S. Kinney writes "TI recently announced the development of a new calculator, known as the Voyage 200, to replace the TI-92+. The software changes are rather minor, as the device is designed to be compatible with the 92, though the addition of a clock makes the Voyage more functional for some, and the case of the device enjoys a new design. Perhaps the most useful upgrade to the 92+ is the addition of more memory, for a sum of 2.7 MB of storage. No word on release date, but it'll be interesting to see how this comes out. It may be one more step towards releasing a modern-day Avigo, their failed PDA from a few years back. "

An Anonymous Coward asks: "I help at a small youth club that has various events on different nights. For awhile now we have had a snack bar of sorts and have been thinking of developing a pre-paid system. We have access to plenty of computers and magnetic card readers (wit blank cards) but any ideas on the software? Also, would there be any way of also using this to keep track of a CD sign-out system?"

(startx) writes: "Well, it looks like creative has done it again. This time they've created an external sound"card" that connects through usb to your computer or laptop. It's called the Extigy, and looking at the specs, it appears as though it's got every possible audio connector you can possibly think of, along with the standard ir port with remote control. With this, a usb HDD, and a usb cd-rw, it looks like I can have most of my box, outside the box, just for the geek factor :-)" I don't think it's quite as cool-looking as the Stereolink 1200 (which I've never actually heard), but for a few bucks more the Creative crams in a lot of features.

It looks like the Royal Linux-PDA project has borne fruit. Bill Kendrick writes: "Linux Devices reports that Royal (makers of the DaVinci PDA) have announced yet another Linux-based PDA, called 'Lin@x' (how do you pronounce that!?). Unlike the DaVinci (and the Agenda VR3 -- Agenda Computing is owned by the same company as Royal), this PDA sports a 206MHz StrongARM, a color screen, and a CompactFlash slot. Planned price is about US$300." According to the PR, it will come bundled with software for Linux desktops as well as for Windows, which would be a nice touch.

Bill Kendrick writes "infoSync has just posted a very well-rounded (and long) review of the Sharp Zaurus PDA. Get out the kleenex - you'll be drooling." Gotta say, thats a sharp looking little device.

Now that wireless technologies are more-or-less a household name, BSDevil wonders if it's possible to use such technologies (ie Bluetooth, 802.11, etc) as a replacement for those situations where long ungainly cables are usually called for: "My laptop and printer are placed such a way that running a cable from one to the other would just plain suck (too long if not direct, if direct then in the way, etc.) and because both are about a year old. I want (to make, if need be) a little box that I plug into my Parellel port on the laptop and one that I plug into the port on the back of my Printer, and have them talk and print and be merry. Power could either be directly off the port (best) or from a rechargable battery inside the thing that is used to power the system when transmitting, and recharges when not - like a big capacitor - off the power of the Port. Does it exist, and if not, any ideas on making one?" And if such can work for printers, why not other peripherals as well?

msolnik writes: "Toms Hardware has but together a head to head comparison of 4 different water cooling kits. Instead of buying each part seperately these kits come with everything needed. I would love to use water cooling but there is just something about having water inside of my case that makes me very uneasy. But for all you hardcore overclockers out there this may help you out a lot."

msolnik writes: "Over at RealWorldTech they've published an article on the future of 64-bit performance. This article covers the different technology from Sparc to Hammer. Its a great read if you are looking for information on up-and-coming products from Intel, AMD, Sun, and Compaq."

BubbaJoeBob writes: "I just read this thread over at the AVSForum that jeffm7 was able to upgrade his UTV 40GB drive to a WD 100GB drive. Other users are reporting that they were also successful using the WD 120GB drive." And aside from ending up with an apparently useless original drive, this sounds much less painful and involved than various homebrewed TiVO upgrades; according to posters on this thread, it's nearly plug-and-play (with a necessary download step in the middle).

zeropanic asks: "I'm not a person who likes to shell out 100's of dollars on new PC (or Mac!) equipment each year just because it's been "replaced" with something better.. Broke down and got a PS2 for Christmas this year, eyeing the iLink port in front. I know the designed task for the PS2 iLink was to hook up two or more Playstation units together, but could it be adapted to something else? Has anyone ever thought to write some software turn the PS2 into a DV suite? With all camcorders going to digital, someone (like me) who has a PS2 and a Sony handycam could connect up and do some minor editing.. Titles, splicing, etc.. while hooking up a USB HDD for temp storage.. (Poke poke to Sony!)" While this would be an interesting use for the PS2 hardware, why not use a laptop instead?

kwishot writes "Xam over at www.wi2600.org has documented a relatively simple way to 'turn up the juice' on your Linksys WAP11 Wireless Access Point." Caveats: the outlined method requires a Windows box, recent firmware, and (some) bravery, but no going inside the box or special hardware.

An Anonymous Coward throws this spanner into the works by asking: "OK, a response to another Slashdot question has made me wonder... Can techies fix cars? I know computers very well, I can fix VCRs, and I can wire home theater systems but I don't know the slightest thing about my car. I am not sure I even want to but I thought some other Slashdoters might want to way in on that. Could it be the whole "getting dirty" thing with cars? What do you think? How well do you know the inner workings of that thing that sits in the driveway?" I used to think I liked taking anything apart, not just computers, but after spending a few frustrating afternoons maintaining my car, I figured such things were best left to the professionals. However, I may be a minority in this, based on the responses from the last auto-related question.

TVgeek asks: "Has anyone out there hacked apart one of those MySmart pads? Out of the box, it's nothing more than hardware spyware (spyhardware? hardspyware?) but you can pick them up at Best Buy for like $4, and it does have an integrated smartcard reader/writer. If nothing else, there's a nice membrane switch in there, too..."

An anonymous reader writes "Overclockers Online has posted a review of an all aluminium black Lian Li case equipped with a Z4 watercooler. Besides looking slick this product, that goes by the name Heat Seeker, performs very well." Part of me wonders when is enough, well, enough. Then I stuff that part into a box and try to justify buying one of these things ;)

fm6 writes "There's this computer scientist named Adrian Thompson who's into what he calls "soft computing". He takes FPGAs and programs them to "evolve", Darwin-style. The chip modifies its own logic randomly. Changes that improve the chips ability to do some task are kept, others are discarded. He's actually succeeded in producing a chip that recognized a tone. The scary part: Thompson cannot explain exactly how the chip works! Article here."

msolnik writes "Tweak3D.net has posted an article over how to build yourself a fast box that doesn't sound like an airplane hanger. Its nice to find something like this - most articles are just about speed this article combines performance and usability. If your interested in building a fast pc that you don't have to put in " See my thoughts on this as well.

Nate LaCourse writes: "Real good one from Cringely this month. It's on building his own supercomputer, but with some twists." You'll probably also want to check out the KLAT2 homepage to learn more about their Flat Neighborhood Network. And since KLAT2 has been around for nearly a year (check out the poster on this page!), perhaps a 3rd generation is in the works?

frisket asks: "The Sun IPX formerly known as curia.ucc.ie (now imbolc.ucc.ie) entered TBL's CERN main menu in 1992 to serve the CURIA project (now CELT) as a search engine (running PAT). The same machine is still doing the same job, and we're trying to find out if it really is the longest continuously-serving Web server. Does anyone know if any of the other links from that page at the time (has anyone a copy even?) are which are still served by the same hardware?"

Barak Pearlmutter asks: "I'm teaching computer architecture this spring. The course involved a lot of assembly programming, and in the past has used a SPARC simulator. I'd like to get a bunch of PDAs with RISC processors (ARM or MIPS) instead. This requires a development environment that runs under Linux and supports assembler...and some PDAs. The less memory and the slower the CPU the better! Also no virtual memory or real OS to get in the way - best to have direct access to the display and buttons."

mikeb55121 asks: "Today I was refilling my fish tank and was thinking about water cooling for my computer. As I spilled the water on the ground I realized that I was pouring cold water in to my fish tank and that I had tropical fish and right then it struck me! If I could just hook up my fish tank and computer together so that it would use watercooling by using the water out of the fish tank to cool the processor and then go back in to the tank and keep them warm. In my head it works out just fine however I don't know if it would be practical in reality. If such is possible, it would be pretty tight since it would keep my processor, fish and me happy, all at one time! If any one actually is going to try this, please email me, as I would like to hear about your results and to know if an idea of mine actually works for once!" An interesting thought! If any of you have pulled something like this off, please share. (And post pictures if you've got 'em!)