Misha asks: "I just started catching up on hardware info, and it seems many new chipsets (Apollo KX133, etc.) and motherboards are supporting this new type of slot. Seems to be a substitute for ISA if you are using it with a sound card or a modem. Not sure what the advantage is, but I assume it has something to do with letting ISA go. Can enlighten me some more about it?"

pacx asks: "I'm looking for a good graphics card for use with X, that will work under FreeBSD, Linux, Sun Solaris, and possibly SCO UnixWare. I don't need any fancy 3D graphics, just something that will work well on all the above systems at 1280x1024x24bpp, and for a reasonable price (approx. $100-$150 CDN). Can anyone make any suggestions?"

redmist writes "Ars Technica has a great, in depth article about the new Crusoe chips. Enjoy." This one will answer most of the questions I've heard about Crusoe's guts, and how it differs from other microprocessors. "Must" reading for all hardware junkies!

leiz writes "This article on Yahoo says Western Digital is pulling out of the enterprise hard drive business. This means they will no longer produce SCSI hard drives and Western Digital will be instead concentrating on the IDE and software business. What does this mean for the SCSI market? With 7200 rpm UltraATA/66 hard drives catching up in performance to SCSI HD, products such as the Fastrak RAID 0, 1, 0+1 card, and the cheap cost affectiveness of IDE/ATA, is SCSI no longer necessary for desktops / workstations / small servers?"

Johnzo asks: "I'm in the market for a new printer, and I've noticed that a lot of sub-$300 laser printers are popping up on the marketplace. I don't need colour, as most of what I print is text -- but I want that text to be crisp and sharp and damp-resistant -- so a cheap laser would seem to be ideal for my needs. So, my question: can one buy a good laser for less than three bills? Does anyone have any input on specific models to look for or to avoid?" Interesting thought. The printer market seems to be chainging from year to year, and now B&W laser printers are becomming affordable for your average computer user. What recommendations do you all have?

[Courtesy of the NetBSD Newsletter] Continuing their quest to have NetBSD run on every platform in existence, the NetBSD/Luna68k port is now stable enough to run multiuser. The Luna is a Japanese machine, with a 68030 processor running at 20Mhz, about equal to a sun3/60. The port's the result of hard work put in by Toru Nishimura. The port's announcement is available.

Cownonymous Award asks: "The company I work for recently gave me a laptop. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But: with it came a huge (and I really mean _huge_) laptop case, big enough to carry an RS/6000. Anyway, I look like a complete idiot when I take this humonguous "I'm a laptop, please steal me"-case with me. So I'm looking for an alternative, preferably a back pack. My question is: Has anyone had any (good) experiences with laptop back packs, especially ones like Eastpak's PC Pak'R or Timberland's HAKK?"

FaustZero asks: " I've been search all over for the mechanical specifications on the AT/ATX PC case. The case that I'm making for my car mp3 player needs a brace to support the ISA/PCI cards and I need the spacing between the screws that hold the cards in the back. At one time I did see a book with the entire PC specifications, but it has long since disappeared and is out of print. My best measurement is 20mm, but the case prevented me from placing the calipers flush with the back plane. Any help is very much appreciated."

Magorak asks: "Like myself, I know there's a lot of people out there who have built their own PC from the ground up. But, I also have friends who just went out and bought a boxed package that came with everything. I've always said that if you build your own PC, with exactly what you want, you'll have the best machine. But PC packages from Dell, Gateway and others are pretty promising so I'm not so sure anymore. I'm curious what Slashdotters think? " A while ago, I would have always suggested the custom solution, but this might not be so true anymore. Are there still places where the custom PC builder can still get a better deal than through Dell, Gateway and others of the sort?

Jason Swank writes "It looks like previous model of Sony's Glasstron was mentioned back in July, but it seems like they are now better and MUCH cheaper: 52" Virtual Viewing, 3.5 ounces, and only $499. " The one we reported on last july costed 5 times as much, but the cheaper model is 800x255, the $2600 version is 800x640. Still it looks pretty sweet. I wonder if I could use these without my contacts. That would make things a lot easier.

Kris_J writes "The Register says that "Apple-branded PalmOS-based device have already started coming off Taiwanese production lines". The Newton is dead, long live the PalmOS." It will be interesting to see that if this pans out, how much Newton technology will end up in this PDA. Towards the end, the handwriting recognition on the MessagePad was quite good, even if the unit itself was quite bulky. Who knows, maybe iPalm? :)

Ok, so I have a problem: I want my case to look cool. I have neat hardware inside, why is it always a beige box on the outside. Well jblakey pointed us to www.colorcase.com and I browsed around a bit, thinking they looked familiar. Well we actually mentioned these guys almost a full year ago but they have since significantly updated their inventory. Colored Cases, Interesting Designs, Transparent Cases, and even keyboards and mice to match. They also have that ridiculous looking penguin case ;) If this sorta stuff is your bag, check it out. I dig the C1 and the T3

Roar Lauritzsen asks: "After enabling scrolling with the wheel of my Logitech mouse in Linux/X, I find it indispensable. But holding the mouse in a natural grip while using the middle finger to scroll is quite uncomfortable, and soon after enabling this feature my hand started to hurt. To ease the pain I am now trying the Anir vertical mouse, but I don't think I like it. Personally, I think the thumb would be perfect for scrolling, but I have been unable to find a 3-button mouse (a must in X) with a wheel on the side for the thumb. What do YOU think is the perfect mouse, and where can I buy it? "

mcc::reba writes "Here is my experience using the new wireless Palm V service from OmniSky. It is a Very Cool Thing."

Fudge asks: "I've found that as we trundle along the Intel processor road, each successive generation of processor generates more heat than the last. Now my latest PC, a dual PIII-500, has two enormous fans to dissipate the heat which generate an awful amount of noise. Does anyone know of ways to deaden the noise without sacrificing the heat dissipation? I'd also prefer not to void the warranty, but I could be persuaded to compromise on that. "

Kevin writes "There's a story over at CNET talking about the future release of color Palms in February. Palm Computing's IPO is expected to coincide with the release. The article states that simplicity is a major part of the PalmPilot's design and that the implementation of color screens may not correspond with the ' so-called Zen of Palm principle,' keeping devices as simple as possible. "

danci asks: "I'm building a wireless network in a local community using Wavelan/IEEE cards. I'd like to avoid purchasing Wavelan access point so I'll try to use Linux instead. So I'd like to build some rather small but robust machines that should be able to survive summer, winter, snow, rain and most other weather conditions while being mounted on the antenna mast (or at least as near as possible - cable length heavily decreases range). So I guess what I wanna know is whether there are any weather proof, computer (PC) cases available out there. Or some other, low-cost solution (don't want to build a house around all that)." This would be too cool. Just imagine, a series of computers mounted to telephone poles with wireless network cards...

PhilLong asks: "I have a friend that is using an IBM keyboard from 5+ years back, the kind that didn't use rubber domes and had an emphatic "click" when used. I'd like to get him a new one so that he's not lost when the current one slips a key, and so he can use the ... ummm ... extra meta key. Where can I find such a keyboard, or more generally, where can I find keyboard reviews (subjective as I know they must be)?" Keyboard reviews? Now that's a neat idea...

yugami asks: "I was wondering if anyone in the Slashdot ranks has any experience with getting a HandSpring Visor PDA to work with Linux. The only reall difference between one of these and a Palm is the use of USB instead of serial to link up with the computer. "

Ken Heng asks: "I'm shopping for a 15" flat panel LCD monitor. But since a lot of these come with their own drivers, I'm afraid that when I get one, I may be unpleasantly surprised if they don't work with my Linux system. Or if they work (yes, I have seen in Xconfigurator, you can choose the LCD panels with different resolutions), they may not be fully functioning. FYI, I'm using RedHat 6.1 on an Intel Pentium II platform. Please advise if anyone knows about this."