Maybe I'm just a female who could care less about playboy . . .
But maybe you should care a little bit more about your history.
The point is, if you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you're going. Do you know when and where computer-based video-conferencing was first demonstrated? (Try 30 years ago, Stanford and SF.) How about what the first personal computer was? (Guess again.) Can you identify the first clamshell-style laptop? (Or the second?)
Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. If you want to learn more, check out the Vintage Computer Festival. (You can also check out my collection.)
I paid a fair bit of extra money for a DVD drive in my Laptop. I've bought a number of DVD's, and got quite a few this past holiday season as gifts. I am putting together another computer (with a wood case!) to put in the living room to play DVD's on. I want to run Linux on both machines, to play these movies that I have purchased legally.
Now, the DVD CCA says I can't do that.
They are trying to outlaw a valid use of items I bought and paid for. Items I want to use within the terms of their licenses. It's like if Oral-B got the courts to rule that I couldn't use their toothbrushes to clean car parts.
They are trying to make the money I spent a waste. So, do I have any rights -- can I not seek some kind of reparations?
No mention was made regarding the connection to the Internet...that was just assumed to be there. But I have yet to hear about any affordable and sufficiently fast connection via mobile unit... How will they address this, or will they just leave it up to other companies to solve this general problem?
Transmeta is a chip company. They have come up with a innovative new chip for use in a mobile platform. How that platform will connect to the internet, is up to the companies that implement the chip in their portables.
The internet connection could be something as simple as an ethernet jack that you would plug an ordinary cat-5 cable into, or it could be an Apple-stype airport wireless LAN connection.
The judge had a scheduling conflict this Friday, so he had to reschedule the Preliminary Injunction hearing for next Tues.
As I recall, it was originally scheduled for a Friday Afternoon. Now it is mid-day on a Tuesday. I might have been able to bugger off early on a Friday afternoon and show up. Tuesday mid-day is right out.
How many other working stiffs (who aren't DVD CCA Lawyers) can afford to take the afternoon off to show up like that? Perhaps this was a move to lessen the number of people who show up to refute the DVD CCA's arguments?
It's been a while since "seeing" was "believing"
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How can society cope with a world where seeing can not equal believing?
It's been a while since you could really believe what you saw.
Consider this: Print out a "memo" from your boss saying you should get a raise. Include a scanned image of your boss' signature. Don't claim it to be the original, just a copy you made on the inkjet-based fax machine. Or, pick up one of those photo printers, and digitally stick your ex-wife's head on Hillary's body.
For that matter, think about those psychic hotline ads. People believe them all the time, even though it seems painfully obvious that they don't have to be psychic, they just have to have a copy of the script. And yet, they make money hand over fist.
And to merge your two lives, what are your thoughts on the use of technology (especially computers) in primary education, particularly for teaching reading? (My wife (1st grade, Daly City) is working on her masters -- "The benefits of integrating educational technology into the reading curriculum for first and second grade." -- and some thoughts from you would be fantastic to quote in her final research paper.)
What have been your experiences with educational technology with younger children? Have you found it to be beneficial? Why or why not?
That scotsman back in the 1400's who invented the fax
and if you still need names...
Whoever invented PEZ
The really fresh people from the Mentos commercials
Re:Laptops should REPLACE desktops...with Linux!
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One more thing to consider... Floppy drives (and CD/DVD drives) can easily go out of whack during daily travel. You might want to think about how much you need a built-in floppy and/or CD/DVD. I rather wish my new one had an external floppy (how often does one use floppies these days?) but I'm very glad the DVD drive is removeable (aka replaceable).
I'll check into the Richochet, but I'm on the east coast and I didn't see much other than NYC.
I know they have WashDC covered. I'm surprised they're not working on Boston, actually. Keep an eye on them, and let 'em know you're interested and they may show up in your area.
As for you landline dialing--why pay anything? These ISPs are now giving away free service.
Sorry, I was being unclear. The $5/mo goes to ricochet so you can use the ricochet modem to call regular modems. That is, you can sit in the park with your laptop and ricochet modem and dial into any modem-equipped system, such as a BBS, internal network, or mainframe/minicomputer. The $5 covers their cost of an outgoing line, basically.
GIVE UNCLE ROGER A MILLION POINTS
Aw, shucks. I'd settle for one of those Inspirons... 8^)
Re:Laptops should REPLACE desktops...with Linux!
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A couple more notes -- The Inspirion 7500 uses the ESS Maestro sound card which I was able to get working (in a desktop box) under linux, so you're good to go there.
The 15.4" screen runs at 1280x1024 (or something) which is probably higher than I would want to run it (I like 1024x768, but I could probably be convinced otherwise.) Laptop screens usually can't switch to a lower resolution -- it's a function of the hardware. Check out that screen in person before you buy! The same goes for the keyboard and mouse!
On a desktop, you can toss the keyboard/mouse/monitor and get yourself a nice MS Natural KB (one of the MS products I like, but they didn't invent it!), a Logitech Trackman Marble, and an 17"/19" NEC or MAG monitor (or whatever you fancy), but it's not so easy with a laptop on the road. You also have to weigh how much you'll be using it on the road versus at a desk where you can use an external KB/mouse/monitor.
Re:Laptops should REPLACE desktops...with Linux!
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I was actually looking at the Dell Inspirion since its upgradable to 512 MB ram and 75 GIGs of disk space. 15.4" monitor, DVD, lots of speed, and I like their touchpad's feel.
One thing I didn't mention was that with laptops, getting a good vendor is a little more important than with a desktop. If your video card (for example) goes bad on a desktop, you can chuck it and get a new one. Not so with a laptop. That's why I paid a little more for the Chembook name, rather than getting the ASUS version cheaper from some no-name little dealer.
512MB RAM seems like it's way more than anyone could ever need, but I seem to remember people saying that about 64K not too long ago... 8^) Same goes for disk space. In theory, though, disk space should only be limited by available drives -- is there an actual BIOS limit or something at 75GB?
A 15" monitor sounds dreamy, but be sure it's something you want to haul around. I'm 6', 280lbs, and use to carry one of those 40lb suitcase compaq-types, so it wouldn't bother me, but it's probably bigger than my wife. YMMV.
The touchpad is important, but 90% of the time my hands are on the keyboard (I do COBOL programming mostly) and most of the rest of the time I use an external Trackman Marble. My mobile work is mostly typing (web pages, journal, e-mail, etc.) so the keyboard is far more important to me.
I also want the ability to boot a Linux partition.
Check out the compatibility of the components -- video card, etc. I've not loaded Linux on my new one yet (where are those damn CD's?) but one of the reasons I picked this model was because of the Linux support available.
I really like your wireless modem, which sounds great, although not offered in my area and seems to only run under Win95/98 (which I will not stoop to running).
I've had it running under MS-DOS/Win3.11, Win98, GEM/TOS (Atari ST), and the MacOS. I'm sure I could use it with Linux if I had the time. I know of others who have used it with handhelds as well.
Basically, it's a hayes-compatible modem with a funny dialing string. The only problem I ever had was my Win3 dialer that didn't think "777**ppp" was a valid phone number. Note that for an extra $5/month, you can prepend a 9 and dial any landline modem. (I use this all the time to dial into client sites.) Check out some of my experiences with it.
Know of any other providers or hardware?
There are other, similar services, but most of them don't seem as simple or as well thought out as Ricochet. Check to see if a University in your area has coverage: I was travelling through Oregon one time and was surprised to get a signal. Turned out the hotel was right next to the Univ/OR which was wired for ricochet.
Failing that, get a bunch of your friends to send inquiries in the hope that there's enough potential business in your area to get them to set up a network.
I will have mine, btw, forever. When I die, there'll be a little antenna sticking up out of the ground by my headstone -- that'll be my Ricochet modem so I can update my web page from the other side... 8^)
Re:Laptops should REPLACE desktops...with Linux!
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Well, since I kinda have this thing for portable computers...
I figured, get the fastest, strong, best now, and it'll take a little longer for it to be obsolete. But what about OS issues?
That's what I did 6 years ago. Six years was stretching it a bit, but you get the idea. My new laptop will hopefully last a while as well.
Personally, I would recommend focussing on (in order of importance):
Keyboard -- If you are going to use your laptop with the built-in keyboard, make sure this works for you.
Pointing device -- depending on your use, this may be as important as (or even more so) the keyboard. I loathe the erasers; mine has a trackpad.
maximum possible RAM, preferably in a standard format -- you can never have too much, and it often makes a much bigger impact than processor speed.
Screen -- very hard to upgrade, so get the biggest and best you can. Of course, you have to trade off the size of your screen versus the size of the screen. That is, a bigger screen is better, but it translates into a bigger overall laptop.
Hard Drive -- it doesn't have to be huge, but make sure you can swap it out with another, standard drive. My last laptop started with 340MB, and has since had nearly a dozen different drives as big as 3+GB. My new laptop came with 6GB; I bought extra drive sleds for $20 each and have a 2GB loaded with DOS and a 10GB destined to get Linux.
Battery -- If at all possible, have it be one of the more standard batteries. You'll need to replace it (or buy additional ones) so standard batteries are easier to find and cheaper.
Processor -- I think processor speed is nowhere as important as available RAM. If it's upgradeable, that's great. If you've got the money, go for as fast a processor as you can, of course.
But what about OS issues?
Well, I went for a ChemBook 7400 which is one of the laptops that Linux Laptops used to sell. (Unfortunately, they stopped taking orders before I got mine.) There is also a page on running Linux on an ASUS 7400 (which is the OEM version of the ChemBook). For more general info, check out the Linux Laptop page.
I'll go ahead and guess that laptops will start to die off by the end of the year.
Wanna place a bet on that? Portable computers have been around for over 25 years -- I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, my experience has been just the opposite -- they are replacing desktops like crazy.
I think the days of using your laptop for a primary system are over. (Not that they were ever really here to begin with) The high end desktop CPU's are already pushing 800mhz, 450/600 just doesn't cut it, especially considering they cost so much more.
Well, not everyone does 3-D rendering all day; you might be surprised to find that 90% of the population can get by just fine with a 450mhz processor. Meanwhile, portability -- being able to work where ever, whenever you want -- is far more important than cutting a few milliseconds off that spell check.
As for cost, the relative price of a laptop to its comparable desktop counterpart is much closer than it was 10 years ago, and it continues to drop. In a few years, the price will be very nearly the same (but your desktop computer will come with an LCD screen.)
Wander down to the airport some time and check out how many folks you see waiting for flights with their laptops out. Take the bus some time during the rush hour and look around. Have lunch in Palo Alto or Mountain View and see what's on the menu. Heck, take a look in a CompUSA ad some Sunday and count the number of laptops versus desktops shown! I think you'll find that laptops are definitely not disappearing.
You have the high performance if hooked to A/C. So... it is a not so easy to use (ergonomics wise) home system. If you take it out on the town however it has about the same speed as all a standard high end laptop.
What you missed is the way laptops are used. On the bus/train, you're running on battery power, so it would switch to low speed to save battery life. When you get to the office, you would plug it in, probably to a docking station/port replicator (with attached keyboard/mouse/monitor), and use it with AC for high speed. When you travel, you bring along the power supply, and maybe an external mouse or keyboard. When you get there, you borrow someone's monitor/kb/mouse and do your work at high speed. On the plane home, you're back to low speed and the built-in kb/mouse/screen.
So, it is a full-blown, high-speed, ergonomic system at home/work/etc., and a normal-speed laptop on the bus/at the restaurant, etc.
...poor substitutions for the mouse, and a small screen, all hinder its usage.
My six-year-old laptop has a full size keyboard, as does my new one. Among the well over 150 portable computers I own, there are indeed some with very substandard screens, keyboards, etc. There are some with even worse features, though. You pick whats important to you when you pay your money.
on the train/bus/etc while commuting, in a restaurant on a lunch break, so on and so forth - a non-work environment.
My laptops work great in those situations, but I am not limited to "supplemental tasks" -- because my laptop is my main computer, I am fully functional where ever I might be. I don't have to worry about jotting down notes to update something later, I can update it right then and there. Heck, with my wireless modem, I can update a web page, upload it, and view it off the net without leaving the coffee shop.
When I get somewhere where I work a lot (such as my home office, or my main client,) I plug into a docking station connected to a MS Natural Keyboard, a Logitech Trackman Marble, and a 17 inch monitor. For trips, I have a bag packed and ready to go with a network card, serial card, another trackman, a ballpoint mouse, and various keyboard and monitor cables.
The point is, where ever I am, I don't have to sacrifice. I have the best of all worlds, instead of sacrificing for a good machine some of the time!
people are finding laptops unwieldy for anything more.
Again, I think you are flat out wrong. Perhaps you find them unwieldy, but from what I've seen, laptops are replacing desktops in the corporate world left, right, and center. Fifteen years ago, I was about the only person I knew who owned a portable computer. Today, it doesn't surprise me to see two or more other people on the train with me working on a notebook -- at 9pm, going against the commute.
I have no problem carrying a large laptop -- it beats driving somewhere to walk on a treadmill the way people do -- but there are smaller, lighter ones that still have full-sized keyboards and screens.
Of course, portable computers aren't for everyone. My wife doesn't use hers anywhere nearly as often as I think she should. But for an awful lot of people, they are the future.
Re:I have a P3/500 in my laptop already...
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Why bother engineering to take all that luggage with you, when we could just engineer to leave the luggage at home and just take a... dare I say it... "window" into that luggage on the road with us...
My question is why would you want to leave it at home?
I have a P2/400 Laptop and want it to replace my existing 486DX2-66. My laptop is my main machine; any non-portables I have are pretty much single task machines. (There's the web browser in the bedroom (IMDB!), the Quicken machine, the web browser/MP3 player at my desk, etc.) If it's important, it goes on the laptop, and it goes with me.
When I travel, I don't have to rely on some hotel's idea of a decent machine (win95/98), or what's available at a client site (not my files). My commute time turns into productive time. I can take my system, configured the way it should be, and set up in advance to demos and meetings.
Four to six miles might be adequate for some people, but it simply wouldn't work for me.
Something like "So you're saying that someone *stole* the money you left in the street?"
Leaving money (or your bike, or your car, or whatever) in the street doesn't give someone the right to steal it. Regardless of the ease of doing so, taking something that does not belong to you is both illegal and wrong.
Now, coming across a pile of money in the middle of the street is a questionable situation -- it may have been lost and you might want to make sure the rightful owner has a chance to claim it. But coming across a pile of money on someone else's kitchen table is another story entirely.
Isn't there a burden of due care in protecting a trade secret?
One might say (and plaintiff's council seems to be arguing) that they did exercise due care to protect their secret, and that the authors of DeCSS took extreme measure to violate their protections.
So yes, this has a bearing on the case, but not for the defense.
No copyprotection on a widespread media has EVER lasted for long. [...] I am not embracing this tradition, but these are plain facts. All a copy protection can do is slow down pirating, not halt it.
You and I both know that. The DVD CCA knows that. Even the judge probably knows that.
The problem is, the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect lock doesn't mean that you shouldn't use what's available, or that bypassing said locks to rob someone isn't illegal.
If you walk into a court and tell the judge that you should be able to make pirated copies of DVD's since it's going to happen anyway, he'll throw your butt out on the street so fast you'll crack the pavement.
Sure, ways to defeat copy protection has been around since the day after copy protection was invented. (Remember Happy drives for Atari's?) And they have their use -- there was a time when such measures were needed to load software with disk-based CP onto a hard drive, for example.
And once again, DeCSS is needed to play DVD's on Linux.
But if the court gets even a hint that the popular opinion is that DeCSS is intended to be used for piracy (even if it's not for another year, and only by experienced crackers) they'll slap a restraining order on it without even thinking twice.
And if I were the DVD CCA and my lawyers weren't reading, printing, analyzing, and filing every single slashdot post (and usenet, and etc.), I'd sue them for malpractice.
This kind of attitude will kill DeCSS. Sure, Copy2PC got away with it. So did the Happy folks. And a lot of others. But that was then, this is now. The DVD industry has a lot of money and a lot of exposure. Activision, EA, etc. didn't back then. People didn't take software as seriously, especially games; it was science fiction type stuff, bordering on fantasy. Now we're talking consumer products and Big Bucks(tm).
The futility of something doesn't make the effort pointless.
If you robbed someone and then tried to get away with it by telling the judge that the locks weren't very good, so sooner or later someone would have robbed him, what what do you think the judge would say?
On the other hand, if you rent an apartment and your landlord only gives you one key and says you can't make any copies, but you want to give one to your mom so she can come over and do your laundry, that might be another story. You could probably even give your mum a pick set and teach her how to pick locks so she could get in with no problem.
We've come a long way from when you could save up to get an LP mastering lathe and try to be a record company, haven't we?
I seem to remember a number of times that a story will be posted here on slashdot that is given only superficial or even completely biased coverage in the mainstream newsmedia.
I saw no mention of this (DeCSS) issue on the evening news here in San Francisco.
What would life be like if our only source of news was from the major newspapers and television/radio companies? Pretty sad I think! That's why there are lots of little local newspapers all over the place. The low cost of of a cheap printing press allows nearly anyone to have their say.
But what if Hearst and co. came along and said that these little presses could be used to make copies of the SF Chronicle or NY Times, and therefore should be outlawed? What if Wired or MSN got an injunction against Slashdot to prevent/. from telling any news they might cover?
What if the movie companies said you can only watch the movies that include their (expensive, not-sold-in-stores) "copy" protection?
So much for that classic Freedom From Fear production of Boog or the light-hearted romp from Tesseract Studios called Kung Fu Spiders from Outer Space. But, you can watch all the You've Got Mail your stomach can handle.
Perhaps for the hearing on the 14th the 'our' lawyers should be provided with a linux laptop that plays DVD's thanks to DeCSS code to show the judge.
I really hope to be there on the 14th, and I have a relatively new laptop with a PII-400, 160MB RAM 14.1" Screen, DVD Drive, 8MB Video Ram, and a blank 10GB hard drive waiting to load linux on it.
If someone wants to give me a hand setting it up (I've been short of time lately) and getting DeCSS running, I'd be happy to bring it along to show on the 14th. (Along with the stack of (legally purchased) DVD's I got this solstice.)
The reason they're trying to do this is that they've heard from people, quite a bit over the last few weeks. Quite a number of people from the arts community had contacted them, and they are responding to this, says Ken Ross of eToys.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I sent a couple of e-mails indicating that I was not buying from eToys because of this, as I'm sure plenty of other slashdot readers did.
Perhaps they aren't admitting the influence slashdot and other aware folks have? (If they did, perhaps more people would start voting with their pocketbook, so to speak, and big corps wouldn't be able to get away with quite so much.)
On the other hand, you have a point... that even though Linux itself isn't to blame for the fiasco, people will be left with the impression that it was. And that's very unfortunate.
At some point, the Microsoft-dependant media will get a hold of this and use it to counter claims that Windows is unreliable. They'll point to MassLinux with headlines like "Linux-based ISP goes down, leaving 800 web sites out of touch".
Meanwhile, I have this bad taste in my mouth. Forget about the fact that my gateway server is dutifully providing connectivity for the whole house (9 computers) by running SuSE on a 486/50 with 8MB/340MB. I know, intellectually, that Linux is superior to Windows, but...
It's like the guy who talked his boss into going with MassLinux -- right before they disappeared. Sure his getting fired is awful, but on a bigger scale, his (former) boss/company is one more that will never use Linux.
Like many other minority groups, sometimes Linux users have to think about the possible consequences of their actions. No one remembers all the people of a certain arbitrary classification who don't cut you off on the freeway, or don't mug you, or aren't drunkards, but one bad driver, one mugging, one bender, and all the old stereotypes get a new lease on life.
I haven't given up on Linux yet. My new ISP is Linux based. Of the 5 computers connected to my keyboard/monitor, 1 runs MS-DOS, 1 runs MS-DOS/Win3.11, 2 run Linux, and one has Win98 and an empty 10GB hard drive that might get Linux loaded on it.
I'll assume your post was at least partially sarcastic, since my original post was.
Actually, entirely sarcastic. 8^) (It's too bad you're the only one who realized that; the other posters missed the point completely and immediately rode into battle to defend their sacred software.)
I trust 150+ sites that I'm currently hosting with free software.
I should have been more specific in my rant. I was pointing out that paying effectively nothing for webhosting should have raised some flags. Bandwidth costs money. No way around that, and you DO get what you pay for.
And programmer time costs money -- I know, because I charge an arm and a leg for mine. My point was that just as Free Software doesn't necessarily mean Bad Software, neither does Free Hosting mean Bad Hosting.
(and just for the record, I was paying $20/month, which, while certainly inexpensive, is not "effectively nothing".)
It is possible to run an ISP for next to nothing, charge next to nothing, and still make a profit while providing good service. MassLinux was blazingly fast, technologically aware, and (at least originally) well-intentioned.
(What they weren't, I think, is street smart -- that is, they didn't really have any clue how to run a real business in the Real World.)
As far as any of us can tell, the OS had nothing to do with the failures of MassLinux.
Neither did (according to the Official Story) their financial situation. They made payments in good faith, their ISP fouled up, and voila -- a Bad Situation.
What turned a simple Bad Situation into a Disaster was the way they handled it (or didn't handle it, actually.)
I had recently sent them a check for $200. I figure I'm out about $150 worth of hosting. Add to that a couple day's work (say, ~$1000) plus some unknown amount of lost business. Really, a pittance.
Lost faith in the company due to the lack of communication: priceless.
Look at it this way: if you had an employee who called up and said "My car engine died. I'm going to put in a new one, so I won't be in today" you might be upset, you might even dock him a day's pay, but that's it. If he called up later that afternoon and said "this is taking longer than I thought, I may be out a few days," you would probably reschedule some meetings, maybe hire a temp, etc. Still, no big deal -- you can deal with it.
If instead, he simply didn't show up, you didn't know what had happened, and when you tried to call, you got no answer, you'd be a little more upset (and, hopefully, a little worried.) If this went on for several days with no word, and then he finally showed up and said "oh, my engine died, I had to put in a new one," it would be a different story. If you said "why didn't you call, or rent a car or something," and he just shrugged and said "I didn't think of it", you would probably fire him.
Most companies require you to plan your vacations in advance, so they can schedule other people to fill in for you. If you suddenly won a cruise leaving the next day, they still probably would let you go. But if you just didn't show up and didn't call, you would be fired.
Slashdot Mirror
But maybe you should care a little bit more about your history.
The point is, if you don't know where you come from, you don't know where you're going. Do you know when and where computer-based video-conferencing was first demonstrated? (Try 30 years ago, Stanford and SF.) How about what the first personal computer was? (Guess again.) Can you identify the first clamshell-style laptop? (Or the second?)
Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. If you want to learn more, check out the Vintage Computer Festival. (You can also check out my collection.)
Now, the DVD CCA says I can't do that.
They are trying to outlaw a valid use of items I bought and paid for. Items I want to use within the terms of their licenses. It's like if Oral-B got the courts to rule that I couldn't use their toothbrushes to clean car parts.
They are trying to make the money I spent a waste. So, do I have any rights -- can I not seek some kind of reparations?
Transmeta is a chip company. They have come up with a innovative new chip for use in a mobile platform. How that platform will connect to the internet, is up to the companies that implement the chip in their portables.
The internet connection could be something as simple as an ethernet jack that you would plug an ordinary cat-5 cable into, or it could be an Apple-stype airport wireless LAN connection.
Personally, I'm going to use a Ricochet wireless modem.
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Help me switch to Linux!
As I recall, it was originally scheduled for a Friday Afternoon. Now it is mid-day on a Tuesday. I might have been able to bugger off early on a Friday afternoon and show up. Tuesday mid-day is right out.
How many other working stiffs (who aren't DVD CCA Lawyers) can afford to take the afternoon off to show up like that? Perhaps this was a move to lessen the number of people who show up to refute the DVD CCA's arguments?
It's been a while since you could really believe what you saw.
Consider this: Print out a "memo" from your boss saying you should get a raise. Include a scanned image of your boss' signature. Don't claim it to be the original, just a copy you made on the inkjet-based fax machine. Or, pick up one of those photo printers, and digitally stick your ex-wife's head on Hillary's body.
For that matter, think about those psychic hotline ads. People believe them all the time, even though it seems painfully obvious that they don't have to be psychic, they just have to have a copy of the script. And yet, they make money hand over fist.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
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Help me switch to Linux!
What have been your experiences with educational technology with younger children? Have you found it to be beneficial? Why or why not?
Hmmm... Two houses on my block recently sold for $800K each. COBOL pays my mortgage. Hmmmm...
But even if you are one of the unenlightened children, her other work is enough.
What, only half? You've got something against the scots? (My favorite scotsman would have me believe they invented everything.) 8^)
and if you still need names...
I know they have WashDC covered. I'm surprised they're not working on Boston, actually. Keep an eye on them, and let 'em know you're interested and they may show up in your area.
Sorry, I was being unclear. The $5/mo goes to ricochet so you can use the ricochet modem to call regular modems. That is, you can sit in the park with your laptop and ricochet modem and dial into any modem-equipped system, such as a BBS, internal network, or mainframe/minicomputer. The $5 covers their cost of an outgoing line, basically.
Aw, shucks. I'd settle for one of those Inspirons... 8^)
The 15.4" screen runs at 1280x1024 (or something) which is probably higher than I would want to run it (I like 1024x768, but I could probably be convinced otherwise.) Laptop screens usually can't switch to a lower resolution -- it's a function of the hardware. Check out that screen in person before you buy! The same goes for the keyboard and mouse!
On a desktop, you can toss the keyboard/mouse/monitor and get yourself a nice MS Natural KB (one of the MS products I like, but they didn't invent it!), a Logitech Trackman Marble, and an 17"/19" NEC or MAG monitor (or whatever you fancy), but it's not so easy with a laptop on the road. You also have to weigh how much you'll be using it on the road versus at a desk where you can use an external KB/mouse/monitor.
One thing I didn't mention was that with laptops, getting a good vendor is a little more important than with a desktop. If your video card (for example) goes bad on a desktop, you can chuck it and get a new one. Not so with a laptop. That's why I paid a little more for the Chembook name, rather than getting the ASUS version cheaper from some no-name little dealer.
512MB RAM seems like it's way more than anyone could ever need, but I seem to remember people saying that about 64K not too long ago... 8^) Same goes for disk space. In theory, though, disk space should only be limited by available drives -- is there an actual BIOS limit or something at 75GB?
A 15" monitor sounds dreamy, but be sure it's something you want to haul around. I'm 6', 280lbs, and use to carry one of those 40lb suitcase compaq-types, so it wouldn't bother me, but it's probably bigger than my wife. YMMV.
The touchpad is important, but 90% of the time my hands are on the keyboard (I do COBOL programming mostly) and most of the rest of the time I use an external Trackman Marble. My mobile work is mostly typing (web pages, journal, e-mail, etc.) so the keyboard is far more important to me.
Check out the compatibility of the components -- video card, etc. I've not loaded Linux on my new one yet (where are those damn CD's?) but one of the reasons I picked this model was because of the Linux support available.
I've had it running under MS-DOS/Win3.11, Win98, GEM/TOS (Atari ST), and the MacOS. I'm sure I could use it with Linux if I had the time. I know of others who have used it with handhelds as well.
Basically, it's a hayes-compatible modem with a funny dialing string. The only problem I ever had was my Win3 dialer that didn't think "777**ppp" was a valid phone number. Note that for an extra $5/month, you can prepend a 9 and dial any landline modem. (I use this all the time to dial into client sites.) Check out some of my experiences with it.
There are other, similar services, but most of them don't seem as simple or as well thought out as Ricochet. Check to see if a University in your area has coverage: I was travelling through Oregon one time and was surprised to get a signal. Turned out the hotel was right next to the Univ/OR which was wired for ricochet.
Failing that, get a bunch of your friends to send inquiries in the hope that there's enough potential business in your area to get them to set up a network.
I will have mine, btw, forever. When I die, there'll be a little antenna sticking up out of the ground by my headstone -- that'll be my Ricochet modem so I can update my web page from the other side... 8^)
That's what I did 6 years ago. Six years was stretching it a bit, but you get the idea. My new laptop will hopefully last a while as well.
Personally, I would recommend focussing on (in order of importance):
Well, I went for a ChemBook 7400 which is one of the laptops that Linux Laptops used to sell. (Unfortunately, they stopped taking orders before I got mine.) There is also a page on running Linux on an ASUS 7400 (which is the OEM version of the ChemBook). For more general info, check out the Linux Laptop page.
Wanna place a bet on that? Portable computers have been around for over 25 years -- I don't think they're going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, my experience has been just the opposite -- they are replacing desktops like crazy.
Well, not everyone does 3-D rendering all day; you might be surprised to find that 90% of the population can get by just fine with a 450mhz processor. Meanwhile, portability -- being able to work where ever, whenever you want -- is far more important than cutting a few milliseconds off that spell check.
As for cost, the relative price of a laptop to its comparable desktop counterpart is much closer than it was 10 years ago, and it continues to drop. In a few years, the price will be very nearly the same (but your desktop computer will come with an LCD screen.)
Wander down to the airport some time and check out how many folks you see waiting for flights with their laptops out. Take the bus some time during the rush hour and look around. Have lunch in Palo Alto or Mountain View and see what's on the menu. Heck, take a look in a CompUSA ad some Sunday and count the number of laptops versus desktops shown! I think you'll find that laptops are definitely not disappearing.
What you missed is the way laptops are used. On the bus/train, you're running on battery power, so it would switch to low speed to save battery life. When you get to the office, you would plug it in, probably to a docking station/port replicator (with attached keyboard/mouse/monitor), and use it with AC for high speed. When you travel, you bring along the power supply, and maybe an external mouse or keyboard. When you get there, you borrow someone's monitor/kb/mouse and do your work at high speed. On the plane home, you're back to low speed and the built-in kb/mouse/screen.
So, it is a full-blown, high-speed, ergonomic system at home/work/etc., and a normal-speed laptop on the bus/at the restaurant, etc.
My six-year-old laptop has a full size keyboard, as does my new one. Among the well over 150 portable computers I own, there are indeed some with very substandard screens, keyboards, etc. There are some with even worse features, though. You pick whats important to you when you pay your money.
My laptops work great in those situations, but I am not limited to "supplemental tasks" -- because my laptop is my main computer, I am fully functional where ever I might be. I don't have to worry about jotting down notes to update something later, I can update it right then and there. Heck, with my wireless modem, I can update a web page, upload it, and view it off the net without leaving the coffee shop.
When I get somewhere where I work a lot (such as my home office, or my main client,) I plug into a docking station connected to a MS Natural Keyboard, a Logitech Trackman Marble, and a 17 inch monitor. For trips, I have a bag packed and ready to go with a network card, serial card, another trackman, a ballpoint mouse, and various keyboard and monitor cables.
The point is, where ever I am, I don't have to sacrifice. I have the best of all worlds, instead of sacrificing for a good machine some of the time!
Again, I think you are flat out wrong. Perhaps you find them unwieldy, but from what I've seen, laptops are replacing desktops in the corporate world left, right, and center. Fifteen years ago, I was about the only person I knew who owned a portable computer. Today, it doesn't surprise me to see two or more other people on the train with me working on a notebook -- at 9pm, going against the commute.
I have no problem carrying a large laptop -- it beats driving somewhere to walk on a treadmill the way people do -- but there are smaller, lighter ones that still have full-sized keyboards and screens.
Of course, portable computers aren't for everyone. My wife doesn't use hers anywhere nearly as often as I think she should. But for an awful lot of people, they are the future.
My question is why would you want to leave it at home?
I have a P2/400 Laptop and want it to replace my existing 486DX2-66. My laptop is my main machine; any non-portables I have are pretty much single task machines. (There's the web browser in the bedroom (IMDB!), the Quicken machine, the web browser/MP3 player at my desk, etc.) If it's important, it goes on the laptop, and it goes with me.
When I travel, I don't have to rely on some hotel's idea of a decent machine (win95/98), or what's available at a client site (not my files). My commute time turns into productive time. I can take my system, configured the way it should be, and set up in advance to demos and meetings.
Four to six miles might be adequate for some people, but it simply wouldn't work for me.
Leaving money (or your bike, or your car, or whatever) in the street doesn't give someone the right to steal it. Regardless of the ease of doing so, taking something that does not belong to you is both illegal and wrong.
Now, coming across a pile of money in the middle of the street is a questionable situation -- it may have been lost and you might want to make sure the rightful owner has a chance to claim it. But coming across a pile of money on someone else's kitchen table is another story entirely.
One might say (and plaintiff's council seems to be arguing) that they did exercise due care to protect their secret, and that the authors of DeCSS took extreme measure to violate their protections.
So yes, this has a bearing on the case, but not for the defense.
You and I both know that. The DVD CCA knows that. Even the judge probably knows that.
The problem is, the fact that there is no such thing as a perfect lock doesn't mean that you shouldn't use what's available, or that bypassing said locks to rob someone isn't illegal.
If you walk into a court and tell the judge that you should be able to make pirated copies of DVD's since it's going to happen anyway, he'll throw your butt out on the street so fast you'll crack the pavement.
Sure, ways to defeat copy protection has been around since the day after copy protection was invented. (Remember Happy drives for Atari's?) And they have their use -- there was a time when such measures were needed to load software with disk-based CP onto a hard drive, for example.
And once again, DeCSS is needed to play DVD's on Linux.
But if the court gets even a hint that the popular opinion is that DeCSS is intended to be used for piracy (even if it's not for another year, and only by experienced crackers) they'll slap a restraining order on it without even thinking twice.
And if I were the DVD CCA and my lawyers weren't reading, printing, analyzing, and filing every single slashdot post (and usenet, and etc.), I'd sue them for malpractice.
This kind of attitude will kill DeCSS. Sure, Copy2PC got away with it. So did the Happy folks. And a lot of others. But that was then, this is now. The DVD industry has a lot of money and a lot of exposure. Activision, EA, etc. didn't back then. People didn't take software as seriously, especially games; it was science fiction type stuff, bordering on fantasy. Now we're talking consumer products and Big Bucks(tm).
The futility of something doesn't make the effort pointless.
If you robbed someone and then tried to get away with it by telling the judge that the locks weren't very good, so sooner or later someone would have robbed him, what what do you think the judge would say?
On the other hand, if you rent an apartment and your landlord only gives you one key and says you can't make any copies, but you want to give one to your mom so she can come over and do your laundry, that might be another story. You could probably even give your mum a pick set and teach her how to pick locks so she could get in with no problem.
But not if she was doing it to rob you.
I seem to remember a number of times that a story will be posted here on slashdot that is given only superficial or even completely biased coverage in the mainstream newsmedia.
I saw no mention of this (DeCSS) issue on the evening news here in San Francisco.
What would life be like if our only source of news was from the major newspapers and television/radio companies? Pretty sad I think! That's why there are lots of little local newspapers all over the place. The low cost of of a cheap printing press allows nearly anyone to have their say.
But what if Hearst and co. came along and said that these little presses could be used to make copies of the SF Chronicle or NY Times, and therefore should be outlawed? What if Wired or MSN got an injunction against Slashdot to prevent /. from telling any news they might cover?
What if the movie companies said you can only watch the movies that include their (expensive, not-sold-in-stores) "copy" protection?
So much for that classic Freedom From Fear production of Boog or the light-hearted romp from Tesseract Studios called Kung Fu Spiders from Outer Space. But, you can watch all the You've Got Mail your stomach can handle.
I really hope to be there on the 14th, and I have a relatively new laptop with a PII-400, 160MB RAM 14.1" Screen, DVD Drive, 8MB Video Ram, and a blank 10GB hard drive waiting to load linux on it.
If someone wants to give me a hand setting it up (I've been short of time lately) and getting DeCSS running, I'd be happy to bring it along to show on the 14th. (Along with the stack of (legally purchased) DVD's I got this solstice.)
I don't know about the rest of you, but I sent a couple of e-mails indicating that I was not buying from eToys because of this, as I'm sure plenty of other slashdot readers did.
Perhaps they aren't admitting the influence slashdot and other aware folks have? (If they did, perhaps more people would start voting with their pocketbook, so to speak, and big corps wouldn't be able to get away with quite so much.)
At some point, the Microsoft-dependant media will get a hold of this and use it to counter claims that Windows is unreliable. They'll point to MassLinux with headlines like "Linux-based ISP goes down, leaving 800 web sites out of touch".
Meanwhile, I have this bad taste in my mouth. Forget about the fact that my gateway server is dutifully providing connectivity for the whole house (9 computers) by running SuSE on a 486/50 with 8MB/340MB. I know, intellectually, that Linux is superior to Windows, but...
It's like the guy who talked his boss into going with MassLinux -- right before they disappeared. Sure his getting fired is awful, but on a bigger scale, his (former) boss/company is one more that will never use Linux.
Like many other minority groups, sometimes Linux users have to think about the possible consequences of their actions. No one remembers all the people of a certain arbitrary classification who don't cut you off on the freeway, or don't mug you, or aren't drunkards, but one bad driver, one mugging, one bender, and all the old stereotypes get a new lease on life.
I haven't given up on Linux yet. My new ISP is Linux based. Of the 5 computers connected to my keyboard/monitor, 1 runs MS-DOS, 1 runs MS-DOS/Win3.11, 2 run Linux, and one has Win98 and an empty 10GB hard drive that might get Linux loaded on it.
Actually, entirely sarcastic. 8^) (It's too bad you're the only one who realized that; the other posters missed the point completely and immediately rode into battle to defend their sacred software.)
And programmer time costs money -- I know, because I charge an arm and a leg for mine. My point was that just as Free Software doesn't necessarily mean Bad Software, neither does Free Hosting mean Bad Hosting.
(and just for the record, I was paying $20/month, which, while certainly inexpensive, is not "effectively nothing".)
It is possible to run an ISP for next to nothing, charge next to nothing, and still make a profit while providing good service. MassLinux was blazingly fast, technologically aware, and (at least originally) well-intentioned.
(What they weren't, I think, is street smart -- that is, they didn't really have any clue how to run a real business in the Real World.)
Neither did (according to the Official Story) their financial situation. They made payments in good faith, their ISP fouled up, and voila -- a Bad Situation.
What turned a simple Bad Situation into a Disaster was the way they handled it (or didn't handle it, actually.)
I had recently sent them a check for $200. I figure I'm out about $150 worth of hosting. Add to that a couple day's work (say, ~$1000) plus some unknown amount of lost business. Really, a pittance.
Lost faith in the company due to the lack of communication: priceless.
Look at it this way: if you had an employee who called up and said "My car engine died. I'm going to put in a new one, so I won't be in today" you might be upset, you might even dock him a day's pay, but that's it. If he called up later that afternoon and said "this is taking longer than I thought, I may be out a few days," you would probably reschedule some meetings, maybe hire a temp, etc. Still, no big deal -- you can deal with it.
If instead, he simply didn't show up, you didn't know what had happened, and when you tried to call, you got no answer, you'd be a little more upset (and, hopefully, a little worried.) If this went on for several days with no word, and then he finally showed up and said "oh, my engine died, I had to put in a new one," it would be a different story. If you said "why didn't you call, or rent a car or something," and he just shrugged and said "I didn't think of it", you would probably fire him.
Most companies require you to plan your vacations in advance, so they can schedule other people to fill in for you. If you suddenly won a cruise leaving the next day, they still probably would let you go. But if you just didn't show up and didn't call, you would be fired.
Well, MassLinux is fired.