Lordkolya wrote in to tell us about a pyramid shaped keyboard. It's supposed to be ergonomic, but it sure is ugly. I still need to try one of the Kinesis keyboards out. It's time for me to change keyboards again. I dunno if I can learn a new chording keyboard. I've tried a few one handed boards and had bad luck. Maybe I'm not destined to learn any more chords then E-A-D.

Anml4ixoye asks: "I am currently the webmaster for Hillsborough County, FL. Yesterday I had a meeting with the chief of Fire Rescue and they have a challenge. Our incident-command vehicle currently uses a cellular connection to the internet when a hard-line is not available (at the rate of 18c a min). They would like to switch to satellite internet, but need a way to automatically position the dish that is used. We're talking firefighter proof (as simple as possible). Any ideas on who to use, how to accomplish this, etc?"

heliocentric asks: "I recently cleaned out the garage, and discovered that I am the proud owner of 4 working lawnmower engines. Considering I neither have kids, nor am I one myself, the Go Cart idea which was quick to come to mind, left just as quickly. I'm wondering if the Slashdot community might have some good plans for some spare 5HP lawnmower engines (preferably links to plans as well as ideas)? I am a fan of the junkyard wars as well as BattleBots and all those like them as well I consider myself decent with the welder etc.. But I don't want to make something to harvest hay nor is there local Battlebot group so I am open to other ideas. Think big, think small, but please keep it legal."

Jacob writes: "I just ran across an article about a new Linux-based PDA called the Powerplay III Linux PDA. The PDA is manufactured in Taiwan but is being sold by Canadian Linux company, Empower. This PDA is Palm IIIxe compatible (dragonball processor), is shipped with Empower's Linux DA O/S, and get this: its only $89! I'll be getting one..." We mentioned this operating system a few weeks ago. They now have some sort of source download available, which seems like a step in the right direction.

stripey357 asks: "I'm trying to install a Dialogic Gammafax card in Pentium-based SCO unix box, and I've run into a problem. The power supply for this box doesn't supply -5v to the ISA, and that's the voltage the Gammafax wants. Do they still make ISA voltage regulator cards that can reg -12v down to -5v, or would it be easier to replace the power supply?"

forgotten password writes: "I'd just started working on my morning M&Ms, when I was asked where my group can buy a good turn-key ~2CPUx10-node Beowulf cluster in two hours. I suspect the time frame is longer than that, although the window-of-opportunity for the money is apparently on the order of days, and a quote before the procurement meeting would help. Any ideas? Who's good? What it should cost? Thanks!" If you're quick, maybe you can become the world's newest manufacturer of custom beowulf clusters.

davco9200 asks: "I am looking to create a large data server for all my digital media files. The usage is the 'pro-user' category, to use the media from multiple stations in my house and at work. I value space (150+ gb would be nice), accessible from multiple platforms (Win, Mac), but perhaps most of all, some security (e.g. RAID 0 doesn't cut it). Total write or read access isn't that high of a priority. I have looked at things like the Snap 4100 that offer 160 gb or 300 gb and good raid options but the price seems high ($2,700 and $4,500 respectively). Has anyone had any experience making their own low-end NAS? Has anyone looked at the Adaptec IDE RAID Controller? This seems like a reasonable way of getting data parity so if one drive goes down your entire collection isn't lost. I figured Slashdot readers would have some good solutions. Information on specific cases, drives, and other pertinent facts would be helpful."

Asmodai writes "American Megatrends unveiled its StorTrends NAS software with NDMP support. This piece of software, which plugs into the StorTrends and ServTrends storage solutions, is a custom developed FreeBSD. Looks interesting for those who are interested in NAS and SAN and the subsequent managing and monitoring." It's interesting that this press release (because that's what it is) mentions FreeBSD by name.

Aaron Collins writes: "It seems a Korean company has developed a TV add-on for the iPAQ. Check out the product page at Denali IT. The specs seem to be 30 frames per second for NTSC. Sorry, I can't read Korean. That's the best I can make out. Maybe someone can help translate the page. The add-on is on sale at Handango Korea for 264,000 Korean Won or around US$203."

PoochieReds asks: "I'm in the market for a couple of PC's that are manageable via serial port. Where can I find a PC that doesnt take a keyboard and monitor to set up the BIOS? I'm really looking to go x86 linux for this job, but if I can't find something that does what I need I may have to fall back to using a SPARC. I'm also not interested in the RealWeasel -- neat product, but I really want an integrated solution (i.e. a serial capable BIOS). Can anyone recommend a reliable, rackmountable, x86 box that is completely manageable via serial port?"

Tomcow2000 asks: "I just picked up a stack of digital signature scanners for way-too-cheap. They're originally from Bradlees and they are evidently made by MobiNetix. They have something that looks like a VGA port on the back, but nothing else (not even power). Anybody know what these are and what I can do with them?" Digital Etch-a-Sketch anyone?

ByteHog writes: "Handspring now has 2 more Visors for us to play with. The Visor Neo, which comes in 3 different colors and the Visor Pro" The battery thing especially is a big deal.

nitecreep wrote to us about Tom's latest article: What happens to procs when the heatsinks fall off?. Having just had my brand new fan stop working on my computer, I can sympathize. I've found that it takes my 1.2 Ghz Athlon to reach 80 degrees Celsius in about 6 minutes, from time of starting machine. The results of running without a heatsink at all are....interesting.

Sulka writes: "The Register has a report claiming the PPC G5 CPU is ready for production and will be launched by Apple in January. Initial batch would include a 1.6GHz version with 2GHz to follow. 64 bit architecture, 10 stage pipeline, Silicon-On-Insulator and other buzzwords are mentioned." Maybe this will mean cheaper G4s for those of us who buy computers somewhat lower on the food chain, too.

man_ls writes: "I found this on C|Net, it's an HP Printer that also supports Bluetooth. You can read about it here. Not that the Bluetooth will do anything except interfere with 802.11 wireless networks, but it's an interesting feature to have." Actually, Bluetooth shouldn't interfere with 802.11 except in confusing product marketing, right? Nice to see that at least one printer will actually hit the market with a short-range radio interface instead of wire (inconvenient) or IR (poor interoperability).

chill asks: "The price of RAM has plummeted lately. On Price Watch I've seen 256 Mb PC-133 DIMMs for as little as $16 + shipping. Now that every machine I own has 768 Mb - 1.5 Gb of RAM, the question arises -- do I -need- swap space? I'm not talking about running large databases or enterprise machines, but the home PC/Workstation -- word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, some minor coding and that sort of thing." With memory so cheap, there is reason to wonder about the necessity of swap. Does a machine with 1-2G of RAM really NEED swap space if they are not running intensive software? Have any of you seen machines in production with the swap explicitly turned off?

A concerned Anonymous Coward asks: "Now that my cable modem system is filling up with users I cannot always get "online". The service provider's tech support says that my upstream signal power is borderline acceptable. They suggest that I buy a signal amplifier from them. I'm assuming they're trying to rip me off to offset capital investment costs. I've searched google for half and hour but cannot find anyone selling or anyplace to purchase a cable modem amplifier. Does anyone know where a cable modem amplifier can be purchased? Any advice on price, specs, quality, setup?" Cable modem amplifiers? I haven't heard of such things, but of course, that doesn't mean that they don't exist. Have any of you heard of such things, or is this just another attempt to separate the consumer from their money?

hondaguy asks: "I'm thinking of purchasing a Lian Li case. Very nice case, but doesn't come with a power supply. Which after-market power supplies are the best for the ATX format, in terms of noise, output (lots of accessories) and longevity. Please post links if possible."

Luti asks: "Does anyone know of a company that sells 802.11 dongles, or a PCMCIA card that has both a regular RJ-45 connector and an 802.11 antenna? I need to be able to connect my laptop at school (wireless), and at home through my server (due to price most likely wired). I just can't see the point in either a.) buying 2 pcmcia cards for their current prices, one 802.11 and one regular 10/100mbps, or b.) buying an 802.11 card and base station, or even a second card for peer to peer . Any suggestions? Anyone else in my position?" Interesting thought. I'm sure there are hardware manufacturers making these. Has anyone tried some of these out? What were your experiences, especially with regards to OS support?

Dune asks: "I tote around a nice laptop all day and then have to sit down in front of a lot of different boxes. I'd love to be able to use my laptop as a KVM head. Has anyone every seen something that would allow this? Maybe a USB device which has keyboard, video and mouse cables to plug into a box (or KVM switch)? With a corresponding app/driver of course..." My first knee-jerk answer to this question was "maybe VNC would work", and while that will let you log in and get you a desktop with which you could use the machine, it's only a hack and not a true KVM head, which would show you exactly the same thing that's on the console. Could VNC possibly be hacked to serve this purpose? Of course, and I'm sure that many people would be interested in such if someone knows how to do it. However I'm wondering if someone out there has already developed (or is working on) a better solution?