Linksys used to be a great company before Cisco bought it. I have a Linksys RV082. A couple of months ago Cisco released a firmware “upgrade” that has made the router barely usable. Version 2.0.0.19tm is poison. If you are running an earlier version – DON’T UPGRADE. Once you upgrade you can’t go back to an earlier version.

After upgrading, web access is very slow. If a page has multiple images on it many of the images don’t load. However if the RV082 is removed and I connect directly to the cable modem it works normally. I have been hoping that Cisco would fix the problem but so far nothing.

This I think is an example of what happens sometimes when a big company buys up a good smaller company and then manages to destroy it through stupidity. Linksys has really gone downhill and I’m just not going to buy any more of their products. I’m now looking to replace my broken dual wan router with something that actually works. Cisco sucks.

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Cisco Destroys Linksys RV082 with Upgrade

I still have my copy of the 1975 issue of Popular Electronics with the Altair on the cover.

H. Edward Roberts died this week at age 68. If you don’t know the story of how Roberts helped launch the personal computing revolution, let us fill you in.
[...]
Even with $250,000 in debt and a collapsing business, Ed. Roberts didn’t waver from his commitment to personal computing. He persevered building the prototype of the first personal computer, the Altair 8800, named unofficially after a planet visited in the Star Trek episode Amok Time.

The Altair 8800 saved the company. Ed. Roberts had brokered a deal with Intel to buy Intel 8080 chips in bulk for $75/chip (normally they were $360/chip). The cheap CPUs allowed the Altair 8800 to retail for $439 ($621 assembled) at the time when Intel’s Intellec-8 Microprocessor Development System, another Intel 8080 based system, sold for $10,000.

The cheap Altair 8800 not only proved a mild commercial hit, but it helped launch the world’s biggest electronics company today, Microsoft. In 1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen, students at Harvard at the time read about the Altair. They contacted Ed. Roberts telling him they were developing a programming language interpreter and asking if he was interested in purchasing in it.

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R.I.P. Ed Roberts, Personal Computer Pioneer

People seem underwhelmed by Chromium OS, but maybe Google has a bigger plan: how about producing a netbook running Chromium OS, and giving it away? The small hardware costs would be covered by advertising *in the Web apps*. Would you use one?

Like there is no ad’s on Google to start with? Of course I would try one for goodness sake, Baldy

Would You Accept Google’s Free Netbook?

Intel shows off new laptop chip package to counter rival AMD – Yahoo! Canada News

Intel Corp. rolled out a new batch of chips for laptops Monday that promises longer battery life and better graphics-rendering abilities, the company’s latest salvo against smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Both companies are posturing to capture the attention of computer buyers looking for crisper high-definition video playback on their laptops and less battery drain, a difficult balancing act.

Source: Nvidia, Via Prepare to Take On Intel

Nvidia, Via Prepare to Take On Intel
posted by Thom Holwerda on Thu 5th Jun 2008 19:58 UTC
IconFor year now, the x86 microprocessor market has been dominated by Intel and AMD, and the rivalry between the two companies forced both to be innovative in order to gain a competitive advantage over the other – benefiting customers. With the rise of ‘mobile internet devices’ and low-power budget notebooks, this new market will be enriched by not only Via, but also nVIDIA.

As some of you know I purchased a Canon SD750 that just didn’t want to play with Linux (any flavor) but if I went to my main linux box the card reader could see and download the pictures. So that sent me into a search for a linux compatible, portable card reader for a reasonable price. Well I found one that I have fallen in love with and I have only had it for a day now.

The Sandisk MobileMate SD Plus Memory Card Reader model SDDR-104 is the ticket folks. I can use it with my laptop or any of my desktops (Arch and Mepis and Debian) it is fast and simple with a cap for the usb plug so when you carry it around it won’t get bent,broken or filled with pocket lint. If you need a nice tool to add to your bag of carry around stuff this little rascal will do the job for you as it reads SD,Micro SDHC, Mini SDHC, as well as MMC cards. Here is a LINK
for you to take a look if you desire. Hope this helps have a good day folks.

I have been asked this over and again – which hardware should be avoided before installing Linux? The list is actually smaller than you might expect, but it is helpful if you would like to remain in a headache-free zone.

A good starter base of hardware to avoid for the new linux user, Baldy

Check on the List

Even since astronaut Dave Bowman disconnected the HAL 9000’s holographic memory in 2001: A Space Odyssey techies have been wondering when we could buy real holographic storage. Now we know: May, 2008.

Promising super-high density and excellent media flaw resistance, holographic storage has been an ever-receeding technology for years. You can buy nifty 3D skull and crossbones holograms – technically a form of storage – but no one had figured out how to turn a lab project into a product. Until now.

I never thought I would see the day when a hard drive manufacturer would go from indifferent to outright stupid all with one drive release. Apparently, it has happened. It seems that Seagate has opted to forgo compatibility for anyone other than Linux users and that’s a real shame, as I have always been a satisfied Seagate user. And as you might suspect, based on where this article is appearing, I happen to be a full-time Linux user.

Sending A Very Strong Message. I don’t really understand what Seagate expects to do here, other than a flurry of negative articles like this one about their otherwise good products. It’s a shame, yet Seagate has made their bed, now they will have to deal with the consequences of their choices.

Now if you happen to need a new hard drive I’m sure that you will do just as I plan on doing and that is making sure that the name on the box will not be Seagate, the company led by fools, Baldy.

“Chip vendor AMD wants to help developers produce applications that are faster than ever before. To do that AMD has open sourced its AMD Performance Library (APL) as the Framewave open source project.

“AMD claims that it has been working on APL (now Framewave) for almost three years and that over 3200 performance routine optimizations are now part of the library. The AMD effort is intended to be open and not exclude other chip vendors like Intel, though Intel has its own open source effort for driving optimizations…”

Source: Linux Today

Technorati Tags: AMD, Open Source, Framewave