Wister285 asks: "I've been hearing a lot about new RAM technologies. Two of the main new forms seem to be RDRAM and DDRAM. Little known to a lot of people currently though is MRAM (magnetic RAM that works more like a hard drive than an electric memory saver, which means that RAM memory is never erased until the computer says so, even through power offs). MRAM seems to be the best form of RAM, but it might not be out for another 1 or 2 years. With these three choices, what is the next generation RAM?"

Jacek Fedorynski was one of the folks who wrote in with a huge slew of reviews of the new GeForce 2 Ultra - starting with Hot Hardware, moving to RIVA 3D, heading to 3DGPU, and ending with FiringSquad, and nV news and probably all the other sites.

myKeyb0ardsAreD1rty asks: "Okay, I am a little bit messy, but never have I been a dirty person. Nonetheless, looking at my computers, I get the feeling I am. My beloved Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard's keys have ugly black marks after 5 years of continious use (and I like this keyboard, I don't want another one). The same happened to keyboards used by others in this office. I do clean my keyboard from time to time, but now, I just cannot get it clean anymore. I have seen similar stains in other offices, so it must be a common problem. How do folks clean their computers to get rid of this?" We did a topic on cleaning computers back in June, but the tips there were more on generic computer cleaning. What specific suggestions do you have for cleaning what is probably the dirtiest part of your computer?

Joseph Tan writes:"Tech-Junkie's own attempt on a liquid cooling project, this time we used a combination of liquid alcohol and frozen carbon dioxide. Less than -65 degrees Celsius was achieved, and amazingly our motherboard and CPU are still alive. "

pug23 writes: "CNET has an article about the Samuel 2, [a 1 Ghz-plus] processor which Via plans to begin production on in the first half of next year. More competition in this area can only be a good thing. Apparently they introduced the Samuel 1 (at speeds between 500 and 600 MHz) in June, but have been marketing it primarily in Russia, India, China and Eastern Europe."

benzilla asks: "I'm using a digital camera to take aerial photos from a helicopter. Flash cards for this camera are too expensive and keep breaking apparently. An idea would be to take a raid up in the 'copter and write the images directly to this (due to the cost of the flights the requirement is to be able to store as many images (4-8mb each) as possible on the raid each flight, as well as using redundancy to ensure that the picture is saved. This raid would then be read via the office network (Windows unfortunately). I don't really want to send a PC up with the kit as what I really want is just a simple box that would use the raid as a massive flash card. (just to note here all vibration issues etc. have already been solved). Is there such hardware available? Camera is a top range Kodak, with PCMCIA (Type III?) and SCSI ports for connection." Don't panic! This isn't being used for spy purposes. Honestly!

Several readers wrote in about the new Palm VIIx. It looks really nice and all, but I've got to say that the Handspring looks good too. If anyone's had a chance to use a prerelease of the new VIIx, please post your experiences below.

OnlyNou writes "IBM Develops Prototype of Wrist Watch Running Linux only a prototype, but it shows big blue has a lot of time on it's hands." The article is pretty vapourous: Its just a press release saying that they've done it. No pictures of linkage, so if anyone finds something informative, please post it. Update by HUNQ: Here is the picture of the watch, and it's DAMN CUTE! (credits goes to Linux Weekly News)

Compenguin writes "Over at TiCalc.Org information has leaked out about the new HP Xpander. Reported specs: 133MHz RISC processor (downclocked to 66 for power consumption), 320x200 screen 256 shades of gray, MP3 playing capabilities, and a "futuristic look." There is also a rumour flying around that it might run Pocket Linux as its OS. " Check out HP's page as well - and see our prior post on the 49G, the parent to this model.

s|eeper writes: "C|Net just posted an article about Tivo publicly stating that at this time, they have no problem with people hacking their Tivos to add more disk space."

WasterDave wrote in with this link to information about zero copy sockets on FreeBSD. Some hunting turned up more detailed information about NetBSD and Gigabit networking. Pointers to similar information for OpenBSD are appreciated...

[Dilbert] writes "I saw this first on ArsTechnica. The machine is a 486SX, fully SVGA compatible, 16 meg of ram, 2 16550A serial ports, hda = 16 meg flash, hdb = 340 meg IBM microdrive. Oh yeah, also built-in 10T ethernet, a floppy header, and parallel port. Granted, most of the ports are brought off the main unit via a 68-pin scsi-style cable to a little port board, but the meat of the machine is still tiny. The manufacturer is Tiqit Computers." Don't lose it in your couch ;)

MichaelH writes: "AllLinuxDevices has intervie wed seminal X developer Jim Gettys of handhelds.org. He discusses the fate of the Itsy (and Itsy 2), the GNOME/KDE environments on a palmtop, and some of the challenges of porting X to a compact environment. Handhelds.org is currently driving development for the Compaq iPAQ 3600 series as part of the 'Open Handhelds' initiative."

^me^ asks: "I have a Palm IIIe and an EEPROM burner, plus numerous EEPROMs and I can get them manufactured. The Palm IIIe uses a ROM to store system software, and I'd like to upgrade it. Is there any way if I map the pin layouts or something that I can replace the ROM with an EEPROM?" Could a Palm's internal memory space be increased as well via a similar hack? Palm VII's could really use the extra space.

aibrahim asks: " I need to be able to sustain at least a 23MB/s (That is MEGABYTES per second) transfer rate over the course of about 2 hours. I'd like to get 60MB/s sustained. I also have to be able to perform seeks quickly because I am going to need random access. Can ATA RAID arrays really do it? What would be the difference between using ATA/66 and ATA/100 arrays? What other budget conscious ways are there to get it done ? How about sharing this fast storage across a network? For some context, the application is non-linear editing of uncompressed standard definition television, multiple streams if possible."

Bahumat asks: "I remember hearing about a year back about credit-card size solid-state hard drives that were to revolutionize the storage industry, with the capacity for 2300 gigabytes stored, and the cost of manufacture to be less than $50. The old news release [ C : dated 8/99] is posted here. Does anybody know of any updates or press releases about this technology?"

OctaneZ asks: "While I know very few of us would consider a set top box as a good solution for a replacement of a home PC; there are individuals for whom these products would be perfect. I am looking for a solution for completely computer-illiterate relatives; and was wondering if a set top box might be a solution. I am not looking for sheer power, bragging rights, or gaming; just e-mail and Web access. Has anyone had luck with preconfigured set top boxes? and with those, how is the service? Also has anyone made a "roll-your-own" set-top box out of a MicroATX machine? Could a MicroATX implemetation be "deployable" to 3-4 users running LINUX or another OS, and not require regular maintenance or excessive amounts of teaching?"

Patrick 'CaptTofu' Galbraith has completed a palm interface to Slashdot that you can access from this location if you're using the Palm VII's Web Clippings. Feel free to send him thanks/bugs/suggestions/feraris if you're moved to. Update: 07/29 12:15 AM by CT : Avantgo users could try this URL and consider deprecating the old use of light more.

/dev/trash asks: "I have been debating wiping the windows partiton on my laptop. The only thing that is keeping me from fdisk'ing the whole thing is my Garmin handheld GPS. I've searched on Freshmeat for GPS/X interfaces but most seem to be alpha 1998 projects. Are there any companies, individuals, etc. that are porting the functionality right now?"

cmdrheath asks: "My company is looking to purchase a new laptop for the boss to use, and while I know that TFT beats DSTN out every time, (better color, visible from more directions, etc.) I am curious as to where this new HPA technology fits into the picture. Has anyone on Slashdot had any sort of experience with HPA screens? How do they look? Should we still try to go with TFT?"