M-Doggy writes: "With the festivities at Computex over in Taipei bringing in more out-of-towners than the Chinese New Year, a plethora of new product announcements and sneak peeks have hit the show floor. I noticed that AnandTech already has two articles up covering the action. The first one covers what was seen on the floor, including the AMD 760, NVIDIA's Crush chipset, and more. The second one has some interesting information regarding the non-RAMBUS solutions for the Pentium 4 and even includes some preliminary benchmarks. Both speak of the incredible politics behind the show; politics that rival even the recent events in the Senate." (Read below for another snippet on those non-Rambus P4s.)

So, as I suspect many of you have, I've got a home office that I probably work from for 2/3s of my working time, as I'm often working in the non-trad. office hours as well. It's nice having this space in my home, but the fans from the desktops are so loud, I feel as if I'm standing in the middle of O'Hare's runways. Anyone out there know of power supplies with quiet fans? CPU fans that are extra smooth?

hamster writes: "Chris Pauli took computer case customizations to a new high: an oak cube. Looks like a lot of work!" I believe this is what happened to Flay's cutting board after he threw it away.

Ethereal writes "This is probably one of the smallest computers available. It's roughly the size of a mouse! Specs: Processor:Intel Celeron 733 or Celeron 800 Format Mini-Book PC (All-in-One Solution); Size: 157 x 146 x 45 mm; Weight: 950g; Mem:64MB SDRAM DIMM PC100 City Desk; Motherboard Chipset Intel i810, UDMA66; HD: 10GB IDE UDMA66; Video: VGA Embedded i810 (S-Video & Composite); CD-ROM 40x Slim; Network: Embedded 10/100Mbps (RJ-45 Port); Sound: SB Compatible Embedded (Line Out, Mic In); Embedded Fax-Modem 56Kbps V.90 (RJ-11 Port); " Well, maybe not that small, but a twiddler and some sort of video unit and this sucker could be a wearable. I wish it had some wireless instead of a modem tho.

Jay Carlson writes "We've all heard about how Apple's hardware is really fast compared to PCs. ("Supercomputer!" "Twice as fast as a Pentium!" "Most powerful laptop on the planet!") So, if you *aren't* going to use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, how fast is it? I care more about integer apps like compilers, so I did some careful benchmarking of a few x86 and PPC Linux boxes. Submissions welcome."

rhadc asks: "Like many Slashdotters I have a pet network, spare parts around, and a number of configuration options. Unfortunately, I pay a power bill. I'd like to know how much power I'm using and how to optimize my numbers, but I don't know of any cheap way to find out. Would a 486 laptop be a better firewall than a 486 clone + UPS? Just how long will system X and system y with monitor z last on my my cheap UPS? Does anyone have insight into measuring this stuff?" For this, you can add up wattages on each device, multiply by some arbitrary "fudge rate" for local conditions, and get an approximate rate; or if you are electrically inclined, maybe you'd grab for the nearest ammeter and rig up a way to read what the line is drawing; but is there some device that could simply plug in between your UPS/Computer/Power Strip and the outlet and tell you? If not, how difficult would one be to build?

Joane Lispton asks: "I would like to ask the Slashdot crowd if they can help me do the following: I want to fit a x86 motherboard, two drives (Maxtor HD and CD-RW unit) and _two_ PCI cards into a 1U case (plus fan & power supply). Is this feasible? I was wondering whether there is some sort of "L-shaped" adapter that allows you to place PCI cards PARALLEL to the motherboard... Any tips are greatly appreciated!" I distinctly remember something like this existing for ISA cards, (it plugged into the normal ISA slot and had ISA slots that mounted parallel to the motherboard). Has a PCI equivalent been introduced?

mirko writes: "Here's a link to some weird projects that consist of recycling old servers. You have the SGI Fridge, but also the VAXbar, the SGI Espresso Machine, the VaxTap2000Pro and the SGI HiFi-Miniset. Now that you recycled the case, you can get inspiration from this project in order to recycle their inside components..." We've linked to some of these before, but a couple of them are new (to me, anyway).

Swaza1 writes: "While looking for something else I came across this embedded system at Web Techniques, which looks a lot like a paperweight I have on my desk. Good golly ... Intrinsyc included 10BaseT, serial, and USB ports on it and it comes in Windows CE or LINUX flavors. When can I get a system in the shape of Snoopy-sleeping-on-his-doghouse desk lamp for my kid?"

OberonX writes: "Blockman Trading has released the alpha version of Runix, which is a working verion of Linux 2.4 kernel working with PS2. [ed. note: for the original Playstation, though they plan on porting to the PS2 also.] You can read an article about it at zdnet and you can download the 26MB file here. The final version is expected to be released by October while office software for PS1 is due by the end of the year. Pretty neat stuff..."

InfiniteWaitState writes: "Lighter weight laptops may soon be more affordable and have better displays ... Forget LCD, according to this article in The Economist, soon OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) will be in mass production." These organic screens keep getting promised, but this article says that at least 30 companies now have plans to produce them, and that Sony has some biggish plans for TVs as well as computer screens, as well as a 13" demo model to show off.

loosenut writes: "The SF Chronicle has a lengthy article about the disposal or recycling of old computers, many with toxic components. If you are like me, you probably have a couple of 486s and Pentiums sitting in a closet somewhere. What is to become of these ancient beasts?" Read to the end of the article and it notes that Europe is planning to force manufacturers to recycle their products at the end of the product's lifespan.

labradore asks: "I must install a 1.2GHz Athlon system, in a secure place, at a retail business. The PC is going to be a security video recorder and a point of sale terminal server. In other words I need it to act like an appliance: something that requires very little on-site maintenance and at most, remote adminstration. Unfortunately the only secure place to put it is inside a hot, dusty storage room. It has it's own protective lock-box (approx. 3x3x3 ft.) to keep evil employees and snooping types out and to insulate it from the heat and dust of the storage room but I don't know how to actually keep the box cool and fairly free of dust." What things would one need to house comodity components in such a way to enable them to survive in such hostile environments? Is 27 cubic feet too small for the necessary modifications that would have to be made?

Reefa writes: "The first 3G phone trial has started in Japan. Of the 147000 that applied, 3300 lucky users have been given 3G phones (they have to pay for data access) to test out so that bugs can be fixed before a general release. Example of bugs could be screens freezing up, to which a re-boot (switch off/on) of the phone is the only solution. Kinda reminds me of Windows. Anyway, I am sure that it would be fun to actually test drive one of these FOMA phones. What I would really like to see is real figures of data rates on these phone during peak usage hours." There's also a Reuters story.

PDA User writes: "With more and more innovative items coming out this year, it's not surprising to say the least that a new product has come out, this time it's called a "Half Keyboard." Well, what does this half keyboard offer you? Available for the home PC or any PDA, it's got some pretty interesting features....check out the review @ G3D:Gaming In 3D for some nifty info on this $99 Half Keyboard." An excerpt: "Touch typing was invented over 100 years ago. In all that time there have been no significat advances in how people type. Until now. This motto, taken directly form Matias Corporation's manual, states their goal. But, have they achieved it?" Nothing like trying one out, but a review is better than just looking at the pretty pictures and wondering whether a wacky keyboard is as useful as it is intriguing. (The review says "it's not all that stellar in gaming," though.)

ahaning asks: "I've recently been collecting mirrors for a file that I found a while back when I had messed up a motherboard and didn't have a manual for it. I haven't really needed the file since, but I'd hate to loose it. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about it until after the fact, but, as the file shows, there used to be a (yearly?) publication on CDROM called Total Hardware. From what I can guess, it contained all that's in the file but with images of every card (there's a little under 15,000 in all). Another similar library of information was called Microhouse. That library is still available. However, all of my attempts to wget the Microhouse library have failed. What I wanted to ask was if anyone else knew of any other good resources similar to these. Especially files (tar/zip) that can be downloaded and referred to offline." It's useful little things like this that the industry once did that I found extremely useful. It's sad that hardware companies either find no monetary value or even goodwill value in continuing to provide this information to its customers.

jsse writes "Linux.com has an interview with a Yopy programmer Young Hoon Kim. He told us what we can do with this promising Linux PDA - like running Apache on it." A little light on substance, but several interesting points. As it stands, the iPaq is really the only Linux handheld candidate at this level (with high end features like a color LCD). This one is due out later this year.

demaria asks: "As hard drives continue to grow, it's getting more difficult to back up important and not-as-important data. I run a small personal system (about 20 friends - not commercial) and have about 20gigs of data that I'd like to protect in case of disk crash, accidential deletions, or other forms of evil. I'm looking for people's experiences and problems with various personal backup systems under Linux. I can deal with downtime and changing tapes (such as using a 4G native tape). I'd consider CD-R except that I'd need about 30 of them, and I don't find them terribly reliable to begin with. Tape seems to be the cheapest medium. I'm only looking to do backups once every month or two, and only looking to spend about $200 on a drive (SCSI or IDE is fine, as is buying a used one), and no more than $50 on tapes per backup set. Can anyone recommend a good drive that'll work fine under Linux, and good backup software ? (if there's something better than tar -cf of course!)" After just losing a 30G HD due to a power supply surge, I too am in the market for such a solution. (And yes, I am kicking myself for not making backups, fortunately it was nothing critical...just Windows)

DoomDoom writes: "OK, been checking out some of the h/w encryption stuff. Liked Intel's dual purpose card. But just wondering if this PA SEC 100 card has any purpose. I mean , this baby costs around $2k+ and will probably sit in a server with 2 or more CPUs (Pentium III or above). So why even bother with hardware encryption? I mean in the era of Pentium IV etc. powered servers, does it even make sense to have hardware based encryption cards?" Maybe another way to think of this question is "Are encryption-breaking schemes advancing faster than the processing power you're able to spare from your server's primary job?" If so, even a few thousand dollars may be a worthwhile investment. Any thoughts from those who've chosen (or avoided) in-hardware encryption?

simonwagstaff writes: "I read with interest Hemos' recent review of the "Evolution" split keyboard, and it reminded me of a long-time quest, namely the holy grail of laptop input devices: a comfortable keyboard. Is there even such a thing? As I see it, three basic things affect how comfortable a keyboard is: key pitch, key travel, and actual arrangement on the typing surface. (the first and third are closely linked, since by things like eliminating a number pad are what let laptop keyboards fit a reasonable space at all)."(Read more below.)