Hey, preaching to the choir. I thought our Lady of the Perpetual Sea Breeze was the real deal until the Divine Miss J walked right through that door and right into my ass—which is where my heart is…physiologically. I could show you an x-ray.

Lorne ,'Time Bomb'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


tommyrot - Feb 08, 2010 10:44:48 am PST #12766 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Canon EOS Rebel T2i: new king of the cheap DSLRs?

Canon just surprised the photo world with this fresh announcement, showing off its EOS Rebel T2i that will take its place atop the company's Rebel line of lower-cost digital SLR cameras.

This 18-megapixel powerhouse is the beneficiary of a lot of trickle-down from Canon's twice-as-expensive EOS 7D camera. That means you'll be able to get a $799 camera (body only) with such advanced features as 9-point autofocus, a 63-zone dual-layering metering system just like the 7D, a 3-inch live-view smudge-resistant viewfinder, ISO of 100- 6400, and 1080p video shooting at 24, 25, or 30 frames per second with an external mic input.


tommyrot - Feb 08, 2010 11:06:59 am PST #12767 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

GuruPlug, the next generation of SheevaPlug

Meet GuruPlug, an all-in-one server that is now available for pre-order. This is the next generation of the popular SheevaPlug that features some added goodies. The base model sells for the same $99 and appears to have the same specs as the original but for $30 more, the GuruPlug Server PLUS moves to 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, one eSATA connector, and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. All of this for $129 and it only pulls 5 watts? Wow.


tommyrot - Feb 09, 2010 5:38:13 am PST #12768 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Finally installed The Gimp on my new work computer.

This is version 2.6.8. I'm surprised at how much easier it is to use than the older version I was using.


tommyrot - Feb 10, 2010 8:05:42 am PST #12769 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Google to test 100x faster Internet service

Google must feel like we do about average Internet speeds in the U.S., declining as other developed nations enjoy increasing speed. The "don't be evil" Googlers plan to build and test an "ultrahigh speed broadband network in trial locations across the United States" for at least 50,000 people, and maybe up to 500,000. Best of all, Google wants to offer this service at competitive prices, and share what it learns about mass-market fiber optic networking with everyone.

How fast is ultrahigh speed? Try 100 times faster than what most of us have now, fiber-to-the-home connections zipping along at 1 gigabit per second. To give you an idea, the Internet service you're currently using to read this is probably somewhere between 5 megabits (Mb) per second and 15 Mb per second, if you're lucky. The U.S. average is currently 3.9 Mbps. A gigabit is heckuva site faster than that, equal to 1000 Mb.


tommyrot - Feb 10, 2010 12:32:44 pm PST #12770 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

This is my sixth post here in a row - somebody else post something, dammit!

Anyway, Virgin Wireless now has a prepaid plan for mobile broadband: [link]

How do their prices compare with other mobile broadband providers?

Also, if I were to, for example, use the $20 plan, how much browsing would 250 MB be? They say 12 hours. But if I mostly use it for b.org and Google Reader (i.e. stuff that's mostly text) I wonder if I could stretch that out to more than 12 hours....


brenda m - Feb 10, 2010 12:42:30 pm PST #12771 of 25501
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

Hmm. I used to have web access on my Virgin phone, but I remember it was a daily/monthly usage charge. (Insanely cheap at the time, like $1/day, $5month.) But the service was pretty smooth.

I don't know from usage though - my usage on my BB last month was 46M, and I use it for web browsing all the time. Don't know how relevant that is.


brenda m - Feb 10, 2010 12:43:41 pm PST #12772 of 25501
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there

Oh, I see, this is for your actual computer. Carry on.


Vortex - Feb 10, 2010 12:43:43 pm PST #12773 of 25501
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

Isn't the 250 MB based on how much data is going back and forth? How can they give a time estimate?


meara - Feb 10, 2010 12:51:00 pm PST #12774 of 25501

I just checked in my phone. I mostly use Borg, lj, and facebook, with some reading of nytimes thrown in. But I admit, I do it a LOT all day long this month, since I've been traveling. I've used 107 mb this month so far (my billing cycle starts on the 1st). According to last months bill I used 262 for the month.


tommyrot - Feb 10, 2010 12:53:47 pm PST #12775 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Isn't the 250 MB based on how much data is going back and forth? How can they give a time estimate?

They take the average time for a room full of monkeys?