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It does not matter if Vista allows you to create a USB bootable flash disk - other OSes will do that. If your computer is not physically secure then it is not secure at all. Even today you can come with your own USB flash disk, boot someone's computer from it (barring the BIOS password) and have access to anything that is on the HDD.

1. Gmail will preserve the dates on the messages, but will display the date that the message was received by gmail servers. When you click the message the correct date will show.
2. If you overload a server between you and gmail some of your mail may be bounced back to the original sender.

I learned about the Promise SATA150 TX4 from the aaltonen forums. The card is just a disk controller and support is in the 2.6 kernel. I'm using it in a software raid5 configuration and haven't had any problems. It's about $75 at newegg.

I downloaded the newly released Ubuntu 5.04 this morning. Installation took about 30 minutes, and here's what I have:

Boots off CD and installs like it should? Check.
Detects all hardware devices during the installation, even the wireless card? Check.
Sound works? Check.
Video works? Check minus (see below).
Power management works, meaning sleep and suspend to disk (hibernate) work flawlessly and CPU speed throttles correctly? Check.
Modem works? Who cares!
Bluetooth works? Probably, but I don't have any BT devices to check it with.
IBM's Active Protection System works to protect the hard drive? Nope.
All function buttons for sleep, suspend, brightness, volume, etc. work? Yup.

So, I'm sitting here with a notebook that by current standards is running pretty darn good under Ubuntu, with a very small amount of manual configuration necessary to get this far. What's holding Linux back from running as nicely as Windows on the ThinkPad?

The video is the biggest problem. Ubuntu installs DRI drivers by default, which work pretty well, but lack 3D acceleration support. I can install the ATI binary drivers with a few simple commands, but they break suspend/resume functionality, which is arguably more important for most notebook users. I also won't be able to use the nifty ThinkVantage features on my expensive ThinkPad, like the Active Protection system.

So notebook users have a dilemma: do the Right Thing and handicap your system by installing Linux, or stick with the factory installation of Windows where everything Just Works. The never-ending battle of Morality vs. Functionality rages on.

(For those with the same/similar ThinkPad, see my quickly written guide for more detail.)

As usual , Gentoo has an excelent documentation , but for the mini , here a guy gives a lot of nice information about installing gentoo on the mini

His name really is first on the ad...

I'd like to see the industry place more emphasis on what happens over product's lifetime than on its initial launch.

As a former developer of Palm entertainment software, and current developer of Windows software, my perception is that the PDA market encouraged post-release support, whereas the desktop market strongly focuses on the initial "bang." The juciest press in desktop gaming are the previews and the initial review, (and in some cases, games are reviewed before they're released). By comparison, little mention of a game is made after it's released, even if substantial improvements are made.

Passage like, "...if they'd only spent more time polishing off this game, it'd have been fantastic!" should be a sign to a developer that they need to go and polish off the damn game. As an independent studio, we're able to do that; but I'm not sure we'd be rewarded for it. Even large companies making content available such as Unreal Tournament 2004's Community Bonus Pack receive minimal press. That free (community-produced, even) expansion made the game an even better purchase; I'd go so far as to suggest that the initial review should be upgraded as a result.

Traditionally, we 1) develop a game, 2) release it, and 3) add to it/improve it over its lifetime. Players love to see new content, especially if it's free. With our upcoming title, my perception is that we have to get it right on the first try, or we'll receive poor reviews. Developers are given incentive to move on to a new title, rather than improve an existing one, as it means another round of previews and another full review. I'd much rather listen to what the community says, tweak as needed, and be recognized for it.

Scans can be found here

For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here and here.

For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here and here.

For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here and here.

For T-Mobile customers: all T-Mobile accounts -- including prepaid EasySpeak customers -- have free WAP access available. T-Mobile doesn't charge minutes usage or bandwidth used for GPRS internet access. If your cell phone can connect to your laptop via Bluetooth, IR or with a cable, this means free internet access via GPRS from your laptop. The speeds aren't great, about that of a 56K modem, but definitely useable for the convenience it offers. Check out T-Mobile.HowardForums.com for more details and discussion. If you're interested, more information on my experience with T-Mobile GPRS internet access and a Nokia 6610 here and here.

After years of trying to build and buy quiet PCs I
finally stumbled upon a Dell 400SC. That thing is
super quiet and super cheap. I have a few of them.
You can pick one up for about $399 and most of the
time there is a $100 rebate on them that brings the
price down to $299. Free shipping too.

Oh and I do have the completely silent VIA based
mini-ITX system also that I boot over the network.
But it aint fast. I end up using my Dells most of
the time. They are not as quiet as the VIA, but
they are *very* quiet.

Here is the unofficial FAQ with
tonnes of more information for those interested.

No torrent, but I'll put up a mirror for you.

You mean the G5 is quiter than the G4 that Apple fanboys were petitioning for a return because it was so freaking loud. Wow 3x times quiter. What an accomplishment, what is that like 1.2 dB?

My recent Dell 400SC purchase has a total of 2 fans, 80mm + 92mm. You can hear the hard drive seeking over the fans. My fridge is louder from the next room over. see FAQ about it.

They're available here

Might as well jump on the Please-Slashdot-My-Server-Kind-Sir bandwagon...

http://download.aaltonen.us/mozilla-1.3/

I grabbed everything from here that seemed important... the server is at UMASS on a dual-OC3 connection, so it should be sufficient.

And just in case... in case... http://download.aaltonen.us/17440.pdf