Other Computer Sites

Web sites of interest.

Computer and related sites that I found of interest, with a brief description.

21 Store
Handy hitech mail order store for lots of different gadgets including PDAs, GPS etc. They also have fairly comprehensive and handy reviews of some of the gear for sale. Run by Expansys.
Ars Technica
Really solid technical resource site for PC enthusiasts. Nice background articles on developments, and their implications.
Robert X Cringely
Opinionated and often interesting journalist and commentator has lots of his past articles on the site. Check his Pulpit stuff.
Dan's data
Reviews by a journalist. Has some very decent material on site. Well worth a look. Good search and cross links.
Open DVD
Digital Versatile Disks are probably a wonderful idea if you live in the USA, and run a Windows computer. If you don't run Windows, then you may not be able to use DVD on your choice of operating system. Not only don't the DVD people support other operating system, they sue anyone who tries to explain how to use it on systems like Linux. Check this site for details. My other objection is that there is a zone system, so that if you live in zone 4 as I do, you generally can't play zone 1 (USA) DVD disks. Until the zone system is dead, and the attitude of the producers changes, I'm never going to buy any DVD based product. I hope you will consider the same boycott.
If you want a DVD player, make sure it will also output a direct digital output, with say SDI (serial digital interface) or Firewire connections. Most only have a low quality analogue output. If this is the case, don't buy.
Ernie's Charity Recycling
For 23 years Ernie and a team of volunteers, at 2A Westmoreland Street, Glebe NSW Australia phone (02) 9660-4115, have been repairing appliances (over 3000 refrigerators) and of late computers, and giving them away to the needy and to schools, instead of them being dumped. The cream of the donations go to the people who help recycle and repair, but all goods are free. They want outdated computers and I.T. equipment, and volunteers to learn how to repair gear. Consider donating your old computers to Ernie, or to Technical Aid for the Disabled.
Free Forms Processor
2K Communications in TN USA provide a free forms processor you can add to your web site. They also host sites.
Geos and New Deal
The old Geos operating system and application set were on C64s, Zoomers, Brother typewriters, on PCs, and on the HP OmniGo 100 PDA. They weren't bad, except for being a bit slow. I gather this is the new version of their applications. Fairly lightweight, and might suit people with an old computer. Runs on anything from 286, 640kB RAM, 20 MB hard drive up, and you only need DOS to get it started. Now has a reasonably full office suite, plus web browser, email, chat, and a BASIC language. Long file names. Import and export in txt, html, rtf, doc (MS Word), jpg, gif, tiff, dbase, 123, etc. Run under DOS, OS/2, Windows, Linux.
Radsoft
Small computing tools, and great rants about software bloat and many other similar topics.
HTML validation
W3C HTML validation service. Checks HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML and XHTML. Just enter the URL you want to check. They also have archives of older validators, and CSS validation. Great when you want to try to convince someone whose page you can't view that their code actually is suspect. Not so great when you think your code is perfect and they say it is not.
HTML validation
HtmlHelp HTML validation service. Checks HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML and XHTML. Just enter the URL you want to check. Finds some problems not noted by the W3C validator. You can also get a stand alone Unix version.
SyncML
You should be able to access your data, your personal files, your email, your calendar, from any intelligent appliance such as a phone or computer. You should be able to update using any appliance, and have your changes reflected everywhere. At present you can not easily do this, partly because most software products use proprietary data formats, and will not co-operate with other products. SymcML is a cross-industry initiative to produce a synchronisation protocol based on open standards including Extensible Markup Language (XML). It was founded by Ericsson, IBM, Lotus, Motorola, Nokia, Palm Inc, Psion, Starfish Software and includes over 260 other companies. Formerly http://www.syncML.org or try http://www.openmobilealliance.org/syncml/
Slashdot
News for nerds. What can you say. They have the right idea of what is important.
Vintage Computer Festival
A whole organisation devoted to vintage computers, and every year or so they hold a vintage computer festival, with exhibits and a marketplace, and nerd trivia competitions.

This page isn't actually intended for anyone except me. I just want to list sites someplace where I wouldn't lose my copy, or forget what they have available. See also my gadgets page for more specifically geeky gadgets.

I hope you have enjoyed www.ericlindsay.com.