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Comment Re:As opposed to actual Model Ms which are still m (Score 1) 298

I own a DAS Keyboard, and I own four Unicomps too. The DAS keyboard quality is not even close to that of the Unicomps. I.e. de the DAS keyboards costs 2.5 times as much, but the quality is considerably lower. The DAS keyboard sometimes transposes characters when I type real fast (due to scanline frequency limitations). The Unicomps *never* transpose characters (the Unicomp keyboards don't use scanlines, they have dedicated lines per key). The overal average typingspeed I get on the DAS is lower than on the Unicomp.

So, yes, their site is not as good as it could be. But give the guys from Unicomp a break, they know how to make the best keyboards in the world, creating websites just isn't their strong suite. Also, when you call there, 9 out of 10 times, you will be talking to the CEO and chief engineer. Their technical phone support is superb, they explain you on the phone how to perform maintenance.

Comment Re:Typing and Morse code (Score 1) 362

Forget the Cherry keyboards. They are a mere shadow of the real thing: the Unicomp keyboard you linked to.

I have four of those Customizer 104 models, one all black (no printed keycaps) with buckling springs, one normal (with printed keycaps) with buckling springs, one all grey with "Enhanced Quiet Touch" without printed keycaps again, and one normal with printed keycaps and "Enhanced Quiet Touch". I have to say that the buckling spring versions are *amazing*. I reach highest speeds with the all black unprinted keycaps buckling spring version. The feeling of the "Enhanced Quiet Touch" method is worse, but it is a nice compromise if you want to type without annoying others in the room.
The Unicomp keyboards themselves are amazing as well, they are indeed coffee-spil-proof, i.e. if you empty a glass of liquid on top of them, it simply exits the keyboard through the drain-holes and there is no damage to the mechanics or electronics.

I have no ties with the company, I"m just a very satisfied customer; I ordered the keyboards from oversees even (due to their weight, the shipping costs are not insignificant).

Networking

Submission + - TCP/IP and politics don't mix (www.spd.de)

BuGless writes: I know it's in German, but it is worth to read a translation. It goes to show that TCP/IP and politics don't mix. In Germany they don't use tubes; it's hard to say what they do make of it, but apparently this politician nailed a lot of things it surely is not.

Comment This technology is more than 3 years old (Score 1) 91

I've been running secure open WiFi networks for the past three years. Using hostapd and a patched radius server to ignore the password. I.e. the user asks for a connection, gets the certificate from the radius server through EAP, then the user is prompted for a username/password. The user is allowed to enter *any* username and *any* password, the "authentication" proceeds and simply grants access.

Presto, open WiFi, with private WPA2 encryption per client, and an SSL certificate from the access point which can be validated against. I don't know what IBM et al have been doing, but this is readily available tech (patching the radius server was/is not exactly rocket science) and it works since 2008, and it certainly is nothing exciting to get all fussy about at a black hat conference.

I see that they have a patent pending; this must be a joke (then again, the whole software patent system is a joke).

Comment Re:Your core is not as hard as you think (Score 1) 360

Hear, hear!

I couldn't agree more. In fact, if Ubuntu wants to replace synaptic, they should do so; if it helps the newbies, then please do. Real powerusers shouldn't be concerned, since they shouldn't be using synaptic or aptitude or the Ubuntu software center, they should be using bare apt-cache/apt-get. The first thing I regularly do after installing ubuntu is strip it down (i.e. uninstall synaptic, aptitude, network-manager, avahi-daemon and a myriad of other things), so that I essentially have a Debian system with an Ubuntu desktop; it allows you to pick the best of both worlds.

Comment Re:Oddly, I'd like to ask the reverse (Score 1) 585

I'd say, skip the DOS-era, and go back a bit more. If you want to learn, play with and understand all of the hardware/disassembly of a TRS-80 (easiest, probably) or Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum or CP/M running machine (or similar device from that era). There should be emulators for most of them.

The devices have a max of 64KB of memory (except for an occasional bank switch), which contains the OS, the DOS, the BASIC interpreter and your application.
64KB is small enough to learn/explore inside out. That will give you all the (low level, architecture) experience you need; what was done in the DOS era is just more convoluted and messy, but basically the same.

Comment I personally use Arcad (3D CAD, native Linux) (Score 1) 100

I'm using Arcad to plan some buildingdesigns in 3D. Works reasonably well, comes with a paid license (I'm using the small Easy-entry-level license, which fits my needs just fine).
Some nice trivia about the creators:
- They use Linux exclusively to develop all their softwareproducts.
- The Windows build is created mechanically.
- They sell arcad for 98% to Windows clients.
- The English translation still needs some polishing here and there; but the functionality is solid.

Comment PC Engine Alix 2d3 (Score 1) 697

I can recommend the Alix boards. They are very well designed and draw 3 Watt on average, 5 Watt peak at 100% CPU. I've used them with Voyage, which works very well, and I'm in the process of releasing an alix-customised Debian distribution which will provide a richer environment than Voyage, yet still provides facilities as fall-back flash and network boot.

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