What a load of drivel, Steve. Too bad I'll never get the chance to tell you in person. People are acting like someone who did something important died. Was Steve Jobs a scientist who made a great discovery? Was Steve Jobs a statesman? No Was Steve Jobs a peacemanker? No Was Steve Jobs a philosopher? No Was Steve Jobs a Religious leader? No Steve Job ran a technology company and a very successful one at that. An interesting life, yes. But, important in the grand scheme of things? Not really. All our technology is simply tools. Do we wax nostalgic when the founder of a shovel company dies? Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs primary skill is marketing technology to the public and they both made billions doing it. Neither is THAT innovative, but they did figure out how to sell what others invented and could not sell.

the aceman living in Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

jschell wrote:

Andrew Eisenberg wrote: or risk online purchasing. Why is it a risk? If you use a credit card (Visa/MC) and there is a problem you simply write a letter to your credit card issuer in a timely manner and have them do a charge back. If you are a good customer the issuing bank will probably even cover you for losses that they would not normally cover if you want to push it. Many issuers advertise extended coverage as well. See the following link for some specifics (note that even though it is CA most of the regs apply everywhere in the US.) http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/general/credit\_card\_chargeback\_rights.php\[^\]

I was not clear the first time... You are right, it is not a risk in the sense of losing the purchase price, tax and, probably, shipping. But, most mail-order/internet merchants make you pay your own freight for the return. So, I've still lost that money, which can be substantial for something of moderate to heavy weight like a Desktop computer, CRT monitor, laser printer, etc. Plus, the time and aggravation to pack that stuff back up, wait in line at the Post Office, UPS, or FedEx, and get it shipped out and wait for them to receive the return and credit it. That is, of course, after waiting to get it in the first place.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

MidwestLimey wrote:

I haven't gone there in years. I buy everything from NewEgg[^], ZipZoomFly[^] or occasionally elsewhere if the prices are right. I'm not suprised they've gone out of business - they were twice the price of an on-line store.

I'll admit I haven't bought much there, but they were the only BIG computer-focused store here in Nashville. Yes, their rebates were questionable, though I, personally, had an over 90% redemption rate. Some of us don't like to buy online, unless we have to. It's much easier to return something in a store. And, my brother and I were looking for memory recently and CompUSA's prices were WAY below Best Buy, Circuit City, or the office trio (OfficeMax, Office Depot, and Staples) and this was long before the announcement. No one has the amount of computer SKUs that CompUSA had, in this market anyway. Though, CompUSA had twice as many SKUs three years ago. I do think that their attempt to get into Big Screen TVs and home theater was a mistake. So now I have to choose from the Bix Box yahoos or the shady local computer stores or risk online purchasing. I know others of you disagree, but I don't like those options. In conclusion, CompUSA was not my FIRST choice for computer stuff, but I WILL miss them as A CHOICE.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

MajorTom123 wrote:

Also I read through many of these posts and as far as your laptop goes, well, this technology shutdown of PATA drives WILL force you into a new computer. All boats are lifted by this one move. You cannot factor out the "make them upgrade" thoughts that permeate the hardware industry. Vista can't get people to upgrade, but the hardware will.

Well, they really aren't forcing you to make an upgrade as they aren't holding a gun to my head. But, they do make it harder and harder to stay with older, but still (mostly) functional hardware. At this point in time, I only plan on getting a new machine if an application that I "must have" won't run on my "old" hardware or like has been mentioned here, it's becomes hard to impossible to replace a broken part. This is because my existing computers, though at least 5 years old, do everything I need them to do. The short technology lifespans may be good for manufacturers, but it is a tremendous waste of resources. (e.g. Oil, copper, silver, gold, steel, aluminum, etc.) And before anyone asks, I am not an environmental activist. But, I simply hate to see waste of finite resources.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

RoswellNX wrote:

Bastards. Laptop hard drives die often and there isn't a mini IDE to sATA adapter that i know of, so i guess i'll have to stick with WD for the next replacement Roswell

Well said!

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Rocky Moore wrote:

With the development world out there so hot right now, why would you want to work on things you do not care about?

To pay for a roof over your head, to provide (or help provide in two income households) for your family. In other words, survival. In smaller markets, you often have to take what you can get because of limited opportunities. Of course, another option in that kind of situation is to relocate. Of course, that is a decision where the factors can vary widely from individual to individual.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

If they ever get the internet over power lines working that's been experimental for 10-15 years now working then you'd be in luck. I also live in an area where the phone company doesn't offer DSL and I'm only 30 miles out of Nashville! My only high speed choices are cable-modem or the ultra-high price and high-latency satellite internet.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

JimmyRopes wrote:

Marc Clifton wrote: In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer The battle between the user's bandwidth capability and the content provider begins. They should have said theoretically less than 2 seconds. In reality no server on the public internet serves up content at that speed.

I have a 5MB downstream cable-modem. I've found that over 1MB/sec (even 512KB/sec), I can tell little difference in my browsing experience. All the speed in the world doesn't matter if the hardware at either end can't handle it. I'm not, though, saying the ultra-high bandwidth is useless. The more bandwidth that you have, the more sites you can be interacting with simultaneously. Extra bandwidth seems to be most noticeable when downloading software, especially Microsofts 100+ megabyte service packs and multi-gigabyte betas.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Shog9 wrote:

Andrew Eisenberg wrote: I have had a Palm Treo 700p (Palm OS) for almost a year now with Sprint as my provider.

Shog9 wrote:

Well, correct me if i'm wrong, but that's more of a PDA / smartphone sorta deal, right? I was thinking more along the lines of... normal phones. Actually, Sprint has a little Java app that'll do some sort of email on most of their phones now - my wife's been using it, although i can't seem to make it work on mine. Still, supposedly some of the newer phones are offering built-in POP support, although i haven't been to a store to check them out yet (and of course, Sprint's site is worthless). So maybe that complaint is going away.

That's interesting. I'm kind of "stuck" on the PalmOS phones due to my investment in software and time setting up my phone. Therefore, I have not paid attention much to the "normal" phones. But, I agree that the website is not worth much. Unfortunately, it seems that the PalmOS devices may be on the way out.:^) I would lmfigure out a way to like to figure out a way to get a Java-enabled browser on my phone. The Blazer browser that Sprint includes with the 700p handles Javascript but not Java. I envy the Europeans who can take their GSM phones from one provider to another. I am currently not locked into a contract, but I would still have to buy another phone to switch carriers.:^)

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Shog9 wrote:

For instance, i have yet to meet someone with POP access on their phone, much less see one offered for sale. I'm not saying it's unheard of, but if it exists here it's very, very rare.

I have had a Palm Treo 700p (Palm OS) for almost a year now with Sprint as my provider. This phone has an application which gives me access to my Pop3 email accounts along with Microsoft Exchange Servers. There are at least three or four of us in our office of about 50 people who have the some version of the Treo smartphone. That don't prove that the capability isn't rare or just my office is.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Of course, the Netherlands is about the size of our STATE of Connecticut. Please remember the United States is the fourth largest country in the world by land area behind Russia, Canada, and China. However, even in those countries the population is relatively concentrated in one part of the country. In Russia, its the European part. In Canada, its the 100 mile strip along the U.S. border plus Edmonton. In China, it is mostly the eastern third of the country. Here, the largest concentrations of people are on the coasts but there are many major cities in the interior. (Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, etc.) Plus the sprawl from the cities is much greater. In other words, the population density is much lower and the areas of higher density are spread farther apart. (This is the same reason that high speed rail is not as cost-effective as it is in Europe or Japan.) Even if you only cover the cities, theres still a lot of miles of cable to connect them. Then, there's the rural areas that comprise 95% of the land area of the country but only contain 20-30% of the people. (60-90 million) The best that rural users can hope for, at this point is cable modem, DSL, or pricey (and relatively slow) satellite service. I'm sure it will come, but if all you're willing to pay is $30-50 a month, it will take some time. But, in my experience, once I get above 256Kbits/sec, web surfing is about identical. It is only in the downloads that speed matters because the web sites are usually the ones slowing us down. So, to those of you in other countries that have double-digit megabit/sec internet access, enjoy it, you're a fortunate minority on the planet.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

So, Canadians are not Americans? IMO, anyone who lives in North or South America is an "American." As a citizen of the U.S.A. citizen, I personally dislike the common misassociation of American with the U.S.A., for the reason I mentioned above. But, I suppose I'm in the minority... (This is one of my pet peeves.:mad:) As for stupidity, I this that the percentage of stupid people is pretty much the same worldwide. Now, as for ignorant people, that varies widely.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Well, if you're trying to use a GPS to locate an underground utility line, a pipe or a septic tank, then you need as much accuracy as possible. Or, I'd like to able to use a GPS for locating points for building things on my property, so I'd probably need <1m. But, if those devices exist for civilian use, they are probably way too expensive at this point in time. So, the surveyors won't be out of business anytime soon.:-D

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

aubieman wrote:

I don't know what's worse, blaming all of America for a joke news item in a whimsical tabloid, or the fact that some of the CPers here can't tell it's a joke... not a "hoax." This is the same newspaper that gives us updates on the status of spider-boy (the half man, half spider) who was kidnapped by Venutians in order to repopulate the dying planet of Venus.

Exactly, these tabloids are not considered news by a significant portion of the U.S. public. (I do hope that's a majority.:~ ) Now, call me when such an article appears in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, etc. Gotta go, I've got to get pack in touch with my friends in Roswell, New Mexico. :-D:laugh::laugh:

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Thanks, I'll try them out when I get a spare nanosecond. :-D

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

I see it's only available for Windows Mobile. I've got a Treo 700 running PalmOS 5.0 and the Blazer browser on the Sprint PCS network. Are there any alternatives out there?

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

CaveFox wrote:

Micro$oft is going to be the extinction of PC gaming ... well you will probably still have those slow Micro$oft games. eg. Incredible creatures ... great concept - poor game engine.

Yeah, if they kill PC gaming, they can try and sell you an Xbox 360!!!:laugh::laugh::laugh:

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

I agree. It is nearly impossible to get a MONTH of landline or cellphone service for that price in the USA.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

Actually, this harkens back to the early days of micro-computing. (i.e. pre-IBM PC) On many early computers, a BASIC program often called machine language subroutines. This was done in the interest of speed as processor speeds were 1 or 2 Mhz. Of course, all REAL software at this time was written in assembler/machine language. The example I am most familiar with was the old Apple II. No Applesoft Basic program, which was written by Micro$oft, that did even remotely useful work used peeks, pokes, and calls to access memory directly and call machine language code directly. As an aside, not noting this coding practice was one of the many reasons that the Coleco Adam computer failed. The Adam used a basic that was "compatible" with Applesoft basic. However, the machine was not an Apple II clone. It didn't even use the same kind of processor! (Apple - 6502, Adam - Z80) Therefore all but the simplest (i.e. Hello, world!) programs designed for the Apple II would work on the Adam. Anyway, as processor speeds increased, we got away from that when the C/C++, TurboPascal, and the first Visual Basic compilers/interpreters arrived. But, in another sense, we never left. Anytime we use code from another DLL (Windows) or library (*nix) we are calling machine or intermediate code. The main difference is that the DLL/library being called is rarely coded in assembly nowadays.

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)

I was 12 and worked in Basic on the local university mainframe via a 300-baud modem with acoustic couplers. I then "graduated" at 13 to a TRS-80 model I with level I basic and 4K RAM and a 150 baud cassette drive at school. My parents got me a TRS-80 model I with level II (deluxe model) with a whopping 16K RAM and 300 baud cassette drive! I know that dates me. Now my Samsung i500 (Palm based phone) with 16MB of memory would run rings around that Model I and it's 2"x3"x3/4" and it can connect to the internet!

Andrew C. Eisenberg Nashville, TN, USA (a.k.a. Music City USA) (Yes Virginia, there are rock and roll stations in Nashville! :laugh:)