antiher0 asks: "A while back, while connecting the batteries to 20 UPS's at work, I had a revelation. Well... maybe it wasn't that subtantial, but I thought of something that noone I talked to could answer. UPS's work by storing energy in a standard battery (undergoing a transformation from AC to DC in the process). When the power goes out or a brownout occurs the energy stored in the battery gets converted into AC and is sent down the power cable to the end device where may be converted back to DC again (as in the case of a standard PC). These conversions between AC and DC are not very efficient. Why not just have a system that places the battery and logic board within the power supply of the PC? (or at least hooks up to the power supply, the battery need not physically reside in the power supply) By doing this, you streamline the whole process and make the whole thing a bit more convenient. There are, of course, more issues to deal with, but I think it'd be feasable." This is a good point. If PC power supplies were external, they could be integrated with the battery/UPS and maybe we could save a bit of energy by performing one less AC-to-DC conversion which could potentially save some wear on the battery. Is there any reason why something like this couldn't work?

cryptonix writes: "This device seems pretty cool. it attaches to your network and allows you to degrade network preformance (for testing purposes only of course). runs on windows and supports gigabit ethernet or 10/100 networks. There's more info at emprix's site about the PacketSphere." Alright, that's funny as hell, and frankly a really good idea.

_typo asks: "I was thinking about building a nice MP3/VCD/DVD playing box for my home. Such box would stack along with the rest of the home entertainement equipment. I need suggestions about the case to use, the hardware to put in it and the software to drive it." This is similar to the Ask Slashdot on Home Theater Systems, but this approaches the issue from a different angle, that of building your own device to run the DVD/VCD/MP3 aspect of your mega-stereo system. Off the shelf products can do this decently well, especially with DVDs and VCDs, however about the best player of MP3s in existance, aside from the portables, is your average home computer. DVD/MP3 combos will play some MP3s fairly well, but even the best ones have problems with certain MP3s that will play well enough on a machine with a decent MP3 player.

Mr_Person writes "Dell Computer will recall about 284,000 notebook batteries due to a flaw in batteries incorporated in Inspiron 5000 and 5000(e) notebooks. The flaw causes the batteries to produce excessive amounts of heat, in fact, at least one notebook has even gotten to the point of catching on fire!" I thought the worst part of Dell Laptops was the fact that they broke all the time, and that they billed me for months after I shipped them the laptop back claiming they never got it. Maybe you could use Dell Laptops as an alternate heat source, what with rising gas prices *rimshot*

Red Mercury writes: "Sony has just announced their much anticipated high resolution (320x320) Palm OS-based PEG-N710 Clie Handheld. You can read their press release, and check out Red Mercury's experience with a pre-production unit here." And if you'd like to do more than look, lazylion says: "While everyone was busy yesterday oggling Apple's new low cost sub-notebook, Sony quietly began accepting pre-orders for the US English version of their fabulous Palm-alike, the Clie PEG-N700c. This is the one with the jog dial, MP3 player, memory stick & 320 x 320 px display. Cool! They even match. I'll take one of each!"

CTho9305 asks: "I know you can make bootable CD-R/RWs that work fine to get you running DOS (well, Microsoft will call it Windows without the GUI, but I'll call it DOS). And I know you can boot linux, and even run X. However, that only works because these things can run fine from read-only media. Since a CD-RW could theoretically be mounted read-write under linux, I bet its possible (if it hasn't alread been done) to write a kernel module to boot from a CD-RW with it mounted read/write. What I'm really interested in is booting Windows (9x), which requires read-write media. What would be required? Would a DOS driver suffice? Does such a piece of code exist somewhere?" Such an ability would make it easier for novice users to try other alternative operating systems. Is it likely that BIOS makers will support this ability in the future? What can we do to make this happen?

DAQ42 asks: "Okay, so I've been reading these illusive and cryptic things about ATA hard drives and Ultra DMA settings. There are all these wonderful charts and diagrams everywhere that show the different DMA modes and what they mean as far as seek time and transfer rates but what do they mean to me, the guy who wants to make his hard drive that is set to DMA mode 2 (33.3MB/sec) and set it to DMA mode 3 (66.6 MB/sec). These fun little things make my head go foop. I've seen plenty of stuff about writing or editting your own device drivers for Linux but what about for those of us using fun gimpy stuff like Macs or PC's or other evil toys of destruction."

I've been using the deskmount Evolution keyboard from Ergo Interfaces on my main work machine for a couple of months now. I've been doing so both because of some chronic wrist pain, and to try actually using the split-keyboard approach to things. What follows are my own personal tribulations and truimphs using said technology.

JediTrainer asks: "The issue recently came up in my organization that our hardware and software asset information needs to be gathered and stored so that we can import this data into an asset tracking database to further be able to deal with the data. Unfortunately because of circumstances it is difficult to send people to all locations to audit each piece by hand. Ideally, we'd like to be able to track specific information about the hardware (serial number if possible, memory, processor type/speed, hard disks etc), and also detect some of the major software packages that might be installed (OS, office suites, photo editors, development tools etc)."

3ryon asks: "I've been charged with procuring a high-end portable server containing two 1Ghz CPU's, 30 Gig of hard drive, and 1 Gig of RAM, all under $20,000. Ideally this would exist in a laptop footprint. Does this exist anywhere? My current idea is to buy a 1U server from Dell and a 1U LCD/Keyboard module and have a machine shop build an enclosure for them. Besides my need (a portable video encoder), I bet that sales people would love to be able to bring this sort of power to a client site." Even though computing technology has grown much smaller thru the years, I'm not quite sure SMP laptops are a possiblilty yet. A major concern of putting so much computing power in such a small space is twofold: heat and the electrical power needed to run it. I'm not quite sure that the manufacturers have found a way around that, yet. Is it possible to get SMP power in a smaller footprint than your typical desktop, however?

RebornData asks: "Thanks to a move and continuing instability in the DSL market, I'm now the proud owner of three DSL modems of various types gathering dust in my closet. It's a sordid tale. While I know that obselete hardware is worth next to nothing, this hardware isn't necessarily obselete, with my most recent acquisition only getting two months of use (thanks to Northpoint's untimely demise). Is there a market for used consumer DSL modems? Some of these devices (like the Telocity Gateway) are more than dumb communications electronics- are there any cool hacks out there for them?" RebornData is surely not alone in this; I am now the (proud?) owner of an Efficient Networks, Inc SpeedStream modem, orphaned along with my old DSL provider. (Read on for more.)

aqua writes: "Two days after the announced ship date, Agenda Computing has sent mail to customers who preordered a VR3 PDA: "In keeping with our commitment to deliver the highest quality PDA possible - one that provides you with many years of enjoyment - Agenda has revised the ship date to May 21, 2001." This was previously rumored on agenda-user, since the software wasn't looking ready to ship. recent discussion on the developer list, however, suggests that many of the problems cited are now much improved. By way of apology, they're throwing in a free VR3 carrying case." Agenda sent a review model to me which I played with for about 10 minutes. I turned it off to get stuff done, and the next day when I had time to actually put it to work, it refused to turn back on. I think it needs some work yet :) But it was cool running 'ps' on a handheld.

jotaeleemeese writes: "A few days ago there was a discussion about gesture navigation in the Opera browser, that prompted my to buy Black & White, download Opera and get the evaluation version of Sensiva. Being a trackball user, I found gesture navigation too cubersome, I found a mouse not much better either. Then I thought a pen based device or a touchpad could be ideal for this kind of input, but before investing my hard cash buying something, I would like opinions from /.ers that have already tried something with these or other programs using gesture recognition and what the results have been."

An Anonymous Coward asks: "After years in the computer industry it just occurred to me: Why don't computers have external power supplies? The lions share of the heat and noise from a computer are generated from the power supply. Why not take it out of the case and run just the 12 and 5 volt lines into the case, leaving the heat and noise tucked down under the desk somewhere? Perhaps there is some electrical law that makes that a bad idea, but I can't think of it." One stumbling block is that a power supply brings in more than the 12V and 5V lines, it also provides the power connectors for the motherboard, internal peripherals and external fans. However, these could be provided by the case. If a standard form connector from external PS to the PC is designed, might we be able to avoid further incompatibilities like AT/ATX? It's an interesting idea for future designs, but I wonder if there are other stubling blocks out there. Thoughts?

Joe Mamma writes: "There is a good article on Anandtech.com about how they upgraded their backend. They are running a bunch of AMD chips in their servers and make good use of the Linux Virtual Server Project software for their load balancers. Anyway its a good read for those who are looking to expand their web backend on a budget."

the_arrow asks: "The company I work for is thinking about updating our control computer to something more modern. Does someone know of a good (and of course cheap) hardware with a small footprint, with at least two serial ports (one of them should be RS422) and an ethernet adapter? It must be able to run Linux. The other question is if we should buy Linux from someone (like Lineo) or try to make our own 'distribution' with our own drivers? The computers will be controlling both airport passenger boarding bridges and aircraft docking guidance systems (and maybe some of the other things we make)."

Anonymous Coward asks: "Why is it that Microsoft and many other manufacturers of PC Peripherals do not make left handed models of their products? Every day the peripherals on offer become more ergonomic, have added buttons and functions. I am not able to use these Peripherals as they are only produced for Right Handed People, so I remain using these crappy mice and joysticks that have a generic layout. Are there any manufactures that produce left handed versions of their products (eg. mice and game controllers)?"

Faramir writes: "I need some help with a jackhammering problem. You see, construction is going on, oh, about 5-10 feet behind the wall of the lab I work in. Essentially right next to my head. And next to this wall I have a number of PCs and a file server with a bunch of nice SCSI drives. And I have no idea how long it is safe to leave them running." (Read more below.)

npongratz writes "Hailing from the world of physics, chemistry, and assorted geewhiz, Lynx Photonic Networks announced a photonic switch with less than 5ns packet switching. "...multiterabit switching systems..." That's what I call bitchin' switchin'." And unlike certain optical switches discussed here before based on bubbles moving in liquid, this variety "does not have any moving parts, nor does it require a change in the physical state of the light signal." 5 nanoseconds.

chaoskitty writes "Jason Thorpe has gotten multiprocessor NetBSD/Alpha to go multiuser! He has already done a kernel build and full userland build with the multiprocessor kernel. More details are in Jason's message to the NetBSD tech-smp list.