darkangel asks: "My hdd finally died today. I'd been having all sorts of trouble with it for quite some time. It was a Seagate 4.3 gig EIDE. So I'm going to get a new one, hopefully one that is more reliable. My first choice is a 13gig IBM Deskstar. Does anyone have one of these? How reliable are they? Any comments would really be appreciated. Please email me! "

Several people, including Lexie, wrote to us about one of the coolest Palm accessory that's rolled around in a while. It's a full size keyboard, looks like it folds out - and will be coming out sometime later on this year. Looks like yet another Christmas idea.

The Dakota Kidd writes "Just saw this on Linuxgames today - Creative has released the drivers for their dxr2 DVD decoder card. It isn't listed yet on Creative's Open Source page but it is in the CVS repository. " Kinda lost in the excitment of their open sourcing the drivers for SB Live!, but yet more good news on the hardware support front.Credit where it's due: Andrew deQuincey and Lucien Murray-Pitts actually wrote the code - it's nice to be able to get it now.

Anonymous Coward writes "According to an article at GA-Source, Aureal Semiconductor will be releasing Linux drivers for their sound cards "much sooner than you think" along with the source code. " Excellent - coming on the heels of the Soundblaster announcement, things are going to be sounding much better.

gfoyle writes "There is an article at Education Week about the PalmPilot's growing place in classrooms. The article mentions a contest for Palm programers sponsered by the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies to address the shortage of software designed to enhance students' education. The contest closes Jan 15, 2000, and prizes include Palm VIIs and Vs. "

shaar writes "Motorola has introduced another neat wireless chip. It seems this new chip would get us all closer to the all-in-one gadget no matter where you are. From the press release blurb: 'The chip conforms to the Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) standards and also supports satellite-based products.' "

draggy writes "Seems the doomed Hercules name may live on. Guillemot has announced it acquired the Hercules name and technology. " Sheesh. The memories of actually having a Hercules graphics card - I feel like I'm in middle school again.

Several people wrote to us to let us know that Creative Labs has decided to make the drivers for their Soundblaster Live open source. They made the announcement and also said they will be setting up a CVS/Bugzilla system to aid in development. Jon Taylor, of S3 and nVidia fame, along with several other coders have been asked to oversee the development. Additionally, they confirmed that they are working with Lokisoft to work Environmental Audio and "3D Audio" on the Linux platform. Lokisoft makes most of the uber-cool games for Linux.

JohnnyZed wrote to us with the link to Atelier a company that's released the original SimCity (SimCity Classic) for the PalmPilot. I don't usually like product plugs, but I had way too much fun with this game when it came out - now I can play it on the plane! Or the bathroom!

James Cook writes "A mouse that can sense when your hand touches it was built a while ago by the boys at Microsoft Research. It enables nifty user interface tricks, like toolbar menus that fade away when you aren't touching the mouse. I want one, then I want Linux drivers for it." Forget who built it. This looks like something worth having (once enough Linux software supports it to make it worthwhile.)

SaDan writes "I checked out a comparison of the new Intel Coppermine processors and AMD's Athlon chips at Tom's Hardware Guide last night. It's kind of interesting, and I thought others would be curious about how Athlon stacks up against Intel's latest offering. "

rde writes "Everyone's favourite free-subscription-needed paper, the New York Times has an interesting piece on Lego's appeal to programmers and inventors, amongst others. " I still have all of mine from childhood. I could construct an industrial park out of all of them.

Mad Browser noted that Handspring is having troubles. Massive hold times, downed computers, people getting charged multiple times for their orders. Its either a sloppy system, or a lot of demand.

Cpt_Kirks writes "Wired has an article mentioning a new thumb keyboard for the PalmPilot that clips over the graphitti (sp?) area. The site listed is in Japanese, but it appears to just be push buttons that tap the screen. The rest must be done in software. " They claim you can use it as fast as you can use grafitti, and at only $40 it doesn't seem that expensive.

Ice_Hole writes "Well, looks like the serious overclockers are going to have a few more options (that is, other than Kryotech) in terms of extreme CPU cooling. Better yet - it is a build it at home project."

Echoloc8 writes "PalmStation.com has posted two screenshots of a color-enabled PalmOS running in a PalmOS emulator. Authenticity of the shots has NOT yet been confirmed. The site is heavily loaded already, but the shots (referenced from PalmStation's index page) make for excellent viewing. "

mulan writes "Following the approval of S.761 (Millennium Digital Commerce Act), PalmTop has released software which will do just that. Using a Palm app and a Windows-based conduit, digital documents may be legally signed via the Palm device. Pricipal markets include online vendors. This could also help reduce fruadulant credit card transactions on the Internet. " It's not just PalmPilots either - custom solutions are/will be supported, including IBM's WorkPad. However, until Oct. 31, you can get free copies for the Palm (OS3 or better).

phi1o writes "Ever wonder why a burrito-sized pentium is also called a "micro" chip? Me too... This page @ ChipCenter shows a new line of chips from National Semiconducter that are *really* small. They're all analog and of course nowhere near as complex as a P3, but you gotta wonder if processors are headed down this road in the future, to where they are mostly silicon rather than ceramic and plastic. On the one hand, this will make for smaller devices. On the other, it's gonna make building anything without a giant factory (ie in your bedroom.... hardware geeks with me?) much more difficult. I don't know what to think. "

Russ Steffen writes "TRG, Inc, a maker of PalmPilot accessories has announced an interesting Palm clone. The TRGpro is similar to a normal Palm IIIx (OS3.3, 8MB RAM) with one major exception: it has a compact flash (CF) port. This means that only can you have more than 96MB of non-volatile memory in this thing, you can also have a 340MB IBM microdirve. Other interesting add-ons that can interface through a CF slot include a bar-code reader, a super-small v.90 modem, ethernet and a high-speed serial port."

viking099 writes "Palm announces Color Pilots - to be shipped the first half of next year. This should ensure Palms' dominance. " I have to imagine that the battery life is going to be bad on these new Palms - anyone have more details? Still, all things considered, another good move by 3Com.