Your friend should wait 3–4 weeks, because new Intel CPUs are coming out, and a Mac hardware refresh in imminent.

Edit: [link]

Erin, ask her if she wants/needs an optical drive. If not, a MacBook Air might be the way to go.

I forget--are there rumors some MacBook Pro models will go optical-less?

eta: from Tom's link:

Apple is believed to be releasing a slimmer 15" MacBook Pro sans optical drive on or around April 29, while a slimmed-down 13" model will come around June 3. The 17" MacBook Pro may not be updated until later in the year.

iPad question: the Safari browser on my iPad seems to be at least partially disabled. I can type in an address and it loads, but the actual page is greyed out and won't respond to touches on the screen. The bookmarks and tabs buttons also don't respond. This cropped up over the weekend when I was trying to log in to a pay-for-wireless-access network in Toronto, but not a sketchy one. Any ideas?

ETA: googling, which I should have done first, produced a fix.

That is not a problem I've seen. All I can think to do is reboot Safari, or reinstall it.

I'm trying to sign up for the Barnes & Noble affiliate program which requires me to join linkshare. Linkshare requires me to have a verisign signature. Do I have a verisign signature, and if not do I have to buy one or can individuals get one for free?

So whoever was asking about the e-ink readers and lighting, B&N has come out with a lit version of the Simple Touch.

Okay, so I have kind of a thought experiment.

Say I currently have a web site with links. Many, many links. Currently it's in frames (shut up! it works fine!), with a drop-down navigation menu on the left and the links on the right.

If I were crazy enough to try and update it, what is there, functionality-wise? I would want something that enabled me to put the links into categories (fandoms), tag them (gen, het, slash), display them either alphabetically or by date...and possibly do some other stuff I haven't thought of.

database. Some predefined queries as some menu choices, some simple dropdown menus to let users narrow the predefined queries. If you really want to be fancy a form for user defined queries (within limits). Being vague because criteria is vague. For instance you could let user choose by fandom alone and by tag alone or by fandom and tag combined. Display order is easy, and you could also let user limit by date, or by stuff like "completed". You could also let user choose by multiple fandoms at once - and instead of having to posiively choose tags, let them eliminate tags - so everything OK except repe noncon and dubcon or whatever.

I think most fan archives do this these days.

Oy, Dana. That does sound crazy, and yet you'd be a hero. Maybe you could crowd-source the work?

I really feel like it ought to be doable in WordPress somehow, but maybe the scope is too large.