8/16    Will balancing my laptop on my thighs all day make me less fertile?
        I sure hope so.
        \_ I remember there was a Yahoo news article that said yes.
        \_ yes.. i am going to be a father in 3 months and this
           was the problem. as well as wearing briefs instead of boxers

8/5     how is power usage on my laptop if i encrypt everything
        http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/08/laptop_with_tru.html
        \_ Steve Gibson's analysis on performance was that Trucrypt on a WinXP
           laptop was actually faster, but I don't know about battery.
           laptop was actually faster, but I don't know about battery life.
           \_faster?  How can that be?  Also, I don't see that in the article.
             Can you provide a specific pointer?

8/5     Laptop with names of 33K people in the 'Clear' program stolen.  Data
        was (of course) unencrypted.
        http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/08/laptop_with_tru.html
        \_ http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080805/bs_nm/tjx_theft_charges_dc
           When are people going to learn to encrypt sensitive data?
           \_ When encryption becomes transparent enough that noone has
              to learn, it just works.  Seriously, people will keep fucking
              this kind of thing up until it's the default.
              this kind of thing up until encryption is the default.
        \_ Laptop found in the same office where it was thought to have been
           stolen, and was never turned on during the missing period.  (Of
           course this doesn't change the necessity of encrypting.)

7/20    Does my encrypted disk LVM everything partition scheme make my
        laptop consume a lot more power than if I weren't using encrypted
        LVM?

6/12    why do after I come back from suspend on my laptop, porn does
        not stream properly from http://youporn.com unless I reboot?

4/2     I want a Thinkpad that is light.  I don't need a CD-ROM drive.
        I want a display that is higher resolution than 1024x768.
        Which model should I get?  Thanks you.
        \_ x300

2/16    Illinois grad student psycho:
        - Sent to psych ward by parents after high school -- constantly cut
          himself and refused to take meds
        - Kicked out of Army after 6 months on psych discharge
        - Worked briefly as 21-year-old prison guard
        - Wrote paper on prisoners cutting themselves
        - Republican
        http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/16/university.shooting/index.html
          \_ Yes, I'm sure that's a factor.

10/17   There is this magical device that lets me connect a 2.5"
        laptop drive to my computer's USB port.  the IT dude at work
        had it.  What is it called?  I wanna buy one.  Thank you.
        \_ hard drive enclosure? they have ones that connect with
           firewire and SATA also
        \_ Did he use fairy dust or just the standard wand?  Fairy dust is
           much more expensive and prices fluctuate rapidly on the world
           market but you get much better data xfer rates.

10/7    I have a laptop with 3 mouse buttons, running linux.  left
        button is dead.  I'd like to remap the middle button->left button.
        How do I do that?
        \_ Mmm, maybe get your laptop repaired?
        \_ xmodmap in X11, whatever linux user for a mouse damon (gpm?)

9/27    What's a better laptop to get, Gateway, Dell, or Toshiba?
        \_ thinkpad
           \_ Are there still Thinkpads with butterfly keyboards?  I had one
              11yrs ago, and it was cool because the laptop body can be made
              smaller than the keyboard.
              \_ i would love to see those butterfly keyboards again.  too
                 bad that there won't be any butterfly keyboards anytime soon.

9/20    For a HDTV >= 36", can someone quickly summarize the pros and cons
        of LCD vs Plasma please?  Thank you.
        \_ how much >= 36"?  From my research LCD seems the way to go until
           you get bigger than my wallet or apartment can handle.
           \_ I was looking at a 42".  Browsing through the store, I felt
              46" would've been too big for my apartment. -op
        \_ plasma:  higher heat, less motion blur, less pixelation, quicker
           to lose brightness (I belieive) - I went with LCD
           \_ *less* motion blur on plasma?  I thought it had more, making
              it less suitable for games, which was one reason why I asked.
              Turns out I misread the specs and the TV I was looking at is
              actually LCD.  I decided to get it since it is through a
              special hookup at a great price, but might as well keep the
              thread in case anyone else is interested. -op
              \_ Yeah, I think LCDs have much better response time these
                 days.  LCD technology has done some amazing things recently.

9/10    Is there a version of squid proxy for really pathetic slow
        machines or a laptop?

9/3     Does your laptop have a built in card reader? If so, what kind of
        card does it read? My 2004 laptop has a SD card reader, and I'm
        wondering if new laptops use different ones.
        \_ Probably combo reader.

8/13    I'm thinking of buyng a 23" Apple Cinema LCD Display. Does anyone
        have one and what is your opinion?
        \_ I have one of these and I love it. I find that it is brighter
           and sharper than my brother's 24" Dell LCD.
           \_ Huh?  Unless your brother was driving his monitor using
              analogue signaling, one LCD cannot be sharper than another,
              as they're addressed pixel-by-pixel.  Either way, isn't 23"
              panel in the Apple outdated?  You can get better units for
              that kind of price.  Also, I used to have a Dell 24".  Sold
              that crap built with cheap components (panel itself is fine)
              at a loss and bought an Eizo and have been happy ever since.
              \_ I agree there is no reason that things should look sharper
                 on the Apple v. the Dell b/c both monitors were driven by
                 DVI.
                 It is my purely subjective assessment that images look
                 sharper on the Apple. The only factual basis that I think
                 of for this is that the slightly smaller size of the 23"
                 means that the pixels are more densely packed, giving
                 the appearance of "sharpness" when viewing images at
                 full resolution.
                 Re Outdated: I don't know if 23" is outdated.

8/1     Laptops may decrease your sperm count.
        http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/11/mens.health.myths
        \_ We don't need to use protection, I'm a computer geek!

7/16    Is there a website that lists the most senior friendly laptops?
        This would be for someone in their 80's with vision issues and
        arthitis. Not to mention some level of tecchie phobia.
        Serious replies please. Thanks
        \_ One would expect Macs to be more senior friendly, because of
           better UI design.
           \_ OS X also has a nice universal access feature that can
              zoom all or part of the screen for those with vision
              problems.
        \_ Maybe AARP can recommend one?
        \_ Does it have to be a laptop?  A 30" LCD would go a long way.
           \_ Or a wall projector.

6/25    Help. Costco's SanDisk II 2G card works on my Canon SD300, but
        it is unreadable on my laptop's SD card reader and my external
        card reader. What's going on?
        \_ Some card readers don't to more than 1GB.
        \_ Updating the XP card reader driver helps, surprisingly.
           Old drivers read 1G sdcard, new drivers read 2G sdcards -op

5/15    My older brother's Fujitsu notebook (S7010D) died last week and the
        nearest registered service center says it will be $800 just for a
        replacement motherboard (shipped from Japan).  Are there any
        alternatives?  ebay shows nothing.  fyi, the notbook was purchased
        2yrs 9months ago, he never ponied up the $180 for the extended 3yr
        warranty, but treated it well.  had been rebooting randomly before
        death - hard drive is fine.  Thanks.
        \_ Laptops are typically more expensive to repair than to replace.
           When my screen died (actually, it's the connector to the
           screen--probably a $3 part) I couldn't find any way to fix it
           without replacing the entire screen for $1000.  Meanwhile, you can
           get a new laptop for $600
           http://www.gotapex.com/deals/one/26.htm
           \_ thanks.  looks like he will be getting a Thinkpad T60P.
              looks like the old one will be relegated to paperweight service.
              \_ He might want to consider parting it and selling the parts on
                 eBay.

4/27    Do you own a light laptop with 12" screen and under 4 lbs?  Which
        brand and model do you have?  I thinking of purchasing one.
        PC only, macbook is nice but doesn't have cardbus interface.  Thanks.
        \_ I have a panasonic toughbook. giant screen , 3.5 lbs.
           runs linux and windows great.
        \_ ThinkPad X60.
        \_ If I had to get a non-Apple laptop again, I'd get a Fujitsu
           Lifebook P series.  I still have a P2110 that' is at least five
           years old(probably few more) that is still as good as the day I
           bought it(functionally.  The felt at the bottom is peeling.)
           Too bad they don't have a Core 2 Duo model of it at the moment.

4/3     Is it possible to openup a linksys notebook adapter card to get at
        the mini-pci wireless card insdide?  The mini-pci for my laptop is
        no longer made. Thanks
        \_ They're not expensive--try one and let us know.
        \_ Have you tried ebay?

3/28    A kind reminder that CSUA stands for Computer Science Undergrad
        Association. It is not the Political Science [aka I hate Democrats
        and I hate Republicans] Undergrad Association.
        In other news AMD is releasing a new laptop chip! EXCITING!!!
    http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/29/amds-laptop-ready-m690-chipset-unveiled
        \_ that's chipset.  and CS students like to talk politics.
        \_ Piss off.
           \_ Well someone is pissy.  If this is representative, I think I
              know why I chose to hang out with CS types as opposed to
              poli-sci types. -dans

12/26   I just got a Wii and it looks bad on my 10 year old 20" tube.
        What is the resolution of RCA connectors? If I get a new plasma
        or LCD will it look better?
        \_ component cable will make it better

12/17   oh mighty motd, where can i get a 20" LCD display
        for around $200?
        \_ Costco has a 19" for around $200, with 6ms response, 1280x1024,
           700:1 contrast ratio.

11/19   I have both pcmia cards for my wi-fi and my usb 2.0 on my DELL I8200.
        Even though  have 2 slots; the usb2.0 card makes it next to
        impossible to plug both in at the same time. Any suggestions? Do
        they sell longer cards? Should I consider an internal mini-pci wifi?
        Thanks.
        \_ is this thin enough?
           http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833150006
           or get a Wi-Fi via USB 2.0 device
           http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124158
           http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833135109
           \_ Are any of these pcmcia ? I8200's only have 1.0 slots along
              with a 1394 slot . It seems a little big to plug into a pcmcia
              slot
              \_ the first one fits in the I8200 PCMCIA PC Card slot.  it is
              \_ the first one fits in the I8200 PC Card slot.  it is
                 also a 32-bit CardBus card, and the I8200 has CardBus
                 interfaces.  in other words, it works fine with your I8200.
                 the only question is whether there is still enough headroom
                 for your other PC Card.  Also, I now realize your other PC
                 Card may block out a lot of signal, even if they both fit.
                 the latter two plug into a USB 2.0 port.
                 For more info on PCMCIA / PC Card / CardBus, see:
                 http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#pins

10/4    motd routing nerds, help me out.
        let's say i am torrenting stuff on my laptop.  I want
        of course my SSH connections to be responsive and fast,
        but the upstream torrenting gets in the way.  Could i
        implement QOS somehow on my local machine and improve
        SSH?  I'm running Linux.  Would I have to make a virtual
        machine somewhere on my laptop and run QOS in that?  Thanks!
        \_ or just use your torrent client's builtin bw limit options
           \_ no no you don't understand, have you ever used QOS
              on a router before?  You can make your SSH packets
              have a higher priority than your web or torrent packets,
              reducing the latency for your ssh sessions.  If you limit
              the upstream of your torrents... your downstream becomes
              slower
              \_ sympathy factor crashes like rock. back in my day we got 300
                 baud and we were glad for it!
              \_ if you're bottlenecked on the inbound, no amount of
                 fiddling with your router's QoS settings is going to help.
                 Maybe if you could fiddle with your ISP's router, but I
                 suspect they won't be sympathetic to your torrent leeching
                 needs.
                 If you're bottlenecked on the outbound, limit your torrent
                 clients' upload speeds (or play with QoS).  It doesn't take
                 backing off much to give huge improvements to ssh and/or
                 other interactive programs.
                 clients upload speeds (or play with QoS).
           \_ get a faster pipe, whiner
        \_ So-called "gaming routers" can put preferences on ports.  That's
           quick solution.
           \_ Not only is this a quick solution, but an excellent solution.
              I bought a DLINK gaming router and never looked back. I get
              the best of all worlds-- filling up the pipe AND get small
              latency for ssh and X11 related things.
           \_ agree that this is one way to do it.  increase priority for
              port 22 outgoing (router should also be smart enough to
              prioritize incoming packets for the session), and back off your
              upstream torrent cap a bit until you're satisfied.

9/28    IBM/Lenovo announces recall of Communist Thinkpad batteries:
        http://tinyurl.com/kqa6h (ibm.com)
        \_ Sony to announce global replacement program:
           http://tinyurl.com/f8zsa (engadget.com)

9/28    What do you guys think the average lifespan of a laptop is these
        days? It doesn't matter the reason for a new machine, I'm just
        wondering approximately how soon should I'll need to get a new
        laptop if I bought one last year. Thanks Comrades.
        \_ Figure about 3 years, maybe 4.
        \_ Depends on what you are using it for.  For something like email
           or web browsing I would suggest upgrading in the next 6 months.
           \_ What?  You can surf and do email on any toy laptop today.
        \_ My last laptop lasted me 3 years, I gave it to a friend who uses
           it only for email/watching videos/web surfing and while I'm
           sure it isn't as fast as she'd like it does everything she needs
           no problem.
        \_ My original iBook G4 lasted ~ 3 yrs (before I sold it, that buyer
           is still using it). My current iBook G4 is going on ~ 1.5 yrs and
           probably will last me another year or more (I'm waiting for a much
           cooler MB before I upgrade).  My G3 Pismo lasted ~ 4 years before
           it died. I know some people on the 18 mo upgrade cycle, but that
           is to expensive for me, I usually pick every other generation.
        \_ I still use my 2001 G3 iBook. However, I am not using it heavely,
           sometimes weeks go by without me touching it. The battery died
           a couple of years ago and had to be replaced (now again due to a
           recall), and the screen got noticeably dimmer.
        \_ Is the battery made by Sony?
                \_ No, it's an Apple iBook.
                   \_ Some iBook batteries were made by Sony. Affected
                      serial numbers are here:
                <DEAD>support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange<DEAD>

9/22    Alan Cox's ThinkPad battery explodes:
        http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/22/another-thinkpad-battery-explodes
        \_ What happened to engadget lately? Their site used to look
           very professional, now it looks like it was designed by a
           20 year old. A lot of pictures just isn't resized
           correctly, you see the jagged lines, etc. Did I miss
           something? Gizmodo went down a similar path a year or so
           ago and I read it was because the guy left. What the hell
           happened to Engadget?
           \_ I noticed the same thing. I'm not sure what is going on
              at either site.  I have found that both sites do not
              play well w/ adblock plus in firefox (they look better
              in safari, but still not great).
        \_ It's essential to note that battery was bought off eBay, though
           it's an open question whether it was OEM or a knock-off.
           \_ Engadget did a site redesign just a few days ago.  I suspect
              bugs will be squashed over the next few weeks and it will
              start to look better.
        \_ It's essential to note that battery was bought off eBay, though
           it's an open question whether it was OEM or a knock-off.

9/20    What's the fucking package manager on Slackware Linux?  How hard is it to,
        say, install Ruby?
        \_ i know you don't want to hear this but you really should be using
           a different linux distro
           \_ i would say he really shouldn't be any linux distro if he's
              asking a question like that.
              \_ Sheesh.  I was actually thinking of using Vector Linux
                 (which is based on slackware) on a 10 year old laptop for
                 a specific application.  Vector Linux is supposed to work
                 well on old hardware.  I can't test it because I don't
                 have the laptop with me right now.  I don't want to
                 spend a bunch of time screwing around with it for the 2
                 have the fucking laptop with me right now.  I don't want to
                 spend a bunch of time screwing around with it for the fucking 2
                 weeks I'll have it.  I just thought it would be nice to
                 be able to play with Ruby while I was at it.
        \_ tar -xzvf          upgrade to debian

9/6     Korean Air bans Macs and Dells:
        http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/biz/200609/kt2006090517585411880.htm
        \_ Reason no. 1,423,918 why you shouldn't buy a Mac. -pc user
           \_ or a dell - another pc user
              \_ Don't even bother with a laptop.  PDAs are the future.

8/31    its that time of year again.  i would like to buy
        a reliable mac laptop.  i dont need blazing ass speed.
        i would like light and reliable.  i dont need a gigantic
        display.  i would like to haul it to cafes and look cool.
        what should i get?  a new one?  a slightly used one?
        are they all intel now?  do they all have battery problems?
        \_ Wait until the problem with the white MacBook palm rests
           gets solved, and get one of those. (they are intel)
        \_ Since Intel just released the mobile Core2 Duo (Merom), expect an
           update to Apple's laptop line soon.
           \_ Do you know if there are any plans for a 12" one?  I am
              loving my 12" PB, and may look at a MacBook next year.  -John
                \_ All signs point to 13 inches being the new 12 inches.
                   I miss the smaller size too.
                   \_ obthatswhatshesaid
                   \_ obthatswhathesaid

8/23    It just keeps getting worse for Dell; Quantas says Dell owners must
        remove batteries and not use laptops on flights:
        http://tinyurl.com/njk8d (http://www.smh.com.au
        \_ If the terrorists were really smart, they would blow up the planes
           with defective Dell laptops.
           \_ What's scarier than Snakes on a Plane? Dells on a Plane!
                \_ Osama bin Laden is getting excited imagining
                   a beowulf cluster of Dell laptops ...
        \_ "Quantas never crashes"

8/15    Republican Party loving Dell is recalling Dell laptop batteries:
        See if your battery is affected: link:www.dellbatteryprogram.com
        \_ ob testing kchang's auto-classifier
           \_ Test passed. My pigeons are working hard:
              http://csua.com/?entry=faq1    -kchang
        \_ I have IBM, so ha!  Buy American!  -average American male

8/7     I need to flash my MB BIOS and I don't have a floppy drive.  Is it
        generally possible to boot off a USB thumb drive and flash from that?
        \_ Only if your BIOS allows you to boot from USB.  More common on
           laptops.
        \_ Assuming your MB supports booting from USB, you'll probably
           also need: http://www.csua.org/u/gmp
        \_ Unless you have some really odd hardware you should have a floppy
           port and power lead from your power supply.  If your BIOS doesn't
           support USB boot then temporarily installing a floppy (don't bother
           to screw it into the case, etc) is very easy.  You'll need to boot
           from a DOS image.  Try FreeDOS if your BIOS didn't come with a fully
           bootable floppy image file.
        \_ Of course. -proud AOL user
                       \_ So you're the one!
        \_ Make an eltorito bootable CD with a bootable DOS floppy image
           make sure to put the BIOS flash code and program in the image.
           Then you can boot from the CD and flash your BIOS. I've done it
           before. Works great..

7/28    Where is a reputable place to pre-order a E6600 processor?
        \_ I'm still curious what everyone plans to do with these chips.
           Not that I wouldn't buy one if I was in the market for a new
           computer right now but I keep computers for a loooong time.
           \_ I'm in the market for a new (self-built) computer.
           \_ My current machine can't run the latest games, I'm building a
              a new one.
        \_ Everyone seems to point to http://www.tankguys.com I don't know if they
           are reputable.
        \_ http://newegg.com|mwave.com|zipzoomfly.com, and now http://tigerdirect.com.
           There are none in stock, though, and I believe there is a embargo
           date of Aug 7.  You could buy an OEM E6300 yesterday from
           http://tigerdirect.com but they're all out.  See http://hardforum.com, Intel
           board for more info.
        \_ http://tigerdirect.com had both OEM E6300 and E6600 yesterday and shipped
           them out.  See http://hardforum.com, Intel board for more info.  I don't
           know how hard it is to cancel a pre-order.  Rumors are that
           significantly more stock will be available come Aug 7.
        \_ http://tigerdirect.com had OEM E6300 yesterday and shipped them out, so
           you could try them for OEM E6600.  See http://hardforum.com, Intel board
           for more info.  I don't know how hard it is to cancel a pre-order.
           know how hard it is to cancel a pre-order.  Consensus seems to be
           that significantly more stock will be available come Aug 7.
           \_ I've never used them, but I've read some bad critiques of their
              customer service online--no clue if they're for real or not
              but you might consider researching before ordering there.  -John
              \_ I bought several items, returned several items and also got
                 my mail-in rebate money from tiger with no problems at all.
                 Every company on the net has complaints posted about them.
                 You need to examine the nature and consistency of the
                 issues and ignore the random insane ranter or you'll never
                 buy anything from anyone.
                \_ http://Tigerdirect.com is notorious for ripping people off
                   when it comes to rebate coupons.  They've been involved
                   in much litigation about this. -proud American

7/17    My western digital WD800UE 80gb 5400 RPM laptop HD sometimes
        gives off a few "clicking" noise. Although this has been going
        on for a while and I haven't run into any problems. Is this
        the click of death? Should I be concerned? I am using it in an
        external enclosure and had it shortly after I got it. (it
        started to make that noise when I was trying to "disconnect
        usb device" in XP, it started to make that noise and XP said
        can't disconnect device because it is in use. Since then, the
        clicking noise happens every now and then. And just today the
        drive couldn't spin up for about 5 seconds for some reason..
        Is WD quality really that bad?
        \_ There is a tool on http://sysinternals.com that lists open filehandles
           under Windows (kind of like graphical lsof) -- I think it's
           called filemon.  Check that out.  As for the drive, back it up,
           like now.  -John
        \_ Buy a new HD immediately and transfer your files to it.  Toss this
           one.  Consider yourself lucky that you got an advance warning.
           The "click of death" means "you will soon lose all your data"
        \_ As above said plus: no, WD quality isn't special.  DOA or near-DOA
           drives have become way too common in recent years as the industry
           cuts back on QA and general quality while spending heavily on ever
           higher bits/square inch.  You've got a 1 year warrantee from WD.
           Use it.  If you want a quality drive get a scsi or fiber channel.
           For home use pay a little more for a SATA with a real warrantee.
           If they don't trust they own drives for longer than 1 year, why
           should you?
        \_ My laptop HD clicks.  It's audible but not loud.  It's normal
           for this drive. --jameslin
        \_ My laptop HD clicks.  It's audible but not loud.  It was like
           that from the very beginning, and apparently it's normal for
           this drive. --jameslin

7/1     So my new MacBook Pro is hot hot hot! And I mean, it is so hot that
        it is unbearable to put on my laptop, even when it is idling.
        In addition the battery lasts only 2 hours at max, when only
        5% of the CPU is used. In contrast, my 1.5GHz Pentium M is
        pretty cool, and lasts 2.5 hours with a smaller battery. My G4
        is also really really cool and lasts almost 4 hours. What the
        hell is going on? I'm very very unhappy with the MacBook Pro.
        \_ Hello I'm the op, and I've followed tom's link, disassembled
           my MacBook Pro and was dismayed at how much paste was used on
           it. Basically the processor, chipset, and something else had so
           much paste that they acted like insulators which created extremely
           hot spots on the top portion of the laptop. I took out all the
           thermal paste (it was incredibly thick) and reapplied a thin
           layer. Yesterday my laptop had a few scalding burning hot spots,
           but today I'm proud to say that it is simply running as hot as
           McDonald's coffee. I'm glad I took the risk to make the laptop run
           better.
             It is amazing how Apple has chosen to ignore this problem
           instead of trying to solve it. I guess as a company gets bigger
           and bigger it cares less and less about the quality of products and
           instead more about making the shareholders happy.
        \_ http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/04/macbook-pro-heat-problem-heats-up
            -tom
            \_ Wow, what a brilliant solution to a heat problem - reduce
               the heat flow from the chips to the chassis by removing
               thermal paste. Absolutely brilliant. They should just
               remove the fans while they're at it. Don't know why
               Apple never thaught of that.
               \_ Ummm.. You know thermal paste isn't some sort of magical
                  heat eliminator right?  You realize that too much can
                  cause heat problems right?  You realize they aren't
                  suggesting not using any, but cleaning it off and
                  replacing it with a smaller amount.. right?  I don't
                  know if this is the actual cause of the heat problems,
                  but it certainly is a possibility.
        \_ Being "hot" is the reason you got it right? ;)
        \_ I seem to recall something about Apple very quietly releasing a
           firmware upgrade that makes it turn on the fan more readily.  Result
           is much lower operating temperatures, but more tendancy to have fan
           noise.

6/21    Dell notebook explodes at conference meeting in Japan
        http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550
        \_ Dude!! Get a Dell!
           \_ Get a Dell, lose a ball

5/24    http://csua.org/u/fz0 (engadget.com) Hot hot hot!!!!!!!
        \_ boring
        \_ they need a battery life comparison for Turion 64 X2 vs. Core Duo
           and the weight of the systems
        \_ Fuck, what would a soda geek like me need to do to land
           myself a chi, i mean a laptop, like that?
           \_ Those chicks are not hot
              \_ Show me one that you consider 'hot'.
                 \_ I'm not that guy, but I googled and this is what I got
                    http://data1.blog.de/blog/u/ultrakoichi/img/kumada01.jpg
                    (PG rated)
                    \_ Fine body but not cute enough face. B-
                       \_ Agreed. Face looks too Korean. C+
                          \_ Slanty-eyed dog. F.
        \_ Thanks for the link.  I have been looking for a laptop that is 12"
           and has indepedent video RAM for graphics for past 3-4 years.
           I used IBM X21, Dell 700m.  They are small enough but didn't pack
           enough horse power to play game :(  If this laptop have a long
           battery life (even with extended battery), I would get it.

5/18    I want to use version control for some code on my laptop even when
        I'm not connected to the network with the SVN repository. Is there
        a good way to run a local svn repository on the laptop and synch it
        with the main repository from time to time? ok tnx.
        \_ http://svk.elixus.org  (haven't used it personally)
           but you might want to think about a revision control system that's
           designed for this from the get go, like "git"  On the other hand,
           I find git quirky and confusing.  YMMV.  --dbushong

5/12    What do people use to clean their laptop screens? Mine is full of
        finger smudges and dust. Thanks.
        \_ Microfiber towels that I get with my sunglasses.  Go to a good
           optician, they should have some (I think every pair of Ray-Bans
           you buy comes with one.)  Wipe gently.  I don't use those moist
           alcohol screen cleaners, because I haven't found any that don't
           streak.  I use these little towels for my camera lenses too,
           by the way.  If you find something better, please post.  -John
        \_ Microfiber towels that I get with my sunglasses.  Go to a good
           optician, they should have some (I think every pair of Ray-Bans
           you buy comes with one.)  Wipe gently.  I don't use those moist
           alcohol screen cleaners, because I haven't found any that don't
           streak.  I use these little towels for my camera lenses too,
           by the way.  If you find something better, please post.  -John

5/11    Regarding the earlier post about Thinkpad warranty service:
        It was picked up by DHL at 4:30 on Monday and it came back repaired
        at noon today.  I'm quite impressed.  Props to Lenovo and DHL.
        \_ Wow--exact opposite of what I experienced (albeit in
           Switzerland.)  Rude, complicated, and inefficient.  -John

5/7     Anyone have any experience with IBM/Lenovo mail-in Thinkpad warranty
        service?  How long should I expect it to take to get my machine back?
        \_ they will send you a box, you send the box in, repair time, get
           the box back -- the box took a few days to arrive, it went back
           via standard shipping, repair time was maybe a week, the laptop
           came back overnight'd I think.  I got the note of a delivery
           attempt before I got an email notification that it was on its
           way.
           \_ I got the box and was wondering how long I will be laptop-less.
              Thanks.

4/11    http://tinyurl.com/fszeh (sfgate)
        Go to the internet cafe, get stabbed and your laptop stolen.
        \- oh that is interesting. ther stabee is an associate of mine.
           i think major organs may have been missed because he is close
           to being an Orbital Death Star.
           to being an Orbital Death Star. according to his sistern, there
           was supposedly an offduty cop in the cafe but he didnt do
           anything ... not sure of details.

3/31    I've seen some laptops with Dual Core AMD chips that are ridiculously
        overpowered.  I'm looking for a seller.  Where can I find one?
        \_ We care why?

3/30    So which current laptop out there works with Linux and
        hibernation-to-disk (not suspend to memory) ?
        \_ I have a toshiba that seems to work w/ Linux hibernate. I'll
           get you the model number tonight.
        \_ I thought newer linux kernel supports suspend-to-disk, no?

3/27    Any recommendation for a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card for an older
        Powerbook with USB 1.1 builtin?  Or should all cards be
        about the same?

3/20    Yay!  Thinkpads finally have a Windows key.
        Did this happen with the transition to Lenovo?
        http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2567
        \_ You use the windows key?
           \_ Win-M, Win-E
        \_ dude, why do you need Windows key for?  control-escape is fine, no?
           \_ Windows-M is pretty useful.  There's other key combos too.
           \_ Ctrl+Esc can't be used with chording.  Win+R, Win+D, Win+Break,
              Win+L, etc. are all useful. (And that's not including various
              other keyboard shortcuts you can assign with third-party tools.)
           \_ if ppl would stop overwriting the motd, Win-M, Win-E
           \_ Windows keys will make great apple keys when running Mac OS X.
              \_ And great Meta keys when running *nix
                 \_ And great Windows keys when running Windows.
                    \_ And great tur keys when...oh, n/m
        \_ BLASPHEMER!!!

3/10    Isn't posner supposed to be smart?
        http://news.com.com/Police+blotter+Ex-employee+faces+suit+over+file+deletion/2100-1030_3-6048449.html?tag=nefd.top
        \- What is your point? also since he would have been hearing it
           at the appelate level, his comment may be on some narrow legal
           point. i imagine he approaches this in interms of his econ
           approach about what ruling produces "efficient outcomes".

2/13    Can anyone recommend a local computer maker in the East Bay? I want
        to upgrade our (circa 1998) home desktop system box and only the box
        and I don't have the time or fu to build one myself.
        \_ go to http://pricewatch.com and find an out of state system builder with
           the right price/system for you.  try monarch or one of the other
           larger places that's been around for a while with a decent rep.
        \_ General Computing Systems, 3226 Grand Ave., Oakland:
           http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=21503093
        \_ If you don't mind going across the bridge, check out Central
           Computers, 837 Howard St. @ 5th St in San Francisco:
           http://www.centralcomputer.com
           Central's prices are reasonable, but by no means the cheapest out
           there.  Turnaround time in my experience is very fast.  I don't
           always get someone with the best English when I call, but they've
           never screwed up an order.  I'm told they are reasonable and prompt
           when it comes to returns.  I think I heard about Central from
           jon@csua, you might inquire further with him. -dans
        \_ Why does it have to be local?

2/3     I am looking for a laptop with the following constraints. Usage
        is word processing and web browsing, light multimedia. Platform
        is Windows (translation apps). Want to get good price for best
        build quality (reliability, nice screen, weight). Caveat is that
        it needs to have a docking station that (somehow) supports 2x
        external monitors (NOT lcd screen and a second monitor). I
        was thinking Thinkpad T43 with a ThinkPad Advanced Dock (which
        supports half height PCI cards). I can spend $2-3k if necessary
        (already have displays). Thoughts? - jhs
        \_ If I were looking for a desktop-replacement laptop, I wouldn't
           consider anything except ThinkPad right now.  I hope Lenovo
           doesn't tuurn them into crap.  -tom
           doesn't turn them into crap.  -tom

2/1     http://deepakr.wordpress.com/2005/12/30/next-gen-computers
        \_ I've said this before, the mere idea of using such a crappy
           excuse for an input device as a laser keyboard... well... just...
           UGH.
           \_ I doubt this will be very popular. No tactile response makes
              it very easy to make errors.
              \_ I think if they could come up with an _instant_ response short
                 distinctive tone per key then audio response might go a long
                 ways towards helping with this problem.
                 \_ I'm thinking more of fingers touching keys and not pushing
                    down while the user thinks or considers items. The error
                    rate for mistaken keystrokes would be tremendous.
                    \_ Agreed.  This reminds me of the Atari 400 whose keyboard
                       drove me crazy.
                       \_ Hmmmm. Chicklets..
        \_ "PENS WITH HIDDEN CAMS ?????"  No, I think they're abstract
           illustration of copulatory positions.

1/30    Any suggestions for cleaning underneath a ThinkPad keyboard?  I've got
        to stop eating crackers over my laptop.
        \_ Flip, shake.
           \_ Yeah, only moderately effective.
              \_ You could open it but you'd probably be breaking the warrantee
                 and it might be a problem getting it back together properly.
                 I've seen some laptops that were easy to close back up and
                 others that were a mess of *very* short cables between the
                 2 halves.  YMMV.  I'd stick to flip/shake unless you're
                 missing key strokes.
        \_ I thought thinkpad keyboards are easy to pop off?
           \_ They are.  -tom
           \_ Ah, the real answer! -op
        \_ For Dell Latitude notebooks there are full instructions for
           removing/reinstalling the keyboard, and eBay sells a whole bunch
           of kb's.  I suggest you google for a Thinkpad maintenance manual
           (online HTML or downloadable PDF) for your model.
           I don't believe doing something like this for Dell notebooks will
           invalidate the warranty (within limits), not sure about Thinkpads.
        \_ Compressed air keyboard cleaning bottle?  -John
        \_ For desktop keyboards you can pop individual keys and then vacuum.
           Don't know about ThinkPad.
           \_ Yes, but they are more delicate and prone to damage. --Jon

1/15    I've got a mac G4 laptop and a dell box that I want to play kernel
        hacker  with, but I don't want to keep a bulky monitor around.  Is
        it possible to get a terminal connection from the dell box to the
        laptop?  The dell has USB, serial, PS/2, and VGA (no firewire).
        Any suggestions appreciate, thanks.
        \_ VNC over ethernet.
        \_ ssh?
          \_ I'm talking about getting a console before the networking
             stack is initialized.
        \_ if you can get a hold of one, <DEAD>realweasel.com<DEAD>
        \_ uh, ssh?
           \_ thanks, good tip.  I'd still need a usb<->serial converter
              and probably some sort of OSX terminal app.  Any ideas?
        \_ a $20 2-port KVM?
           \_ The laptop screen doesn't take video in.
        \_ The realweasel, while nice is wholly unnecessary.  Turn on serial
           ttys on the Dell, get a USB to serial adapter from Keyspan for your
           Mac, and use zterm or tip for a terminal application.  Either of:
           http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA19W
           http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/USA28x
           Should work.  I have a USA28x, and use it all the time with my
           PowerBook. -dans

1/4     There is speculation Google will offer a $200 non MSFT computer
        (at Walmart).  What OS do you think they'll use?
        \_ Their own Linux distribution.
        \_ I was going to build http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/knex over
           Christmas, but I had to deal with backyard flooding instead.  I
           wonder what form facter the allegedly GooglePC will have.
        \_ How about the $100 hand-cranked laptop?
           http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/11/30/laptop/index.html
           \_ Remember, you must crank for 8 hours before using for the first
              time.
        \_ If they do (and if it's more than just putting their logo on
           a machine built by someone else), it might finally be time to
           short GOOG.  -tom
        \_ Uh, it's already been refuted.
           http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060104-5882.html

12/11   NEC: products of the future
        http://www.nec-design.co.jp/showcase

12/7    Is there such a thing as a portable LCD monitor?  I mean something
        like a laptop but just with the display (and interface).
        \_ There are the ones that mount in racks with a keyboard that flip up.
           They are about the size of a laptop. However, most LCDs are
           by their nature about the same/size weight as a laptop.
        \_ I've been wondering the same. I'm debating getting a Mac Mini.
           I don't need to use it while in transit, but it would be nice
           to have a monitor I could set up when I get to my destination.
           I've been considering a Head Mounted Display:
                http://www.stereo3d.com/hmd.htm
           \_ I posted the question for exactly the same reason, but Head
              Mounted Display is too exotic for me.  Is there something cheap
              and ordinary that I can put in a backpack?  I don't know why pp
              says most lcd monitor is about the same size/weight as laptop.
              \_ Because they are? We're not talking about a 20" LCD here,
                 but a small one. Here's one:
                 but a small one. Here's some:
                 http://www.lilliput.cn/619.htm
                 http://www.logisysus.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=75
        \_ Take a look at some of the portable LCD's that are used in cars.

12/6    Why are you people so obsessed with kchang?  It's nice outside. -John
        \_ Cause he still has a cute little bubble butt that just begs for
           a rimming.
        \_ And I suppose you're out frolicking naked through some alpine
           meadow with a hot chick while you read and post to the motd?
           \_ Blackberry.  Ours still work  :-)
              \_ Unless you post a picture from said blackberry with a timestamp\
                 that proves there is really an alpine meadow and a naked hot
                 chick, I think we can all assume you're hunched over a laptop
                 in some nerdy building, just like the rest of us.
                 \_ Actually I'm hunched over a laptop in my nice living room
                    with a glass of wine in front of the fireplace watching
                    soccer, but http://blackberryporn.com ...  -John
        \_ It's desperation stemming from leading meaningless lives.
        \_ I'm trapped in a loveless marriage and a pointless job. It's either
           this or I become one with WoW.
           \_ I went the latter route.  You too can make your home in Azeroth.
           \_ Fair enough.

12/5    My WinXP laptop sometimes doesn't come out of hibernate. It finishes
        doing the resume thing, but the login screen never shows up. At this
        point, it's pingable, but not much else. I'm guessing maybe if I
        waited long enough, it would eventually come up, but I've been too
        lazy to wait for hours (I've tried 30-60 minutes). I end up having to
        powercycle it. Has anyone else seen this, or have a solution? Thanks.
        \_ I've had this problem when a single process was pegging the CPU at
           100 on resume.  It was the Opera browser.  I stopped using Opera for
           a while until I got another laptop with HT.
           \_ Yeah, I was guessing it might be something like that, since I've
              seen it happen less when I don't have firefox running. But there
              wouldn't be much point hibernating if I couldn't keep my firefox
              state.
              \_ Also, it depended on which sites I was viewing.
           \_ Yes--in my case it was a Thinkpad X31 and crappy ACPI.  I never
              found a solution--occasionally it also would never come out of
              hibernation at all.  -John
        \_ I have the same problem on my Toshiba laptop when come out
           of resume mode. My solution, always close Firefox before I
           suspend. Firefox chews up 100% cpu if I have
           http://www.techbargains.com left open in a tab. Before you
           suspend, make a habit of closing non-essential applications.

11/23   What are the pros and cons of LCD vs. plasma TV?
        \_ Both kind of suck, but here's what I learned when I was looking
           into this a few months ago (tech changes fast, so grain of salt,
           please):
           LCD: +about 1.3x the lifespan of plasma before 1/2 luminosity is
                  reached
           LCD: +about 1.5x-2x the lifespan of plasma before 1/2 luminosity is
                  reached (IIRC 3-4 years of 8-10hrs/day -- so probably
                  about 2-4x that for normal people).
                +slightly less delicate than plasma
                +very thin and very light
                -typically not available in very large screen sizes (less
                  true now but if you're looking for a screen > 42", simple
                  LCD probably isn't the way to go)
                -inferior black levels
                -narrow (comparatively) viewing angles -- I find this is a
                  deceptive measure.  Even on screens with a supposedly
                  wide viewing angle, I've found that they lose contrast
                  very quickly when you move off the normal.
           Plasma:
                +slightly better viewing angle than lcd (but still pretty
                  unimpressive for low-medium end sets)
                +typically brighter with higher contrast than LCD
                +cheaper than LCD
                +very thin and very light
                -much shorter lifespan before 1/2 luminosity is reached
                -much shorter lifespan before 1/2 luminosity is reached (as
                  above, but 2-3 years@8-10/day)
                -very delicate
                -inferior black levels
           Honestly, I'd avoid either of these technologies if at all
           possible.  Some the rear projection technologies are actually
           very good with superior black levels, brightness and contrast --
           without the (potentially) very limited lifespan of either plasma
           or lcd.  You might want to check out sony's sxrd sets for higher
           end tv's, or see if hybrid technologies like 3lcd might work for
           you.  I was checking out sets this past week, and some of the
           rear projections sets looked really nice.  Hope this helps.
           Feel free to email me if you talk more -- but I think the best
           advice I can give is to actually go and look at the sets and
           decide which look good to your eye; then decide if you're
           willing to buy a new set in less than 5-10 years if you go with
           a degrading technology.              -mice
           rear projection sets from mitsubishi looked really nice.  Hope
           this helps.  Feel free to email me if you want to talk more --
           but I think the best advice I can give is to actually go and
           look at the sets and decide which look good to your eye; then
           decide if you're willing to buy a new set in less than 5-10
           years if you go with a degrading technology.              -mice
           \_ Thank man, you rock. So between now and January, when is the
              best time to get a bargain? Now? Before X-mas? Or after
              New Year (less inventory? more?)
              \_ I'm not that savvy about retail, to be honest, but I'd guess
                 that just after christmas is the best time to get a good
                 deal.  Check out:  http://avsforum.com  -- there's alot of
                 good information to be had there, but be careful taking too
                 much at face value; I've found that people there can easily be
                 blinded by the fact that they just spent $3000 on a tv set,
                 and will become religious about their purchase before
                 admitting any flaws with it.  YMMV.    -mice
                 \_ As with all electronics the best time to buy is as late
                    as possible. Next year prices will drop 20%, and the
                    year after that, another 20%. If you can wait till
                    2009, TVs will be much brighter/crisper/last longer
                    and cheaper than today.
                    \_ True, but the other fella was asking about "between now
                       and January" so I was taking a shot in the dark.
                       Hopefully, between the avsforum link and the hdtv link
                       the guy below gave, there should be enough accurate
                       information to steer the OP well.      -mice
           \_ Good plasmas have better blacks than LCD; check Panasonic.
              Also I didn't notice any plasma viewing angle problem. I thought
              plasmas were better here than some rear projections I saw. And
              for lifespan, they claim now to last about as long as a normal
              CRT would. I'm still on the fence for HDTVs myself though, gonna
              wait until probably January.
              I would avoid CRT-based rear projection TVs because most cannot
              natively display 720p (typically 480p or 1080i), plus they're
              usually not that bright. The SXRD stuff is good but it isn't
              perfect either.
              Check out "HDTV World":
              http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5102926-1.html?tag=eye
              \_ Great link!  Thanks for the info!  The sxrd seemed to offer
                 the best bang for my dollar -- I've a buddy at sony that
                 can probably get me a 30% discount on the 60".  Were it not
                 for that fact, I'd probably lean away from sony entirely.
                 Some of the plasmas I saw when I was looking around had
                 some pretty irritating viewing angle issues, but that was
                 most definitely not true of the higher end (ie newer) models.
                 I'll look at panasonic though; thanks for the tip!   -mice
                 \_ Actually, after looking at the hdtv link, sony seems to
                    have come out rather well, ratingswise.         -mice
                    \_ Yeah, it actually seems to be their top rated HDTV.
                       But they describe a couple flaws. It might be the best
                       thing now though. I am mainly interested in 720p
                       performance. I'm kind of confused about how 1080p
                       sets deal with that, like is it worse than just getting
                       a native 720p set?
              \_ What about a screen and a projector? How does that
                 compare to LCD and plasma?
                 \_ projectors work better in dark rooms.  also remember you
                    have to replace bulbs on the projector.
                    \_ There is a great range in bulb prices and how long
                       they last.

11/21   Need recommendation for a small form factor network file server
        to connect a PC laptop and a MAC laptop at home.  About 500 gigs
        to 1 T.  I'm looking at the Maxtor Shared storage series and also at
        the "Buffalo terastation".  Can somebody recommend other brand names?
        This is for home use, performance is not critical but it has to be
        reasonably priced.  General purpose PC is out of the question because
        I need something that'll fit on a bookshelf.  Thanks!
        \ I am also interested in this. Was looking at the Adaptec SnapServers
        \_ are you the same guy who posted the following?
           http://csua.com/?entry=40190
           At any rate, you should STFK:
           http://csua.com/?entry=37702
        \_ I am also interested in this. Was looking at the Adaptec SnapServers
        \_ Most reviews of the terastation says that RAID5 speed is really
           poor, although one comment suggested that upgrading to the latest
           firmware improves it.  But I'm also looking for something small.
           I require NFS and decent speed, though.  Oh, and have you
           considered a mac mini with several usb/firewire HDs stacked?
        \_ did you ever fix the lame windows problem where one of your
           PCs running XP Pro hangs for 2-30 seconds without responding
           while your CPU usage is 1-2%?
        \_ Do you have a closet or garage you can drop it in and forget about
           it?  Then size and nouse wouldn't be a big deal and you'd save some
           bucks.

11/16   Is it me, or it seems like the new Gen Y kids are much more
        tech saavy, independent, self-reliant, outspoken,
        and self-absorbed? Many of the Gen Y kids I manage
        are really bad team players and actually seem quite
        conservative with that "fuck the government, screw the society,
        help thyself" attidude.                         -annoyed Gen X
        \_ Jesus fucking christ.  At least wait until you're 40 to start
           bitching about "these kids today."
        \_ Is that you, Paolo?
        \_ Yes, except there's nothing independent or self-reliant about them.
           They are supported by Mom and Dad. Attitude, conceit, and
           self-absorption I've all noticed, though. This describes my
           little brother and his friends and it makes me nauseated. I
           can't imagine having to work with people like that.
        \_ They are also younger and stupider
        \_ While I see that some newer employees in my group are
           very self-interested, I do not see it as an expression
           of conservative values. What I see is more of a sense of
           privilege and entitlement rather than the conservative
           view that gov should restrain men from injuring one
           other, but otherwise allow them to regulate their own
           affairs.
           very self-interested (I want a flat-screen, I need a
           new computer, I want more options, &c.), I do not see
           it as an expression of conservative values. What I see
           is more of a sense of privilege and entitlement.
           \_ I agree with this also. My bro has been on the job 3 months
              and already asked for (and got) an LCD monitor and a new
              computer. On one hand, good for him. On the other hand,
              he's lucky I'm not his boss. Some people have been there
              10 years and don't have an LCD. He's not as valuable to the
              company as he thinks he is.
              \_ You're using your brother as an example of generational
                 difference between you and 'his' generation?  How much
                 age difference is there?  Also, just for the record, I
                 don't think having an obnoxious sense of entitlement is
                 Gen Y specific.
                 \_ It does seem to be Gen Y specific. I notice it in my
                    nieces and nephews as well. They are the "ME, RIGHT
                    NOW" generation. He's in his early 20s and I'm in my 30s,
                    FWIW.
              \_ This is a very bad example to use for this thread.  Asking
                 for LCD monitor for text-based work is not a "self-
                 interested" thing.  It is _so_ much better for your eyes.
                 For such a little investment, companies that don't provide
                 them are the ones that are "self-interested."  I spent
                 about $1500 of my own money to buy two 17" LCD monitors
                 back when it was still fairly expensive, and brought them
                 to work.  Now, the company provides them, so I took mine
                 home, and now, I have three panels.  I had to cheat a bit
                 and use my own system with two videocards, but it is SO
                 worth it.
                 \_ You say yourself that you bought these things with
                    your own money in the past. There's no way any of
                    these kids would even *think* of doing that. In fact,
                    my brother wants his work to buy one for home use,
                    too, since he works from home a lot. Any way you slice
                    it, that's self-interest. People coded on CRTs for a
                    long time and somehow survived.
              \_ For work?  Dang, there isn't a single person around my
                 work who doesn't have an LCD.  I've just got a 19" Dell
                 LCD, but there's a guy I know who joined about the same
                 time as me who has 2 gigantic Apple LCD monitors.
                 \_ How nice for you. At my work most people have LCDs,
                    but lots of people don't. As their old monitors die
                    they are replaced with LCDs, though. All new systems
                    come with LCDs, if you want one. Anyway, you've missed
                    the point which is the idea that he thinks the company owes
                    him something and he's only been there a few months.
                    \_ I sense Leadership Qualities in your new co-worker!
                       http://csua.org/u/e0w  (work-safe)
                    \_ Yeah, it's the you are SO lucky to have me attitude
                       that bugs me the most.  Its like they are doing the
                       company a favor by coming to work.  Maybe I just
                    \_ Yeah, it is the you are SO lucky to have me attitude
                       that bugs me the most.  They act like they are doing
                       the company a favor by coming to work.  Maybe I just
                       grew up in a different world b/c I always viewed it
                       as a privilege to work for the co.
                       as a privilege to work.
                       \_ its the lack of apostrophes and well-placed quotation
                            \_ Oh, the irony.
                          marks that bugs _me_ the most.
                          \_ fixed.
        \_ Kids these days have no respect for their elders! -Your elders
        \_ The only way to help society is through the government -
           interesting idea. -jblack
           \_ Who said that? Oh right, you did.
        \_ That's what us boomers think about you Gen-Xers too.
        \_ That's what us Boomers think about you Gen-Xers too.

10/24   Can you convince me to get rid of my CRT monitor and buy a
        flat-screen LCD monitor?
        \_ Why would you need convincing? Text looks sharper, especially with
           DVI, there are no more ghosting problems, it uses less power and
           therefore generates less heat, it's much easier to move and
           maneuver around.  The only place were CRTs have the edge is in
           color fidelity (or so I've heard) which might matter if you're
           a digital editing nut and handling insanely high resolutions.
           \_ However, they're still a fair bit more expensive, and the
              resolution doesn't go as high unless you get a large LCD,
              which you pay even more of a premium for.
              \_ A 19" quality LCD costs today what a quality 19" CRT cost
                 4 years ago. (under $400). Besides, I think a display is
                 possibly the most important component of a desktop computer
                 system, so I'd definitely try to get the best I can afford.
                 A 19" LCD does 1280x1024 and you probably don't want to
                 have resulution larger than that on 19" display anyways.
              \_ I recently bought a 19" 1280x1024 LCD (700:1 contrast) for
                 $300 with analog and DVI inputs.  It's gorgeous.  Check out
                 these deals: http://www.slickdeals.net/#p6628
                 \_ Notice how I can't get 1600x1200 with a 19".
                    \_ I didn't want 1600x1200.
                    \_ I've never needed over 1280x1024 on any monitor,
                       including 21" CRT monitors.
                    \_ I noticed that my productivity scales pretty well with
                       number of lines of code I can fit on a screen.  That's
                       why I run all my desktops on CRTs at 1900x1200.  Odd
                       that my laptop screen is at 1920x1200, but I can't find
                       why I run all CRTs on my desktops at 1900x1200.  Odd
                       that my laptop screen is at 1920x1200, but I can find
                       an affordable standalone 19" LCD that will do that.
                       \_ Your screen is most likely the most expensive part of
                          your laptop.
                          \_ Almost certainly.  But why they don't make that
                             screen standalone is beyond me.
        \_ If you get an uber LCD which turns out to be lame (too much
           resolution for tiny fonts and images), you will regret switching.
        \_ More desk real estate. That in itself should be reason enough.
        \_ Do you wear glasses? I'm pretty near sighted and I always found
           color crts (esp. 19" and larger) strained my eyes and gave me
           headaches after prolonged use (6+ hrs). I switched to an LCD
           in 1999 and it helped a lot. I've subsequently bought a 20"
           Apple Cinema display and I no longer get eye-strain or head-
           aches.  I'm not sure if this is b/c of the refresh rate or
           just b/c the LCD is sharper than an CRT.
           \_ I read somewhere that CRT has a thick layer of glass and the
              images are "under" the glass so that your eyes are constantly
              having to focus and refocus between looking at the images and
              the surface of the glass and that causes the eyestrain.  LCDs
              just have a thin layer so the text and images lie right at the
              surface.

9/28    Just bought a 12" Powerbook, and it's very poorly manufactured (case
        parts not aligned, wobbles, etc.) and the vendor claims that Apple are
        hardasses about replacing screwed up hardware if it's otherwise
        working, and that they have no support.  I really like the laptop,
        but it's a bit disappointing that it's got such a badly assembled and
        warped case--can someone from Apple confirm that it's this
        difficult?  -John
        \_ That's really too bad. Most of the PowerBooks I've played with
           were pretty well built. But like any manufacturing process,
           there's always a percentage of fallout where the product isn't
           manufactured to the tolerances set for whatever reason. It's
           like the theory for car manufacturing. You never want to buy
           a car that was built on a Friday or at the end of the work
           day because that's when workers are thinking about other things.
           \_ the only support problems I've had with apple products where
              when I tried to deal with third party types (like
              http://macconnection.com) instead of apple itself.  -meyers
           \_ Can I control that?  How do I find out if a car is build on a
              Friday?
              \_ Mondays are bad too. Workers are just getting over their
                 break. I'd say Wednesday is optimal.
              \_ Dealers have this information.  Just ask for it.  They
                 know the exact date on when the car was built.
           \_ Friday car quality myth today
              http://user.classifiedguys.com/sto/st120504.htm
        \_ Not from Apple, but this doesn't match my personal consumer
           experience with Apple. Call Apple support for confirmation.
        \_ did you buy a decked out version or a middle-of-the-road version?
           in my limited experience, companies like to save their nicely built
           batch for the expensive ones with three years warranty, and their
           batch for the expensive bundles with 3-years warranty, and their
           crappy batches (a bad pixel there, things don't fit quite right)
           for the budget brands with 1-year warranty.  Same model notebook.
           for the budget bundle with 1-year warranty.  Same model notebook.
           i've seen this for fujitsu S series (made in Osaka) and
           thinkpad T42.
           thinkpad T42 (China).
        \_ Did you get AppleCare?
           \- your apple is a lemon.
           \_ Yeah--3 year support, but I'm being told that they pawn off all
              support stuff to some outsourcer who "doesn't replace units."
              It's registered with Apple--I'm just wondering whether this is
              normal, or whether, if these guys are difficult about it, I can
              just somehow go to Apple directly and get it done.  I've just
              gone through support hell with IBM (never again, fuckers) and
              don't have the time or energy to constantly fight with laptop
              mfgrs. or their peons.  -John
              \_ iLemonade
              \_ Why not just give it a shot and report back to motd. I think
                 most of the Apple people on CSUA are engineers and dn't
                 know what's going on at ops and tech support (replacement
                 policy, etc.).
                 \- my powerbook has been back to apple like 5 times and
                    i think they have done a reasonable job of repairing.
                    the only think about by tibook i think is ass is the
                    powercharger and power charger connection ... the other
                    breakage was due to unusual stresses. oh i guess the latch
                    isnt that solid either.
                    \_ I think it's a warped body in this case.  -John
                       \_ I dropped my wife's iPod Mini. We had AppleCare.
                          They replaced it, no questions asked.
             \_ what kind of IBM support hell?  I just had the mainboard of
                my T41 replaced under warranty in a different country than
                where I bought it using drop off service at the counter in
                their office downtown.  kept the drive for myself, and they
                made no noises about the obvious corrosion of screws and
                other signs of harsh operation!
                \_ Treated like shit by their incompetent call center, not
                   allowed to park at service center where I went on my own
                   accord after being ignored by call center, told that it
                   would cost me ca. $1k to replace a MoBo on an X31 ca. 5
                   months out of warranty (which fried when I closed the lid),
                   lied to about the initial date of warranty, told that to
                   get a _cost estimate_ for the repair would cost me ca. $160,
                   had some smarmy customer service woman call me in response
                   to my utterly amazed complaint and have the chutzpah to
                   me to a 5% rebate deal they were having on their current
                   suggest a 5% rebate deal they were having on their current
                   models ("it has an airbag!")  Told by the guy who runs IT at
                   my gf's company (which has a massive global contract with
                   IBM) that they've been treated worse.  -John

9/16    Stolen UC Laptop recovered:
        http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/09/16/BAGSGEO6CE1.DTL
        \_ how did they track the laptop to LA ... saw the MAC address
           somewhere?

9/15    How often should I run my laptop's 'Improve Battery Health' deep
        discharge program?  It's showing 89% of rated capacity and 135
        discharge cycles.

8/31    Today I declare 802.11x the best thing in the world. Why? Because
        it gives me new freedom to do whatever I want. I'm a typical married
        guy with a kid. Occasionally I need privacy. I need time and
        space to myself, and pretty much the only time where I can be by
        myself is when I drive to/from work, and when I'm in the bathroom.
        Sometime I have an urge and it's kind of hard to relieve myself down
        there without help. However, it is very convenient to take my laptop
        to the bathroom and porn surf. It's a lot better than taking
        Hustler or something obvious into the bathroom. With the laptop,
        it looks like you're working hard, and indeed, you're working hard
        to get pleasure that you once had. I love 802.11x. It has given
        me freedom and a new life. It has increased my quality of life by
        100X. I can't believe I didn't get it earlier. Get 802.11b/g/x!!!
        \_ Please please tell us you're not trying to surf porn and spank your
           monkey while driving to work.
           \_ Nah, he's just using the friendly neighborhood parking lot.
              Have you seen "Happiness?"  Remember the scene with the dad,
              the magazine, and the parking lot?
        \_ moan if you want to ......moan around the world
        \_ Please please tell us your name so that we won't help debug stuff on
           your laptop.
           your laptop without gloves.
        \_ You don't need 802.11x to play adult CDs on your laptop.

8/18    To the person looking for a laptop going to Iraq:  I was going to
        say that you should find something touted as being 810F compliant
        but then I figured that would break your wallet and so I stayed silent
        but then I saw this on gizmodo:  http://csua.org/u/d2y
        \_ Thanks, da fools didn't list the exact price on the product page,
           though.

8/15    On the off chance that someone might know, are there any notebooks
        appropriate for infantry (riflemen) about to be sent off to Iraq?
        My younger brother is going there in three weeks and says without a
        laptop he's bored out of his mind.  I told him there were no warranties
        that covered accidental and/or battlefield damage outside the U.S.,
        as far as I knew.  Any suggestions?  I recommended this one
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115195
        with the idea that if it breaks or gets stolen, I can just mail him
        a second one, since it's only $600.  Thanks!
        Yes, I did think about Toughbooks, but the Army-approved ones are $3K+.
        Yes, you can have fun when off-duty:
        http://csua.org/u/d1e   link:tinyurl.com/bwouh
        \_ Why not have him take a laptop? Everyone there seems to have
           one to watch DVDs on and stuff and the Internet cafes are
           popular. It doesn't have to be any sort of special hardware.
           Anything is fine.
        \_ It doesn't have to be any sort of special hardware. Anything is
           fine. Buy for him just as if he was going off to college.
        \_ I wonder if the stock $600 laptop will survive desert heat
           conditions.
           \_ Do the Toughbooks use 54xx parts instead of 74xx?
              \_ Are you talking discreet logic?  I'd be shocked if they used
                 any.
                 \_ Would you prefer their logic was unabashed?
           \_ Send a laptop cooling pad as well.
              \_ It'd be an interesting experiment if nothing else.  The
                 thermal coefficient between case and pcb is probably dismal.
           \_ I'm expecting he'll be leaving his notebook on-base, like in
              the photo.  It's probably air-conditioned.
              \_ The photo has a prominent air conditionar near the light, so
                 there ya go.
           \_ I'd be more worried about sand than heat.  Send a really large
              ziplock as well.
              \_ just make sure to not put batter in with computer or
                if chance it turns on your computer will heat up
           \_ As others said, he'd leave it at base and it will be fine there.
        \_ probably better off waiting. He can see what others over there are
           using. He might also get good discounts on these things from the PX.
        \_ Or perhaps a 800yd laser rangefinder monoc with NV and plenty of
           batteries?  Or a nice red dot scope if he doesn't have one already.
           \_ Get a red/green dot one. Easier to spot in different lighting
              scenarios.

8/9     I had a motherboard die after like 90% of the capacitors leaked.
        Appareantly this is a widespread problem (badcaps.net). I'm
        wondering, (a) why I hadn't heard of this earlier, and (b) why
        there hasn't been a big recall of defective components.
        \_ (a) because you don't read /., http://theinquirer.net, ....  Do you
               read anything?  Try to keep up a little, will ya?  This is
               over a year old stuff.
               \_ I read /. almost everyday. When was it on /.?
                  \_ Years ago.
           (b) Abit sort of recalled.  Problem is too widespread to recall.
               Trying to do so would probably take out a lot of companies.
        \_ Not only that, you apparently don't read the MOTD or archives,
           this was mentioned more than once here. The answer is to get
           replacement caps (assuming your other components are intact)
           and solder them on to the board. Also, MBs are under $100 US,
           the cheapies can be found for sometimes less than fifty, so
           it's such a cheapie item that a general recall would've killed
           some of the MB companies because the margins are razor thin.
           And yes, there is a sort-off coverup going on.
        \_ I just had my thinkpad t41 crap out under warranty... does anyone
           know if they had this problem too?  It died slowly, e.g. showing
           signs of going out of spec in the video memory first.
           \_ Just about EVERY company was affected, including IBM.

8/9     Is there such a thing as a reliable water-proof laptop case?  Who
        makes/sells it?  I'm looking for something that's as portable as
        possible.  Thanks.
        \_ Waterproof as in "can get rained on" or waterproof as in "can be
           dropped in a lake"?
           \- there are expedition rafters who take laptops and satellite
              comm equipment, so yes. i am not sure if they are special
              purpose laptop cases or just a case adapted for laptop that
              is nominally "for" camera gear. but you cal look at say pelican
              cases. by now i assume there are thigns especially for laptops.

8/3     Dell sends me catalogs all the time.  I don't care.  I like trees.
        How do I make them stop sending me catalogs? - danh
        \_ Tell them at http://dell.com.
        \_ http://www.dell.com -> Privacy Policy -> Mailing List Removal/Change
           of Address -> "Click here to opt-out of direct mail ...... Home and
           Home Office customers".
                \_ wow, thanks! - danh
        \_ First, you tell them (Michael Dell and his management) to stop using
           Dell corporate money to donate 90% of their total party funds to
           the Republicans. When that happens, you'll buy their products.

8/1     Somehow I've been delegated by my boss to buy a big plasma screen
        for the department, for about $2000. The size is not specified,
        but he says to get it as big as possible with good resolutions.
        What is a good deal nowadays?
        \_ Are you sure it was plasma and not LCD?  $2K may not be possible,
           or so cheep it defeats the purpose.  Anyway, according to the prices
           in the "Best-buy LCD and plasma ..." URL it might be possible:
           http://reviews.cnet.com/Televisions/2001-6475_7-0.html?tag=ont.tv
        \_ You can probably by a decent 32" LCD TV or a really crappy 40"
           plasma from a no-name brand.
        \_ With coupon passed out instore for 8/8 to 8/16, Costco is selling
           the Maxent 42" plasma for $1699.  Link to product, but not at
           Costco.
           http://www.monitoroutlet.com/M10551.html
           \_ That claims to display 1280x1024, but is that stretched to 16:9
              or does it remain 5:4?

7/26    What are the pros and cons of Compact Flash versus Secure Digital
        for a camera?
        \_ Please add to the list:
           Pro for CF:
           1. harder to break physically
           2. harder to lose
           Pro for SD:
           1. smaller form factor
        \_ You can get a Firewire CF reader from Lexar and SanDisk but
           afaik no one makes a FW SD card reader.
           I've tried a FW and a USB2 CF reader and the FW reader is
           noticably faster.
           \- my understanding is cameras are moving in the direction of SD
              but it seems to me there isnt much of a choice today, meaning
              you can choose whether to get the same body with CF or SD.
              and i wouldnt think not having SD is a reason to rule out
              a body or somethign especially important to wait for [as might
              be a full size sensor etc. with somethign that small, who cares
              about size [assuming it is a decent sized camera].
              \_ Really?  A friend who knows pro photographers said that SD
                 isn't taken seriously because it's too fragile.  It's thin
                 isn't taken seriously because it's too fragile.  It's small
                 and the "pins" are exposed.  On the other hand, perhaps
                 amateur photography has moved toward SD; PDAs certainly have.
           \_ There are loads of multi-card readers (CF, SD, Memory Stick, etc)
              around.  I have one, I can look up the maker if you want.  -John
                 \- the author of http://tinyurl.com/8s9ky made the claim
                    about moving CF -> SD. i find this peculiar ... i'd think
                    it would be easier to make say a 8gb card in the CF form
                    factor than SD, and i think people want space and speed
                    over saving 1oz. anyway, just passing along a claim.
        \_ Is one or the other more reliable/longer lasting?
        \_ As above mentioned, size is a key factor.  I think for consumer
           digicams, SD is the way to go.  Last I checked, CF was still quite
           a bit faster than SD.  If that's still the case, CF definitely
           belongs in prosumer and upper level cameras. Oh, and another
           advantage for CF is that it's just a PCMCIA on a smaller form.
           So compatibility with laptops(with pcmcia adapter) will be better.
           \_ new laptops and pcs seems to have card readers built in.

7/21    OK I've changed my mind about Thinkpads, after realizing that they're
        more expensive than other models, break just as easily, and IBM
        support sucks (have heard the same from colleagues at large corporate
        customers.)  Fuckers wouldn't even let me use a parking space to bring
        a laptop by their service center.  In the context of driver compati-
        bility hassles over the last few months, no more IBM for me for the
        foreseeable future.  I'm buying a Powerbook.  -John
        \_ This is precisely the switch I made a couple months ago.  Very
           happy so far.
        \_ If you look on http://newegg.com for T42 reviews, you'll see one recent
           post where one guy got 7 dead pixels.  Out of 10 reviews, I guess.
           My boss's T42 from last year has one stuck red pixel in the corner.
           A grad student has one whose fan died.  All made in China, like,
           what, > 90% of notebooks?  The Fujitsu S series is still made in
           Osaka, though warranty service isn't as reliable.
           \_ It's not even the quality I'm so mad about--computers are fiddly
              and shit happens.  I just find their attitude absolutely
              deplorable, and their incompetent, customer-unfriendly way of
              dealing with people who pay a premium on devices expecting good
              service from a company that touts itself as so reliable for small
              businesses absolutely fucking horrid.  -John
        \_ good decision. -ibook user

6/30       Does anyone have experience with using a 2nd HDD in a laptop as a
           replacement for the CD/DVD module?  How big is the effect on battery
           life?  Does power managment work for the 2nd drive?

6/28    How do I clean a laptop or LCD screen?  I read somewhere that
        using alcohol can yellow the screen eventually. - danh
        \_ lick it up and down, slowly. make sure you don't miss a spot.
           \_ oh and since you mentioned it, don't do this if you're an
              alcoholic. it might yellow the screen eventually.
              \_ do you write for SNL ? - danh
        \_ distilled water
        \_ I use iKlear for my iBook/Apple LCDs:
                http://iklear.klearscreen.com
           They have other cleaning kits on their main page:
                   http://klearscreen.com
        \_ CostCo has a $5 lens cleaning kit that works great.  It seems to
           have outlasted my last laptop.

6/15    A friend of mine who is in a hardware business trying to implement
        a relatively common feature in laptop: be able to play DVD, play
        mp3 without ever get into Windows.  How do people usually do that?
        Do they have an embedded Linux somewhere where one will boot up and
        perform these functions?  If that is teh case, where is the embedded
        OS?  is it in BIOS?  How come these things tend to have almost
        instant start-up time compare with desktop Linux which takes 1 minute
        to boot up?  thx
        \_ Many embedded systems put the boot system on flash.  I think the
           boot speed has less to do with the boot media and more to do with
           the limited kernel size/number of drivers embedded systems load.
           Google for Soekris.  This is the hardware company many of the
           community wi-fi projects are using. -dans
           \_ pcengines.ch WRAP >>> Soekris.  -John
        \_ thanks all.  It seems that it is Intervideo's InstantOn that
           is behind couple of the mainstream OEM's solution.    --OP
        \_ Check out ROM-DOS by Datalight.

5/24    Dear Windows XP laptop guy who was having XP hanging problems when
        disconnecting the laptop, did you find the fix, and if so, can you
        please share your experience?

5/23    Macs use IBM chips, but IBM laptops use Intel chips?  How ironic.
        \_ No such thing as an IBM laptop anymore.
           \_ No more Thinkpads?
              \_ IBM sold their whole PC business (including ThinkPad) to
                 Lenovo.  There are still ThinkPads, but now they're Lenovo
                 ThinkPads.
                 \_ Not yet.  Under the agreement, IBM will continue
                    making the ThinkPads for some time.
        \_ ArsTechnica is suggesting they probably just want XScale chips for
           small devices.
        \_ And XBox 360 uses IBM chips, demo'ing on Macs.
        \_ Even better, today there are rumors that Apple is looking into
           using Intel chips in its Mac computers.
           \_ I assume that was just posturing on Apple's part to force IBM
              to do Mac-able versions of Power5/6.  It probably meant anxious
              moments at a certain startup though.

5/20    Help. Sometimes on my XP, Hibernation fails. Worse, when I suspect
        for 1-2 hours and it tries to hibernate afterwards, it occasionally
        fails and keeps the laptop on. Why is this happening and how do I
        fix it? Thanks.
        \_ A real answer: The most likely reason for hibernation not working
           is due to network activity through one of your network interfaces.
           Attempt to disable network interfaces before hibernating and see
           if that affects it. If it does, then you need to mess around with
           the network driver settings and make sure that it is properbly
           power managed by your computer.
           Alternative reasons why hibernate fails:
           Your display driver (yes
           the display driver for your display subsystem also depends on
           ACPI) is buggy. Either get an updated version or mess around
           with the driver's settings.
           Your BIOS needs to be upgraded.
           Hibernation feature is unreliable (at times you cannot get it
           to come out of hibernate and forces you to restart) but if the
           problem persists, most likely it is one of the above problems.
        \_ The hibernation feature is not reliable.  Turn it off.
           \_ You're an idiot.
              \_ Actually, you're the idiot.  Many laptop bioses are
                 broken and resuming from hibernation is a tricky art
                 that doesn't always work.  After multiple hibernations,
                 even hibernation itself may fail.
                 \_ Yes, some BIOSes aren't up to snuff.  Do you know that's
                    the case for the op?  Just telling him that "hibernation is
                    broken" is useless and a waste of space.
                    \_ Your brain is not reliable.  Turn it off.
                       \_ Pot, kettle, black.   'nuff said.
                          \_ Ah, I can see your brain is off now.  Good job.
                             \_ Wow, your singlemindedness if impressive.
                                I would say keep it up, but it sounds like
                                nothing is going to get through your thick
                                skull in any case.  Poor guy.
        \_ Why not turn this feature off, reclaim some disk space, and
           use suspend instead?
           \_ I need to hibernate in cases that I need to swap battery
              (and I tried swapping with suspend and as expected, no luck).
              Also suspend doesn't save as much power as hibernate. ok thx.
           \_ Suspend consumes battery, hibernate does not.
        \_ What do you mean "fails"?  You can set your options so that it
           doesn't go from suspend->hibernate in the power options.
        \_ Have you checked if there is a BIOS update for your system?

5/19    Is my 1394 Net Adapter supposed to always be in state: "Connected"?
        WinXP Pro Toshiba M100 laptop, in Control Panel->Network Connections,
        it says i have a 1394 Net Adapter connection that always says
        it is "Connected". Never noticed it before.  Never had anything
        plugged into the 1394 firewire port. Selecting Right-click and
        "Status" shows time connected and 400Mbps but no other fields filled.
        \_ WOW, still no answer or ideas? I must have a question that stumps
           the MOTD and Google. This must be an unanswerable one? Naw, SOMEONE
           must have The One True Answer.

5/12    Hi, I run windows Xp home edition on my laptop.  It's hooked up
        to my DSL router via ethernet most of the time.  When I want to
        just use the laptop without a net connection, the laptop sometimes
        locks up and becomes really really slow.  To the point where I can't
        even right-click on the network icon to disable it temporarily.
        I can't even do Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the task manager.
        Is there a way to fix this?  That is, just make it stop trying to
        reconnect to a network so aggressively.  Thanks.
        \_ Well did you narrow down the causes? Have you tried
           "ipconfig /release" and see if something's up? Also, I'd suggest
           you "unmount" all network drives as that hangs XP a lot.
           Oh, and stop reading alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.orientals
           \_ Uhm, no. Doing an ipconfig /release isn't the correct answer
              to this problem. I believe the answer lies within your internet
              connection settings. As you did not specify how exactly you
              connect to the internet, there's no way for anyone to really
              help you. If you are connecting through a router that does
              the PPOE for you then a disconnection from the net should not
              cause a slowdown like this. Perhaps you have a bridge of some
              sort in your network config. It may also be hardware related...
              Anyway, this is a very peculiar problem.
              \_ that is what I have.  DSL modem does the PPPoE and my
                 net connection is just a plain ethernet link that does
                 DHCP.  No fancy stuff.  I do have zone alarm running though.
                 When this happens I can't bring up task manager to see
                 which process is running, so it's hard to troubleshoot this.
                    - the op
                    \_ Then try the following, hit F8 during the bootup
                       process, then select safe mode with networking.
                       If safe mode with networking appears to run fine
                       then there is something wrong with one of the
                       programs you are running during startup. Try disabling
                       zone alarm if that's the case and see if that solves
                       your problem. Also, as below, make sure your machine
                       is clean. Malware will exhibit this behavior.

        \_ Reboot your computer with the Ethernet plugged in.  Wait.
           Run netstat -ano from a command prompt.  Check if you have
           lots of outgoing sessions.  Then install Ad-Aware and Spybot to
           check if you have adware.
        \_ [80 columns please.]
           Hope this helps. - jthoms

5/11    If you noticed that your laptop HD never rests because it's doing
        something, and you've already killed all auxilary processes and made
        drives not "Fast Indexable", it's the explorer that's funky. Here
        is one solution. Kill explorer and then run it again. You can use
        a batch file script:
        taskkill -im explorer.exe /f
        explorer.exe
        \_ Make sure you set this to N and reboot if necessary.
           HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction\Enable
           This got rid of the strange HD activity on my laptop. -chiry
           \_ Is it trying to defragment the disk on its own?
              \_ My understanding is it will kick in when your laptop
                 has been idle for some time (ie, 1 hour), and will
                 disappear the moment you ran task manager trying to
                 identify the process using the disk. You will see it
                 in task manager if you leave task manager running for
                 an hour. I think it tries to defrag the boot files,
                 not your whole disk.
        \_ what does explorer.exe do when you don't have any IE Explorer
           window open?
           \_ It's your shell.  Taskbar, tray, file broweser, etc.  IExplore is
              something else.
        \_ There are a bunch of useful toys for checking open processes, file
           handles, etc. under Windows on http://www.sysinternals.com  -John

5/5     I am not familar with Solaris, so, I may be biased... My impression,
        from a desktop/laptop user point of view, is that Linux has
        better userability than Solaris10, eventhough Solaris 10 also come
        with a gnome desktop environment.  However, I find myself in a
        rare position of not knowing how to articulate this point to
        some of the Solaris fanatics.  Their argumenet is that since S10
        is also equipped with GNOME, userability is the same as Linux.
        1. is this arguement flawed?
        2. if you think Linux indeed has better usability, any concret example
           of userability is more than gnome desktop    TIA
        \_ From a user point of view, the biggest advantage of Linux is
           all the software it ships with. All of that *can* be added to
           Solaris, but it isn't there out of the box. Another advantage
           of Linux is that for most tasks the actual hardware is faster,
           assuming you are running Intel/AMD. Sun has the advantage for
           problems that fit within the larger CPU cache, but are larger
           then the (smaller) Intel cache.
        \_ No Linux desktop user has any basis for say his desktop is superior
           in usability to the S10 desktop.  This is like the dateless ugly
           girl at the dance picking on the other ugly girl for not having a
           date.
           \_ Thanks for erasing my post and adding bullshit at the same
              time.
              \_ it's ok, I read it already.  -- OP
           \_ that is why I post this on motd.  If i think i am in a
              position of being objective, i probably can make assessment
              on my own.  having said that, from little things such as
              ls, man command, to the way driver installed on S10, I
              still think Linux is friendlier.
              \_ BWWAAAAHAHAHAHA!  Man, it's 'friendlier' until you have to do
                 low down systems level programming.  Then it's 'friendly'
                 in the same way your 320lb cellmate 'Butch' is friendly.
                 \_ ^320lb cellmate^neurotic 320lb cellmate
              \_ Is that what the server world has really come down to?  One
                 version of 'ls' is "friendlier" (meaning: the way you learned
                 it on the one system) therefore that system is superior?  I'm
                 curious how many non-Linux systems you've used and for how
                 many years each.
                 \_ Your point is correct, but I've just watched (again)
                    a bunch of presentations tearing gaping new assholes in
                    Windows security.  Maybe he should have mentioned this.
                    Usability is actually pretty decent.  -John
        \_ What about drivers? Unless you buy hardware from Sun, you're
           going to have some serious problems with hardware support.  In
           addition, the number of binary-only desktop applications seems to be
           dwindling (for example our users would like to be able to use the
           latest Matlab and Acrobat reader but those aren't available on
           Solaris/x86). In addition, even though Sun includes Gnome, I doubt
           Solaris x86 comes with as many popular open source applications as
           there are in a typical Linux dist (but then I could be wrong, I
           haven't used Sol10 myself yet although Solaris 9 loses hands down in
           this area even though it also comes with Gnome).
           \_ Easy fix for that: just buy Sun hardware.
        \_ I don't understand the desire on the part of some people to attempt
           to compare the quality/friendliness/whatever of the desktop
           environments of what are really server systems.  If you want a nice
           GUI, buy a Mac.  If you want to play games, work in an office, and
           have the largest variety of desktop apps, buy Windows.  If you want
           a server system and you're the one making the buying deicision, the
           question is not "Is this Gnome better than that Gnome?"  The
           question you're answering and the 'debate' you've involved in is
           meaningless.
           \_ Someone has to develop the apps for the server system and
              that lucky person often gets to use it as a desktop. It is
              true, though, that using a PC/Mac as one's desktop and
              remotely connecting to the server to code makes sense
              depending on the app being developed.
              \_ Yep, I've got the kind of luck where I have to use CDE
                 at work. As far as desktops go, Linux is easier to use
                 on x86 because there are just a lot more people using it
                 and improving it. Also, I'd have to say GNU utilities are
                 generally superior to default solaris ones.

5/4     Is kingmax memory a reliable brand (for laptop)?
        \_ yeah, it works fine
           just do a http://newegg.com search for "kingmax memory" and you'll get
           pages of 4 or five egg average user ratings.
           pages of 4- or 5-egg average user ratings.
           \_ tnx for the response (I just didn't know if ratings at a merchant
              site should be trusted).  Another question: are 2.5v and 2.6v
              memory compatible?  http://crucial.com give me a 2.5v module for my
              notebook, while kingmax has a module that has the same spec
              except a 0.1v higher voltage.

5/4     Any sodan here who was contacted by UC that their info. was on the
        stolen laptop but hasn't requested a credit alert?  I am still
        hesitating because I have yet to find na authoritative description
        about the side effect of a credit alert (or else why won't everybody
        just choose it by default?), like whether it might affect renting an
        apartment or getting a job because some dumbass does not want to rent
        to or hire someone whose id might have been stolen.
        \_ I didn't. I figure 100,000 is a lot of people to go through, and
           that they wouldn't single me out because just have a dumb ass
           bachelors degree from Cal. I figure they'd be more interested at
           MS/PhD graduates.
           \_ The only people affected were grad students. Someone was doing
              some kind of study about graduate admissions and had the
              data on their laptop. I know because my fiance was one of
              those contacted by the UC. They said only her name and race
              were on the laptop. She is not too concerned.

5/3     http://tinyurl.com/6999d  Dell 20.1" monitor for only $561.
        WSXGA+ resolution (1680 x 1050). Good deal?
        \_ 20" monitor at that low resolution sounds awful to me.
           \_ That's not low, and the monitor is pretty good. I've got
              two. What I wonder is why most people care about a
              widescreen instead of the 2001FP.
              \_ I used both, I like the wide screen much better for a
                 variety of reasons. In fact, I can hardly think of any
                 reason to ever use 4:3 again. -chiry
           \_ Actually, a 20" at any higher resolution is probably
              aweful to use because the pixels are too small to be
              viewed comfortably.  Yes you can increase your font, but
              at least on Windows not everything sizes up nicely, such
              as web pages. What size and resolution do you currently
              use?
           \_ My laptop is SXGA (1400x1050) and I use it 90 degrees so that
              I don't have to scroll to the bottom as often. Also it is a
              natural size to read 2 column technical PDFs, which I do
              most of the time.
              \_ On its side?  Oh gawd.
        \_ i bought the monitor a month or so ago for $505+tax. since then
           i've seen deals selling it for ~$425+tax. i like it because it has
           composite and s-video hookups. Also, what resolution do you expect
           on a 20" monitor? Apple's 20" display has the same res.
        \_ Can I plug this into my Mac Mini?
        \_ I should've bought it when it was on sale for $380 a few weeks ago!
        \_ Dont buy it. Wait. I know someone with it, the dimensions suck.
           Wait for price to come down on a more traditional dimensions 1600x1200
           or 1920x
           Wait for price to come down on a more traditional dimensions
           1600x1200 or 1920x
        \_ I say no at that price. That's not a particularly rare deal. And
           I got that monitor and returned it... I was not impressed with it.
           I think it's better to aim for a bit bigger one. I'm pretty picky
           about LCDs though.
        \_ No, not a good deal.  It has been significantly cheaper.

4/21    Is this making a big news in Berkeley?
        Dont steal laptops from Berkeley professors. Ever!
        http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000710040887
        \_ Funny:  http://www.brianpritchett.com/?p=163  -John
        \_ Snore.  Bullshit theatric stunt by jackass who lost his laptop.
           By the standards of Berkeley theatric stunts, this just isn't
           that funny, entertaining or clever.  I predict his chances of
           seeing his laptop again to be equal to the chances my friendly
           neigbor in oakland who stole my bike in 1998 decides to bring
           it back because he fears my secret ninja death ray powers.
        \_ go read this:
           http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/19/BAGKJCB2EV1.DTL
           (...+80col line deleted...)
           the prof who blackballed the assistant professor is the guy who
           basically admitted to all his students he is a whore for
           product activated corn and lost his laptop. - danh
           \_"Campus spokesman George Strait"?
             \_ He's in Public Affairs.  -tom
        \_ From the tone of the professor it sounds like *he's* the one who's
           in trouble.  He seemed pretty nervous, not surprising since he has
           to explain to all those companies he consulted for why he had so
           much data *on a laptop* and that it was not encrypted.  It's nice
           to see bad things happen to bad people.
        \_ The laptop has contacted Microsoft, the black hellicopters will be
           here any minute!  Save yourself while there's still time!!!

4/18    My laptop is really weird. Occasionally, after I suspend it for 30sec
        to a minute, it automatically turns back on! I've turned off Wake-up
        on LAN and other things but nothing's working. What could be causing
        this?
        \_ poltergeist
        \_ demonic posession
        \_ Are you closing the cover?  Sometimes on my laptop, the cover
           will press a key when it closes, which causes it to wake up.  -tom
        \_ Totally and utterly possible. Thank you, I will check for that -pp
           \_ Which is totally possible, demonic posession or key issue?
              \_ demonic posession
                 |- i heard daemons and eunuchs run the Internet!
                 |- i heard their are daemons and eunuchs on the Internet!
        \_ Is it using ACPI?  Some ACPI implementations are just plain odd.
           Try using APM only.  I've had similar trouble.  -John

4/13    I have 3 250G HDs with lots of videos in my desktop and I'd like to
        make them portable and easily mountable for my laptop. Do you guys
        recommend a detacheable IDE/USB2 drawer thingie, and if so, what kind
        do you guys use? -ok thx
        \_ $38 http://csua.org/u/b4x
           Easy to slide open and stick in a new drive.  Video review:
           http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/ams/venus_ds/video_review_03.html
        \_ What OS?

4/9     I received a letter from Cal saying my name was stored on that stolen
        laptop.  Should I really place a "credit alert"?  And would doing so
        hurt my credit rating?
        \_ it can't hurt to place a credit alert. and I don't see how/why
           it would affect your credit rating.
        \_ Yes.  File the report.  Not filing if the threat proves real
           could devastate your credit for decades.  Filing when you don't
           need to will hardly matter.
           \_ Should I file the 90 day initial alert or the extended alert,
              which requires a police report?  Should I refile the 90 day
              alert every 90 days for the rest of my life?  This is a serious
              question.  If it makes sense to file an alert now, and one can
              never predict when the stolen information will (no longer) be
              used, it seems to make equal sense to keep the alert on forever.
              BTW it seems that an alert will show up on the credit report.
              \_ Depends how vulnerable you feel.  90 day alert is simple
                 to place so you might as well do that asap.  Policy report
                 may or may not be a hassle to get.
                 \_ Jeesh, it is a bunch of cal students isn't it?  Someone
                    should get the police report and put it up on the web.

4/8     To save power I set my laptop to shut down HD after 1 min of
        inactivity. However, my laptop always does something to the HD
        and I know this because it keeps clicking and clicking. I've turned
        off Norton Realtime Anti-Virus thing, Firefox/IE, MS Word, and
        pretty much everything I can think of, but it just never turns off.
        What could be causing this? BTW I have 1.5G of RAM and XP and
        apps only about 0.5G.
        \_ Modern OSes will premtively copy memory to/from the swap file if
           the system is fairly idle.  That way if you do need to swap out
           those pages you don't have to wait for the data to be written.
        \_ Well, you could be running applications that save or backup their
           state or config files or whatever every x minutes, and the swap
           file is a possibility too. If you have that much RAM, you probably
           don't need one. I have 1 GB and I don't even need one.
        \_ XP will defrag/index files when idle by default.
           \_ What? Is this for real? That is just brain dead. How do you turn
              this off?
              \_ right-click the disk, General tab, uncheck "Allow indexing
                 service to index this disk for fast file searching"
                 \_ This shouldn't be necessary, unless you enabled the
                    indexing service -- it doesn't run by default.
                    \_ I concur.  For XP, the drive option is on by default,
                       but the service is off by default.  This is unlike
                       2K, where the service is on by default.
                       Also, defrag != indexing.  Duh.
        \_ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction
           set "Enable" to N and reboot. -ray

4/6     I love my Tablet PC! I love how you can organize notes and brainstorm
        easily. I love how it does hand-writing to text conversion effortlessly
        and how you can perform proper text search not only on text, but
        handwriting as well! It's also quite something when you can simply
        make draws and highlights in PowerPoint. I'm never going
        back to regular laptops again.

4/1     At my job I can plug in my own laptop ; but they block the mail
        ports for all machines but the mailserver. This is
        windows/outlook. I want to be able to use my laptop at work
        just as I could at home. Any suggestions on something that is
        a minimum of fuss?
        \_ ssh port forwarding.
        \_ Is this sending or receiving e-mail?
           \_ sending only. Everything else works fine. I just want a
              combo that I have to do a minimum amount of work to use

4/1     I'd like to play my favorite EA game on the laptop. However, I
        don't have a CD player for my laptop and I'm wondering if it
        is possible to mount the CD on my desktop and access it via
        wireless. I know that EA has really weird CD protection
        schemes, that's why I'm wondering if anyone has successfully
        done this. -ok thx
        \_ Never tried that, and I suspect it won't work.  You can install
           VirtualCD or Alcohol 120% on the laptop, then make a SafeDisc-aware
           rip of the CD, put the image whereever, and then mount it in the
           virtual drive.
           \_ Does VirtualCD or Alcohol "simulate" bad sectors or weirdness
              in CDs that EA games use for protection? Which one is better?
              \_ A120% has never failed to deal with any copy protection I've
                 encountered on CDs.  Daemon Tools also has some good
                 copy protection emulations.  -John
        \_ Rip with discdump and then mount the ISO with Daemon Tools.
        \_ CDAnywhere is a tool to do this too, mounting a disk image as a
           virtual CDrom device.

3/31    What's the best way to clean your laptop keyboard?
        \_ throw your laptop in the dishwasher.
        \_ Vacuum cleaner with a nossle.
           \_ last time I did that (with my home vaccuum) I sucked 2 keys out
              of it. Hahaha. Yeah I'm a moron.
                \_ I hear masturbating with a belt sander is fun.
                   \_ No it isn't, and now I can't start my car.
        \_ Compressed air for between the keys.  Clean the keys with something
           like the "optical care kit" available at CostCo (works great on
           laptop displays as well).
           \_ the air comes out as liquid  sometimes, is that dangerous?
              \- only if you are a moron using it as an optical care kit.--psb
        \_ I just bought an LCD Cleaning System by Belkin at Best Buy for
           $10 and it works pretty well.  It comes with a "micro-fine fibers"
           brush for the keyboard and screen as well as a cleaning pad that
           you spray the included cleaning solution onto (Isopropyl Alcohol).
           It also comes with about 5 extra cleaning pads.

3/30    Opinion- what do you think the government worker should use for
        laptop security, esp. when it contains over 100,000 SSN and names?
        \_ Why would you store 100,000 SSN and names on a laptop?
        \_ Physical security.
           \_ Kind of defeats the point of having a laptop, doesn't it?
              \_ Such info should not be on a laptop in the first place.
                 \_ There are ways to safely store sensitive data on a laptop.
                    \_ Please explain.  This is what this thread is about in
                       the first place.
                    \_ (a) nothing foolproof, nothing guaranteed. (b) Really
                           sensitive data that's not immediately required
                           should not be on a laptop.  (c) Having a database
                           like this is questionable practice in most cases.
                           (d) Using SSNs to help identify people is really
                           dumb.  -John
                           \_ What is wrong with encrypting it all?
                              \_ Use weak encryption.  Work-flow leaves
                                 unencrypted data on disk, either as a matter
                                 of course, sloppiness, or paging.  Lazy users
                                 leave their decryption key/password in some
                                 easily-takable place (such as on disk).  It
                                 can be done right, but there's lots of ways
                                 to screw it up.
        \_ Is this a serious question, or are you trolling to start a "Those
           careless SOBs!" rant?

3/30    Hi, my private information is contained in the stolen laptop and
        I've been trying to call the hotline for the past 2 days without any
        luck (says operator busy, call back in a few min). Worst of all I
        can't even leave a message. Anyone have a better luck? 1-800-372-5110
        \_ Try using the auto-redial feature that will ring your phone once
           the call goes through.  I think it costs less than $1.00
           \_ it DOES go through, with a long message that finally ends with
              "If you're hearing this message on M-F from 8AM to 6PM then our
              operator is busy, please call back in a few minutes or leave a
              message and we'll get back to you in 2 days." Then it says
              "Enter you mailbox number" or something without giving me an
              option to leave a message. I hate Berkeley. First it rejects me
              and now it's fucking with me.
              \_ How did you get this account then?
                 \_ There this thing called "graduate school" after undergrad.
                    \_ It rejected you for undergrad but accepted you for grad?

3/30    Poll, what do you do to protect your laptop's content?
        Homing beacon: .
        Nothing: ...
        Login PW: ..
        BIOS PW:
        PGP files: .
        File system encrypt:
        Physical security: .  (i.e., it's in a locked, secured-access
                               facility almost all the time.)
        Left-handed mouse buttons: .
        Dvorak key layout: . (however doesn't do much)
        pkzipc -pass=foo: .
        secret explosives booby trap:.

3/29    uh oh... http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/security/grad
        \_ Goddammit.  This is the SECOND time my ID info was "lost" by
           a big-ish corporation.  Bank of America "lost" the same stuff
           approx 1 month ago.
        \_ OH. MY. GOD. I AM PISSED.  -somewho who applied to Cal
        \_ why is that information on a laptop anyway?
           \_ Many people use their laptop as a primary work machine.  A more
              pointer question wouls be "shouldn't encryption be required for
              pointed question would be "shouldn't encryption be required for
              sensitive data on laptops and other highly stealable machines?"
              \_ Why isn't it just the client sitting on the laptop and the
                 student database sitting on a box in a locked room somewhere?
                 \_ Because the MIS guy at Sproul deserves to be fired.
                    \_ Is that the case?  Or did some bureaucrat determine
                       that the data base only required class N security,
                       and client/server is only required for class N+1
                       security?
              \_ People who put sensitive data on laptops should be fired.
                 There is no excuse for this kind of irresponsibility.
        \_ well if there weren't 20 million illegals in the country and
           we actually enforced immigration laws it would not be as much
           of a problem.  But you know, we need slaves to pick lettuce,
           slaughter meat, build houses, be aircraft mechanics...
           P.S. anonymous deleter:  why would you delete this, my info
           is among that which was stolen.  You believe there
           would be a huge market for identity theft is there were no
           illegals?
           \_ "pick lettuce, slaughter meat, build houses, _be aircraft
              mechanics_"?  Are you retarded or autistic?  Seriously, are you?
              \_ I think the last item was a clue he was being sarcastic.
                 \_ Hmm, yes.  I'm not used to OCDIT showing even a smidgen
                    of intelligence.  His posts are making me stupid too....
                    How sad....How sad....
                 \_ smarmy ripostes but no common sense.  Since it was
                    deleted almost immediately you may have missed it:
                    3/25    Doing the jobs Americans won't do
                    FAA licensed 5 arrested at TIMCO - airplane mechanics!
                    http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1370361/posts
                    The notion the 20 million illegals don't influence the
                    market for false identification is, well, stupid.
           \_ Uhm...yes.  Are you really a tech person?  You seem to have
              an utter lack of understanding about the basic nature of high-
              tech crime, which seems odd for someone posting on motd.
              \_ since you seem to be such a technology expert type these
                 words into google: illegal immigration identity theft
           \_ Mmm... small brain.
           \_ Illegals or not, there's a big market for ID information because
              identity-theft-assisted fraud can make big money.
           \_ And we wouldn't need all these illegals if it weren't for
              all the abortions.
        \_ "The campus has established a toll-free number 1-800-372-5110 where
            individuals can learn whether their information was among the data
            stolen."
            I can see it now.  "Hello sir.  Please give me your full name,
            mother's maiden name, and social security number for confirmation.
            Let me just log that data in... OK, now..."
            \_ Did it mention that the server logging the phone calls is a
               laptop? :-)
        \_ What OS does the laptop run?

3/24    Can ALL laptops boot up from any arbitrary USB CD drive, or do they
        require USB drivers (in another word, no)?
        \_ ALL laptops?  Of course not.  Most modern ones should be able to,
           but I'm sure there are funky special BIOSes on some of them.

3/23    I'm thinking about getting this laptop but the 60GB to 80GB upgrade
        adds about $150, and the 256MB->512MB RAM adds another $150. Is there
        any reason why I should do this, when I could potentially just buy a
        100GB drive for $230, and likewise something similar with RAM?
        \_ Tell us which notebook you want and maybe we can give advice.
           E.g., the ThinkPad T42 has only one accessible memory slot,
           the Fujitsu S7010(D) doesn't have a user-accessible hard drive,
           and some ultra-light notebooks accept only very thin hard drives.
           \_ In a T42, that one slot is shipped unpopulated, so you could
              still slap in an extra gig for ~$200.
           \_ how the heck do you repair/change a HD if it's not
              user-accessible? I mean, is it like welded or something?
              \_ Not user-accessible doesn't mean its not accessible, it just
                 means you'll have to go through (possibly damaging) grief and
                 possibly warranty voiding stickers to get at the hard disk.
                 My Sony VAIO Z505 back in the day was like this.  Since I
                 didn't care about the warranty, I managed to crack the
                 fucker open and upgrade the HD.  I managed to do it with
                 minimal damaage (i.e. minor scratches on the pretty case).
                 Similarly, opening up my Powerbook isn't happening, and I'm
                 not going to risk my extended warranty to do it.
                 not going to risk my extended warranty to do it. -dans
           \_ Fujitsu T4010D (yes it's pricy but I REALLY want it)   -pp
              \_ If the 60GB is 7200rpm you might not want to 'upgrade' to a
                 80GB 5400rpm.
              \_ Search http://tabletpcbuzz.com for user comments.  I found some
                 on google already just by searching "t4010d upgrade".
        \_ Get the RAM, don't get the drive. 20 GB is not worth $150. If
           you need space later you can always add a USB drive. You will
           always use the RAM, though.
        \_ Did you check http://portableone.com?  They used to be the #1 seller of
           Fujitsu notebooks before http://newegg.com moved in, not sure now.
           40GB->80GB is $200, 40GB->60GB 7200rpm is $170.  (I have the 7200rpm
           drive, and it's great, no problems.)  512MB is standard.
           3yr warranty is cheap too.  Oh look, you can also customize the
           display to something that's indoor/outdoor and 180 deg viewing.

3/23    Besides dealcoupon and slickdeals what are the good sites to get a
        19" Dell LCD?
        \_ Buy Mac, support DNC. Buy Dell, support RNC (1/2 million of it).
           \_ That's just about the dumbest thing I've read all day.
              \_ why? The pp boycotts Dell the same reason he/she boycotts
                 Wal-Mart. It's just personal choice based on principle.
                 Whether the boycott is effective or not is a different issue.
        \_ http://gotapex.com
        \_ http://techbargains.com, http://fatwallet.com, http://bargainshare.com

3/23    Any recommendations for an Ethernet print server for a
        USB printer. Ideally would like it to work with XP and OS X.
        \_ Just use your PC as the server and let other PCs print to it.
           \_ If OP wanted to do that, they wouldn't be asking about standalone
              print servers, would they?
                \_ Correct. OP is working with a single laptop setup. -op
                   \_ Just curious.  Why do you need a server?
                       \_ My friend uses his laptop in his family room
                          on the ottoman, and his printer/WiFi/Cable modem
                          is all in his office. He wants to be able to
                          print from his family room to his USB printer.
                          A wireless print server is not necessary, but
                          a ethernet->USB print server would perfect.
           \_ Also, a PC running 24x7 as a printer server prolly sucks up
              a ton of pcu-cycles and energy.
              \_ Good point.
        \_ Buy a real network printer.  That's the real answer.  I recommend
           a Brother DCP-8045D with the Brother NC9100H Ethernet interface, not
           the overpriced HP stuff.  Laser, duplex, flatbed scanning,
           photocopy, fax.  I have the HL-5170DN (no fax, no photocopy, no
           scanning); now I wish I just splurged.
           To answer your question, go to http://newegg.com and search for "print
           server", and sort by "Best Rating".  The problem with generic
           USB->Ethernet print server hardware is that you can't do any custom
           stuff over Ethernet (e.g., monitor ink levels, most manual duplex).
           \_ Yes, that is what I have personally. a LaserJet 4MP/PS with
              a built-in JetDirect Ethernet card print server. Got it at
              northbaynetworks in emeryville. I think it was $100.
        \_ If you want wireless w/ your print server, get an airport
           express.
           \_ Great idea! Can it share any USB printer?
              \_ I think so. I don't know which exact models it
                 supports but I've seen people hook up all sorts
                 of cheap ass usb printers and have them work.

3/22    Say you buy a brand new laptop that says it comes with Windows XP,
        Word, Excel, etc. I know that they come preinstalled, but let's say
        you want to reformat your drive and reinstall. Are ALL the softwares
        included in the package (CDs) so that you can reinstall them?
        \_ Usually they are, but sometimes they are packaged in annoying way,
           i.e. the laptops comes with a rescue CD that let's you restore it
           to the (lame) factory defaults it shipped with (which does include
           all that software, but is also the default Toshiba or Dell or
           whatever configuration) -dans
        \_ You are buying OEM copies of the software (WinXP, Office), which
           amounts to hundreds of dollars.  The OEM license allows you to
           re-install the software on that computer.  If you don't have CDs,
           you can request them from the manufacturer of your notebook.
           No migrating the license to another computer, though -- that's not
           covered by the OEM license.

3/20    Has anyone bought a refurb laptop? Any bad experience? I'm asking
        because I can potentially save ~$500-$700 and it's a lot of money
                                                        -poor guy
        \_ You're talking about a refurb from the manufacturer or reputable
           online store right, not off some random store/guy on eBay?
           \_ http://dealtime.com has a LOT of links to refurb companies. One problem
              is that they only give you a 90 day warranty instead of the
              normal 1-year manufacturer's warranty (i.e. Toshiba notebooks)
        \_ I bought a refurb iBook from the online apple store last year.
           No problems so far. It comes w/ the full apple care so, it
           was a pretty safe bet.
           \_ how long is the refurb warranty and does it cover LCD blackdots?
              \_ The refurb warranty is the same as the new warranty, 1 yr.
                 Most warranties do not cover dead pixels unless you have
                 more than 5 or so. At least on the 12" iBooks, I have never
                 see a dead pixel.
        \_ Refurb Thinkpad X20 from a random vendor off CNET.  Worked great,
           no issues whatsoever.  -John

3/14    I'm thinking about getting a new laptop. I don't want to buy a Dell
        because I'm not a Republican supporter and I don't want to buy a Mac
        because my work involves Linux development/VMWare. What are other
        alternatives I have? Thanks.
        \_ If it's for work, why not expense it to your company and get the
           most expensive Sony Viao you can get?
        \_ Apparently today is "troll the motd" day.
           \_ Kinda like "the Troll Olympics" isn't it?
        \_ obGetAThinkPad
           \_ ob Support the CHICOMS?!? omgwtfbbq
              \_ They're still American, better buy quick though.
              \_ What is not made in China these days?
                 \_ I make sweet love to yermom right here in the USA.
                 \_ My 2-year-old Fujitsu S series is made in Japan.
                    You'd have to ask a new buyer if you wanted to know
                    if they were still made there, considering how cheap
                    one is on http://newegg.com now ($1,250 before tax).
           \_ Just not an X31--*nix is a nightmare on it.  I'm told X40s are
              OK for Linux/BSD though.  Be very careful to check the various
              Linux-on-laptop sites for compatibility first.  -John
        \_ Assuming this is not a troll, Dell and IBM are at the top tier
           in terms of on-site support.  Toshiba's probably right behind.
           HP, I dunno, I think they're notebooks look worse than ThinkPads.
           HP, I dunno, I think their notebooks look worse than ThinkPads.
           My feeling about Sony's is they're more about form than function,
           but I could be totally wrong; don't know about their on-site support
        \_ I know Gateway Cowbrand can go into Chapter 11 anytime, but anyone
           has any experience with their laptops?
        \_ I have a Compaq NC6000 for work. Features, speed, ergonomics are
           great. Reliability is meh (several of us already have had HDs
           replaced for this model).
        \_ Have you considered Fujitsu? The lifebook and toughbook series
           are pretty nice and very rugged.
           \_ I'll second this.  The toughbooks are amazing.  Look at the W2.
              \_ toughbooks are Panasonic
              \_ toughbooks are Panasonic.  Get the Y2, for ~ .5 pounds more
                 you get 14" instead of  12" screen.
                 I see on http://engadget.com on http://cnet.com a couple people complaining
                 I see on http://engadget.com & http://cnet.com a couple people complaining
                 the screens suck compared to the Fujitsu S series with
                 CrystalView.
        \_ Apparrently Linus now uses a Mac for his primary work machine so
           perhaps Linux support on the Mac will be getting a lot better in
           the near future. -dans
        \_ Long thread from Aug 2004
           http://www.engadget.com/entry/7044941173883695
           I like the posts talking about the Fujitsu S7010/S7010D

3/9     How long are LCDs expected to last? 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Thx.
        \_ The conventional wisdom is:
           (1) As long as the backlight lasts
               - It will dim in intensity, as much as 50% or more over x years
               - You can get it replaced for x hundreds of dollars
               - You can get it replaced for x hundreds of dollars by the
                 manufacturer
           (2) As long as pixels don't start going dead
           Hard numbers for both factors may have changed for a 15" LCD from
           four years ago to a 19" 16ms display / 20"+ widescreen you just
           bought.  Chances are you stopped using that 15" LCD a long time ago
           and haven't really thought about how much it degraded over time --
           just that it sucks compared to your 23" widescreen today.
           \_ I've noticed that my powerbook screen has dimed over the 2 or so
              years I've owned it.
              \_ mine hasn't over 4 years.  I use it several hours/day.
              \_ Try cleaning it.  There's also a brightness control.  -John
        \_ The 15" Apple Studio Display my mom got me for xmas '99 is still
           going strong. It gets daily use for 2+ hrs a day. My 20" Apple
           Cinema Display is in great shape as well after 2+ yrs.
           Most of my friends who have LCDs have only replaced them b/c they
           wanted a bigger screen not b/c they had problems w/ them.
           \_ The 15" I displayed to your mom is also still going strong.
        \_ Related note:  Does powering down the LCD when not in use, even for
           just 15 minutes help save the screen?  Or is the power surge from
           on/off going to degrade the backlight faster?
           \_ my experience with lots of thinkpads is that screens wear out
              from 1) travel/concussion/temp shock, 2) aggressive power-off
              blanking, 3) hours of operating time.  I set mine to not blank
              in less than 12 hours, and only manually blank it if I am
              going to be away for hours or am surviving on battery.
              \_ Stupid question, does LCD suffer from burn-in?

3/4     Anyone know a good place to buy a new Thinkpad for below MSRP?  I'm
        an alumnus so I can't use TSW.
        \_ just buy it from http://newegg.com.
           \_ I like them but they're all MSRP there.

4/2     I'm doing some research on laptops and would appreciate some personal
        opinions--any recommendations on a small, robust, fast machine
        equivalent to a Thinkpad X31, but which plays nice with FreeBSD or
        Linux?  Getting any variant of the above to run on the X31 seems to
        depend highly on your exact model #, and I'm getting a bit sick of
        trying to get it working.  -John
        \_ Cheap, robust, small, fast laptop that runs FreeBSD and plays
           nice with Linux- try an ibook.
           \_ Fair enough---will probably do that and run an XP VMWare
              session.  Fuck x86 laptops, and my X20 was so good... -John
                \_ You probably have to get VPC (M$) instead of VMWare.
           \_ iBooks are not small or fast.  -tom
                \_ how are they not small? but John can afford it, so a
                   12" powerbook is probably a better bet. slightly smaller,
                   slightly faster, and better overall Industrial Design.
                   \_ The 12" iBook weighs 4.9 pounds; that's towards the
                      top of mid-range for all laptops, and it's pretty
                      heavy for a 12" laptop.  The 12" Powerbook at 4.6
                      pounds isn't much better. -tom
                   \_ FYI, The 12" PB runs hotter than than the 12" iBook.
        \_ John, is it April in Switzerland?
           \_ No, we're on the metric system.  -John
           \_ April Never Ended, http://csua.org/u/b8m
              \_ Could someone please explain to us slow folks what the hell
                 this "joke" is about?
              \_ Springtime for Hiter and Germany... Winter for Poland and
                 France...
        \_ google x40 fedora core -someone with not much experience
           \_ yeah, the trick is to get the IBM that works w/ linux
              and not the other way around. :-) --karlcz
              p.s. http://www.linux-laptop.net for lots of user experiences
              \_ You're totally right--but I had an x20 which ran a charm
                 with FreeBSD.  I assumed the lack of reports on success with
                 x31s was just due to it being a pretty new platform when
                 I bought it.  Sigh.  -John
        \_ Dude, just get a dell.
           \_ Buy Dell, Support Republicans.
        \_ iBook. $999, Refurbs for <800.

2/25    Stupid question, how is the 2300mah on my AA battery different
        from the 4500mah on my laptop battery? Is it the voltage? If I
        take 2 of my AA NiMH battery and add it up, the capacity is
        larger than my laptop battery's rated mah....
        \_ mAh is basically how much charge is available at a rated voltage.
           Total energy stored is maH*Volts.  Since your AA batery is 1.5V and
           the laptop's is around 15, the laptop's battery has about 20 times
           as much energy as an AA battery.  You could approximate a laptop
           battery with 2 columns of 10 AA batteries in series. (DO NOT attempt
           this)
           \_ what will happen?
              \_ Laptop batteries have 3 or 4 pins to allow them to monitor
                 and control charging.  Leaving these pins free is not in the
                 laptop design.  Also, laptop batteries are not exactly 15V,
                 some are 13.2 and others are 18.6 or whatever.  Getting it
                 wrong could let out all the smoke in your circuits.
                 \_ Feed the columns of AA batteries to the inlet for the AC
                    adaptor.
                    \_ OK, if you got the voltage and polarity right that
                       would work. -pp

2/23    How do I make sound work after a suspend on a Dell laptop
        with FreeBSD 5, without rebooting? - danh
        \_ What's it doing?  Are you running esound or some other multiplexer?
        \_ just an idea, but sometimes muting and unmuting fixes some cards.
        \_ I figured it out, I unloaded then loaded some kernel modules
           and sound works. - danh

2/16    Dumb linux question:  I copied some mp3's onto my laptop, and now
        I can't remove them.  I get "Permission denied." I don't have
        root.  The permissions are set to -rwxrwxr-x.  How can I delete
        these?
        \_ Do you have write permissions on the directory itself?
           \_ Sigh.  duh.  Thanks.  That fixed it.
           \_ You just had to go and make it easy for him, didn't you.
              Should've told him he needs to have the RIAA approve his
              permissions first.
              \_ And the AARP and the NRA.

2/14    To follow up about my laptop's traffic to http://fatboy.paqnet.com:  I had
        visited http://www.cpqlinux.com/cdrw.html = 208.246.182.10 =
        http://fatboy.paqnet.com I don't know why opera kept a TCP connection
        open for 17 hours.  Perhaps it was related to putting my laptop into
        suspend mode 7 minutes after visiting the website.  Would y'all
        consider this to be a browser bug?

2/11    Any idea why my debian laptop would have this traffic. I'm on a
        wireless network in my house. connected to the internet via
        comcast. My laptop's iptables firewall is blocking all
        inbound ports
        14:18:55.194060 10.0.0.101.2622 > http://fatboy.paqnet.com.www
        \_ spyware, most likely
           \_ spyware on my laptop? shit.
           \_ crap. okay where do I start looking into this?
            \_ Spyware on debian?  I doubt it.  But I'd start by looking
               at full tcpdump output.  You can see what http requests
               are being sent and that will probably give you a better idea
               what is going on.
                \_ I use Opera 7.54 and there are a couple security
                   updates that I missed. Perhaps I visited a malicious
                   website.  I want to figure out what is really going on.
                   \_ If you are this paranoid and don't know how to see
                      the contents of the packets and what program has the
                      socket open, well, you sir, are a moron.
                        \_ the socket was changing with each run.
                           Thanks for the insult. That really helps.
                                \_ Don't mind him. He probably had no idea
                                   himself. Not everyone can deal well with
                                   their shortcomings.
        \_ Your computer is trying to connect to paqnet for something, but
           it could just as easily be some kind of automatic update feature
           as spyware. More likely the former, I think. paqnet is some kind
           of distrubution site for various kinds of software. See:
           http://www.paqnet.cz
           Did you install power quality monitoring software on your
           laptop???
           \_ No I haven't installed that sort of software. it also looks
              like http://paqnet.com is an ISP. they've probably got bad users.
              \_ Port 2622 is registered for MetricaDBC. I don't know
                 what that is, but maybe you do. Did you install anything
                 like that?
                 \_ Nope. It looks like the some of the http://paqnet.com users
                    are off-roaders. I wonder if they are good guys.
                    Maybe they would send me parts of http logfiles.
                    \_ Hmm, doesn't look so good to me. I don't know
                       of any rootkits that use 2622 to communicate,
                       but you might want to start considering that
                       could have been hacked.
                       \_ 2622 is the source port.  Has little or nothing to
                          do with what might be making this connection.  You
                          may want to run netstat -pa to see if you can track
                          down the process making such connections.  They're
                          probably brief, though, so you won't get much.  How
                          often are these connections happening? --scotsman
                          \_ I saw about 3 of them in 10 minutes or so,
                             but stupid me, I shut down my laptop to
                             make an image of the disk, but when I turned
                             back on, I don't see any more of the traffic.
                             \_ Someone may have rootkitted you and run a
                                proxy daemon, but not put it into startup
                                files.  Look for core files.  Look for things
                                like oddly recent timestamps on ls, netstat,
                                ps, etc.
                                \_ Thanks. I've left my laptop on for a couple
                                   days, and now after visiting http://cnn.com this
                                   afternoon, I'm seeing similar traffic
                                   again! Perhaps it is an Opera bug.  At
                                   least now I can start figuring it out.
                                   Thanks for all your help.

2/10    Recommendation for a 19" LCD display.  Amazon has a good deal
        on the Princeton.  I'm also looking at Costco's Sharp 19" LCD.
        If you own one or use one at work, can you tell us what you have
        and how reliable is it?  Thanks.
        \_ Don't know who makes the ones for Dell, but have had only one
           failure out of probably 3 dozen+ at work.
           \_ I believe Samsung does.
        \_ Make sure to get DVI.  digital->analog->digital is bad.
        \_ tawei!!! whats up. get NEC MultiSync 19xxX series.
        \_ Jesus dumb fuck, this has been posted 100 times. Learn to STFK:
           http://csua.com/?entry=35371
           http://csua.com/?entry=32519
           http://csua.com/?entry=32303
           http://csua.com/?entry=10207
           \_ Don't blow a head gasket, man -- it's not that big a deal.
              Really.
                \_ no dude, people have to learn. I'm so sick and tired of
                   deleting trolls and politics on motd, and things that
                   repeat over and over again. FUCK YOU.
                   \_ Then, uhm, don't bother.  It's not like anyone cares
                      about you and your largely self-inflicted pain.  And
                      take a vacation -- your histrionics are annoying.
                   \_ Hey!  I'm your biggest fan!  I'd like to give you an
                      award! Please post your name so we know who deserves
                      it. -jrleek
                      \_ Fuck both of you.  Just the fact that there are real
                         live conservative censors out there getting annoyed
                         about it will make posting political trolls worth it
                         for at least another decade.
                         \_ This is getting confusing, who is the other
                            person in both of you, and are you pp? -jrleek
                            \_ The "fuck you" is directed at anyone who censors
                               anything in any context ever or who supports
                               censorship in any form.  Yes, you have every
                               right to delete whatever politics you dislike
                               from the motd; it's a world writable file.  And
                               I have the right to think you're an asshole for
                               it.  I realize you're not one of the main censors
                               here, but you get a "fuck you" anyway for
                               thinking it's cool.
                               \_ Heh, you're a moron, but you're the
                                  wrong one.  You see, if the censor had
                                  posted his name, we could squish him.
                                  -jrleek

2/6     Our parent company is considering forbidding us from taking laptops
        off the premises due to possible src code loss.  Considering that
        many of us work from home the majority of the time, this does not
        sit well.  We need to come up with a proposal for keeping the
        src (or entire disk) on an encyrpted drive.  I used PGP desktop
        a while back but never did any disk intensive activity (eg compilation)
        on it.  Has anyone been subjected to similar measures and have any
        suggestions?  Thanks.
        \_ Yeah, plenty of companies are hiring. Start looking for another
           job now.
           \_ I love my job.  Not interested in a new one. -op
              \_ Do you think this is the last PHB decision they will make?
                 You love it now, but this is just a harbinger of things
                 to come. I am sorry I cannot be more positive. There has
                 got to be some way of encrypting things for you but I
                 don't know what it is.
                 \_ Maybe not, CHKP is an agent of the Mossad, so I wouldn't
                    put anything past them, but, regardless, i need to wait
                    a few more years for the remainder of my options to vest.
                    -op
        \_ Write up a reasoned explanation of why this won't help. Particularly
           in a technical field (development), it's always near trivial to find
           ways around this unless they completely isolate your work network
           from the internet.  (i.e. you can't go to websites, check popmail,
           etc)  If there are any such "holes" that those evil, evil employees
           could just copy the code out through, encrypting it locally won't
           help.
           \_ The issue is not that they don't want employees stealing the
              src, the issue is that laptops are prime targets for theft and
              if someone were to get their laptop stolen, release of the
              src code would be disasterous.  Of course there are plenty
              of ways to get around it.  -op
              \_  Out of curiosity, does anyone know how often data from
                  stolen laptops ends up getting into the wrong hands?
                  I would have guessed that most laptops get stolen
                  by crackheads who sell them to the local pawn shop for a
                  hundred dollars, who then erases the harddrive and sells
                  it for two hundred to some random moron.  At what point in
                  this chain does data get sent to some competing software
                  company?  Are there people out there making a living
                  cruising the silicon valley pawn shops for sellable data on
                  stolen hard drives?
        \_ magnetic tape, flashdrive/CF/SD/etc, laptop HD in a USB/FW case ...
           iPod/etc ...
           \_ Again I'm not looking for ways to take src code home.  I'm
              looking for a reasonable solution for securing the data on
              the laptop to mollify their concerns and to prevent me
              from having to jump through such hoops.  I still have VPN
              access to CVS from my desktop at home and if it were to come to
              it would just ditch the laptop.  -op
              \_ it was meant as examples to give your company to prove
                 how fucking stupid they are.
              \_ Uhm, if you have VPN access to the company what makes
                 the company think that someone can't just steal your
                 computer at home and get the source code there? I'm sure
                 that you encrypt your data, but that's not a guarentee
                 that someone else who works under similar conditions will.
                 Anyway, what's so important about the source code? MS had
                 its source code for Winblows leaked, it's not like someone
                 is going to go and develop a competing product anytime soon.
                 And if your software is that valuable, people can just
                 reverse it through brute-force decompilation and analysis.
        \_ It looks like PGP Corporate deployed using smart cards or tokens
           (e.g. RSA SecurID doodads) is probably what you want.  I just
           glanced at the marketing drivel on the website so you'll need to
           read further to be sure, but this looks like a reasonable place to
           start:
           http://www.pgp.com/products/desktop/disk
           -dans
           \_ We had very good success with Safeguard Easy (both boot sector
              protection and on-the-fly disk crypto.)  If you're feeling
              adventurous, you can play with MS EFS on top, but your PKI
              admins had better know what they're doing.  -John
        \_ Most responses don't really understand the problem. Working in
           an environment where much of our software is classified as a
           munition, I do. It is about accountability more than actual
           prevention of theft. They *know* you can steal the source and
           if they were concerned about that they'd do what the DoD does
           and make you leave it at work. They are concerned about the
           laptop being stolen. Whether or not it is easy to obtain the
           source by hacking into the system over VPN is irrelevant. In
           our particular case, it is just disallowed. Period. You can
           take the executables, but not the source. I, too, am interested
           in a good solution but I think none exists. However, I do not
           understand why the desktop is allowed. That is just as much of
           a no-no.
        \_ I would just take the source code home and be done with it.

2/3     When should I expect to see 'Sonoma Centrino' laptops become available
        from the major vendors?
        \_ It already is. They did a trade fair showing it off. Retail should
           already be available or within the next month or so.

1/31    Which laptop brands are available with those eraser-head mouse
        pointer things in the middle like IBM Thinkpads? I know Dell offers
        it but I think I don't like the Dells. IBM is so pricy and uncool.
        \_ Is a ThinkPad T42 (sub 5 lb., 14" LCD) for $1,430 before tax
           on http://newegg.com too expensive?  Solid build quality and good return
           service.  See the Fujitsu S7010 on http://newegg.com too; Fujitsu
           has good reliability, but if it does break, expect a wait unless
           you buy on-site support.  (Buy only with Crystal View.)
           The S7010 and the Dell D600 both have a problem with leaving
           keyboard impressions on the LCD; the T42 does not I believe.
           \_ I prefer a bigger hdd, 512MB RAM, better gfx chip etc.
              I briefly saw this Sony at Best Buy and it seemed pretty nice.
              http://csua.org/u/axd
              Actually it was the higher end version. I would like to be able
              to play newer games on it but don't want a heavy one. I may
              have to wait a while yet. This Sony can almost fit the bill,
              only has max 64MB VRAM though and I want 128. Yep, I want my
              laptop to be a toy since that's about 70% of its value to me.
              \_ From my experience over the past couple years using and
                 repairing laptops (my own and other people's):
                 1. All laptops eventually break/fail. The average life of
                    a laptop is about 3 years. The fact that they're carried
                    around a lot and have consumables in the form of rechargable
                    batteries and they're not upgradable limits their
                    long term usefulness, so don't plan on getting the most
                    expensive laptop out in the market. Get what you need.
                 2. They also get stolen, obviously.
                 3. In terms of featureset I've found that Sony offers the
                    most features, followed by Dell, Toshiba, Compaqs,
                    HPs, and then IBMs.
                 4. In terms of price the they usually rank IBM, Sony,
                    Toshiba, Compaq, HP, Dell (depends on which models of
                    course).
                 5. In terms of reliability I've found that they're not that
                    much variation. I suppose the IBM, but it's just that
                    they have better service than the others, not that their
                    machines are more reliable. I think over the years it's
                    the couple of companies in Taiwan/PRC that manufacture
                    them so the quality has been pretty much the same across
                    the board, roughly though: IBM, Dell, Compaq, Toshiba,
                    and HP and Sony bringing up the rear.
                 6. In terms of service, well, again, it's somewhat across
                    the board mediocre except that IBM has pretty good service,
                    although I found Dell to be acceptable.
                 Also, whatever you do, do not buy a 256 mb machine, and
                 it's actually somewhat of a good idea to get a machine
                 with a multi-bay, because cd/dvd players do fail before
                 the main unit, especially if they're burners.
        \_ I once used a laptop with that kind of mouse, and after a few days
           my fingerhead started to get irritated.  I ended up plugging in a
           regular mouse.

1/18    When you sit in a coffee shop all day working on your laptop and using
        their free wireless, what quantity of tasty snacks do you feel obligated
                                       und keine Eier! _/
        to buy?
        \_ Strongly depends on how busy they are.  If there's free tables
           and/or AC outlets, then average $1/hr. with a 1 drink minimum.
           If there's a demand for tables, then 1 purchase/hr, unless it's a
           meal of some sort, which buys 2 hrs.
           Never take up a big table when there's demand, no matter how much
           you're buying.

1/17    If I want to get a wireless card for my apple (desktop, not
        laptop), do I need to get it from apple or can I go get one
        from bestbuy? (e.g. a linksys card)

1/13    The documentation of my Dell LCD is saying that the contrast
        button is not functional when the LCD is connecting with a DVI
        port. I assume you can still adjust it from the OS? How can I do
        it from Linux?
        \_ If you want to lower the brightness, you can achieve the same
           result by lowering the RGB value at the same time. That's what
           I did to achieve a comfortable viewing brightness for my Dell.
           Right now I am at 0% brightness, and RGB at 48%, the picture is
           really nice. Dell 2005fpw.
           \_ I got one of those 2005fpw's and I think I'll return it. The
              size wasn't as impressive as I thought so I want to wait for
              something better. But another thing was that if I turn out
              the lights and look at a black background, I can see uneven
              light leaking from the top edge. My LCD at work doesn't have
              any trace of that. Then again the 2005 is brighter. But it
              also has a weird viewing angle effect... even just sitting
              in front of it moving my head a bit I notice a purplish
              sheen at some angles. I won't buy another before seeing
              it in person. I hope they get OLED working well soon, that
              would be the proverbial shit.
              \_ purple tint, high viewing angles, good response rate?
                 Sounds like IPS tech!
            http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/lcd-guide_23.html
                 I like my Samsung 193P from http://jr.com, but the 16ms MVA panel
                 used on the update of the Viewsonic VP191b at http://newegg.com
                 looks good too (you need models manufactured Dec 2004 or
                 later).  I have the 25ms VP191s and it ghosts, but nice
                 otherwise.
              \_ Hmmm, I have none of the problems. Maybe sample variation.
                 I am really pleased with mine, and I am very picky when it
                 comes to monitor calibration.
           \_ I have no problems with brightness since the brightness button
              does work. -op
              \_ So what do you need to adjust the contrast for? Be more
                 specific on what the problem is that you are trying to
                 solve...
              \_ I wish there were a button on my monitor to turn up the
                 intelligence.  There's a button called "brightness," but it
                 doesn't work.

1/7     So I had the chance to order and set up a ThinkPad T42 for my boss.
        It rocks.  It's the most well-built standard light-weight notebook
        I've played with.  They could do better with the styling, but I got a
        1.6 GHz model for $1,389 before tax at http://newegg.com.  One stuck red
        pixel, but it's on the border.  (For personal use, I'd still probably
        go with a Fujitsu S7010 for the extra USB port, Windows key, and
        lower weight - although it's not as better constructed.  As for Dell,
        the Latitude D600 is light-years better than previous Dell notebooks,
        but the T42 really kicks ass.)

12/29   What do you guys do with your old laptops? I've been thinking
        that maybe I can reinstall it with Linux and write a program
        that displays home pictures, weather, and traffic data, then
        frame the LCD as to give an illusion that it's a picture and
        hang it on the wall. The only problem is how I would
        hide the keyboard and show only the LCD/frame. Maybe I can
        cut the dry wall and shove the unit in. Then there's the problem
        of detaching the LCD with the module. Anyone have experiences
        or thoughts on this?

12/23   The screen on my 600 series IBM thinkpad no longer seems to work.
        Is it worth trying to replace the screen?  Ebay seems to have
        reasonably priced screens but I have no idea how difficult it is
        to replace a screen.  Can anyone point me to instructions on
        replacing the screen or suggest whether this is a good idea?  Thanks.
        \_ Chances are it's not the screen unless you cracked it. Chances
           are it's the LCD inverter, which costs much less than a whole
           screen. Laptop parts are fairly hard to replace, but the Thinkpad
           should be a good model to do it on. Do you have regular or
           security screws? -williamc
           \_ I think I have regular screws.  The inverter's on ebay are
              much cheaper than the screens so it would be great if that
              was the issue.  How would I figure this out?  Do you know
              of any websites with instructions on this sort of thing?  Thanks.
              \_ 1) If the backlight is out you will still be able to see
                    your screen function if you look at it close enough
                    in bright lighting.
                 2) If the invert is out, well, the inverter is out. You
                    can't tell if it's an inverter problem or if it's something
                    inside the screen. If you didn't crack your screen there
                    is an exceedingly high probability it's the inverter
                    because LCD screens will last a long time without
                    damage, in the order of decades.
                 3) If you damaged one of your cables. Only way to test that
                    is to pop off the hood of your laptop and examine the
                    cables. Also make sure you seat the connectors
                    properly. Maybe you dropped it or somethign and it got
                    loose.
                 4) If it's the screen, then, well, get a new laptop. It's
                    really not worth it since you can get a faster laptop
                    for not much more money than screen + labor. Obviously
                    you have the hassle of transferring over files.
                    If you feel warry about taking apart a laptop, well,
                    you should be. I've broken the plastic moldings on two
                    laptops I've repaired in the past. It just goes with the
                    territory since they're not exactly designed to be taken
                    apart. Just don't force anything, and sometimes you have
                    to force a small flathead screwdriver into not-so-obvious
                    slotholes to uhnook plastic tabs. Just be aware that
                    screws can hide under rubber caps over holes, so you'l
                    need to be patient before resorting to more than
                    light force in taking apart a case. -williamc
        \_ If you don't know what's wrong with it, it could be the screen,
           backlight, cable or motherboard.  Typical sales on eBay are only the
           screen, so if your $2 cable bought it, you're screwed.  That being
           said, I've heard thinkpads are the easiest to work on.
           \_ Do you know how I could figure this out?  Should I take it
              to CompUSA and ask them to fix it or something like that? Thanks.
              \_ Take it to whoever would handle the manufacturer's warranty.
                 If it's out of warranty, you might get them to diagnose it at
                 least.  Typically, they'll simply replace all the screen
                 components.  Doing it yourself will most likely be $1000 or
                 more.
        \_ if you post your login, I will send you a thinkpad 600 maintainence
           manual.  it will list all the 600 models and give you part numbers.

12/02   I have only used Mac laptop (powerbook).  However, I am not making
        lots of money these days and mac laptops are just too expensive.
        To those who have used both Mac and PC laptop, are there cheaper,
        faster PC laptops that are no less reliable than the powerbooks?
        Are there going to be features that I will miss if I switch, like
        target disk mode, etc?
        \_ Why don't you post your username. Maybe someone at Apple could
           get you a discount.
        \_ In my experience (have owned several Mac and PC laptops - have a
           G4 powerbook and a Dell now) they are both about as reliable,
           which is not very. I've had Sony, IBM, Toshiba, and Dell and
           four Macs in the last 7-8 years and they all had problems
           in a few years. Heck, the 17" PB went back within the first
           month I got it (dead motherboard). Apple said they had a lot of
           them back for bad screens, too.
        \_ I've owned several PC laptops. I most likely won't buy a Sony
           due to bad support. IBM is selling their PC line. Dell is
           relatively reliable and all repairs are done onsite if under
           warranty (yes they come to your house even to replace a faulty
           keyboard). If IBM weren't selling off their division I would
           recommend them, however who knows what this will do to their
           support.
           \_ Got a link to the announcement? This is very interesting.
                \_ http://tinyurl.com/6rgdw .  I like mine, but be careful
                   as ThinkPad BIOS tend to be a bit weird in some respects--
                   they're great for Windows, but I've run into tremendous
                   problems getting a real OS to run on one (primarily things
                   like ACPI, their non-keyboard buttons, etc. tend to make
                   your life difficult.)  -John
                   \_ Eh, you just don't know how to recompile the kernel
                      properly. Anyway, I wouldn't call Linux or FleaBSD
                      a "real OS". If they were a "real OS" you wouldn't
                      have to fuck around with them as much.
                      \_ I'm sorry, did you have anything of substance to
                         contribute?  I take it you've an X series handy on
                         which you've done this yourself?  No?  Oh, and NDIS
                         is great for wireless scanning?  What's that I hear?
                         No?  Oh my bad!  I suppose you'll be keeping your
                         cakehole shut then.  Go back to troll school.  -John
                         \_ not above poster, but i've installed FC3 on my
                            wife's x40 and have ACPI suspend to ram and
                            hibernate working using the hotkeys.  wireless
                            a/b/g works, but there does seem to be some
                            wonkiness w/ X resuming from hibernate on
                            occasion.
                      \_ What's a real os?
                         \_ Anything w/ DX9, how can it be a real OS if you
                            can't play HL2 on it?
        \_ You can have a base iBook for $999+tax
        \_ A decent PC laptop will cost you about $1K (probably
           more).  Don't go for the $500-$700 ones b/c you will
           probably end up with a lemon.  Everyone I know who
           bought one of the cheap dells or hps has had to send
           it in for a repair w/in the first 6 mo.
           The best PC laptop was probably a IBM ThinkPad, but
           IBM is selling thier PC business, so it might be risky
           to by a ThinkPad at this point in time. Also ThinkPads
           sometimes had problems running Linux/FreeBSD (not sure
           if you care about this).
           If you really want to look at a PC laptop, try Fujitsu.
           The LifeBook series is pretty good, and the ToughBook
           series is super rugged.
           Unless you have a specific reason for wanting a PB,
           why don't you consider an iBook. It is light, durable,
           has good battery life and is pretty cheap. If you are
           willing to go refurb you can get a 1ghz model for around
           $800, with tax, ae and extra ram you are looking at about
           $1K (about the same price as a okay PC laptop). I know
           some people complain that there is no PCMCIA slot and
           that the screen is only 12" 1024x768, but I switched from
           a PB to a 12" iBook last year (for coding and non coding
           homework) and I haven't had any problems.  In fact I like
           my iBook more than my PB b/c it is lighter, has better
           wireless reception and has much longer battery life.

12/11   Any suggestions for a desktop keyboard with light touch and
        action similar to an IBM ThinkPad 600?
        \_ IBM used to make a laptop-type PS2 keyboard (also about the
           size of a TP600 one.)  Try: http://tinyurl.com/2kh9d  -John
           \_ Great. Thanks :) -op
              \_ On a related note, is there any way at all of getting a
                 Powerbook to use a Stinkpad-style nipple instead of that
                 fucking touchpad?  I really want a Mac, but loathe the
                 track pad... Does anyone make alternative keyboards for
                 ibooks/powerbooks?
                 \_ I don't understand the touchpad bigots here.  Have you used
                    a Synaptics touchpad?  I can't believe anyone can use those
                    RSI-inducing eraser-heads.
                    \_ I used one quite a bit and I dislike them intensely.
                       It's personal preference.  I use a USB mouse when I
                       have deskspace, but otherwise I have a lot of trouble
                       with touchpads.  Including Synaptics.  Now how about
                       alternative Mac laptop keyboards?  Do they exist? -John
                    \_ I used to think like you but sucked it up when I
                       switched to a thinkpad that didn't have both.  after
                       a few weeks I got used to it and eventually grew to
                       despise touchpads.  the problem w/ the eraser stick
                       for me is that it starts drifiting once in a while.
                       I got a tiny, very precise, optical USB mouse but
                       find that I rarely use it.  you can type and use the
                       pointy stick w/ palms on the rest, while the touchpad
                       or mouse require you to pretzle around on planes etc.
                       \_ I guess I just don't have tasks that switch between
                          mouse and keyboard a lot.  When I'm mousing for any
                          length of time, I can't imagine using that
                          eraser-head.

12/9    Use of a laptop might interfere with male fertility (not
        that procreation is a big issue for the average motd reader):
        http://tinyurl.com/6v84t

12/7    I am thinking of buying my own 20" LCD screen and use it at work
        (I currently have a 19" CRT). I spend 8+ hours a day looking
        at the computer screen at work and very little at home. The
        LCD at work would do me more good than one at home. But are
        there any reasons that I shouldn't? I mean political reasons?
        Will it give people bad impression? That I am too rich? Paid
        too high? (not). I am in a medium sized company with my own
        cubicles. Has anyone done anything similar?
        \_ I did this before.  I bought two 17" ones instead though since
           2x 1280x1024 is more pixels than 1x 1600x1200 and costs less,
           too.  Now the company switched over to LCD, so I threatened them
           that if I don't have company provided LCD monitors on my desk
           tomorrow, I won't be working tomorrow since I'm taking mine home.
           Just asking wasn't working, but above method worked like charm.
           Make sure to fill out "personal property" forms.  Now I have 3
           LCD monitors at home :p
        \_ Don't forget to liberally engrave it with "Personal Property of
           $OP".  Seriously.  People will get used to seeing it on your
           desk and when you leave the company you want to make damned
           sure they don't appropriate it.
        \_ I can see the Dilbert cartoons already, where people are ranked
           by the size of their LCD screens. "Dogbert got the 25" Apple
           Media Display! I'm so mad!"
           \_ "My LCD is larger and lasts longer than yours."
        \_ Engineers drive BMWs to work.  Why do you worry about a false
           impression of showing off just because of a 20" LCD?
           \_ I drive a beat-up '89 Ranger and I might just beat op up for
              bringing in the monitor just for being a gear geek.
              \_ gear geek for having a nice screen in a computer job? come on.
                 maybe op will use his superior eyesight to kick your ass
                 in 25 years.
        \_ Instead of enlarging your LCD screen you should enlarge your penis,
           if you have one. I have a whole bunch of email that claims that it
           works.
        \_ I heard of one company that went bankrupt because some guy decided
           to get an LCD screen. When that happened all the other engineers
           needed to one-up him and started demanding better and larger
           screens. This had a cascading effect which led to things like
           ergonomically stylized wireless keyboards, really expensive
           wireless optical mice, corinthian leather chairs, venice marbletop
           desks, and Le Blanc pens as standard issue. Don't do it, for the sake
           of the company!
           \_ The OP says he's thinking about buying his own, not asking the
              company to buy it.
              \_ It's called humor. Might want to look into it. Maybe you're
                 like Data, need to buy yourself a humor chip and install it.
                 I heard Best Buy will do the install for a nominal fee.
                 \_ Yes, but this rather assumes that your comment was funny
                    to non-retards.
                    \_ Touche, Mon Crapitan!
                 \_ no no no.  FIRST make sure you have the DRM crack on
                    hand so you can make jokes about copyrighted material,
                    THEN get the chip install.
           \_ I can totally see that happening.  At my last university lab
              job, I got one of the first 20" dell LCDs and suddenly
              everyone was stopping in the doorway saying, "wow neat". In
              a few months, the entire floor had LCDs galore, in both our
              research group and the IT group down the hall.
        \_ There is nothing wrong with bringing your own stuff like this,
           and anyone who has a problem with it should get a life.  I brought
           in my own UPS because I was sick of the power outages, so now
           my Sun has an uptime of > 400 days.  The biggest worry I would
           have is having it stolen.  Things like laptops and nice LCD screens
           are prime targets if you have a problem with stolen stuff at work.
        \_ Lots of people bring in their own laptops, but I personally
           think doing this would be seen as eccentric.
        \_ Did you ask work if they would buy you one?
        \_ Just bring it, but I think you shouldn't have more important
           personal crap at work (unless you're self-employed and it's in
           your own office) than you can quickly shove into a cardboard box
           and carry out the door.  Shit happens.  -John
           \_ keep an expandable backpack in the office!  that's how I used
              to borrow a DLP projector for movie night instead of doing
              paperwork. ;-)
              \_ By now I just don't take any more stuff to work than I can
                 drop into my laptop bag in 2 minutes.  It's never happened
                 to me, but I've seen people walked out pretty quickly and
                 ruthlessly for the stupidest of reasons.  -John
                 \_ wouldn't fluff the boss under his desk?
                    \_ No, violated the company handbook section prohibiting
                       execution style murders of people asking stupid
                       questions.
                 \_ I had a concealed carry permit and everything. Just
                    because I took my Desert Eagle .50 magnum out and started
                    stroking it lovingly was no reason for them to call
                    security and have me thrown out like that!
                    \_ That wasn't your DE you were stroking.
                    \_ Well DUUUH, it was a CONCEALED permit.  They couldn't
                       see it.  -John
        \_ I've done it.  Just make sure you'll be able to get it out easily
           if you need to.  Check with your manager if you need to fill out
           any personal equipment forms, etc.  Keep your receipt. --jameslin

11/24   Shopping for a laptop.  How are AMD's laptop chips?  Are the
        Pentium-M's a lot better?  Don't suggest Apple unless you found one
        with a pointing-stick and 2 buttons.
        \_ why do you care what chip it uses?
        \_ 2 buttons?  not 3?
        \_ Dude, get a Dell!
           \_ better IBM.
              \_ Yeah, IBMs look like shit but they're the best you can buy
                 in terms of mainstream reliability and service.
              \_ Seconded.  Thinkpad X series if you don't mind not having
                 a built-in CD drive or floppy.  Only downside is that the
                 Atheros cards under Linux/*BSD are a bit goofy to set up,
                 but otherwise I've had nothing but these.  -John
        \_ Yes, the Pentium M is a lot better than even the new Mobile Athlons.
           Faster and lower power at the same time, but, more expensive, but
           worth it.
        \_ More criteria (weight, size, features, etc.) would help a us
           make suggestions.  -John
        \_ I recommend looking into a Panasonic Toughbook W2.
           <3lbs, 12" screen, cdrw/dvd, hd on shocks.  Got one for my mom
           (who travels extensivley) and she loves it. --darin
        \_ Anyone want to buy a used Dell Laptop (7lb hunker) for $400?

11/24   I have an overheating CPU on a laptop, I know this for a fact because
        when I take apart the laptop and let it run it runs fine. With the
        top assembled it will auto-shutoff. I removed the heatsink and found
        the thermal compound to have a very "plasticky" feel to it, like
        it's somewhat dried out. Does thermal compound ever dessicate?
        I've never heard of this happening before. The laptop is getting
        around 4 years old and this particular toshiba model is known to
        start acting up after a while due to overheating. I'm guessing
        it's the thermal compound because the fan leading to the heatsink
        wasn't particularly dirty with dust.
        \_ I don't think thermal compounds are water-based.  More likely it
           underwent some chemical change as a result of long-term heat
           exposure.  You could *carefuly* scrape the old stuff off and apply a\
           dab of new thermal compound.
           exposure.  You could *carefuly* scrape the old stuff off and apply
           a dab of new thermal compound.
           \_ Well, my hunch was right. I scraped off the old stuff and put
              on a fresh coat after cleaning the die top with some alcohol.
              After putting the machine back together it hasn't crashed for
              a while (used to crash after a minute).
              Guess Toshiba has a manufacturing problem...
              \_ Well more likely a bad supplier.  If it takes the compond
                 a few years to fail, quality-control might not catch it.
        \_ I've always wondered about that stock Intel thermal compound.
           It just didn't look very ... thermally conductive. -l0s3r
           \_ A real simple test would to be get a mug of hot water/coffee/tea
              put thermal goop on one finger and touch that finger and the
              opposite hand's clean finger to the mug at the same time and see
              how much hotter the greased finger feels in the first second or
              so before both get warm.
              \_ ob yermom joke
        \_ Same sit., w/ dell 1100, new. Sent it back to replace CPU fan
           It's those damn ODMs!

10/8    Hey motd, I looked over the links about plasma and lcd, and I was
        wondering if anyone has any personal experience or advice wrt lcd
        rear projection and how it compares to plasma/lcd technologies.  TIA.

10/6    Hey motd -- is there a significant difference in quality between LCD
        and plasma tv's?  TIA.
        \_ There are big differences.
           LCDs: Limited to about 30", so-so contrast ratio, limited viewing
                 angle, some motion blur, available in fairly high resolution.
           Plasmas: Good contrast ratio, can be larger, limited resolution for
                 non-TV purposes, can burn in if display is static or there's
                 something liek a stock ticker.
           And of course price differences...
           Honestly, unless I really had $5,000 burnign a hole in my pocket,
           wait for prices to come down and the technology to improve, or just
           buy a high-quality CRT-based TV.
           \_ I am not sure about the contrast ratio and viewing angle.  IIRC,
              LCDs are at least as good as Plasmas in these areas.  It may
              indeed be a good idea to wait.  Seems like many of the makers
              of these big screens have been aggressively expanding
              capacity, and now have too much capacity, possibly leading
              to oversupply and a price war next year, especially if the
              Christmas season turns out to be a dud (been following these
              companies in the stock market).
              \_ Here's a link backing up my contention that LCD has better
                 contrast and viewing angles:
                 http://www.flattvpeople.com/tutorials/lcd-vs-plasma.asp
        \_ Plasmas, unlike LCDs, use tons of power.  The biggest ones might have
        a cooling fan.
        a cooling fan.  However, since LCDs are typically smaller I do not know
        if they will consume as much power as a plasma if equal in size.

9/22    Anyone notice an annoying "ringing" sound with their Palm
        Tungsten E over time?  Similar to most LCD devices with the
        backlight on but louder, to the point of "piercing".
        \_ Sounds like a bad internal cap or transistor, probably in
           what is the equivalent of the voltage inverter on the LCD.
           Probably will fail over time. The change in sound means the
           component has changed over time, always a bad sign in
           electronics.

9/18    how do i fix my thinkpad cmos battery?  i can't find
        the correct part to buy online.  is this something i can
        buy at radio shack?
        \_ watch out! I had a thinkpad where I thought the battery was
           busted, I bought a new battery, and it turned out that
           it was not the battery, it was something in the laptop's
           charging circuits or something.  new battery did not help.
           \_ he's talking about the CMOS battery, not the main battery.
        \_ get the FRU# from 1-800-IBM-SERV. Buy the part on ebay.

9/1     I'm looking for a good solid, cheap notebook computer.  I want to
        use it to gather data through a serial port in my car.  Any suggestions?
        \_ If you're looking for new, there are some IBM base models that
           start for under $1,000
           \_ I'm thinking used, probably could do fine with 500Mhz CPU or
              maybe less.  Just has to service serial and occationally do
              a little disk I/O. I'm aiming for $500 as a budget.
              \_ then a 500MHz used laptop should be well within your budget.
                 About a year ago, I bought a Thinkpad T20 (800MHz/256MB/20GB)
                 for $500 on ebay (ok, maybe I got a little lucky..)
        \_ Look for a libretto on eBay/CL. They are small, cheap and should
           be fast enough for what you want to do.
        \_ Consider a used Thinkpad, they're quite sturdily constructed.
        \_ Used thinkpads on http://www.overstock.com
        \_ Related question.  Are there good ways to mount a laptop in-car
           for use as a GPS?  There are mounts for dedicated or PDA-based
           solutions, but their screens are smallish.
           \_ What about that law passed this year that prohibits use of
              video display device(pretty much any LCD screen) in the front of
              the car?
        \_ I'd keep an eye on the legal landscape regarding video displays
           in the front seats if you are planning to view your data as
           you drive.  I'd also consider a PDA or handheld PC if all you
           need is serial port capture rates.

8/30    To the guy who was looking for a light, robust laptop:  IBM X series.
        I have had two, compared to small Vaios/Toshibas it's perfect. -John
        \_ second that. X-series are much more robust than Sony/Toshibas.
           I personally find X-31 has better performance than X-40 series.
           But X-31 is about half-inch thicker.
           \_ I have an X31 and it rocks.  Bluetooh/Wifi/IR work reasonably
              well with non-Windows OS (I have run Debian, FreeBSD and XP)
              and it will PXEBoot just fine.  -John
              \_ I've been very happy with my X-21 that I bought off bem
                 a couple years back when he got Ibook envy.
                 At Usenix security or other conferences like that where
                 people are SERIOUS about their notebooks, it is almost
                 exclusively IBM Thinkpads and Apple Powerbooks. -nweaver
        \_ Hate those 12" screens.  Fujitsu S7010(D), 14" screen, 4.2 lbs.
        \_ I am on my second used X20 bought off EBay. I love em. -ausman
           \_ what happened to your first one?
              \_ I left it on Caltrain by mistake. -ausman
           \_ err... I found pentium3 X20 a bit too slow for my taste
              even when I am running Linux.  don't you have performance issue
              with that?
              \_ Nah, I don't expect much of anything out of it except
                 a wireless web browser. It has 192MB of RAM in it, you
                 might want even more. For real computing, I use my
                 desktop. The only thing you might not like about it
                 is that the keyboard is small, probably 3/4 size. If you
                 have big hands, you might have a tough time with it.

8/27    I'm a pc person and I need a laptop. From what I've seen I really
        like the apple laptops: nice wide screen, slim form and they don't
        weigh a ton. What's the closest I can get to that with a pc laptop?
        \_ I _highly_ recommend the IBM X series.  The lack of floppy/
           CD doesn't bother me (easy to PXEboot/install any OS) and they
           are tremendously robust.  Battery lasts an age, and the built-
           in bluetooth/wifi/IR is pretty well supported under non-Windows
           OS.  I would not buy another Vaio, as the ones I've had fell apart
           very soon due to piss-poor quality.  Likewise with my Toshiba
           ultralights (although the regular laptops were good quality.)
           I currently have a Thinkpad X31, dual-booting XP and Debian, but
           I've had FreeBSD running very well on it as well.  Oh and the
           keyboard is superb to use, if you don't mind the nipple (I like
           it.)  Mail me for more info.  -John
        \_ Sony Viao?  Fujitsu?  I'd go to frys first to browse their
           display, and then buy on-line.
           \_ My older brother bought a Fujitsu S7010D from http://newegg.com for
              $1,430.  He likes it a lot.
              $1,430.  14" screen, 4.2 lbs.  He likes it a lot.
        \_ Do you want an optical drive? If not, Sharp has a super-light
           (1 lbs) super-thin (~ 1/2 ") Transmeta powered laptop w/
           built-in 802.11b. It costs btw $1200-$1400.
           Sony has some thin and light laptops but everyone I know who
           has one has experienced problems with them b/c of qa issues.
           IBM has some light ThinkPads and most people seem to like them
           but I don't know where you can check one out though.
           BTW, why don't you want an Apple laptop? The 12" iBook is
           a great deal (esp. if you buy a refurb) compared to most PC
           laptops with similar specs. -iBook owner
           \_ He said he uses PC. It probably doesn't make much sense to
              have your laptop be a different OS from your main system.
              Although that could be interesting for impractical geekitude.
                \_ Using PC could mean anything these days. I primarily
                   use PCs running FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris x86 at
                   work, but my laptop is an iBook.
                   I'm not sure why having a laptop with a different
                   OS than your main system is a problem. My brother
                   primarily works with Windows and Solaris systems
                   but he uses a Powerbook. I know many people who
                   chose Powerbooks/iBooks over PC laptops even though
                   they are primarily in a Windows environment.
                   \_ Well it's a new software set to deal with. It may not
                      matter to some people depending what you use it for.
                      I think it would matter to me. And besides software there
                      is a need for learning how to do stuff with a new OS.
                      Just all the details you know from using an OS for a long
                      time. So a Mac would have to really kick butt to consider
                      switching.
                        \_ The software is sort of different, but things
                           like Photoshop, Acrobat, Word, Windows Remote
                           Desktop, FireFox, iTunes are identical to the
                           Windows versions.
                           Some of the software included with OS X is
                           better (X11, emacs, perl, XCode, terminal, ssh,
                           java, &c.) than what is bundled with Windows
                           and are on par with what is bundled with SuSE
                           or RH. Also most *nix programs now build with
                           no difficulty on OS X.
                           Arguably some stuff is worse (RealPlayer and
                           WMP come to mind), but I don't use these so
                           its not a big deal for me.
                           I'm not telling you to switch. I'm just saying
                           its not as bad as you might think, so it could
                           worth your while to consider the option as it
                           will probably work out cheaper for you overall.
                           \_ Well you can't buy one copy of office to use
                              on both. And Pentium-M is better than G4.
                                \_ Certainly this is the case if you
                                   have to buy two copies of everything,
                                   but most students (and employees) get
                                   site licenses to software such as word
                                   that allows them to use it on their
                                   home systems, so you might have to buy
                                   the Mac copy yourself.
                                   In what way is the P-M better than the
                                   G4? The battery life on my iBook G4/800
                                   is about 5 hrs. Most people I know who
                                   have a P-M get less than 3 hrs. Perhaps
                                   the P-M is faster, but what do you do
                                   on your laptop that really needs that
                                   extra cpu speed?
                                   \_  I get close to 5 hrs on my Dell, and
                                       Thinkpads can get 8 hrs with 2 batteries.
                   \_ I agree with the iBook owner.  The fact that you're even
                      looking for something comparable to iBook says a lot
                      about iBooks.  I have 5 PCs at home and one iBook.  All
                      my required X11 programs run on them, so I'm happy with
                      all of them.  iBook is just so... practical.
        \_ I think the closest is the IBM T41; similar in weight, can get
           15" screen size, and quality construction (unlike most PC laptops).
              -tom
           \_ how is HP?
        \_ For quality LIGHT notebooks, I'd only buy IBM or Toshiba.
           Sony "look" nice at first, but if they break down (and they do
           esp. those with 90 day or 1 year warranties) it is a big pain
           to get fixed. Make sure you try out the keyboards first or
           at least look at hi-res online pix to see the keyboard layout
           if you buy online.
           \_ Second on the ixnay on Sony.
        \_ IBM Thinkpad.
        \_ How about waiting a little bit for a handtop PC?  That'll be
           even smaller.  Though I decided to go with an iBook and am
           quite pleased. http://www.flipstart.com

8/17    I used to use a POP3 client on my laptop to check my soda email
        through a secure, encrypted ssh tunnel. This does not seem to
        be working anymore... has this been disabled?
        \_ no, you broke something on your side.

8/14    Inside Al-Qaeda's HD:
        http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200409/cullison

8/11    I am not paranoid, but I put sensitive personal information on my
        laptop and I go everywhere with it.  Is encrypted disk image reliable
        and fast?  I googled for filevault but it is hard to find article
        with clue/analysis.  Any other suggestion is nice too.  tia.
        \_ Using Windows XP Professional?  Right-click on folder -> Properties
           -> Advanced -> Encrypt contents to secure data
           \_ Tnx. Actually I am using OS X, but I appreciate the answer about
              window and if there is something for general *nix I'd like to
              hear it too.  By the way, are such encryption really effective
              against id thieves, safe from corruptions, and fast?

8/7     More fun with bluetooth:
        http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,64463,00.html

8/3     How hard is it to install extra RAM in an ibook laptop- special tools
        required, etc?  I've never opened a laptop but plenty of desktops.
        \_ Yes, you need the right sized screwdriver to unscrew the screw
           from the panel that covers the socket to insert the RAM. It takes
           years and years and years of training to be able to find the
           right Phillips head screwdriver to insert into that particular
           screw and apply torque counter-clockwise in order to remove it.
           \_ I've heard re: the iBook specifically that you need to remove
              the keyboard, the airport card, and then a final cover.  True?
              Difficult?  It's for a friend and I don't want to get blamed.
              \_ the first two just pop out.
        \_ simple.
        \_ 10-20 min job. You need a #10 jewellers screwdrivers iirc. See
           here for pdfs with pictures on how to do it:
           http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=26277

8/2     My Laptop's PCMCIA ethernet card seems to transfer files a lot
        slower than my desktop systems. Is there a data transfer limit
        on PCMCIA standard? The Laptop is a Toshiba Tecra8100 and the
        card is not a no-name brand either. Thanks.
        \_ Don't be surprised to see throughput of 8 Mbps when using a 100Mbps
           Ethernet PCMCIA card.  CardBus is a lot better.  PCMCIA is like ISA;
           CardBus is like PCI.
           \_ Does this refer to the card itself or the slot on the laptop?
              \_ Your laptop probably has CardBus interfaces; the card itself
                 is probably PCMCIA.  You can buy a CardBus Ethernet card, which
                 is anything in the last 0-~5 years?
              \_ It refers to both. CardBus and PCMCIA have the same
                 physical interface, but electronically, they are
                 very different, CardBus being faster.
                 \_ Are the 32-bit cards CardBus while the 16bit cards
                    are the older PCMCIA ones? They seem to make a distinction
                    about 16/32bit more than PCMCIA/cardbus....
                    \_ Yes.

7/28    My monitor recently croaked.  I was thinking about getting a 19"+
        LCD monitor to replace it.  Does anyone have any suggestions or bad
        experiences that might be helpful?  TIA.
        \_ Thanks for all the information, people!  It's much appreciated! -OP
        \_ http://www.apple.com/displays
           If you're willing to shell out $$$ for a video card, you can
           get a 30" LCD.
           get a 30" LCD.n
           \_ I also recommend an Apple display. I bought a 20" Apple LCD
              last year. It is a great monitor; very bright and it shows the
              correct colors for photos/print work. The current (Al) 20"
              display is even better than mine since it has a faster refresh
              rate, a USB 2.0 hub and a FireWire hub. The only downside to
              the 20" display is that the 1680x1050 native resolution isn't
              well supported by games.
        \_ Very positive experiences with Dell. Bad experiences with HP.
           Good experiences with Apple, but expensive. Bad experience with
           Sun. I have no idea who makes monitors for these resellers.
           If it was my money I'd go with Dell or Sony. I just got
           a Sony widescreen that is very nice.
        \_ Go to http://hardforum.com, Displays.  There was a good discussion on 19"
           LCDs several days ago.  Basically there are some good 16ms
           models out, and there are 12ms 19" LCDs in the pipeline.
           For my money I would just get the Viewsonic 16ms 19" LCD at CompUSA
           with $100 mail-in rebate.
        \_ i'm very happy with my 19" dell lcd. supposedly it's the same as
           the samsung 191t on the inside.
        \_ I bought a Sony 19".  I really like it (although it's a tiny
           bit slow on refresh for some games.)  -John
        \_ The wife's 20" viewsonic lcd (1600x1200) is very nice.
        \_ We bought and installed more than a dozen 17 and 19 inch Dell LCD
           screens for work during the last two years. None of them had any
           problems so far. They look great. We'll never buy CRTs again.
        \_ Use DVI!
        \_ I've got the Samsung 191t and it's very nice using DVI.

7/26    I'm looking at Dell Latitudes, and there's an option for a 65W AC
        adapter vs. a 90W adapter which is $19 more. It doesn't give any
        explanation for what the higher wattage would be good for. The only
        thing I can think of that seems reasonable is if you want your
        laptop to power large USB devices or something. Can someone clue me
        in? Thanks.
        \_ The USB spec only allows something liek 5W of power to be sent over
           any single link of the bus.  The 90W adapter it probably so you can
           charge your battery faster, or run your laptop at full power and
           still charge the battery at full speed.
        \_ You might replace your HD with a faster/more power consuming one
           later, etc.
           \_ For thermal reasons you might not want to do that in a laptop.
        \_ http://csua.org/u/8by
           65W doesn't work with Latitude D800, but the 90W works for all.
        \_ I would urge you to look at the size of these things, and choose
           the one which is lighter and smaller, ignore the wattage
           requirement.

7/16    I have to use a PS2 to USB adapter for my computer. I bought an
        adapter, but everytime I boot it up, it doesn't work. I have to
        plug and unplug to get it recognized by WinXP. Occassionally,
        that method doesn't even work (the system says Unknown USB Device).
        What is going on and how do you solve this problem?
        \_ i had a similar problem with a 32-meg flash drive... turns
           out the usb connector wasn't very good... things usually
           improved when i wiggled the plug. are you on a laptop? i
           usually have more trouble with laptop usb ports.
        \_ PS/2 -> USB adapters vary wildly in quality.  I just buy a USB
           keyboard and mouse and be done with it, even though it takes up
           all my USB ports on my notebook.
           \_ You can get a little USB hub to expand total slot count.  I got
              a 4 port hub for $5.

7/15    How long are monitors supposed to last? Is it unreasonable that I'm
        asking for a new monitor to replace my 5 year old one? It's got a few
        more pounds, that's about it. The truth is, I just want one of the
        new LCD Monitors we got that are only for "people who need them".
        \_ Is your old monitor a CRT or LCD?
           \_ "It's got a few more pounds..." probably not a CRT
           \_ "It's got a few dead pixels..." probably not a CRT
        \_ A monitor *can* last a decade. I have some that have under
           regular use. Five years is reasonable. We replace monitors
           every 3 years and that's a bit wasteful. Why don't you just ask
           for a new monitor and stop being a chickenshit about it?
        \_ Best.  Edit.  Ever!
           \_ Restored.
        \_ Well what's better about the new LCDs that anyone "needs" them?
           \_ I had a 3-year-old Samsung 15" 151S, which was supposed to
              be pretty good back then.  I tried using it six months ago; the
              ghosting, non-uniform lighting, and fuzziness from the analog
              input gave me a headache.  On the other hand, I'm using an
              NEC 16ms 17" LCD and it's great.
              \_ Well *I* just got dual 19" Dell LCD's setup! I have one analog
                 and one digital connector. I can almost sort of barely not
                 really notice any difference. Both kick the crap out of the
                 old fuzzy CRT.
           \_ Ever tried to get the convergence right on a big CRT?  Even the
              good ones become impossible after a while, so one corner is
              always slightly blurry.  Not with an LCD.  Also, subpixel
              rendering (ClearType on winXP) works sooo much better on an LCD,
              that reading text is much easier on the eyes.
              \_ I was asking the guy specifically, since he seemed to already
                 have an LCD. Also, I have yet to see the case for anyone
                 really *needing* one more than anyone else needs one. Although
                 yeah, to get mine I had to say I needed it. What BS.
                 \_ The reason someone would *need* a LCD is RF interference.
                    This actually came up on the motd recently, when some guy
                    with a desk near a transformer asked about why his
                    monitor was getting fucked up.  His co-workders with LCD's
                    did not have the problem.  In a lab with sensitive
                    electronics, you need an LCD for the opposite reason:
                    CRT's are noisy as hell, and annoying to filter out.
                    \_ Oh, good point. But at my co. it was made apparent to
                       me that the "need" being bandied about was of the health
                       sort. But if the company acknowledges LCD superiority
                       then it seems to me they're obligated to give one to
                       everybody who asks or risk some vision-related lawsuits.
        \_ You big baby.  Most of the computer using world has an old CRT, much
           older than your LCD.  Most of the real world has never touched a
           computer and wouldn't know the power switch from their asshole.  You
           have an LCD because someone thought you were important.  If you're
           really important you'll get a new one every year without asking.  If
           you're still using an old one because they forgot you or worse yet
           they deny you a new one upon request, then you shouldn't have had
           one in the first place because you're a nobody.  So the world turns.
           \_ CRT's? actual cathode ray tubes? fuck, man.  take the silver
              enema out of your ass. I sit around dreaming about replacing
              my incandescent lamp binary display with LED's.  CRT's.  shit.
              \_ You big baby.  If you can't even get LEDs you're definitely
                 not CRT quality material.  Go back to the basement and
                 recount the punch cards.

7/8     Anyone have recommendations for a CF or PCMCIA GPS unit for under
        $200?  I want to be able to connect an external antenna, and WAAS
        would be nice (this is for a Linux/XP laptop.)  I'm not too informed
        about GPS--is there anything particular to watch out for in terms
        of reception or standards?  Should I bother with a USB or bluetooth
        receiver?  This is mainly for auto navigation and rooting out rogue
        wireless APs.  -John
        \_ I got a bluetooth/standalone combo in the mail this week:
           http://www.semsons.com/itwit2pic.html  --darin
           \_ Kewl, any good?
        \_ Check http://www.gpspassion.com
        \_ What is the cold/hot start time on these things?  It used to be
           MINUTES before it locked on any of the sattelites.
           \_ It really depends on which one you get, but generally...
              < 1 minute for cold and < 10 seconds for hot.