actually I think you can just stick some electrical tape over the data pins in a standard USB cable. not sure how this device does anything different.

I upvoted this, because I think it's definitely a good way to stay focused (and I should be doing a better job of it, too). but the issue with his analogy is that brushing your teeth is fairly routine. you go about it at pretty much the same time every day, and you don't have to think about it.

working on your idea, however, is different each and every day. some days, the challenges are greater. some days you may need more than 30 minutes.

point taken though, and I'll be trying harder to stick to it.

Exactly man - great point on the analogy, your dream project is certainly no routine thing.

Yet you can make it more 'routine'; engraved into your daily schedule. By not approaching the specific challenges, but rather - just the minimum amount of time you have agreed with yourself is appropriate to invest. Anyone can convince themselves to do that much. And the funny thing is - the challenges then seem to work out themselves.

The cost of switching is a high barrier for many people.

Changing from Windows to Ubuntu requires you to find equivalents for all of the software you need.

Changing from your browser -> Firefox = most websites will still work, no additional effort on anyone.

Changing from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice forces you to ensure all the documents open correctly and others can open yours correctly.

It's not always so black and white.

I agree but some people still see Internet Explorer as "the Internet" and I would say can't fathom how you use other browsers.

Those same people may also believe Windows is what a computer is.

I couldn't have said that better myself.

I agree with batista, if OS has no quality software .. then why on earth would I use that OS? Also, til Ubuntu can't support .PSD files with GIMP natively, I will never .. ever use it. And no, I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu.

> I do not want to use Wine emulator or whatever the hell you gotta do to get stuff working under Ubuntu

Why don't you want to use it? Using Wine is as simple as double-clicking a Windows EXE and letting it install or run. It's no more difficult than using software on Windows (usually)

And sorry to nitpick, but WINE stands for "WINE Is Not an Emulator", because it isn't :)

I'm a long-time Ubuntu user, and I use Wine only when I absolutely have to, because it most definitely does not "just work". Case in point, GP was talking about Photoshop. This is from Wine's page for CS3:

First off: don't expect this to work well. Wine does not yet support Photoshop CS3. Only read these instructions if you feel like fiddling around, not if you expect to get a working Photoshop.

The other versions look in better shape, but still.

I am eternally grateful to the Humble Bundle folks for insisting on Linux support.

Yeah, I've used Ubuntu myself for a while. I'm aware of Wine's problems, I meant that for smaller applications it usually works.

“Changing from your browser -> Firefox = most websites will still work, no additional effort on anyone.”

Now.

When Firefox v1.0 was released in 2004, 8 years ago, that was not so, and early adopters who were thinking about recommending Firefox had to consider two important issues:

First, compatibility.

Second, the fact that the idea that you would install a third-party program to browse the web seemed strange, even pointless, to people.

Yet, Firefox was so good already by that time, and it held so much promise, that those who already knew about it did recommend it. As a result, within one year it had 15% market share—an impressive achievement—, and webmasters had to start doing something about browsers that were not Internet Explorer. Today the compatibility problems are largely confined within intranets, and the idea that you would need one particular browser to browse the web seems strange.

Let’s compare that with where desktop Linux is today. What is the promise it helds? Which are its redeeming virtues that would make me and you recommend it to other people?

I have Linux installed on my auxiliary desktop system since 2004 — either Ubuntu or Debian Sid. The main issue that prevented me from switching when I was more enthusiastic was this:

I like to have two sound cards on my desktop systems: The on-board one, which I don’t care about, and a good one with a good DAC. The music I listen to is fed to the good card, which then feeds the amplifier. All other sound generated by the system goes to the on-board card. In 2004, and also in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, there was only one—I repeat, one—audio player that allowed you to select a non-default sound card for its output and at the same time met some basic requirements like proper gapless playback and good UTF-8 support. That was Quod Libet. The option was not exposed in Quod Libet’s GUI; you had to search for it, and then pass it to the program as a command-line argument. But at least there was one program that supported this simple thing. However there was another issue: Because of a bug in ALSA or the kernel (don’t remember which any more) the sound devices of the system were enumerated at random upon booting, with the result that 50% of the times the audo player had the wrong card selected upon starting! :-) So, after some time I got tired of struggling with the system in order to listen to music and abandoned the idea that I would use Linux as my main desktop system. I don’t know how much better things are today, but I would not be surprised if such problems remain.

I still use Linux today but only on my auxiliary desktop system (Debian Sid). I also use Debian on my laptop for a simple reason: I use the laptop for about 5 to 10 hours a week for a narrower set of tasks, and the high maintenance requirements of Windows seem to me too much for that. Debian, even Debian Sid with its occasional hiccups, is MUCH easier to maintain.

Now, one could say that the one issue I say prevented me from switching to desktop Linux is an edge case. It may be. But I am afraid it is only one of the many edge cases that are frought with problems on desktop Linux. Desktop Linux in my eyes is a heap of edge case problems. Not everyone is affected by every problem, by everyone is bound to hit upon a serious one at some time or other. The two exceptions I know are folks who use their machines mainly for developing for the vibrant Linux web ecosystem, and folks who need their desktop/laptop systems for a narrow set of basic tasks.

This is precisely the reason why Linux hasn't stuck on me, even though I've tried multiple times to use it. Every time, on different systems, there was something off. Sometimes the sound card that wasn't properly supported, other times the video card (ATI at the time) had big issues with secondary monitors, other times it was my low-end, weird brand WiFi card. It's never "Just Worked" and, even though the exact same happened with Windows at one point or another, the fix is generally simple with Windows (locate the manufacturer, download the driver for your Windows, works with any decent age hardware), wheras it's harder with Linux (google it, find half a dozen possible solutions, download one driver which installs 30 dependencies and breaks your system, try another driver which completely prevents the OS from booting, give up and reinstall Windows).

And then, there's the Software & Games issues... but that's a story for another day.

Thanks so much. I had to do this just earlier today and ended up using a tmp file.

I would recommend making a Facebook VM if you really want to get on. This helps on two fronts: 1) You must REALLY want to get on facebook if you go through the extra step of booting up a VM 2) They can track all they want inside your VM since you use it ONLY for facebook.

/s/facebook/any other social service you intend to use.

In the future, they should create the microholes and keep the logo dimly lit in the orientation that faces the user when they open the laptop. Once the laptop is open, the array of LEDs could change to make the logo oriented the current way.

There is already something similar on one of the numerous android handsets out there where the 4 hardware keys turn 90 degrees when you switch from portrait to landscape mode. Not quite as polished, but similar in concept.

The lit-up logo is Not powered by a special array of LEDs, it's just the screen backlighting shining through a hole.

You can verify that by changing the display brightness, the logo will change brightness accordingly. Or just hold the turned-off laptop in front of a bright light source, the apple-shaped hole wil, be visible through the screen

Or, direct plug-in to PCI-E like the revodrive.

For me, only my closer friends are on G+. Unfortunately, this is the same group of people who don't post on FB, so similarly, my G+ is pretty quiet. It's nice though - really cuts out the "noise". In a way, I don't mind if it stays this way.

really impressive and fast work! for me, however, I would like to see an implementation of Dalvik VM as a "card" similar to how they've managed to boot Ubuntu/LXDE as a "card". That way, we could retain the best of both worlds - webOS + android apps. This would be akin to the Alien Dalvik project on the Nokia stuff. Does anyone know what it would take to port Dalvik over? It must be possible, but this is outside of my area of knowledge.

Yes, I've read some reports about the hardware cost being in the neighborhood of $300. Definitely not zero margin.