FWIW, my experience with Vista on an HP desktop with 3G memory is actually pretty favorable, but then I didn't have much in the way of pre-existing software to move onto it, so I haven't had much to worry about with compatibility.

I understand that the first big Service Pack for Vista is going to be released soon, which should be... interesting.

Thanks for the link, ita! I do love the Ars reviews.

It pretty much confirms what I thought. Great for getting and reading books, pretty crappy for everything else. I'm cool with that.

I mostly want it to be successful enough that their store becomes super-saturated with content. Then they can release reading software for other devices, for people that want to read on an LCD screen with its entirely different drawbacks. If they're making the money off the books, rather than the devices, I'd think they would be fine with that.

...heard of any rumors about Microsoft releasing an improved version of Vista anytime soon?

"Today [Dec. 05, 2007] we're making available the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 via Microsoft Connect, and tomorrow subscribers to TechNet and MDSN will have access to those RC bits too. In addition, the RC will be available to the public next week via Microsoft's Download Center. The release candidate phase of beta software is typically the final phase before the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) of a product and indicates that the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability."

"...we're on track to complete and release SP1 in the first quarter of 2008."

[link]

I posted this in BaBB, but I thought I would ask here too:

I'm having a weird problem on Firefox-- the board is not letting me sign in. It signed me out when I closed Firefox this morning, and when I go to the log in screen and enter in my info, it just bounces me back to the "public" version. I tried it several times, using the same password that works on Safari, so I pretty sure it is not that.

Suzi did sign me out so she could sign in on my computer the other day, so I am guessing it's related, but I do have remember me checked, and cookies are enabled.

This is the only place that happens.

Any ideas?

Hm. I dunno. Have you tried to delete the cookie that buffistas sets and let it recreate it?

Yep.

eta: though because it won't let me log in, there is no cookie being set now that I have erased the old one.

The Continuing Saga Of The Mac That Won't Start:

Went to the Apple Store yesterday, they were able to start it from an external boot drive thingy, and then we disconnected that and restarted it a few more times for good measure, declared it fixed, and I took it back to the office.

Where now, naturally, it's doing the same won't-boot-you-can't-make-me-you're-not-my-Dad thing it was doing yesterday.

I've ruled out peripherals (swapped 'em out with the working Mac and they work on that one but not here), power cords (ditto), outlets (tried several), and even tried manually opening up the DVD drive, putting the installer disc in, and booting from that. No go.

What the fucking fuck is going on with this machine???

Oh, and when I came in this morning, one of the clocks on the wall was set an hour back AGAIN. Which in a way is even weirder than the Mac not working because the clock (a) runs on BATTERIES and (b) IS A CLOCK. A complicated machine like a computer I expect to have random weird issues from time to time. But a freaking WALL CLOCK???

If I wanted to upgrade laptop memory (say, from 1GB to 2), would I need a perfectly matched set of memory? Or would two...what do you call them? Cards? Would two pieces of memory from two different manufacturers work together, as long as the technical specs were correct?

If I wanted to upgrade laptop memory (say, from 1GB to 2), would I need a perfectly matched set of memory?

Depends on the laptop.

I have not generally had a problem with mixing and matching different memory of the same specs. Make sure you know what is installed in your computer. If you have two slots and 1GB of RAM it may be in two 512MB modules and you will be forced to get two new modules to get up to 2GB.