Other Gadgets (general gadgets)

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by NotFromHere
Before you go home, tell her to call Comcast first.

Well, nice try but she does know that Cablevision provides our service.


Computer
I called my son back. He rebooted it and everything was fine.


Ipod
Well, the genius at the Genuis Bar really was a genius in customer service. They probably looked up how much I spent at Itunes and gave me a new one.

[mmm3587]

The genius bar is great, and it's a great idea.

In other Apple new, I was reading that Apple is selling 8 million iPods a year. At an average price (my guess) of $350, that's like $2.8 billion dollars a year, right? Jesus. Looking at AAPL and SBUX just fucking kills me. Those look like absolute no-brainers now. TASR, too. Damnit. This is why I'll be a working stiff until I can finally knock dtb up.

Known, knock, what's the difference?

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Do I hang terminals off the current CPU (two computers will be on 2nd floor, 2 in basement for kids) by hard wire, set up a hardwired network with separate CPUs, or set up a wireless network? My current CPU has a lot of computing power, and all computers will get used for stuff like photo and video editing/playing.

If you can easily drop networking cable from whereever your router/hub is going to be to the other rooms, I'd recommend you do it. Then do wireless in addition, for the freedom of roaming around with your laptop.

I'm an early-adopter computer geek, and have been happy with wireless networking for several years. Until recently, when 3 of my neighbors also got hooked up with SBC wireless routers. My wired network connection, in my office at the router, is just fine, but my wife's wireless connection on the other side of the house has problems every night or two. And of course, any time she can't connect, it's immediately and necessarily my headache.

Each time that's happened, it's because each of the other neighboorhood connections is active and coming into my house strongly, interfering with her connection (as I'm sure we're interfering with theirs). I keep my network secure, so I'm not worried about security issues, it's just a pain in the butt when the interference screws up her connection, either slowing it to a crawl or stopping it completely. Part of the problem is that she likes her system in the sunroom, which is more open to neighboorhood signals than our own signal, which has to travel through several walls.

At any rate, I'll be dropping cable to her system shortly. If I were building a new house, I'd wire everything, and have a wireless network for the times I bring my work laptop home. Wireless is great and flexible, but it will be more problematic as it becomes more pervasive.

Sorry if this has been covered - I don't typically read this thread.

I'm thinking about getting the Mr. XM Sat. Radio for Xmas. Does anyone have it, like it?

What's the difference between the Roady2 and the Sci/Fi gadgets? The Roady2 goes in the car as is (no other gadgets to buy, right?) and the other thingy goes in the Boombox that you buy seperately - is this right? Can you use the Sci/Fi thing without the boombox somehow? How is the reception on either of them?

I want to get one or the other to see if he even likes it (I'm sure he will), so which is better to start with? He has a long commute, but also lives in his office, so it's a toss up if I have to choose either car or office use.

Lastly, the basic subscription covers mostly everything, right. What do you get with the "premium" stations - is it worth it? Do you get the baseball games on the basic package?

Thoughts?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by johnny_doe_esq
If you can easily drop networking cable from whereever your router/hub is going to be to the other rooms, I'd recommend you do it. Then do wireless in addition, for the freedom of roaming around with your laptop.

I'm an early-adopter computer geek, and have been happy with wireless networking for several years. Until recently, when 3 of my neighbors also got hooked up with SBC wireless routers. My wired network connection, in my office at the router, is just fine, but my wife's wireless connection on the other side of the house has problems every night or two. And of course, any time she can't connect, it's immediately and necessarily my headache.

Each time that's happened, it's because each of the other neighboorhood connections is active and coming into my house strongly, interfering with her connection (as I'm sure we're interfering with theirs). I keep my network secure, so I'm not worried about security issues, it's just a pain in the butt when the interference screws up her connection, either slowing it to a crawl or stopping it completely. Part of the problem is that she likes her system in the sunroom, which is more open to neighboorhood signals than our own signal, which has to travel through several walls.

At any rate, I'll be dropping cable to her system shortly. If I were building a new house, I'd wire everything, and have a wireless network for the times I bring my work laptop home. Wireless is great and flexible, but it will be more problematic as it becomes more pervasive.

Interesting. What's the approximate range? I'm lucky at the moment, in that my immediate neighbors are clear nonadopters (read: old people) but the rest of the neighborhood, the folks my age with kids, tend to be very wired techie types. So if I have some heavy duty power users two to three hundred feet away, is it close enough for interference? No sunrooms in the place - the exterior of our whole house is 8 inch heavily insulated construction without unusual sizes or numbers of windows.

I've ordered the Linksys system for networking, because I have comcast and it seemed to be the choice on the local comcast networking chat board. My new computers should be showing up by my Gwfgwf, and I'm getting Networking for Dummies to help me out here. But dropping wires is still a possibility and wouldn't be that difficult.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Interesting. What's the approximate range? I'm lucky at the moment, in that my immediate neighbors are clear nonadopters (read: old people) but the rest of the neighborhood, the folks my age with kids, tend to be very wired techie types. So if I have some heavy duty power users two to three hundred feet away, is it close enough for interference? No sunrooms in the place - the exterior of our whole house is 8 inch heavily insulated construction without unusual sizes or numbers of windows.

I've ordered the Linksys system for networking, because I have comcast and it seemed to be the choice on the local comcast networking chat board. My new computers should be showing up by my Gwfgwf, and I'm getting Networking for Dummies to help me out here. But dropping wires is still a possibility and wouldn't be that difficult.

I have lived in a few different multi-unit buildings where there are tons of "adopters" because we are all young, urban and hip and have not noticed a problem with speed. I may just be stooopid, but DSL seems awfully popular in large, densely populated areas for this to be a major concern in the large-minimum-lot-size burbs.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I have lived in a few different multi-unit buildings where there are tons of "adopters" because we are all young, urban and hip and have not noticed a problem with speed. I may just be stooopid, but DSL seems awfully popular in large, densely populated areas for this to be a major concern in the large-minimum-lot-size burbs.

Mine is a burb with small lots and big houses, but, still, if there's not a problem in a multi-unit apt. building and I've already bought the stuff, I'm going to hook it up and play for a few months before worrying about wiring.

[Alex_de_Large]

The iPhone. Looks like the oft-rumored Apple cell phone might become a reality.

spree: forbes.com

[Alex_de_Large]

Mods please delete.

[pony_trekker]

Ok, I haven't decided what gadget or gadgets to get, but am wondering whether anyone has any self-standing GPS units they want to share information about.

I like this one, because it is small and cheap, but it may have too little memory.

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
The iPhone. Looks like the oft-rumored Apple cell phone might become a reality.

spree: forbes.com

Would be slick. I was thinking last week, when juggling a phone, palm and Ipod that the person who invents one user-friendly device to contain all three things will have life dicked.

[NotFromHere]

New signature Ipod (in case you don't really like U2.)
New signature Ipods

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Ok, I haven't decided what gadget or gadgets to get, but am wondering whether anyone has any self-standing GPS units they want to share information about.

I like this one, because it is small and cheap, but it may have too little memory.

I have the Magellan RoadMate 700 (it's not as sexified as it sounds):



I like it, because it has all USA maps in HD memory; no dicking around with downloading or "managing" maps in flash memory with your PC. The maps are pretty good, and it has a cool feature where if you miss a turn or otherwise ignore its directions, it will simply re-map to your destination from your current location. Keep taking wrong turns, and it will just keep recalculating the route. (My wife says I'm more likely to listen to the female spoken word if it comes from a machine.)

Only downside is that it's not handheld --- it needs a separate DC power supply, so you'll be leaving it in your car. If you're into geocaching or any of that hiking shit, look elsewhere.

[taxwonk]

It's freaking incredible. The richness and range is what you expect from Bose. The incredible thing is the separation in a unit that's maybe 12 inches wide, with both sets of drivers virtually next to each other. My component system in the basement is looking a bit sheepish the last couple of days.

[NotFromHere]

Maybe I'll get some money back.

SAN FRANCISCO - An unhappy iTunes online music store customer is suing Apple Computer Inc., alleging the company broke antitrust laws by only allowing iTunes to work with its own music player, the iPod, freezing out competitors, court filings showed.

The suit was filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose. One antitrust expert called it a long shot, but Californian Thomas Slattery is hoping for unspecified damages for being "forced" to buy an iPod, one of the most successful electronics products in years.

"Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa," the suit charged.

Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others. The rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft Corp.'s WMA format while Apple uses AAC, which it says helps thwart piracy.

While songs saved in the AAC format can be saved in the MP3 format and played on virtually any digital music player, songs bought from the iTunes music store have an added software tag, which Apple calls FairPlay DRM, or digital rights management, added to the file that contains the song.