The summary claims, "Coffee shop owners love the trend," but I believe that's a bit of an overgeneralization. From my admittedly very limited conversations with small coffee shop owners around the SF Bay Area, the general consensus I've found is that the people who make the coffee shop their office (sorry, "digital nomads" sounds stupid) take up quite a bit of space for a long period of time and don't order much. At places where there's a ton of space, it's not much of an issue, but in areas where space is a luxury (e.g. SF, Berkeley, etc.), the owners definitely seem to be a bit resentful. To be fair, it guarantees them some small consistent income throughout the day, but if they lose just a couple customers who would have bought lunch if there was room for them to sit, then they're at a loss. Also pretty much everyone I talked to has a story of some jerk who'd come and use their Internet access all day and doesn't even have the courtesy to buy a drink.
Anyone know the numbers of how many viewers the average new episode of The Simpsons gets on both mediums? While it is interesting that the cost per viewer is significantly more online, I doubt the number of viewers on Hulu is within the same order of magnitude compared to how many people view a new episode on standard television. Also I still find it crazy that they're actively fighting Boxee when that only adds more viewers. It would be one thing if Boxee blocked the ads, but it's definitely not the case.
Dune II, not C&C
on
Vintage Games
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I find it interesting that Dune II was chosen over C&C. Dune II is definitely the origin of a lot of concepts in RTS, but I always found C&C (also by Westwood Studios) to be the more significant title of the genre (and I did own/play both on DOS). Recently I got the original C&C (now freeware) running in wine, and it still feels close to a modern RTS (I had just beaten C&C3). A couple years ago I tried playing Dune II again, and didn't get that feeling.
Overall that seems like a good list of vintage games. I would have like to have seen a representative from a couple dead genres like Mechwarrior (mech games) and something like Night Trap for FMV's games. Also, I do hope they mention Sonic in the Mario section.
Actually you're mistaken. The program I referred to, ICScontrol, runs on my Samsung Saga. My Saga is about the size of the MiFi (if not smaller). Also if I'm going to use the MiFi, I'm going to have a computer with me anyway (otherwise there's no point). So both solutions (running the Internet sharing app directly on my phone or tethering then sharing via Ad-Hoc) both apply.
It's pretty cool given the size of the device, but bridging cellular and WiFi networks is nothing new. I'm sure it's been done long before; personally I recall doing this in 2006 while working at Cal-IT2 (a research institution at UCSD). I was with a group of engineers stuck in barracks at Moffett Field with no WiFi or TV. We did have a Soekris board running Debian, a Verizon PCMCIA broadband card, and PCMCIA WiFi card which worked with hostap; and we ended up with a WiFi access point serving cellular broadband.
These days I can do the same thing using my Samsung Saga and ICScontrol to share connection over WiFi. Or I can tether to my phone to my laptop running Gentoo, place my laptop's WiFi card in ad-hoc mode.
Why is it that the music industry seems to be so corrupt? I mean, I'm sure crap goes on in all industries, but the music industry in particular is just blatantly messed up. You've got groups like the RIAA suing their customers, all major venues are pretty much owned by Ticketmaster who add ridiculous fees to shows, while ClearChannel controls the airwaves, and then you have groups like ASCAP/BMI who push licenses on small business owners because the alternative are law suits where the minimal fine (or just lawyers fees alone) would drive them out of business. To make matters worst, the artists who are the base of the industry are frequently getting short end of the stick despite in many cases providing the largest contribution which makes the whole industry possible.
I can't say I'm surprised, from the limited knowledge I have on the subject, these guys along with BMI have been on the bullies for years. For a good example from a couple years ago, check out The Richard Phillips vs BMI Story in which an independent artist, who only performed his own music (no covers, etc.), which he owned the copyright to, was pushed out of a job.
I have a feeling when you reach $75 in overages, they simply cut you off and tell you if you want access again you either have to fork over the difference for the $150 plan or wait until your next billing cycle. Also I'd presume the $29.95 plan is at the lowest speed possible which might be low enough that to reach the $75 cap you'd need to run your connection at full speed for the entire month (although I doubt it, it's possible).
I wonder how long it's going to be before Comcast pulls this crap. Also now might be a good time to start securing your WiFi better, as the motivation to steal access just significantly increased.
I'm actually the author of that thread, and should have a new version for the 0.9.11.5591 release out soon (hopefully tonight). There are still some bugs on the 64bit version (I think there's a bug in their md5 hashing script), but it's not difficult to make it work.
For those Linux users who want to brave compiling Boxee from source, I was able to get the previous release (0.9.8.4880) working in Gentoo using this thread: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=2309
I plan to give the new release (0.9.9.5324) a go this weekend rather than waiting for Boxee to come out with their Ubuntu version later this month. If I can get it to work, I'll post back to that thread.
It's pretty absurd that several third parties offer superior viewing options (eg. HD streams), and NetFlix can't be bothered to offer a decent client on a PC. I have NF pretty much solely for the streaming options on my Tivo & Xbox, but if I didn't have either device I'd cancel their service in a heartbeat. What's even worse is they don't make a Linux client (probably because the DRM goes so deep). I don't see why they can't do a simple flash player (i.e. Hulu) which obviously supports HD, or work directly with an open source project like Boxee (which will be cross platform) instead of having Boxee/XBMC come up with a hack to get it to work.
Have you only viewed it on a computer (which limits you to standard def), or have you actually used one of the third party devices that connect to HDTV's and support HD streams? I have both an Xbox 360 and a Tivo Series 3, they each support Netflix's streaming service in HD, and they both look fantastic. Now not everything is in HD, but at least most new TV series (Heroes, The Office, etc.) are all supported. Even non-HD stuff looks pretty good, although again that may just be due to the Tivo or Xbox 360, since they don't support Linux, I really can't comment too much on the desktop.
I signed up in November when the Xbox 360 started supporting it, I'm on their lowest plan (1 DVD out at a time), and haven't even watched one disk. However I've finished two seasons of the office, and watched a handful of movies through streaming. If they offered a streaming only plan for like $5.99-7.99 a mo I would downgrade to it immediately.
* A new DVD ISO release image is now available, in addition to the CD release.
* The new DVD release has a full X environment ready-to-go and many packages pre-installed.
* A full pkgsrc tar is now available on the CD/DVD in/usr.
* Full sources tar now available on the DVD (kernel sources only on the CD), in/usr.
* The nrelease build now trivializes package selection for people creating customized releases.
* The installer is now able to create a HAMMER filesystem setup.
Kernel changes
* First step towards AMD64 support (done by Jordan Gordeev during the Google Summer of Code 2008).
* The system control intr_mpsafe is enabled by default.
* Move/kernel to/boot/kernel and/modules to/boot/modules.
* Add RFC3542 support (done by Dashu Huang during the Google Summer of Code 2008).
* Add HW checksum support to the loopback interface, which doubles performance.
* acpi_cpu(4) update. It's now possible to use higher (lower power usage) C states than C1 in modern (multicore) CPUs.
* First steps to use network threads without the Big Giant Lock (this feature is considered experimental).
* Fixed CVE-2008-2476 IPv6 security issue with modified patches from NetBSD.
* bridge_input works now in parallel.
* Fix bugs in dealing with low-memory situations when the system has run out of swap or has no swap.
* Major rewrite of usched_bsd4 and related support logic, plus additional improvements to the LWKT scheduler.
* Major revamping of the pageout and low-memory handling code.
* suser_* replaced with priv_* implementation from FreeBSD.
HAMMER changes
* HAMMER is now considered production-capable. Many bug fixes and other improvements have been made.
* It is now possible to boot from a HAMMER-only disk. No need for a single UFS partition for/boot. However, for production systems we still recommend a small UFS/boot followed by swap followed by one large HAMMER partition.
* Add HAMMER read support to the boot loader.
* Now uses per-mount kmalloc pools for bulk data structures, particularly for inodes and records.
Hardware changes
* Add ACPI support module for IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad laptops (from FreeBSD).
* Add ACPI support module Asus laptops (from FreeBSD).
* Add acpi_video(4) - a driver for ACPI video extensions (from FreeBSD).
* It is possible to power down PCI devices during
Well according tot the article, streaming flash only works in Windows & OSX, by your post title I presume you're running some form of Linux. The exact quote is, "You can add streaming sites like Hulu to your sidebar (note: streaming with Flash only works in Windows and OSX)".
This is unfortunate, although not a show stopper. Although it's probably coincidence I installed Windows in VirtualBox on my Gentoo based desktop just to stream Hulu to my Xbox 360 via PlayOn last night.
Anyone know of an open source Hulu streamer (ideally one that supports UPNP for Xbox 360/PS3 support)? I've been serving local content over UPNP via fuppes (using their SVN releases, works great on the 360), but I doubt they'll be implementing Hulu support any time soon.
Re:Is there a way to get this with Alltel?
on
Get Out of Sprint Free
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Alltell is being bought out by Verizon, so perhaps that will resolve your problem (and if they're changing fees, it may give you an excuse to bounce). However I've had Verizon's cellular service for over a decade now and have never had the VM issues you describe, so it may be worth just waiting it out. I'd recommend checking howardforums.com as it's one of the best cellular forums on the net.
This is really old news, you've been able to do this in Linux by abstracting the BB through bluetooth for quite some time. Here is a guide I wrote last January (when I had a BB Pearl for 2 weeks), and I've been doing the same process with my Moto Q smartphone for about a year prior to that.
In Linux I've been running a Windows VM via Sun's VirtualBox to stream netflix. Unfortunately it's not HD yet (even in native Windows), but it gets the job done. It's a bit overkill to need a VM to stream netflix, but I have to admit VirtualBox is pretty sweet.
That's correct, even on smaller rail systems like BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the San Francisco metropolitan area), the policing force are actual police officers. They go so far as to having their own SWAT team, undercover officers, K9 dogs, etc.
I initially tried 8.04 on my Acer One and found a lot of basic features required some ugly workarounds. Before I gave up on Ubuntu (was going to do a binary version of Gentoo using my desktop as a build server), I gave 8.10 beta a shot and everything (wifi with ath5k, sound with snd-intel-had, etc.) works out of the box. I'm very satisfied with the 2.6.27 kernel.
The specs seem much closer to a PDA than a netbook. Also the choice of using a 2.4 based Linux is interesting. I admit I haven't been following Linux on Xscale, so perhaps that explains the choice. Personally I expect more general purpose use out of a "computer" and these specs seem like it's more geared for PDA use.
- Processor: Marvell PXA270 312MHz - ROM: 128 MB, RAM: 64 MB SDRAM - User data: 12MB, User media files: 23MB - Operating System: Linux 2.4.19 - User Interface GUI: Proprietary plus Trolltech QT/E 2.3.8 - Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR, supports wireless stereo headset - (A2DP) & DUN profile - WIFI® IEEE 802.11 b/g - Optional USB connection configured for HSDPA dongle - QWERTY/AZERTY + numeric keys, other languages optional - Micro SD (up to 8GB) - 2.8 inch QVGA, TFT, 260,000 colors, landscape
So far it seems pretty interesting, although there's definitely bugs (eg. my text disappears when I'm not typing a character), but hey it's an alpha. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes, although the interface is not geared towards Windows Mobile Smartphone, it seems to be best suited for a touchscreen at the moment.
On a side note, I didn't see any interface to specify a proxy, but I was able to set one through about:config. I have to go through an auto proxy so I just set the autoconfig_url to the URL of my proxy and the network.proxy.type to 2.
I'm curious to see how this performs on a real mobile device compared to Minimo. Wikipedia seems to indicate it's being pushed by the same developer, Doug Turner. I was never able to get even runnable performance out of Minimo, but there's definitely a market for a better mobile browser. I just updated my Q9m to WM 6.1 and Pocket IE is still garbage. The other alternatives like Skyfire & Iris show potential, but they are not there yet.
Well I have no experience with OSX, but as for Gnome, assuming you're using Metacity as your compositing window manager (and most distros do), you can set a ton of key bindings through gconf-editor. To access it, make sure gconf-editor is installed, then as the user running the WM (hopefully a non-privileged user), run gconf-editor. From there navigate to/->apps->metacity and bind away. You can also assign commands to key combos as well. If you're using Compiz, then install ccsm and keybindings are set under General Options. If on the odd chance you're using fluxbox, the keys are set in ~/.fluxbox/keys (hint: Mod1 == Alt).
You may want to look into xbindkeys, an old app that is windows manager agnostic.The downside is whatever WM you use will also have its keybindings (not sure who wins out if the same key is bound twice). It's keys are specified in ~/.xbindkeysrc and it runs as a daemon.
I was going to reply suggesting something like an extended version of Windows XP Embedded when I noticed MS claims to be coming out with a new OS that seems like it may fit the bill well (assuming it doesn't end up bloated).
Personally I picked up a Linux Acer One and through Ubuntu (will probably switch to Gentoo now that I have a distcc build server set up) on it and am very pleased, but I can definitely understand how someone comfortable and familiar with Windows could want a net book with features like a solid state drive and not want Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
The summary claims, "Coffee shop owners love the trend," but I believe that's a bit of an overgeneralization. From my admittedly very limited conversations with small coffee shop owners around the SF Bay Area, the general consensus I've found is that the people who make the coffee shop their office (sorry, "digital nomads" sounds stupid) take up quite a bit of space for a long period of time and don't order much. At places where there's a ton of space, it's not much of an issue, but in areas where space is a luxury (e.g. SF, Berkeley, etc.), the owners definitely seem to be a bit resentful. To be fair, it guarantees them some small consistent income throughout the day, but if they lose just a couple customers who would have bought lunch if there was room for them to sit, then they're at a loss. Also pretty much everyone I talked to has a story of some jerk who'd come and use their Internet access all day and doesn't even have the courtesy to buy a drink.
it's worth pointing out that editing conf files and compiling packages hasn't been necessary in Linux for a few years now.
I run Gentoo you insensitive clod!
Anyone know the numbers of how many viewers the average new episode of The Simpsons gets on both mediums? While it is interesting that the cost per viewer is significantly more online, I doubt the number of viewers on Hulu is within the same order of magnitude compared to how many people view a new episode on standard television. Also I still find it crazy that they're actively fighting Boxee when that only adds more viewers. It would be one thing if Boxee blocked the ads, but it's definitely not the case.
I find it interesting that Dune II was chosen over C&C. Dune II is definitely the origin of a lot of concepts in RTS, but I always found C&C (also by Westwood Studios) to be the more significant title of the genre (and I did own/play both on DOS). Recently I got the original C&C (now freeware) running in wine, and it still feels close to a modern RTS (I had just beaten C&C3). A couple years ago I tried playing Dune II again, and didn't get that feeling.
Overall that seems like a good list of vintage games. I would have like to have seen a representative from a couple dead genres like Mechwarrior (mech games) and something like Night Trap for FMV's games. Also, I do hope they mention Sonic in the Mario section.
Actually you're mistaken. The program I referred to, ICScontrol, runs on my Samsung Saga. My Saga is about the size of the MiFi (if not smaller). Also if I'm going to use the MiFi, I'm going to have a computer with me anyway (otherwise there's no point). So both solutions (running the Internet sharing app directly on my phone or tethering then sharing via Ad-Hoc) both apply.
It's pretty cool given the size of the device, but bridging cellular and WiFi networks is nothing new. I'm sure it's been done long before; personally I recall doing this in 2006 while working at Cal-IT2 (a research institution at UCSD). I was with a group of engineers stuck in barracks at Moffett Field with no WiFi or TV. We did have a Soekris board running Debian, a Verizon PCMCIA broadband card, and PCMCIA WiFi card which worked with hostap; and we ended up with a WiFi access point serving cellular broadband.
These days I can do the same thing using my Samsung Saga and ICScontrol to share connection over WiFi. Or I can tether to my phone to my laptop running Gentoo, place my laptop's WiFi card in ad-hoc mode.
Why is it that the music industry seems to be so corrupt? I mean, I'm sure crap goes on in all industries, but the music industry in particular is just blatantly messed up. You've got groups like the RIAA suing their customers, all major venues are pretty much owned by Ticketmaster who add ridiculous fees to shows, while ClearChannel controls the airwaves, and then you have groups like ASCAP/BMI who push licenses on small business owners because the alternative are law suits where the minimal fine (or just lawyers fees alone) would drive them out of business. To make matters worst, the artists who are the base of the industry are frequently getting short end of the stick despite in many cases providing the largest contribution which makes the whole industry possible.
I can't say I'm surprised, from the limited knowledge I have on the subject, these guys along with BMI have been on the bullies for years. For a good example from a couple years ago, check out The Richard Phillips vs BMI Story in which an independent artist, who only performed his own music (no covers, etc.), which he owned the copyright to, was pushed out of a job.
I have a feeling when you reach $75 in overages, they simply cut you off and tell you if you want access again you either have to fork over the difference for the $150 plan or wait until your next billing cycle. Also I'd presume the $29.95 plan is at the lowest speed possible which might be low enough that to reach the $75 cap you'd need to run your connection at full speed for the entire month (although I doubt it, it's possible).
I wonder how long it's going to be before Comcast pulls this crap. Also now might be a good time to start securing your WiFi better, as the motivation to steal access just significantly increased.
I'm actually the author of that thread, and should have a new version for the 0.9.11.5591 release out soon (hopefully tonight). There are still some bugs on the 64bit version (I think there's a bug in their md5 hashing script), but it's not difficult to make it work.
For those Linux users who want to brave compiling Boxee from source, I was able to get the previous release (0.9.8.4880) working in Gentoo using this thread: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=2309
I plan to give the new release (0.9.9.5324) a go this weekend rather than waiting for Boxee to come out with their Ubuntu version later this month. If I can get it to work, I'll post back to that thread.
It's pretty absurd that several third parties offer superior viewing options (eg. HD streams), and NetFlix can't be bothered to offer a decent client on a PC. I have NF pretty much solely for the streaming options on my Tivo & Xbox, but if I didn't have either device I'd cancel their service in a heartbeat. What's even worse is they don't make a Linux client (probably because the DRM goes so deep). I don't see why they can't do a simple flash player (i.e. Hulu) which obviously supports HD, or work directly with an open source project like Boxee (which will be cross platform) instead of having Boxee/XBMC come up with a hack to get it to work.
Have you only viewed it on a computer (which limits you to standard def), or have you actually used one of the third party devices that connect to HDTV's and support HD streams? I have both an Xbox 360 and a Tivo Series 3, they each support Netflix's streaming service in HD, and they both look fantastic. Now not everything is in HD, but at least most new TV series (Heroes, The Office, etc.) are all supported. Even non-HD stuff looks pretty good, although again that may just be due to the Tivo or Xbox 360, since they don't support Linux, I really can't comment too much on the desktop.
I signed up in November when the Xbox 360 started supporting it, I'm on their lowest plan (1 DVD out at a time), and haven't even watched one disk. However I've finished two seasons of the office, and watched a handful of movies through streaming. If they offered a streaming only plan for like $5.99-7.99 a mo I would downgrade to it immediately.
I was able to get in before it was fully slashdotted (it was crawling when there were only two posts here).
Here are some US mirrors:
CA ftp://mirrors.isc.org/pub/DragonFly/
TX ftp://mirror.evilprojects.net/pub/DragonFlyBSD/
VA ftp://ftp.theshell.com/pub/DragonFly/iso-images/
And some EU ones:
UK ftp://ftp.as6911.net/pub/DragonFly/
Germany ftp://chlamydia.fs.ei.tum.de/pub/DragonFly/
Here's the Release Notes:
Release Improvements
* A new DVD ISO release image is now available, in addition to the CD release. /usr. /usr.
* The new DVD release has a full X environment ready-to-go and many packages pre-installed.
* A full pkgsrc tar is now available on the CD/DVD in
* Full sources tar now available on the DVD (kernel sources only on the CD), in
* The nrelease build now trivializes package selection for people creating customized releases.
* The installer is now able to create a HAMMER filesystem setup.
Kernel changes
* First step towards AMD64 support (done by Jordan Gordeev during the Google Summer of Code 2008). /kernel to /boot/kernel and /modules to /boot/modules.
* The system control intr_mpsafe is enabled by default.
* Move
* Add RFC3542 support (done by Dashu Huang during the Google Summer of Code 2008).
* Add HW checksum support to the loopback interface, which doubles performance.
* acpi_cpu(4) update. It's now possible to use higher (lower power usage) C states than C1 in modern (multicore) CPUs.
* First steps to use network threads without the Big Giant Lock (this feature is considered experimental).
* Fixed CVE-2008-2476 IPv6 security issue with modified patches from NetBSD.
* bridge_input works now in parallel.
* Fix bugs in dealing with low-memory situations when the system has run out of swap or has no swap.
* Major rewrite of usched_bsd4 and related support logic, plus additional improvements to the LWKT scheduler.
* Major revamping of the pageout and low-memory handling code.
* suser_* replaced with priv_* implementation from FreeBSD.
HAMMER changes
* HAMMER is now considered production-capable. Many bug fixes and other improvements have been made. /boot. However, for production systems we still recommend a small UFS /boot followed by swap followed by one large HAMMER partition.
* It is now possible to boot from a HAMMER-only disk. No need for a single UFS partition for
* Add HAMMER read support to the boot loader.
* Now uses per-mount kmalloc pools for bulk data structures, particularly for inodes and records.
Hardware changes
* Add ACPI support module for IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad laptops (from FreeBSD).
* Add ACPI support module Asus laptops (from FreeBSD).
* Add acpi_video(4) - a driver for ACPI video extensions (from FreeBSD).
* It is possible to power down PCI devices during
Well according tot the article, streaming flash only works in Windows & OSX, by your post title I presume you're running some form of Linux. The exact quote is, "You can add streaming sites like Hulu to your sidebar (note: streaming with Flash only works in Windows and OSX)".
This is unfortunate, although not a show stopper. Although it's probably coincidence I installed Windows in VirtualBox on my Gentoo based desktop just to stream Hulu to my Xbox 360 via PlayOn last night.
Anyone know of an open source Hulu streamer (ideally one that supports UPNP for Xbox 360/PS3 support)? I've been serving local content over UPNP via fuppes (using their SVN releases, works great on the 360), but I doubt they'll be implementing Hulu support any time soon.
Alltell is being bought out by Verizon, so perhaps that will resolve your problem (and if they're changing fees, it may give you an excuse to bounce). However I've had Verizon's cellular service for over a decade now and have never had the VM issues you describe, so it may be worth just waiting it out. I'd recommend checking howardforums.com as it's one of the best cellular forums on the net.
This is really old news, you've been able to do this in Linux by abstracting the BB through bluetooth for quite some time. Here is a guide I wrote last January (when I had a BB Pearl for 2 weeks), and I've been doing the same process with my Moto Q smartphone for about a year prior to that.
In Linux I've been running a Windows VM via Sun's VirtualBox to stream netflix. Unfortunately it's not HD yet (even in native Windows), but it gets the job done. It's a bit overkill to need a VM to stream netflix, but I have to admit VirtualBox is pretty sweet.
That's correct, even on smaller rail systems like BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in the San Francisco metropolitan area), the policing force are actual police officers. They go so far as to having their own SWAT team, undercover officers, K9 dogs, etc.
I initially tried 8.04 on my Acer One and found a lot of basic features required some ugly workarounds. Before I gave up on Ubuntu (was going to do a binary version of Gentoo using my desktop as a build server), I gave 8.10 beta a shot and everything (wifi with ath5k, sound with snd-intel-had, etc.) works out of the box. I'm very satisfied with the 2.6.27 kernel.
The specs seem much closer to a PDA than a netbook. Also the choice of using a 2.4 based Linux is interesting. I admit I haven't been following Linux on Xscale, so perhaps that explains the choice. Personally I expect more general purpose use out of a "computer" and these specs seem like it's more geared for PDA use.
- Processor: Marvell PXA270 312MHz
- ROM: 128 MB, RAM: 64 MB SDRAM
- User data: 12MB, User media files: 23MB
- Operating System: Linux 2.4.19
- User Interface GUI: Proprietary plus Trolltech QT/E 2.3.8
- Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR, supports wireless stereo headset
- (A2DP) & DUN profile
- WIFI® IEEE 802.11 b/g
- Optional USB connection configured for HSDPA dongle
- QWERTY/AZERTY + numeric keys, other languages optional
- Micro SD (up to 8GB)
- 2.8 inch QVGA, TFT, 260,000 colors, landscape
http://www.webitpr.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=10258
So far it seems pretty interesting, although there's definitely bugs (eg. my text disappears when I'm not typing a character), but hey it's an alpha. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes, although the interface is not geared towards Windows Mobile Smartphone, it seems to be best suited for a touchscreen at the moment.
On a side note, I didn't see any interface to specify a proxy, but I was able to set one through about:config. I have to go through an auto proxy so I just set the autoconfig_url to the URL of my proxy and the network.proxy.type to 2.
I'm curious to see how this performs on a real mobile device compared to Minimo. Wikipedia seems to indicate it's being pushed by the same developer, Doug Turner. I was never able to get even runnable performance out of Minimo, but there's definitely a market for a better mobile browser. I just updated my Q9m to WM 6.1 and Pocket IE is still garbage. The other alternatives like Skyfire & Iris show potential, but they are not there yet.
Well I have no experience with OSX, but as for Gnome, assuming you're using Metacity as your compositing window manager (and most distros do), you can set a ton of key bindings through gconf-editor. To access it, make sure gconf-editor is installed, then as the user running the WM (hopefully a non-privileged user), run gconf-editor. From there navigate to /->apps->metacity and bind away. You can also assign commands to key combos as well. If you're using Compiz, then install ccsm and keybindings are set under General Options. If on the odd chance you're using fluxbox, the keys are set in ~/.fluxbox/keys (hint: Mod1 == Alt).
You may want to look into xbindkeys, an old app that is windows manager agnostic.The downside is whatever WM you use will also have its keybindings (not sure who wins out if the same key is bound twice). It's keys are specified in ~/.xbindkeysrc and it runs as a daemon.
I was going to reply suggesting something like an extended version of Windows XP Embedded when I noticed MS claims to be coming out with a new OS that seems like it may fit the bill well (assuming it doesn't end up bloated).
Personally I picked up a Linux Acer One and through Ubuntu (will probably switch to Gentoo now that I have a distcc build server set up) on it and am very pleased, but I can definitely understand how someone comfortable and familiar with Windows could want a net book with features like a solid state drive and not want Linux.