you'd run Windows 2000. Win2K doesn't work well with some older games, but it works fine with most newer ones. I've played Rogue Spear, Age of Kings, Diablo, Diablo II, Unreal Tournament, SimCity 3000, Jedi Knight, Quake 3, Alpha Centauri, and many others on my Windows 2000 box just fine. I'd say that covers many of the "must-have" games for the last 2 years or so.
If you can give up your DOS programs, Windows 2000 is the way to go. I was a hardcore DOS user back when Windows 95 came out. I refused to adopt it until well into two years after it's debut, simply because it was too slow, and I had DOS down to a science. That said, I haven't tinkered with an autoexec.bat or a config.sys in a long while, other than to make a DOS boot disk with network access here at work. I'm betting that 99% of Windows users will never need or miss DOS from their machines.
The only places DOS is really needed are shops that run DOS programs from 1992. You'll find a lot of places with some proprietary ISA card which uses some ancient DOS program, all manufactured by a company that is out of business or hasn't updated their software in five years. The solution is simple here, DON'T UPGRADE!
That's right, don't upgrade to a new machine. I've got a few of these situations here at work. Try finding a new machine with ISA slots from Gateway or Dell. You can do it, it's just a pain.
If your program was written 5 years ago to run in DOS, does it really need a Gigahertz Pentium III? No. Use your old boxes until they die, then find another old box. Upgrade to a different product, or insist that the vendor produce a 32-bit version of their software. Whatever you do, don't buy a brand new PC and then try to run your ancient software on a shiny new OS. ---
To me, the new Apple Mice brought back a thought about the StupidaMouse.
That aside, I can't stand using a single button mouse on the Macs. I have a Dell PIII-850 and a G4 under my desk right now, and I use a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer on the PC and a Microsoft Intellimouse w/Intellieye on the Mac. Not only does the lack of the second button drive me nuts, but I simply can't function with a scroll wheel anymore.
Using a freshly set up Linux box that doesn't recognize the wheel is like some kind of torture, I have to get those packages installed right away, second only to network access to get the packages.:)
I always find it interesting to read about people's experiences with Linux. It makes me happy to know that I'm not alone in getting pissed off at how complex it can be to perform something that is so simple in Windows.
That said, partitioning, formatting, and installing Windows really isn't any easier than Linux. Your USB mouse wouldn't have worked during the install for Windows 2000 any better than it didn't work during the install for Linux, but you'd have a realistic shot at getting it to work afterwards.
Before I get flamed to death for that statement, yes, I realize that you can get a wide range of hardware to work in Linux, if you have the time to track down drivers and can comprehend the installation procedure. In my experience, the more expensive your hardware is, the more likely it is to work with Linux. Go for the name-brand stuff, avoid USB like the plague, and don't buy a single product, with the exception of CPU's and motherboards that isn't at least six months old, or you won't find any support for it in your shrink-wrapped distribution.
Yesterday, I took down my Linux server at work, and replaced it with a Windows 2000 server. Yes, I'll probably get flamed for this, but I had a specific reason, Samba. Eight months ago, I set up a Red Hat Linux server to act as a file server for my Windows users. It was rock-solid stable, the machine would never crash, but transfers at 100 Megabits would eat up 70% of the CPU time on a PIII-500 with 192MB of RAM. This would render the GUI unusable, and the Samba status window I had running in X would die as well.
I updated to the newest version of Samba, I read the man pages, I even got up in front of my local Linux Users Group to ask for help and suggestions. All I got were some snide remarks about "Well, that's Samba for you..." and some shrugged shoulders. So yesterday, I took down the venerable Linux box, uptime of 98 days, since I put it in the new rack, and replaced it with a Windows 2000 Server which requires less than 10% of the CPU for a 100 Megabit transfer. ---
Absolutely. I love AvantGo, I use it to read Salon, The Onion, Fox News, etc. It's great when you've got 5 minutes to kill before a meeting starts, or you're waiting while your oil is changed, or to get a haircut. Why would I want to read stale beauty magazines when I could have tech and national news as recent as the last time I hit the HotSync button on my Visor?
I currently use the "light" version of Slashdot with AvantGo, and it rather sucks. It's usable, but not pretty, and forget trying to read comments. I'd love a configurable AvantGo channel that would let me read comments at +2 and above, with nice formatting...
I'm not much of a programmer, so I haven't really looked at the specs, but how hard is it to write an AvantGo channel? ---
It also means that the net will be REALLY fast tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day that Microsoft should release it's 83MB Service Pack for Windows 2000, the day that Lucas should release a 30MB trailer for Episode II, and that Netscape 6 and Red Hat Linux 7 should be released! Okay, I'm not saying anything like this will happen, but exactly how much bandwidth does Napster consume? It was banned/blocked at the University where I work, with the reasoning that it was not only contributing to widespread copyright infringement, not furthering the mission of the University, and consumed an inappropriate amount of bandwidth. I'm not saying I agree with those decisions, I had no part in them, but that's the rationale I was given after I ran a traceroute to find myself blocked at our gateway. Will my cable modem be faster tomorrow? Time to check out Gnutella... ---
Slashdot Mirror
I think it was the Fisher company that developed the Space Pen, I remember touring their plant in Las Vegas when I was a Boy Scout...
They've got more uses than just space, I use mine for writing on paper that's gotten greasy, or on some shiny labels. They also work upside down, under water, and in extreme temperatures.
You can find out some more about them at the company's web site.
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The point being you don't need to worry about the cards or anything. Just plug it in, it goes. (Most) Windows display cards that can do multiple monitor support cost MUCH more than just buying two run of the mill cards.
Wrong. Windows has had multiple monitor support since Windows 98 (or maybe 98SE). I use it every day at work, and you don't need a "fancy" card. I use the old Voodoo 3 2000 PCI out of my Pentium 233mmx, in conjunction with any number of AGP cards, GeForce, Voodoo 3, Matrox, ATI, you name it, it works for the most part. Pretty much any video card manufactured in the last three years will work just fine, if that doesn't meet your definition of "run of the mill" cards, then I don't know what does.
What you're probably being confused by is thinking that this ability requires a Matrox card with two VGA outputs. You don't need a fancy card like that, pretty much any two cards will work just fine.
My normal setup at my old job was a 21 inch Gateway CRT, attached to my TNT2 AGP card, and a 15 inch Apple LCD attached to my Voodoo 3 PCI card. Yes, Apple. The blue and white LCD panels work fine with PC's.
You can even get pretty cheap corporate PC's with dual head support. Just configure a Dell Optiplex GX110 or 115, add the TNT2 PCI card, and you're all set, since the motherboard has an onboard AGP video chipset as well. You just need to enable it in Windows, plug in a second monitor, and you've got loads of screen real estate.
Don't underestimate how useful this is, try it, even if all you've got is an old 15 inch CRT, you'll find it useful, I guarantee it.
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I got my TiVo about two weeks ago. It's absolutely fantastic. I hope that this means that TiVo is doing well. If you'd like to get a TiVo for free, they've got an essay contest going on right now, just write 250 words at this site, they give away at least 10 per day. I know four people who have won.
If you're interested, you can also read my review of my TiVo. I'm seriously thinking about putting in a bigger drive, my weenie 14 hour model simply isn't big enough to cover me being gone for 4 days at a time. Everyone who I've let play with my TiVo said "This is cool, I have to get one". It's one of those devices that is hard to explain in 30 seconds to a non-technical user, but let them play with it for a bit, and they realize the possibilities.
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Linux doesn't have this problem to begin with, if you are setting up a desktop system for someone and you don't want them to install software, you simply do not give them the root password. They can still download, install and run software, but only in thier home directory and only with thier own user permissions. Which means; no formating the hard drive, deleting or altering system files and few if any virus.
You can do the same thing on an NT/Win2K/Whistler system, you just don't give the user "Administrator" or "Power User" rights. The problems come in when some appliations require that the user have that level of rights to be able to function. I've had problems with Adobe PageMaker and ImageReady not working with just plain "user" rights. So, as a SysAdmin, you wind up giving some people higher rights than you'd like to because they have tools they need to use that weren't properly tested by the vendor. But, you've opened the door up to them installing all sorts of crap on their system.
I personally hate After Dark the most, it's the fastest way to screw up your Windows machine...
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Why is it that Microsoft code is "assumed" (and you know what that means) to be BETTER than 3rd party code? I can't think of ANY app I've ever bought that was buggier than the first Windows `98, or the original Office 2000. Office 2000 was so annoying it made me switch to Star Office on my `Doze machine...
.dll files. Microsoft certified apps won't write their .dll files into places they shouldn't, like the system folders. This is a huge problem on some Windows systems, depending on your particular mix of applications. Having an app be Microsoft Certified gives you at least some assurance that it won't hose your computer due to sloppiness on the part of the vendor.
The point of having Microsoft certified apps isn't that Microsoft's code is better than another vendor's. The point is making sure that the vendors conform to Microsoft's way of doing things. There's one HUGE reason to do this, and it's all about
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What I'd like to see is internet connectivity taken more seriously when it comes to downtime. When your phone goes out, your power goes out, or even your cable TV goes out, someone is usually at your house to fix it within 24 hours. When your cable modem goes out (I have @Home) they tell you that they can have someone there in two weeks. TWO WEEKS?!?! Fortunately, a call to the local cable office can get you someone sooner, but most people don't know that, and the local office will always try to send anyone with a problem to the national number. If you make a pain in the ass of yourself, they'll get out there in a day or two.
With the growing number of people using the 'net for communications, shopping, auctions, paying bills, etc., when will it become a "critical" service, to the point that companies will fix it ASAP when there is a problem?
Am I just overreacting because I'm a high-end user, and most people don't care if their net access is down for half a month? I don't think so, but it's hard to say...
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In the olden days, you had to walk over to the Democrat's table to vote for Democrats, and to the Republican's table for vice versa. Your vote was open, and it gave a large incentive for people to vote. Voting for the "correct" candidate would get you political favors in small-town America. The Mayor knew for certain that you voted for him, and you knew for certain that he'd know if you didn't.
After the institution of the secret ballot, your incentive to vote for one candidate over another is lessened. You're no longer likely to get preferential treatment based on how you voted, or discriminated against for not voting. The end result is a smaller incentive to vote, and lessened penalties for not voting.
Factor in things like the Voting Rights Act which (justly!) made more people eligible voters, regardless of whether or not they actually do vote, and you get the reasons why voter turnout has been dropping steadily for the last century.
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I can't even believe anyone would legitimately argue that foreign bodies should have any say in our domestic government. Even taking into account the influence that the US has on the rest of the world, only a retarded gorilla would see the US as a nation whose elected officials have to answer to anyone *but* it's citizens. There's a simple solution for people of other nations who want to vote for our President. Apply for statehood.
Seriously, get a majority of your fellow citizens in Botswana, or wherever, to petition the US for membership. We haven't had a new state in fifty years, Puerto Rico doesn't want to play, and you can be instant American citizens...
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Imagine walking into an airport and instead of looking up at the TV screens you look down at your Palm organiser which shows you where your plane is boarding and that it's 5 minutes late. It knows the flight number because you told it and when you arrived at the airport you entered their Microlan and your Palm interroageted their systems.
It gets even cooler. Imagine all the places a Bluetooth'ed device could save you time. Pretty much anywhere you stand in line and give basic information. The rent-a-car counter, any university office, Radio Shack (why do you need to know my phone number to sell me batteries?). You could have all of your relevant information entered or double-checked, so that all the person behind the counter has to do is hand you your keys/batteries/whatever.
You could even use it at McDonald's to speed up the drive through...
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Contrary to what people believe, Hydro is not a zero emissions system. The dams lower and raise water levels, screwing thing up for the surroundings. The turbines are cooled by the water that pushes them and to an extent, contribute to raise water temperatures. I'd say we could all walk everywhere from now on, but that wouldn't be zero emissions either. I'd warm the air wherever I went, since my body temperature is higher than the October weather here in Iowa. I'd live microsopic shoe remnants wherever I stepped, not to mention footprints if it was soft dirt. Now just imagine if I had chili for lunch!!
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Geuss what, not all of us want to pay for your medical bills. If you didn't save properly in your youth and prepare for retirement, then quite frankly, fuck you. If you don't have enough money to survive thats your own damn fault and I sure as hell do not want to be forking over my money that I could be using to prevent myself from being in that same position.
Fortunately, I did save enough to buy a gun, thanks NRA! And now, since I don't have any money left for retirement, and I may freeze/starve to death this winter, I'm going to come to your house, kill you, and take all of your stuff!
You can't just turn people out into the street!
And believe it or not, socialism is not a dirty word. You already pay for someone else's medical care, that's what health insurance is all about!
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Umm, I don't thinkt that was a bug with Windows NT 4.0 there buddy, I've run my servers and workstations for well over six months without reboots, the glitch was in Win95.
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AMD's not going to get a lot of Intel's business until they get some more workstation-class OEMs producing machines with the Athlons in them. I'm picking out 30 new machines today at work, and I'm not looking at any Athlons. Why? Dell doesn't make any Athlon machines. Gateway doesn't have any business machines, only their home-market Select series. Micron? Nope...
I'll buy them, I'm happy with my Duron 600 at home, and if they're cheaper, it's a no brainer. But AMD is going to have to break Intel's stranglehold on the business OEM before I can buy them!
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Also, don't forget us beta-testers. Yes, I've beta tested many times for Microsoft, and have been rewarded with free copies of several versions of Windows. Why would I need another copy with my new computer?
Then again, when was the last time I bought a "name-brand" computer for home? About 1991, a Leading-Edge 386SX-16. After that, they've all been built by yours truly...
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I've still got both of my TI99/4A computers, and they work great. I've got both the standard beige model, and the black/chrome one. I've even got the speech synthesizer attachment! Ahh, the days of playing Parsec, Hunt the Wumpus, and Slymoids come back to me now...
The stupid adapter to make Atari 2600 joysticks work with the thing rarely functioned, I usually wound up not being able to move my guy in one direction or the other, but I mastered the keyboard controls. I think I still have the tape recorder and necessary cables to hook that up, then you could actually play BIG games that loaded from the cassette tape.
I had a big book of BASIC programs that I messed with, actually learned quite a bit about programming BASIC just from playing around with those, but the machines have sat under my parents' and grandparents' basement TV's for about 10 years now, neglected and gathering dust. They're right next to the pong machine...
I never knew anyone who had one of those, besides myself, everyone had C64's...
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Yes. I believe the University of Iowa and Iowa State are both Big-10 colleges and one of which (can't remember which one) had a very active Internet-based BBS over 10 years ago. That and Rutger's Quartz BBS were big time sinks for me then. =)
:)
:)
Close! Iowa State University, located in Ames, (my alma mater) is in the Big 12. The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, is in the Big 10. The third state school is the University of Northern Iowa, where I work, is located in Cedar Falls, but I don't reccomend going there.
The BBS you speak of is the legendary ISCA. You can telnet to it at whip.isca.uiowa.edu
It used to be really popular, circa 1995, when there'd be 1500 people on at a time, and hundreds more waiting in the queue, but now it's usually around 300-500 at most.
Just consider us the Sili-corn Valley.
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Even the bigger cities can't get anything abouve 56k. I think this is a wonderful step in the right direction, but I wonder how many other regions in the United States don't have access to a high-speed connection?
Whoa there horsie, we're not all in the sticks. I live in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and am typing this on my nice AT&T @Home cable modem. Cedar Falls Utilities offers their own service as well. You can get DSL in West Ames, and I know Des Moines has AT&T@Home as well.
My grandparents, in Ventura, Iowa, are limited to dial-up, and the best they can get, due to the phone line quality, is 26,400. Now that's painfully slow. They're only about 3 miles from the elevator though, so depending on range, this could work...
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Scripting News is a very legit site, even though it may not be familiar to many of the Linux crowd. I was the one who submitted the story, and I verified it at CNN's site before doing so, but I did not take a screen shot. I did, however, ICQ a friend of mine who does web work on CNN's site, and point her at the Scripting News site.
:)
I doubt Liz did anything about it, she's pretty new there, and low on the totem pole, but I figured I could help her out at the same time as embarassing CNN, if she was able to get them to fix it early.
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I need to get my Batman Factor up to three. I only have my Leatherman and my Nokia 5120 on my belt right now...
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Hmm, since the last DOS game I played was Duke Nukem 3D, I'd say that DOS gaming is pretty much dead. Has there been a major title released for DOS in the last 3 years? Not that I can remember, so I highly doubt that MSFT has any designs on the gaming market with this move.
In my opinion, Windows ME is for people who want to run crappy programs on new PC's. If you wanted to run good programs on a new PC, you'd run Windows 2000. Win2K doesn't work well with some older games, but it works fine with most newer ones. I've played Rogue Spear, Age of Kings, Diablo, Diablo II, Unreal Tournament, SimCity 3000, Jedi Knight, Quake 3, Alpha Centauri, and many others on my Windows 2000 box just fine. I'd say that covers many of the "must-have" games for the last 2 years or so.
If you can give up your DOS programs, Windows 2000 is the way to go. I was a hardcore DOS user back when Windows 95 came out. I refused to adopt it until well into two years after it's debut, simply because it was too slow, and I had DOS down to a science. That said, I haven't tinkered with an autoexec.bat or a config.sys in a long while, other than to make a DOS boot disk with network access here at work. I'm betting that 99% of Windows users will never need or miss DOS from their machines.
The only places DOS is really needed are shops that run DOS programs from 1992. You'll find a lot of places with some proprietary ISA card which uses some ancient DOS program, all manufactured by a company that is out of business or hasn't updated their software in five years. The solution is simple here, DON'T UPGRADE!
That's right, don't upgrade to a new machine. I've got a few of these situations here at work. Try finding a new machine with ISA slots from Gateway or Dell. You can do it, it's just a pain.
If your program was written 5 years ago to run in DOS, does it really need a Gigahertz Pentium III? No. Use your old boxes until they die, then find another old box. Upgrade to a different product, or insist that the vendor produce a 32-bit version of their software. Whatever you do, don't buy a brand new PC and then try to run your ancient software on a shiny new OS.
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That aside, I can't stand using a single button mouse on the Macs. I have a Dell PIII-850 and a G4 under my desk right now, and I use a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer on the PC and a Microsoft Intellimouse w/Intellieye on the Mac. Not only does the lack of the second button drive me nuts, but I simply can't function with a scroll wheel anymore.
Using a freshly set up Linux box that doesn't recognize the wheel is like some kind of torture, I have to get those packages installed right away, second only to network access to get the packages.
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The mouse won't work on surfaces that pass through or reflect light, such as glass tabletops or mirrors. Otherwise, the sky's the limit.
Try to find something on your desk that doesn't reflect light, I dare you...
Okay, so some of you might have a singularity in your office, but I don't...
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I always find it interesting to read about people's experiences with Linux. It makes me happy to know that I'm not alone in getting pissed off at how complex it can be to perform something that is so simple in Windows.
That said, partitioning, formatting, and installing Windows really isn't any easier than Linux. Your USB mouse wouldn't have worked during the install for Windows 2000 any better than it didn't work during the install for Linux, but you'd have a realistic shot at getting it to work afterwards.
Before I get flamed to death for that statement, yes, I realize that you can get a wide range of hardware to work in Linux, if you have the time to track down drivers and can comprehend the installation procedure. In my experience, the more expensive your hardware is, the more likely it is to work with Linux. Go for the name-brand stuff, avoid USB like the plague, and don't buy a single product, with the exception of CPU's and motherboards that isn't at least six months old, or you won't find any support for it in your shrink-wrapped distribution.
Yesterday, I took down my Linux server at work, and replaced it with a Windows 2000 server. Yes, I'll probably get flamed for this, but I had a specific reason, Samba. Eight months ago, I set up a Red Hat Linux server to act as a file server for my Windows users. It was rock-solid stable, the machine would never crash, but transfers at 100 Megabits would eat up 70% of the CPU time on a PIII-500 with 192MB of RAM. This would render the GUI unusable, and the Samba status window I had running in X would die as well.
I updated to the newest version of Samba, I read the man pages, I even got up in front of my local Linux Users Group to ask for help and suggestions. All I got were some snide remarks about "Well, that's Samba for you..." and some shrugged shoulders. So yesterday, I took down the venerable Linux box, uptime of 98 days, since I put it in the new rack, and replaced it with a Windows 2000 Server which requires less than 10% of the CPU for a 100 Megabit transfer.
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Absolutely. I love AvantGo, I use it to read Salon, The Onion, Fox News, etc. It's great when you've got 5 minutes to kill before a meeting starts, or you're waiting while your oil is changed, or to get a haircut. Why would I want to read stale beauty magazines when I could have tech and national news as recent as the last time I hit the HotSync button on my Visor?
I currently use the "light" version of Slashdot with AvantGo, and it rather sucks. It's usable, but not pretty, and forget trying to read comments. I'd love a configurable AvantGo channel that would let me read comments at +2 and above, with nice formatting...
I'm not much of a programmer, so I haven't really looked at the specs, but how hard is it to write an AvantGo channel?
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It also means that the net will be REALLY fast tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day that Microsoft should release it's 83MB Service Pack for Windows 2000, the day that Lucas should release a 30MB trailer for Episode II, and that Netscape 6 and Red Hat Linux 7 should be released! Okay, I'm not saying anything like this will happen, but exactly how much bandwidth does Napster consume? It was banned/blocked at the University where I work, with the reasoning that it was not only contributing to widespread copyright infringement, not furthering the mission of the University, and consumed an inappropriate amount of bandwidth. I'm not saying I agree with those decisions, I had no part in them, but that's the rationale I was given after I ran a traceroute to find myself blocked at our gateway. Will my cable modem be faster tomorrow? Time to check out Gnutella...
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