http://www.osnews.com/story/2317/Ten_Gift_Suggestions_for_This_Christmas Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:03:19 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Is a freakin' bigger hard drive. Digital video eats up the gigabytes like crazy. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Dang, I wish you were my Santa :-)

I'll be lucky to get a lump of coal... Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? As I wrote in the article, my husband wanted to buy for me this Compaq laptop (which is indeed a great deal for what it offers). But at a time that I am trying to get away from computers and also at a time I want to buy something that my family in Greece really needs (a new oven - the semi-working one my mother still uses is from 1978), I will have to pass this year... Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? "Saturday evening here, nothing more exciting to do... let's suggest some geek/tech gifts for you or your loved ones, for this Christmas."

Heh. *hint*hint* Don't worry Eugenia I'm certain the OSNews crowd will get you something nice. *smile*


Me? Since I'm unemployed. I'll have to give the gift that keeps on giving. My love. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? > Don't worry Eugenia I'm certain the OSNews crowd will get you something nice.

What do you mean? I don't get any income from OSNews (or its crowd). The Pricegrabber income is all David's who is the owner of OSNews. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? then buy your mom a 1700 dolor stove :-) you wil get a he-luv-a stove for that. heck your mom could get a built in griddle on one of those suckers with a stainless steal body and a host of other feathurs that just do not come in a 500 dollor stove. a sucker like that would last your mom another 24 years :-) Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >then buy your mom a 1700 dolor stove

I don't think I will be buying her a such expensive stove. But I know that she wants one that supports the chicken grill thingie (rotisserie style) that rotates. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Man, what a difference a nice monitor makes. Mine's a 19", does 1024x768 @ 85 Hz w/ .21 dot pitch. Makes my old 17" unbranded POS monitor look like a green CRT from the TRS-80 era. My only complaint is that it is HUGE, but luckily I have the desk space for it.

Really, what a difference, I have much much less eyestrain (not that my eyes are good to begin with). If you have extra money to spend, throw it into a nice monitor. You won't regret it.

If I had to buy one right now, I don't think I would go for a LCD -- so far, the price/ size ratio doesn't fit too well with my budget. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Get a loved one an iPod - Mac or Windows! Sun, 08 Dec 2002 06:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Adam, are you sure you got the A90F (http://www.viewsonic.com/products/crt_a90f.htm)?
I don't understand why you under-utilizing this monitor at 1024x768!! This monitor can do:
1600x1200 @ 66Hz
1280x1024 @ 80Hz
1152x864 @ 90Hz
1024x768 @ 105Hz

I also have a 19" (LG) monitor which can do 1280x1024@85 Hz, so if you do want more Hz for less eye-strain, you might want to try the 1152 resolution or even the 1280. Clearly, this 19" monitor can deliver much more than 1024 with no eyestrain! Utilize it! Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? man...I was jelous. I have a 17 in. I had no idea how nice it would be to have my entire work space take up almost my entire feild of view...you feel like you are inside the damn computer program. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? That's why I was stuck at a lower refresh. WinXP too didn't seem too convinced my monitor could do 100Mhz, but that's probably because it thinks it is a "Plug and play monitor". Thanks for the tip. Although, at 100Mhz, my monitor emits the slightest whine... I wonder why that is?

I don't like the higher resolutions cause the text gets too small to read (especially on the start menu)... I suppose I could twiddle around with the default font sizes, but never got around to doing that. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? > WinXP too didn't seem too convinced my monitor could do 100Mhz

Go Properites/Settings/Advanced/Monitor and uncheck that "hide modes that this monitor cannot display" checkbox.

>I don't like the higher resolutions cause the text gets too small to read

I am certain that at 1280 or at least 1152x864 this 19" monitor can deliver good quality.

The following is not a rule of thumb, but it is pretty true most of the time for middle-range to high-end monitors:
14" is good for 800x600
15" is good for 1024x768
17" is good for 1152x864 (or 1280x1024 if the monitor is really high-end)
19" is good for 1280x1024
21" is good for 1600x1200
If you have one of these monitor sizes, but your monitor does not support these resolutions on 85Hz (never aim at any lower), you might want to use the resolution for the previous size monitor.

Your A90f I am sure is great on at least 1152.
BTW, if you have that TNT2 card that comes EMBEDDED in the motherboard, it is explaining why XP won't let you use more Hz. I used to have a TNT2-m64 on my previous job, and it couldn't do more than 1600x1200@75 Hz, EVEN if the monitor they gave me COULD DO IT at 85Hz!! I was pretty pissed off at them, because I asked them to buy me a good monitor and they did, and they f*cked it up on the machine! The graphics card they put in couldn't support the monitor on its full potential. The full version of nVidia TNT2 could do these refresh rates, but not the TNT2-m64 which was the cheap embedded solution they started selling 2 years ago. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? But I still can't read it. Stupid astigmatism gets in the way.

Oh, I have a GeForce something-or-other now, WinXP lets me put it up to 100MHz, but I still get a slight whine from it. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? > Don't worry Eugenia I'm certain the OSNews crowd will get you something nice.

What do you mean? I don't get any income from OSNews (or its crowd). The Pricegrabber income is all David's who is the owner of OSNews.

Ummm...no. I wasn't *implying* that you were.
I was teasing you a bit, and (in a joking manner) said that we got the hint, and will get you something nice for christmas.

Sorry that you misunderstood. I'll try to be clearer in the future. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 07:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? a girl
it's that simple
if he allready has a girl, he probably wants a faster internet connection so that he would be able to video-chat with her
oh, and that golden outfit, that leia in starwars is wearing, to dress her in. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 08:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? to some OSS project of their liking. Or if they are me buy them a new dual athlon MP system, new powermac g4, one of those desktop machines with the xscale cpu running RiscOS, and an amiga one. Then again not everyone likes to have this many computers all running different OS's Sun, 08 Dec 2002 08:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? [/i]As I wrote in the article, my husband wanted to buy for me this Compaq laptop[i]

How to get what you want for Christmas:
a) publish a web page talking about cool gifts for christmas
b) ask hubby to take over website for a few days (ie. moderate submissions)
c) make puppy dog face

Merry christmas everyone. BTW - does anyone still actually give gifts for St. Nicholos day (6 dec gregorian calendar, 19 dec julian calander) - from St. Nickolas day we get Santa Clause in modern culture, but old European cultures still give gifts for St. Nickolas day - not Christmas. But try explaining that to a 3 year old kid. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 09:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Well, atleast in Belgium and the Netherlands St Nickolas (Sinterklaas in ducth) gives you presents on the 6th of december You get presents on christmas too, but not from Santa, but from your family.
This is just generally speaking, there are exceptions Sun, 08 Dec 2002 10:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? a girl
it's that simple

maybe the geek boy's gay.

does anyone still actually give gifts for St. Nicholos?

not in spain. we get gifts on christmas day from 'papá noël' (that's imported from france) but thats less important, and then the 'reyes magos' (the three kings) on jan 6. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 12:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? > Well, atleast in Belgium and the Netherlands St Nickolas (Sinterklaas in ducth) gives you presents on the 6th of december

In the Netherlands you get the gifts in the evening of the 5th of December. Sinterklaas quietly leaves the Netherlands on the 6th. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 12:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? But my recommendation is to stay away from HP laptops for right now. My office bought 4 of those models and 2 of them have had bad LCD to Motherboard connectors, meaning that your screen would randomly just not work.

The Olympus camera is a very good camera, BTW, but for those who need something a bit smaller, your best alternative is the Canon Powershot S40 (same guts as the G2, but much smaller and lighter).

Also, the m105 is a stellar PDA. I've had one for a year and a half now, and never been let down. It's slightly underpowered, but it still runs everything I need perfectly. The screen is smaller than a standard Palm III, but that means that the text is sharper and looks better. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 13:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? This is an ultimate gift:
www.apple.com/powerbook/
1GHz PowerPC G4
1MB L3 & 256K L2 cache
133MHz system bus
512MB SDRAM memory
60GB Ultra ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
w/64MB DDR video memory
Gigabit Ethernet
56K internal modem
1 FireWire & 2 USB Ports
AirPort Card Included

=]

2 bad it costs 3000$$$

Why are those apples so pricy ?

;) Sun, 08 Dec 2002 14:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? .. as an early Christmas present, a Compaq iPaq 3835. I'm trying to talk my dad into getting a Navman 3420 GPS receiver add-on for it ;-) Sun, 08 Dec 2002 14:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? If the government would repleal the DMCA I would be a very happy guy.

As for physical items.
Those Apple Theatre Screens would look fine on my desk. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 15:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? yeah.. and maybe the geek boy isn't a stereotype at all.. cause that was certainly not what I was making fun of.

sigh Sun, 08 Dec 2002 15:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I can't use LCD monitors for this very reason. I am still chugging along with my four year old ViewSonic G773, which is a really nice CRT. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 16:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I like the list alot! (I want almost everything there). Except I disagree about the iBook. They are incredibley slow. The additional memory would help, but i'd much rather get a powerbook.

The $2,799 one is the that would best suit my needs probley, but i'd probley buy some more memory. The $3000 one wouldn't be worth it to, I don't edit video on macs (too slow). So i'd rather spend my money getting more memory than buy a dvd burner. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 16:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I was surprised that the pure Linux/Free/Open PDA is almost as cheap as your suggestion: $105 with (8MB RAM, 8MB Flash). Please visit http://www.softfield.com and http://www.agendawiki.com to meet the VR3 community! Sun, 08 Dec 2002 18:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I think laptops are 20th century technology. I would not recommend a laptop for a christmas present because PDAs are the wave of the future.

also LCD monitors need to support higher resolutions before they become worthwhile.

just my opinions... Sun, 08 Dec 2002 18:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? You must feel bad that with you buying a 19inch monitor for so many $$, and still you're running at 1280x1024 at 85Hz, while my 17inch iiyama is running at the same res, with 89 Hz :-)

Bigger isn't always better! Sun, 08 Dec 2002 18:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Their web site states that it does 1600x1200, but this is incorrect (the external monitor would go to that res, not the LCD of the laptop).

This is incorrect. UXGA screens are an option on laptops, and these in fact have a native resolution of 1600x1200. The external monitor can go really high, something like 1920x1200 or somesuch thing. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >This is incorrect.

No, you are incorrect. I saw that laptop model with my own eyes. It does 1400x1050. Not more. And this particular series of models do not offer customization. In their site they do say that the LCD is SXGA+, which is 1400x1050, while in a parenthesis they say "1600x1200" meaning the external monitor. They have either messed it up, or they simply they are trying to fool the customer. Thing is, that 1525us laptop, can do 1400x1050. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I would buy SuSE for a gift simply because RedHat is a free download. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Check out this laptop :
http://www.fujitsu.ca/products/notebooks/celsius/mobile_h.html


This is the one i want my girlfriend to give me..... Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I got myself a PowerBook this year (1Ghz) and I haven't looked back. This thing is amazingly cool. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I don't normally use macs and this isn't how this page's supposed to render.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hnarayan/site/images/hmm.png
I'd still like a mac though . Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Darn it! Our advertiser has included wrong scripts and it shows 120x600 ads on the 468x60 adspace! I talked to David about this last week, but he can't reproduce it (I can here). We will have to talk to our advertiser to fix this.

However, this is also a bug of Omniweb. It should NOT resize the iframe even if a picture has a bigger size that the iframe. The iframe has predefined size and height, and it supercedes the image's size in priority. In the worst case, it should show scrollbars, but not resize the iframe.

Harish, please leave that screenshot there so I can show it to David when he is back from his trip. Thanks. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 20:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I didn't want to use IE and didn't feel like downloading Chimera just to read a couple of pages. Oh the horror, , I feared OSNews had taken a new advertising route, LARGE ads n small articles.
Back on IE anyway and things back to normal. Will be even more normal on my usual box with Galeon.

However, this is also a bug of Omniweb. It should NOT resize the iframe even if a picture has a bigger size that the iframe. The iframe has predefined size and height, and it supercedes the image's size in priority. In the worst case, it should show scrollbars, but not resize the iframe.

I don't know too much regarding these things... html properties and browser behaviours and such. Hell, it took me 10 min to figure out how to take a screen shot on OS X.:) Sun, 08 Dec 2002 20:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? How about an iPod? The 5 gig iPods are now pretty cheap and it's a very cool and worthwhile gadget. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 21:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Having just briefly borrowed one belonging to a friend... BMW 5-series Saloon ( Sedan for American readers )

Verrrry nice..lol
Makes my Ford Mondeo ( Contour in US? ) look very plain....

....Beats the heck out of a PDA for fun and general appeal Sun, 08 Dec 2002 21:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I cannot believe that a TiVO or other PVR wasn't on the list! Sun, 08 Dec 2002 21:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? 12/08/2002 (or as you enumerate it, 2002-12-08) is a Sunday according to any accurate calendar. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 21:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Use your head. I am not living in the same place as the server does. The time of the server is in UTC, I live in PST. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 21:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? 1. We have no X-mas (atheists), but we have additional
day off.
2. Others (Russia) have X-mas on 7th Jan.

;) Eugenia, you seem to ignore your (Gr.) customs. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 22:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Ah yes, the typical Eugenia.

Make a jest in fun about the date/time and get modded down and berated for not knowing where she lives and where the web server is located.

Hey, E. Do you think anyone actually cares to remember where you live? Is it important to them for their day-to-day lives? Do you always act like the universe revolves around you?

Get off your high-horse lady. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 22:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? If any relatives of mine are reading this (and can actually afford it) ... hint, hint ... Sun, 08 Dec 2002 22:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I hope George Bush quits. Between doling out favors to his friends, repealing individual rights, damaging the economy, and taking us to the brink of "war", I think he's done a terrible job. In fact, I think he SUCKS at his job. There's all the talk about how he surrounds himself with people who know what they are doing, but the buck stops with him, and he ain't getting it done. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 22:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >2. Others (Russia) have X-mas on 7th Jan.
>Eugenia, you seem to ignore your (Gr.) customs.

Greeks have Christmas on Dec 25th as everybody else. On 7th I think we have another celebration (John the Baptist), but not Christmas. Sun, 08 Dec 2002 23:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? For simply organizing your life, the Zire is great. And yes, it's cute!
The Danger Hiptop is very very very ultra mega super cool, now that we have GSM networks in Brazil I can dream of one!

Too bad I live in a country where the damn currency devaluation made geeky things 50% more expensive (( Sun, 08 Dec 2002 23:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? dont forget masters of orion III Mon, 09 Dec 2002 04:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I wouldn't mind getting the collection of OReally teashirts, in this day of

"Tracing Spammers (and dealing with them permanently)" would be my favourite,

"SnoopingEmail for fun & profit"

"DistributingClue" & more

http://bofhcam.org/co-larters/ Mon, 09 Dec 2002 05:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? IMO CLinton was a much better leader. More charismatic, much more intelligent and he even looked better.

Bush barely passed highschool. And he only got in to colege because of donations that his rich dad gave the institute,e ven after taht he almsot failed college.

He also took drugs , and he was a alcoholic.

He also can't articulate a sentence with more tahn 10 words without screwing up.He probably doesen't even know what the speaches other people write him say! Mon, 09 Dec 2002 05:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? My top Christmas gift would be for Eugenia to continue supporting this awesome site.

Eugenia is what brings life in to this place, she is the one doing just about everything! She is like a news anchor when it comes to Operating Systems and nobody can beat her reviews in honesty and quality.

Please stay! Mon, 09 Dec 2002 06:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I can see by your post that you are very qualified to judge other people's education. Thanks for your input. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 15:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? get the sony gdm-fw900 24" 16:10 aspect ratio. 2304x horizontal pixels maximum! I run it at 1600x1024. Bought mine two years ago and since then they've falled in price by about 700 bucks. You can have your own for 1700 bucks or so. The monitor weighs over a 100lbs but is well worth it.

Too big for regular mail so you need a freight company to deliver it for you. Feel like the big man when the freight company pulls up at your door.

aivars Mon, 09 Dec 2002 16:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? I thought Greek church is also orthodox. As Russian is.
BTW. Christians are not the same all over the world, as you possibly used to think.
There are: a) Catolicists' (Rome) branch; b) various heretics (self announced as "protestants") separated from pt."a"; c) at least Russian et al. Slavyan othodox churches; d) old Russian separatists' orthodox church; e) various heretics of Russ.church; f) Georgian church; g) Armenian church; h) Abissinian church.
Rome's heretic (orthodox churches' point of view) et al. celebrate X-mas on 25 Dec.
Russian orthodoxen (heretics of Rome's pt. of view) et al. celebrate on 7th Jan
Armenian church (one of two the oldest churches) -- possibly to be quite different -- on 6th Jan.
Abissinian church thinks Jesus is 4 (IIRC) years older than others think.
Atheists doubt if Jesus ever lived on Earth. Some of them know proofs. Some know proofs and critics of ones. Some are not interested in all this at all.
Just for your interest.
But I always thought Greek church is orthodox. It followed Visantian, as Russian did. Only after Turkish conquers Moscow became "third Rome, and fourth won't be." (EOQuote)
I congratulate all of you with first FreeBSD 5.0RC1, and hope someone _do_ something to get out of all this Unix+Windows Hell.
Plant and grow your own Forth! (Really geek motto, isn't it? Mon, 09 Dec 2002 16:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? This is one of the cheapest "real" PDAs you can find around. Palm introduced Zire (2 MB) for around $90 USD. The Palm m105 for the same money is pretty good too (8 MB).

For now, those who really need a PDA have one. So I suggest you hold off from PDAs this year. Wait till the new ARM-based PDAs from Palm, and cheap PocketPCs from Dell. Buying now would only gurrentee you kicking yourself in the ass a month or two later.

Now, this one is great! It costs more than the Zire, but it is not just a PDA, but also a T-Mobile cellphone and it is even able to send and receive email, IM and web content. In fact, we have special support for the SideKick/Hiptop device that renders OSNews beautifully and with no ads or the vertical left sidebar (just use the special link above)! Great value for the features included, at $199.

I actually suggest you try the Hip Hop, after using it, you probably won't want it as a phone+ PDA combo. Plus, mobile Internet service plans, except maybe in the bay area (*grin*) is quite expensive. Unless of course, if you are living in Japan, which would anyway mean you already have one or planning to get on similar from DoCoMo.

So, check out this HP ze1210 for the affordable one. Its list price is $1,049 after rebates, but I found it at Frys a few days ago as low as $999. I believe for what it offers, this is a great (branded) laptop for the price. It has a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, 20 GB disk, an AthlonXP 1400+ CPU, 15" 1024x768 LCD screen, NIC, modem, 256 MB RAM, ALi chipset with integrated gfx chipset etc. Another great choice for $999 is the HP ze4102 with a Radeon gfx card and a Celeron 1.6 GHz.

I would suggest neither. The first, using Athlon XP 1400+ have very little battery life, while the second very bad power management (meaning low battery life anyway; caused by lack of SpeedStep). I would suggest getting anything with a Pentium III-m. Oh, stay away from HP-branded laptops, believe me, they suck (I have one here, the support is terrible). My brother's Compaq laptop has better support, but now they are the same company, I guess we would never know until my bro breaks his laptop...

For the less affordable, but absolutely amazing for the features laptop (and in fact this is the one my husband wanted to buy for me for Christmas), I would highly recommend this Compaq Pressario 1525us

I would suggest this for people that don't really travel much. Then again, I would much rather suggest a desktop. AlienWare's laptop in this field is way better (an looks better too).

But for a high-end laptop, I would suggest something with a long battery life, comfortable keyboard, light, among others. CPU power comes least on my check list. Which is why only Apple laptops are the only Macs that appeal to me.

Of course, the Proview VM541, 15" LCD monitor @ 1024x768, is a great first LCD monitor at only $250 USD.

As cheap as it may be (believe me, I've seen cheaper), I would direct my recommendations to either Phillips, LG and ViewSonic. I would suggest Sony higher end ones, but they are certainly not in the 15" range. They may be a little more expensive, but I would say the money spent is worth it.

or get the lowest end PowerMac, for $1699.

Unless you really really want a Mac, I would direct users away from PowerMacs to PCs. Dual-processor Xeons or Athlon MPs.

On the other hand, you might want to wait a month before buying a Mac, as at the MacWorld at San Francisco in January, new models will surely be announced.

I think the PowerMac and iMac line would be upgraded a bit, but nothing would be too fanstatic about it that you should put off buying now. What MWSF would probably showcase is Mac OS X 10.3, OS X-only Macs, among others.

Can't make up my mind which one is best. Some days I prefer Red Hat 8, other days I prefer SuSE 8.1. Just get the one you like and support the leading Linux distro of your choice.

Unless you are giving a present to a geek friend (which would be using Linux if he/she is interested anyway), I would highly recommend NOT giving them OS presents. If they are particulary interested in Linux, either Xandros, LindowsOS (oh no! someone brainwashed me) or Lycoris, not because they closely imitate Windows' UI but they are more targeted and orientated towards the home user rather than SuSE and RH the corporate one. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 16:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Jay: Get a loved one an iPod - Mac or Windows!

Opps, suggesting people staying away from Zires make me forget about the iPod. Yes, I would highly recommend the iPod over the Jukebox. It is way more friendlier, have very good sound output and generally looks nice and is small and practically weighless.

Plus, just trying the iPod for Windows and MusicMatch at a Apple reseller about 2 weeks ago tells me anyone can use it, not only Mac users. Albeit I wish they choose WinAmp or Windows Media Player or better still RealOne, it is okay nontheless.

So for the first time in months, I have to agree with Jay. Bring out the bubbly.

---

a girl
it's that simple

And what if the geek is gay? :-)

Jason: My office bought 4 of those models and 2 of them have had bad LCD to Motherboard connectors, meaning that your screen would randomly just not work.

My laptop had similar problems, but after sending it to HP (for 2 weeks, may I add), it never have that problem again.

If the government would repleal the DMCA I would be a very happy guy.

I thought the Congress gets a Christmas break? :-).

Except I disagree about the iBook. They are incredibley slow. The additional memory would help, but i'd much rather get a powerbook.

I don't notice much performance difference in the old iBook and the old TiBook (not the upgraded ones, haven't tried them yet, sorry). Unless you are using Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, you won't really see a huge performance difference. And you wouldn't notice any difference if you are using Mac OS 9 (which I would use if I get a Mac).

~Seedy~: Having just briefly borrowed one belonging to a friend... BMW 5-series Saloon ( Sedan for American readers )

But then the Mercedes-Benz Roadster SLK, much better look, better driving experience.... Or the E-Class Saloon.

Anonymous: 1. We have no X-mas (atheists), but we have additional
day off.

Christianity is the most followed faith, followed by Islam. Christmas would be celerbrated all over the world, and the same with Eid-Ul-Fitr last weekend. Athiesm is a minority in this case. Plus, I know a lot of athiest who just celebrate Christmas for fun, not for religious sentimental reasons.

Anonymous: 2. Others (Russia) have X-mas on 7th Jan.

The Russian Orthodox Church is a shrinking church.

IMO CLinton was a much better leader. More charismatic, much more intelligent and he even looked better.

And completely unfaithful to his wife, and a big fat liar in this case.

Anon: b) various heretics (self announced as "protestants") separated from pt."a";

Strange wonder that the heretics is the only branch following truly to the Bible.

Anon: Atheists doubt if Jesus ever lived on Earth. Some of them know proofs.

Athiest doubt (or rather don't believe) that Jesus is God, because there is a lot of archeological findings to show that he exist so that's not in question. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Reminded me how consumer oriented western culture is.
Even geeks look through their green gla$$es.
How about some more geeky present ideas ?
- A domain name (your loved one is a geek too ?)
- a nice cannabis flower(!) bouquet. I know what you think but it just a flower yet.
- a translation of a Boudleuer's verse to Greek ?

Eugenia, are you OK ? Is something wrong with you - you modded down yourself ! Get well and have a nice Christmas. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Anonymous,

fyi,
Russian church is the last Orthodox church using the julian calendar. All other orthodox churches (Slavic, Greek and Romanian) use gregorian calendar as all western churches. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 18:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? >But I always thought Greek church is orthodox

It is. Mon, 09 Dec 2002 19:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? Only ten?

My cousin sent me a 6-page list, which included a Dell laptop... ;-) Mon, 09 Dec 2002 23:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments http://osnews.com/thread? http://osnews.com/thread? My mom picked up a 16" VAIO laptop... and wow! It does 1600x1200... but she prefers a lower res for her eyes. Tue, 10 Dec 2002 15:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Anonymous) Comments