DCP, you are a genius! The time was off when I first revived the netbook and I reset that, but didn't look at the date. And it was set for Jan 2, 2002. Thanks so much!!

ETA: Setting the date reminds me I have to call my sister and wish her a happy birthday.

I guessed right! Yay!

If I'm just recycling a laptop do I really need to be paranoid about erasing it?

Where is it headed? I guess you could format the hard drive a few times, most people aren't going to be mining your hard drive, but still...

I thought HP was stopping the HW, not the software, And that they were going to try and get someone else to pick up the hardware slack.

Yah, I think that's what the webOS folks hope for, but it's pretty unlikely. I can't imagine why any hardware manufacturer would license it instead of Android or Windows Phone 7.

Possibly a dumb question, but when you format the hard drive, does that wipe out all the software including Windows or whatever? (Also have a dying-fan laptop I need to get rid of....)

Where is it headed? I guess you could format the hard drive a few times, most people aren't going to be mining your hard drive, but still...

There's actually nothing private on there, no email, passwords, or financial account numbers, so I don't even know what they could get out of it.

Jesse, generally yes, but it depends on how you do it, and how much effort the 2nd party is willing to go to in the recovery.

What is this? [link]

When I squish the screen, it moves and then bounces back.

I'm assuming dead pixels and am taking the laptop in to get it fixed under warranty, I'm just curious as to why it seems tangible.

A local nursery linked to this cool app for identifying trees: [link] It's part of an effort to develop visual recognition software to identify plant species. The first release is for NY and DC, but that would cover a large percentage of the trees east of the Mississippi.

The Galaxy tab doesn't charge from a PC USB connection while it's on. Which is irritating. But I will work with it. However, if I plug the USB->Galaxy cable into the power adapter that charges my phone or Nook, it also doesn't charge--the Galaxy acts as if I've plugged it into the PC. What signal can the charger be sending that the Galaxy charger doesn't? I haven't yet tested to see if the Galaxy cable and a regular mini USB charger will charge my phone.