I’m paying for part of my recent tablet PC purchase by selling my Zaurus SL-c760 PDA. It’s a nice unit with a 640×480 screen (I even had a Debian chroot on it!), but I think the tablet PC is more what I need these days.
So, in shameless plug mode, here are links to the eBay pages for the unit and accessories: Zaurus, Wifi CF card, CF modem, 512MB SD card.
Back in 1999, due to changing employment situations, I moved to Dallas, and then to Indiana. I’m back in Kansas now, and figure it’s about time I finish my computer science degree. I’ve got a full-time job now, though, so this means evening classes. Not all that much fun, but hey, it works.
One thing I’ve noticed is that there is far less available for part-time students as far as financial aid and scholarships are concerned. It’s almost as if we don’t exist.
Along with that, I’ve also been toying with the idea of purchasing a tablet PC that runs Debian. But I don’t really know where to go to learn about the different models. I found a comparison from last year, but I’d really like something more current. Acer seems to have a nice model, but it’s almost impossible to find it for sale in the USA anymore.
Any suggestions for a lightweight (around 3 pounds), decent tablet PC that doesn’t cost a huge amount of money? I’d like one that’s convertible (has a keyboard that can optionally be used).
Apple: iPod Domination Or Just Another Fad? at The Register.
Various SELinux material from Gentoo. Also, Getting Started with SELinux and Writing SELinux Policy. SELinux looks very complex. I think I’ll just use vserver instead.
The System Rescue CD and Partimage pages. The system rescue C looks like it can pretty much eliminate the need for spending money on Partition Magic or Ghost because of its inclusion of qparted and partimage. Nice!
Well, I suppose it’s about time to sell my PowerBook G4. It was the first piece of Apple hardware I ever owned. It’s nice, but I have a faster laptop now and I rarely use it anymore, so time to put it on the auction block.
I’m in the market for a small laptop. A very small laptop. And it has to be rugged.
The first one to make it to the top of my list was the iBook. Small, rugged, and good Linux support.
But then I noticed the Actius MM20. Only 2 pounds and 3/4″ thick. Wow. I’d buy it right away if it weren’t for the 20GB HDD. I’m hoping they’ll update that line soon.
There’s a funny discussion over at Slashdot where people relate tales of hardware that has survived a beating. My favorite quote:
The original VT-100 was top-rack dishwasher safe. No, really – that was the standard DEC repair instructions in case someone spilled something into a keyboard. Place the keyboard key-side down on the top rack of a dishwasher, normal wash cycle, air dry.
I’ve been talking a lot about MythTV lately, and here’s a tangential topic: we bought our first HDTV unit last weekend. It’s a widescreen 30″ CRT Philips 30PW8402 unit. We don’t yet have hi-def video sources (save for DVD), but I’ve still gotta say: wow. The picture is so much better than our Sony TV (and not just because that Sony’s picture tube was dying, either!). There’s some stuff in 16:9 even in standard def, and that can be zoomed in upon. Very slick.
And DVDs are stunning on this thing. We’re very happy with it all and are glad we opted for a HDTV instead of a standard def one.
One of my concerns was about traditional stuff — would it all be “squashed” by the wide screen? Turns out no — the remote has a picture size button, that alternates between 4:3, zoomed 14:9, zoomed 16:9, widescreen, and superwidescreen modes. The zoomed modes are used when the black letterboxing at the top and bottom of a standard screen are part of the signal (such as widescreen movies broadcast in standard definition). The widescreen modes are used with true widescreen signals, such as from a DVD player.
Our DVD player already had component video out, so a few cables, and a quick check of the setup menu to tell it we had a 16:9 unit, and wow — stunning results. We’re really enjoying it.
My next project is to get a DVI to HDMI cable so I can hook it up to the MythTV unit digitally. This will get us the best possible quality, and I can use a Linux-based DVD player to send a pure digital signal to the TV.
I can really appreciate this after having struggled last weekend to make a hard drive fit into a spot too small for it: Requiem for a Motherboard.
Last week, I posted a list of hardware that I’m buying for my MythTV. Most if it has arrived and I can make some comments about it now.
First, the Chenbro case is really bad. One of the hard drive bays is inaccessible due to being placed over the motherboard (!) and the other one requires the drive to be mounted upside-down. The 5.25″ bays are also poor, not letting one drive in all four screws (one of them only permits two, and right above each other at that, anchoring only 1 of 4 possible anchor points.)
The Biostar board is nice, but here’s the rub: while it features TV out and S/PDIF out pins on the motherboard, the board doesn’t ship with the connectors necessary to make it work! They charge $12 and $15, respecitvely, for the requires connectors, so this thing is not yet working with a TV.
The Samsung hard drive is great and it is indeed quiet as claimed. I’d heartily reccommend it.
And the Athlon XP 2200+ CPU is, of course, also a very nice one.
The Hauppauge card hasn’t arrive yet; I’m using a very old WinTV card until it does. More on that when it gets here.