Re: spam and newsgroups This is not a totally spam-free solution, but perhaps hosting the newsgroup on a private server - like what some companies do for their "tech support" (e.g. Microsoft, Powersoft, Scitech) would give the advantages of a nicely threaded newsgroup (with eventual expansion to several groups) and it ensures only those really interested in wearables would read the newsgroup on the private server (and go through the hassle of connecting to that server). Another nice thing to have for the wearables list is a searchable archive of previous posts - or is there one already? It could save some repetition in posts, and would be useful for people doing research. (or for fun, route all mail coming to wear-hard via a Remembrance Agent first. Later, users could access a web page to run the Remembrance Agent on the previous postings - or issue search commands by email via wear-hard-request - sort of like an enhanced search engine. Alternatively, you could have an option in the mailing list to have the Remembrance Agent annotate the all postings sent to you [appends a text attachment at the end, or have the agent insert bracketed comments in the text itself like this [just a thought[this loses instantaneous nature of the agent[a central agent won't be "personalized" to the user either[brackets could be really annoying too]]]]). :) Re: laptop/notebook wearables Maybe someone already mentioned this, but if not, something that might be worth looking at is the Orasis "hand-held" computer from Dauphin Technologies. It's not cheap nor as flexible as a PC/104 set up, but the interesting thing is that it's a Pentium 233 MMX with the standard suite of laptop ports and capabilities (serial, parallel, PCMCIA, sound, NTSC video out, etc), but it also features pen input for its 640x480 display (you could attach a keyboard via the keyboard port though, or a twiddler via the serial). The computer looks kind of like a much bigger PalmPilot or a Star Trek PADD, but sideways. It's a small "carryable" as opposed to a "wearable" : 10.5''x6.9''x1.6'', or 10.5''x6.9''x2.5'' if you throw in the expansion bay (where you can add in extra battery power). Apparently there are various options, so theoretically you could specify a custom system to reduce costs, etc (e.g. downgrade the processor, choose mono instead of colour display, etc). I emailed the sales rep about pricing and availability (it does "exist" btw - it made its debut at the Fall 97 COMDEX show). Apparently the Orasis is slated for release this April. Base price is not cheap, as I said - it's around $3000 US - comparable to a midrange laptop . There's a blurb and a picture at http://www.dauphintech.com/dtr-2.html Linked to that page are some specs. Anyways, it looks pretty interesting. Cheers, Li-Te Cheng
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