Sorry, but I don't there's anything charming about ignorance and carelessness.
--
Join other OS/2 users at Warpstock Europe, Karlsruhe, Germany Oct 13-15

Seems like anyone who learned BASIC in Jr. High School (or Pascal, or Java, etc.) has forgotten that there's two different words here.

IF situation, THEN consequences.

argument LESS THAN argument [or GREATER THAN, or SLOWER THAN, etc.]

Is that a suitable geek-format HOWTO? :)

Seems like anyone who learned BASIC in Jr. High School (or Pascal, or Java, etc.) has forgotten that there's two different words here.

IF situation, THEN consequences.

argument LESS THAN argument [or GREATER THAN, or SLOWER THAN, etc.]

Um...given that "LESS THAN" isn't a valid keyword in any BASIC I've ever seen (try "<" instead), your example doesn't hold.

Spelling errors are a minor annoyance, but not as much as the never-ending "CmdrTaco/Hemos/you is/are a non-spelling moron" messages.

  _/_
 / v \
(IIGS( Scott Alfter (remove Voyager's hull # to send mail)
 \_^_/

I didn't say 'two different keywords' here. I said, 'two different words'. As in, since there's no THAN keyword in any of those languages, the geeks forget that English spells THAN differently from THEN.

The founders may have started this site as a personal pure lark, but they've turned it into a commercial venture. That means, technically, he's a professional. As a professional, they should strive to improve their product and service, and illiteracy should never be the goal of a technology-minded professional, especially when their product IS based on the written word.

However, you may note that I never mentioned CmdrTaco, nor Hemos. I generalized to all geeks, slashdot or not, as this particular error seems rampant amongst all geekdom in my experience. And I never said geeks were morons for making the flub: I just noted a possible theory on the phenomenon.

Awww, $20. I wanted a peanut.

Money can be exchanged for goods and services!

Biggest pet peeve. If you're going to misspell, at least do it on something more difficult than 'definitely.'

--
Homer - 'All work and no play makes Homer something something....'
Marge - 'Crazy?'
Homer - 'Don't mind if I do!'

-Joe

For more obscurity, how about penalizing anyone who doesn't spell-out numbers under 100?
--
Join other OS/2 users at Warpstock Europe, Karlsruhe, Germany Oct 13-15

Or something like that.
Gev.
So damn witty, they only let me use half.

click and suffer our mighty wrath

I agree with your sentiment. O'Reilly hasn't put out any classics in years... I guess they've just run out of material. Though the joys of UNIX are infinite, the amount you can write about it is not. ;-)

All of the O'Reilly 'must-haves' are years old. The camel book, Hunt's TCP/IP book, Frisch's sysadmin book, Liu's DNS/BIND book, UNIX in a Nutshell, Java in a Nutshell...

They've even gone as far as taking their Unix books and repackaging them as Linux books, for the clueless newbies^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HRed Hat users, I suppose. For instance, that Linux network admin book is useless if you already have Hunt's TCP/IP admin book.

I think the only really awesome O'Reilly book to come out lately is Spurgeon's Ethernet: The Definitive Guide. When I first heard about it, I thought it sounded shallow and unnecessary, but it's really quite a gem -- complement's Hunt's TCP/IP book beautifullly. It talks about hardware, standards, network topologies and architecture, troubleshooting... great stuff.

As for your feelings on TCatB and Illiad's crap, I mostly agree, and though ESR may be a fruity gun-nut and Illiad may be a hack who sold out to SuSE, if ORA hadn't published their books, I'll bet no-one else would have. ;-)

As for the BSD stuff... I've been trying to find the 4.4BSD printed manuals, which were jointly published by O'Reilly and the CSRG, for about a year. This includes the user section, USD, programmer's section, PSD, and SMM (five books in total). I've tried the used book search services at Amazon.com, Border's website, and Barnes & Noble's website. I've also contacted O'Reilly, but they don't even have copies left in their warehouse, supposedly. That's what I really want for Xmas.

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

-=-=-=-=-
I remember when Sun really was about open computing

The new offering is the "Beach World". These are salt water and have little red shrimp in them. The shrimp are bigger than the critters in the original sphere and the red color is truly striking - when they aren't being hassled! To avoid predators - and dickheads shaking the sphere - they turn clear when disturbed. It takes about an hour for the red color to come back, and you can bug them to death if this happens too often.

The other issue is temperature change. Both spheres can live in a about a 20 degree (F) range between 60 and 80. You need to keep the temp as constant as possible to keep them happy. Sudden or frequent changes can mean death. You can't leave these things in a window where they can get direct sunlight for even 10 minutes. The volume of water is very small - and in direct sunlight - it's only a few short minutes to micro boiled shrimp.

Sooooo......what this means is: I love these things and I have a couple. They are great pets for semi-responsible people and outstanding converstation starters.

BUT..... We quit selling them in the store because too many people were killing them. No matter what we said - they seemed to treat these things like paperweights instead of living animals. If you are going to give one of these as a gift, make sure the person you are giving it to is capable of keeping a dog or a plant alive. Also, keep these things in mind:

You MUST make sure they get enough light - you can't walk off and turn the lights off for a week - they will die.

You can't let it sit in your car while you finish your holiday shopping. 20 minutes in your 40 degree car is death - and not the manufacturer's fault.

It's better to give them a gift certificate for this and wait until April to actually send the sphere if they live in a cold climate. These things have to be shipped overnight Fed-Ex to live through the ordeal. Shipping gravely stresses them and they must recover - that means they must be removed immeditately on arrival. If grandma waits 3 weeks to open this at Christmas, she will get a nice ball of dead green slime to stare at while she cuts you out of the will.

You CAN NOT treat these things like a "snow sphere". Shake it and watch it snow dead shrimp on the minature beach.

Enjoy your Bio Sphere!
"Reality is independent from perception." - RDH

I have got to have one of those.

SGI != SUN

Anything software that Creative releases is utter and total crap. Their hardware is always outsourced nowadays, so that's the only reliable piece which falls under their damned name. IMHO, the only reliable Creative product is an Annihilator running the NVidia reference drivers.

Do you disagree with my position on Creative? Send a message to their tech support and try to get a reply within 6 aeons.

Software designers are so infatuated with the fact that they can, that they don't stop to think if they should.

"EAX is not like A3D. EAX is reverb. A3D was a proprietary API and hardware for 3D positional audio."

My point exactly. Trouble is, now Creative's trying to hype EAX as a 3d positional audio API, which it's not. And the only ones to oppose them in this are the knowledgeable consumers, like you and me.

Software designers are so infatuated with the fact that they can, that they don't stop to think if they should.

--
C'mon..... Score: -5, Troll!!!!

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

An Intel product that doesn't have bugs on the market by christmas. Nevermind if I can afford it or not.. I'd just like to see it.

I'm figuring everyone else is posting unrealistic stuff, so I should too.

--
Don't worry if you miss a story on slashdot - it'll be posted again. And again... and again.

The dead hand of Asimov's mass psychology wins every time.

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

So all I really need now is somebody to port Linux to our new architecture. Any takers?

-=God Hates Me=-

;-)

click and suffer our mighty wrath

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

1) Microsoft Windows 2000
2) :Cue:Cat by DC
3) CD's from my favorite music authors (including Metallica & Dr. Dre)
4) Internet Filtering software (ie. Net Nanny)
5) A DVD Player approved by the MPAA

1) Red Hat Linux 7.0 downloaded over my DSL connection
2) :Cue:Cat free from Radio Slack
3) MP3's from MP3.com
4) Internet Junkbuster
5) WinAmp with DeCSS

Grand total: Free-nintey-free.

Isn't life grand?

~007david

(!007DAVID && !007David)

Think about it: you'll usually be listening to these over headphones. I usually downsample my MP3s to 56 or 64 to put on my Rio. 128 will be a great improvement. :)

I got one and I love it.

My one complaint so far is that even with the skip protection buffer on, there's still about a 2 second pause in between tracks when playing mp3s. This is annoying on those CDs where two tracks may run together without any break. Seems like if the thing is buffering ahead of itself, it ought to be able to get rid of the gap. But then, I've already whipped up a script to automatically re-convert those instances from two separate tracks to one big track for the Expanium. Perl rocks. ;-) The script automatically reformats directories/filenames from my mp3 database into an iso image that the Expanium can understand, then burns it. I'm in the middle of making 3 CD-RWs for my business trip tomorrow. About 25-30 hours of music for the plane/hotel. Nice.

Guess I just couldn't wait til December. This may be the last portable CD/mp3 player I buy...

They'll love it!

Baldur's Gate 2, that is pretty much a given.

Rio 500 MP3 player, which you can pick up for cheap at Audible.com, last time I checked.

A subscription to Wired.

VMWare for the geek in all of us.

A new video card, though I don't know specifics.

I love my Handspring Visor. Everyone college student should have one, or at least sort of PDA for keeping track of your schedule and assignments.

Handspring

Yes, it's bigger, heavier and takes more power, Surprising how little you notice any of them, though, when you get to play with one. I now have a keyboard so I can stick work on it and write essays (or whatever) _anywhere_. Try doing that with Graffiti and you'll go mad quickly. I did. Yes, you can do that with laptops, but they're far bigger, heavier and more expensive - and don't boot up in a sensible time. This works beautifully for working away from home.

Also, you have a nice OS. EPOC32 is a nice thing to use, really.

All in all, it's just better. Far less a toy and far more a proper computer.

Psion Series 5 MX

Greg

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

<Blatant cheeky .sig> Graduate Computer Scientist in England looking for work, CV above. Any offers?

Universal remote springboard $60
Digital Camera springboard, takes colour images. Perhaps not a fully-fledged digital camera, but very cool. $150
Vibrating springboard module to remind you of appointments without disturbing everyone in the room. (really). The price isnt' all too bad either: $50
Springboard modem. If you don't have a laptop while travelling. $120
WIreless modem for those with really deep pockets. This is how to keep up with /. in style. $430
And of course, as mentioned on /. before, an mp3 player springboard module (64Mb of ram. A littel overpriced at $270

I love my Handspring Visor. Everyone college student should have one, or at least sort of PDA for keeping track of your schedule and assignments.

I beg to differ. Although I seriously contemplated getting a Visor/Palm just because they are cool (at least in the CS crowd, no snickers please), I ended up not spending a dime. Why? Well, combine your own (built in to your head) memory with Yahoo Calendar, and perhaps a few iMac kiosks with web browsers scattered around campus as we have, and you suddenly have little need for a Palm.

Just a few cents...or maybe more

~KONala

El diablo esta en mis pantalones!! Mire, mire!!

Dear Santa,

This Christmas, I'm not going to ask for anything myself. I've not been as good as I could have, after all. But I do have a very special favor to ask.

I don't know if this is something you carry in your magic bag or not, but if it is at all possible, please could you give Rob his ".dot" TLD?

Sincerely,
Little Timmy

If you're in the mood to get me a gift, how about this? Sure beats this monster, as reliable as it's been for the last year and a half.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me or peruse my other lists. A lot of shiny tech stuff catches my eye on a regular basis, so I'm a self-proclaimed expert. Heh.

--
The opinions of my employers are unimportant and often boring, so I'm replacing them with my own.

I guess what people are saying is right, the Internet really isn't that different from Real Life, after all. ;-)

Is this post not nifty? Sluggy Freelance. Worship the comic.

I'd like a trip to Mir, and that Jet pack that they had on slash dot last year.

Mattels tries to litigate critics off the web, critic fights back!

1. I'm a Jewish atheist.

... and you could join in the Degree Confluence Project

First of all, The IBM Netvista X-40 is awesome. Just got mine, and I have to say, this is where PC computing is going. I have so much more desk space, I can actually fit a real book on it now.

I know this is redundant, but Palm still makes out with the best gifts. I personally own an m100, and am getting a V-series this December (found that out during a secret spy mission into the gift closet).

Of course, anything from ThinkGeek will show your loved ones that you care.

SHAME on you!

I come here to do a little research and find you doing this. Again. (Remember? 1978 - you didn't get the Lego set you found in the closet? And now you know why.)

You were already pushing your luck when you ripped Santa's Favorite Christmas Carols as performed by Hermie the Dentist and his Little Patients and put it on Napster, but now you are certainly on the naughty list.

KK
Making a ls and fscking it twice

It has a range of 1,475 nautical miles, so from slashdot HQ in Michigan you can pretty much cover the majority of North American in one hop.

It has a usable payload of 3,895 lbs. when fully fueled. Think about the bandwith of a CJ1 with a almost 4,000 pounds of backup tapes in the back.

Check it out for yourself.

CitationJet 1 Homepage

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

• A Handspring Visor Deluxe (I had one, loved it, lost it last week when I drove away from a gas station with it on the roof. Don't ask.)
  
• The Nomad Jukebox, a portable MP3 player with 6+ gigabytes of storage.
  
• A pair of Lightspeed 25XL Active Noise Reduction headphones for flying.
  

• A deHavilland Beaver on floats.
  
• A really fast computer.
  
• A 21" monitor.
  
• An empeg.com MP3 player for my car.
  

I'll be handing out some of these Christmas Gift Exemption Vouchers during the weeks leading up to Buy Nothing Day.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

I think it is more the case of a corporation taking a popular mythological figure, who can't object, being mythological, and having him hawk their cheesy wares.

Sort of like what some companies have been doing with God lately...

Boycott the Indianapolis 500!!!

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

note: to those of you humor impaired, this is a joke from Seinfeld in which George gets sick of people making these charitable donations instead of giving him something and sets up his own "fund".

HOORAY: http://www.yellow5.com/pokey || hatelife is ringing

cheaper than retail playstation @ $199 U.S. plus $19.95 (US) Allow 1-4 weeks delivery (Add $15.00 UPS 3 day shipping). Orders outside the US, shipping is $99US; but that entitles you to the fastest method of delivery possible (as in 1.5 days to Ottawa Canada, where I live)

I own one of these puppies. (I got my companie to spring for one too) Comes with 11 actual Capcom classic arcade games (emulated, not reproduced. you gotta "put in quarters") and its fully compatable with Mame, which lets you play any of the 2000+ Roms available to lawbiding citizens (Do you really own "Super BurgerTime (Japan)"? - type OK to continue)

Of course, you'd need to get your hands on actual Playstation 2 to play it, but I really like the looks of Starfighter from Lucas Arts.

For the Quicktime deficient, there are some mpg videos at gamespot .


"I never really had dreams about you. And when I did it was you but in like a different body." -- ex-girlfriend

• Later this week, Nokia will be introducing a new mobile phone that not only has the now-standard built-in Tetris game and GPS receiver, but also wireless voice-over-IP support and a built-in webcam for videoconferencing! (A friend of mine works on this project, which is how I know about it.)
• Also this week (I know, funny coincidence, but everyone's trying to get their new products out in time for the Xmas shopping season), Oster will be introducing new microwave ovens, toasters, and blenders with built-in Ethernet interfaces and firmware support for the new Linux Open-Source Kitchen Automation project (I forget the URL, but it's hosted at SourceForge). These devices will allow you to program and monitor your kitchen devices over your home LAN. They also have built-in webcams so you can watch your kitchen in action, from a much more intimate viewpoint than has ever before been possible (in the case of the blender, the cam actually views up from beneath the whirling blades).
• And speaking of intimate viewpoints, Symbian will shortly be introducing a new vibrator with a webcam built into the tip. Configure it with an URL to upload images to, and watch it go in and out, in and out...
• Lastly, Web monitoring company Keynote will be entering the consumer hardware business with a new PCI add-in board for better DIY monitoring of your own website. Just plug it in and the onboard webcam shows you the packets going in and out through your network interface.

I was blue and lonely, I couldn't sleep a wink
And I could only get unconscious if I'd had to much to drink
There was somehow, something wrong somewhere
And each day seemed grey and dead
The seeds of desperation were growing in my head
I needed inspiration, a brand new start in life
Somewhere to place affection, but I didn't want a wife
And then by lucky chance I saw in a special magazine
An ad that was unusual, the like I'd never seen
"Experience something different with our new imported toy
She's loving, warm, inflatible and a guarantee of joy."
She came all wrapped in cardboard, all pink and shrivelled down
A breath of air was all she needed to make her lose that frown
I took her to the bedroom and pumped her with some life
And later in a moment that girl became my wife
And so I sit her in the corner and sometimes stroke her hair
And when I'm feeling naughty I blow her up with air
She's cuddly and she's bouncy, she's like a rubber ball
I bounce her in the kitchen and I bounce her in the hall
And now my life is different since Sally came my way
I wake up in the morning and have her on a tray
She's everything they say she was and I wear a permanent grin
And I only have to worry in case my girl wears thin

from "Be My Girl - Sally", written by Sting & Andy Summers (The Police: Outlandos d'Amour).

Regards, Ralph.

click and suffer our mighty wrath

Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.5
about $200 -- info @ http://mindstorms.lego.com

Developed from work by the MIT AI Lab, the programmable brick is the ultimate synthesis of two great techie toys: LEGO, and computers. The Mindstorms RIS appeals to the hacker mindset, too. By exposing the internals, LEGO makes it easy to ignore the included software and program the brick using a wide range of tools and environments, including Linux.

Definitely gets my vote for the "cheaper than a Playstation" entry.

Oh well, no point in steering now.

• Under $300: A Klein bottle. You though it was impossible? Think again!
• $300-$1500: A nice big monitor. Mine sucks.
• Unlimited: A CAVE to play Quake 2 in. A mere $1,000,000+. The link to the Gamespy article gives a good overview of it all.

My boss approached me to get me to do my job...but I'm lazy so I figured I'd ask you guys to help (in exchange for your services, the money I make will be donated to the bank on behalf of my mortgage)

;P

• Cheaper than a Playstation: If the "free" in "free time" equates to "free (as in beer)," I'd like some more of that. That is to say, End the Culture of ultraproductivity in the US.
• Cheaper than a PlayStation2 on Ebay: A maid, or at least a helper to come once a week and help me get my house in order, so I can do all the things that a homeowner is supposed to get done in the course of normal life that I don't have time to do (see above).
• Unlimited:My own lobbyist. Or a patrol of them. Not to badger pols into legislation that only benefits me, but to nudge the government into a lane of common sense (Patents on hyperlinks? *Bzzzt* Oil prospecting in National Parks? *Are you nuts?* Solving social problem with unenforcable laws and empty talk on TV? *C'mon guys. This is the real world.* And what happened to the 40-hour work week? huh? HUH? I *like* life outside of work.

-O
.--- --- .... -. / --. .- .-. -. . - - / -.. .-. ..- -- -- --- -. -..

btw.. wh is supposed to be 'whore'.
network solutions are whores.
whores whores whores.

Cyber Sex is bullshit, the only person getting fucked is you by America Online -- Robert Schimmel

Cheaper than a PlayStation2 on Ebay: A maid, or at least a helper to come once a week and help me get my house in order,

One of the best things I ever did was get a cleaning lady to come in every two weeks and do the basic cleaning. I'm generally an orderly person but that doesn't stop the dust from building up, grease from sticking to the oven and the toilet from getting the way toilets get.

I don't know where you're living but a housekeeper in Orlando, FL costs $40 to $50 a visit for a two bed/two bath apartment. That's well below a PS/2 on eBay. I get visited every two weeks for $80 a month.

A clean living space can help geeks to get chicks, too! A clean house really impresses the grrls. Nothing can ruin The Mood quicker than a hottie heading to the bathroom to 'freashen up' only to find skid marks that have been there since the Bush administration.

By the way, my ultimate geek Christmas gift would be a 10 node, fully-functioning PDP11-based Atex publishing system. Call now! Supplies are limited.

InitZero

Well... actually what you want is higher productivity, so you can get more work done in less time. (Productivity = work done / time, generally measured as value added / employee hour.) If you can do this, you can get some of that time back as free time. Of course, if your employer doesn't give you this flexibility, a change may be in order...


sulli

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted. Ascii Art. How creative. Not here though.

What ever!

All I was doing was trying to show how to use a slant bar in morse code. Slant bar: dah dit dit dah dit

Now why can't I post that using a series of dots and dashes?

Of course, if Santa wanted to render an indisputable legal decision on DeCSS in favor of Free Software (not to mention common sense), I'd happily give up any of the three above things!
l8r... pjh

1. Heads Up Display like the one on that IBM commercial (please let it be at least 640x480x16 bits...)
2. As much power as my current home computer (not hard - AMD K6 233, 64 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD)
3. Integrated cell phone & pager
4. Wireless internet (through the phone, ISDN so I can talk while I surf)
5. Runs my choice of operating system
6. Small enough to not attract excessive attention

disclaimer - State of the art is fine; high resolution, more processing power, and higher bandwidth can be upgrades later. If I want to get all that, I've got my computer at work ;)

Dear Santa,

I want all these people to get their wishes for
big bad systems and high bandwidth connects.

All I ask for myself is a small little book
containing their IP addreses and detailing
all the security holes in their systems so
that I may 0wN them for one silent night.

Thanks,
Little Bobbie

Well, I figured since we're on the subject of what to buy as a gift for someone else, I figured I'd hint as to some things you may want to avoid putting in a gift box.

First of all, if you're going to buy someone a new set of tires for christmas, don't buy Firestones. I think that goes without saying.

Secondly, a free membership to Bally's or Weight Watchers may have you sleeping in the basement until New Year's

Cleaning tools are likely to be thrown back at you (or exchanged for expensive perfume). Never buy someone vacuum cleaner or a mop.

Although we're very tempted to. I'd advice you NOT to buy him/her something that you want yourself. Explaining how much she needs a new 3HP cordless drill will leave your relationship on a tightrope.

No name perfume which costs you $1.99, such as Eu de Toilet, which actually smells like the bathroom, a $10 whore, or your dirty socks. If you are going to buy her perfume, spring for the brand names.

NO CLOTHES! I repeat, NO CLOTHES! Oh, and let me reiterate,... NO CLOTHES! If they're too big, you'll be in trouble,... and if they're too small, you'll be in even MORE trouble. Just trust me,... don't buy her clothes!

And people,... no more Chia Pets.

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe in giving Bill Gates any money. He already has enough.
Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government!
-Monty Python

Expensive option: Audio Request MP3 Server

Unlimited option: 100Mb connection to the net with an ethernet connection in every room of the house (2 in the basement)
Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government!
-Monty Python

Under $300:
Games, of course - Grandia II, Final Fantasy IX, Majora's Mask -
But you're probably looking at gadgits. So I'll say a GameBoy Advanced (yes, I know the US version is a year away, but I can dream), or a Wonderswan (same deal - but I want to play Final Fantasy I-III (the real I - III, not "we'll call IV FFII and VI FFIII! Bwahahaha!").

The other item would be a Playstation One (small footprint) with the LCD panel and a car adapter so I could take it on trips.

$300 - $1500:
One of two things:
A Voodoo 6000 (128 MB RAM, 4 processors, needs its own external power source - can you say Unreal Tournament at 1024x768 4x AA at 100 frames a second? Oh, yes. Check it at http://www.3dfx.com/prod/vood oo/ v5-6000-overv.html
Creative Labs Jukebox http://www.nomadworld.com/products/j uke box/ - 6 gigs of MP3 storage from a name I trust.

$1500+
It took me a little bit, but I'd want one of those Honda gas-electric cars http://arstechnica.com/ rev iews/3q00/honda/insight-1.html - save gas $, save the planet, and stick it to OPEC all at the same time. (Now, if only they'd make an ethenol version so I could help out Kansas farms at the same time...)
John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
Gamer's Press

Call 1-877-9NM-GIFT to order this underwater fantasy. It's a 118-foot luxury submarine that sleeps 11, displacing 380 tons, with an operating depth of 1,000 feet, submerged range of 160 nautical miles, and speed of 15 knots. Cruising range: 3,000+ nautical miles (sufficient for transatlantic crossings).

Mountain Dew and Taco Bell

-rt
======
Now, I think it would be GOOD to buy FIVE or SIX STUDEBAKERS
and CRUISE for ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING!!
-- Zippy the Pinhead

If I had the money, I'd just buy my own little island, and use that for transportation...
I don't like fish. Reverse the fish to e-mail.

Apple's Cinema Display

Unlimited Category, great display. Would be nice if the computer it came with were faster.

Surely these would make a great geek gift in the sub playstation2 category. And who knows, maybe your descendents will even be able to make use of the gift :-)

--
I get paid for doing this :-)

So while this is a really novel gift idea, it sounds like a scam. Unless these people promise to defend the land...

...............
SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name
/dev/brain > /dev/null

Downside: No LCD, it uses Smart Media, only has one compression level and it's not TTL (through the lens).

Upside: Very small, very light and cheap. Relatively easy on batteries if you avoid using the flash, and it only takes 2xAA. You can carry this everywhere and take insane numbers of pictures for nothing if you use rechargable batteries.

Look for the Jenoptik JD12, it's the same camera but tends to be even less expensive.

The dead hand of Asimov's mass psychology wins every time.

...Cheaper Then...

...cheaper than...

Linux - 0 dollars

G4 Cube - 3000 dollars

GeForce2 GTS - $300 dollars

CmdrTaco not displaying Alzheimer symtoms when posting new articles - priceless.

For all the Calvin and Hobbes fans out there:

"It builds character."

get a tree, the lights are pretty, spends some time together, cook dinner, eat some good food. maybe get a few gifts, or better yet, make gifts for each other.

we made each other gifts in my family when i was a kid, and we each bought each other a few things.

a typical christmas morning for me was giving my brother a wind up car (the cool kind you put on tracks, and do insane loops and stuff), a pillow, and a couple of cupons for me to make him breakfast a couple times. similar stuff for parents. we freqently made blueberry pancakes, or somthing else yummy for breakfast.

i often got legos, some new clothes (new to me anyhow, goodwill rules), maple candy (yuuuummmmm), my comforter that i sleep under was made by my mom, as well as my pillow cases, and i got some candles from my dad. to me, that sounds much more enjoyable, and definitly healthier than everyone spending tons of money on just stuff. but, thats just my opinion.

-------
"Idiot. 'Lego' actually comes from the Klingon le'Qo', meaning 'building blocks of war'"

• Have a BMW by the time I'm 30.
• A T1 to my house with...
• ...a 802.11 wireless non-LOS network

Oddly enough, each of these goals fits nicely into each of the three catagories. Hmmm... coincidence?

================
Microsoft is not the answer, Microsoft is the question. The answer is "no".

That's easy. How about buying a house to put the BMW into before you're 30.

If you can't afford a house, buy a $50K car as a consolation present. Welcome to Silicon Valley.

If you can't afford a house, buy a $50K car as a consolation present. Welcome to Silicon Valley.

Been there, done that. (Of course, mucho thanks to you for helping me with it...)

Then again, with $50K and some skill, one could buy an apartment manager some clue re: in-unit networking...

Make it connect to your system via 10BT or WaveLAN/Bluetooth and run Linux, and I wouldn't wait to buy it myself!

Fortune favors the bold. -Virgil

"and it will run both on Slashdot and in the print version of Wired, in time for your last-minute shopping. (Yeah, that's months away, but print moves a little slower then us ;) )

Will WIRED include a de-clawed Cue:Cat with a UPC scanning driver? That'd be the right thing to do, after what they did as an accomplice to D:C's scam.

Software designers are so infatuated with the fact that they can, that they don't stop to think if they should.

MySQL is the backend for slash, scoop and many other really innovative weblog/moderation systems. I've wanted to try using these for several months now for nonprofit experiments, but the only machines I have are Win32 (Win2K) machines which I use in my employer's work.

MySQL is 'free as in beer' for any Linux taker, but they charge money if you want to use it on a Win32 system. Without flaming anyone in particular, to me this smacks of the same elitist crap that Linux bigots accuse Wintel-bound developers of.

If there was no MySQL for Win32, I wouldn't gripe. There is, but only at a premium. Apache and gcc and other quality OSS are offered on both platforms at the same price.

Before someone goes and marks me -1, Retard or offers the ever-so-helpful advice of "just set up a Linux box on the side or dual-boot," the point is, I don't have budget to have another machine around, and it's kinda hard to run a webservice from one boot partition while getting my employer's work done on another boot partition.

So, back on topic: fair platform-agnostic pricing for MySQL. Think of it as a stocking-stuffer.

Oh frabjous day!

Thanks for the update. Christmas comes early this year. :)

Yes. I really am a moron.

$159

--
http://gammatron.weblogger.com

(One tin per week, $3 per tin: $156)

---------///----------
All generalizations are false.
:wq

Alex Bischoff
---
Proof That There Is Strength In Numbers --> http://www.distributed.net/

Cheaper than a PlayStation: All tech heads love stacks of geeky books.

--
The opinions of my employers are unimportant and often boring, so I'm replacing them with my own.

Imagine the looks you'd get as you descend from the sky to the local cafe for a quick cappuccino, strapped into your personal VTOL (Vertical TakeOff and Landing), fuel efficient, high-reliability personal flyer.

Who needs a car!
All I want for Xmas is a SoloTrek XFV.
(Said to cost around the price of a high-end sports car)

Check it out on Millenium Jet Inc.'s site www.solotrek.com.

Pronoblem & Turnitup

Pronoblem & Turnitup

Not sure what category they'd fall under, but I would like a bunch of politicians so I can repeal crap like DMCA and the like. While I'm at it, I'd get rid of patents on mathematical formulae, and deem programs as mathematical formulae. Oh, mommy, can I also get Mr. Bezo to get rid of Amazon.com's 1-Click patent too?

If not, I could think up a lot of things :)

Failing that, I'd like free unlimited bandwidth website hosting for a year, and a puppy.

"one treats others with courtesy not because they are gentlemen or gentlewomen, but because you are" --G. Henrichs

For less than the price of an eBay PS2, we have the Sony WEGA TV. One of the 27 inch models would be very nice. They're not big, but the picture quality is impeccable.

And slash appears to be eating those URL's. That's

• http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/bazaar/mart/cart.cgi?action=view&ty pe=item&itemid=2 8d1
• http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/home/television/trinitronrtmfdtrinitron wegatm tv27inch/kv-27fv16.shtml

I want French Attack Monkeys!

-Dorsey

If you can't beat them, exploit them. *Then* beat them... -Milk & Cheese

Medium: LCD panel for my computer--Something nice and big.

Expensive: Enough money to my name to have an influence in the US gov't. That only takes about $100 million, right?

Those who don't know me, probably shouldn't trust me. Those that do know me, DEFINITELY shouldn't trust me.

...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Fight. Steal. Get rich.

--cyphergirl
--Insert catchy .sig line here--

"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
--Half-Life SDK, doors.cpp, line 744

How about giving your friends memberships in organizations that promote worthy ideals? Some good examples are the ACLU and EFF (as mentioned above). The money that you spend on a gift like this benefits everyone, by helping in the fight to hold onto the precious little freedom we have left. This is great for every budget, most organizations have memberships in the $20 - $30 range, putting them squarely in the "Less than playstation2" category, but I am sure any organization would gladly accept a $1,000,000+ donation (from the "unlimited" range).

Plus there is some geek prestige to be had by pulling an EFF membership card out of your wallet.

• New coders for Valve so they can hurry up and release Team Fortress 2.
• An OC3 so I can get first post before anybody else has a chance to reload the index. (note - I don't first post)
• Requisite fast gaming machine... (>=2 athlons, gf2 , 2g ram, and several hard drives)
• Copyleft t-shirts
• Missile submarine
• FA-18 jet
• TFC - in real life!!!!!

Tell me what makes you so afraid
Of all those people you say you hate
-The Beastie Boys

Time and again, for anyone over the age of about 12, I love to give the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. Every geek needs one, but then, so does everyone else. I have given Swiss Army Knives as gifts many times, and I always hear back from the person, saying that they find it extremely useful and that it was a great gift.

The knife is possibly mankinds oldest and most valuable tool. I use my knife every day, for cleaning my fingernails, cutting tape on a package, prying open the jammed CD-ROM, and so forth. I feel every human being ought to know how to handle a knife properly, and the best way to learn is to do it, constantly, from as young an age as possible. I have sliced open my hand with my own knife doing something stupid, and believe me, this is the best way to learn how not to do something stupid with a knife.

Plus they start at only ten bucks, but go all the way up to over a hundred, providing a good range of prices for rich and poor alike.

[Please remember that a knife is safer when it is extremely sharp. A blunt knife requires more force to cut, and therefore is more likely to slip.]

(I do not work for Victorinox, nor do I sell knives; I'm just a fan.)

• Unlimited $: Convert all of the books that I own/have-read/want-to-read to electronic format. Make me a book reader which is comfortable on my eyes, portable, and rugged. And I want to have the entire collection in the reader at all times. (Tall order, but money's no object.)
• $300-$1500: A second hand computer to put another Open OS on.
• under $300: O'Reilly gift certificates.

"Where do you want to go ...
Hey, where are you going?"

Chuck Hoberman's firm develops and builds "Unfolding Structures". These domes, spheres and other shapes can expand to something like 30 times their original volume.

Now they have toys too! These make great desk toys for work! I have the mini sphere that glows in the dark. Quite nifty!