Is anyone having problems with Gmail? Several times a day over the last month I've been getting an "unresponsive script" error, and I have to log out and back in, and sometimes even restart.

I have a PC running Windows XP, and use the latest update of Firefox.

I'm pretty sure the "unresponsive script" message results from Firefox deciding that some Javascript has been running for a long time. i.e. the script may still be running; it's just taking a long time. Do you have the option of allowing it to continue? If so, that's what it is. It might just be that you have a slow computer, or it might be that Javascript is taking a long time (for whatever reason) to finish downloading all your mail or something.

Well, the computer is getting long in the tooth. And low on disk space. I think I found something in the Gmail discussion groups, too.

Thanks, tommy!

Does anyone have any experience with/fondness for/hatred of Ubuntu? I'll be inheriting my dad's laptop, and he currently has Vista on it. This seems like a golden opportunity to dip my toes into Linux. But I'm a little confused by the various distributions.

Nobody't mentioned the new kindle, right?

Very thin. A little prettier, though I kind of liked the ugly-clunky actually. I wonder how it works ergonomically.

Read-to feature could be useful very occasionally, and I have to laugh at all the people mourning the loss of the replaceable battery, just like at Apple a while ago. I don't really care about the removable media either - 1500 is a LOT of books, especially since anything I buy from Amazon is backed up online (and redownloadable directly from the device).

Otherwise, basically looks like the same thing. Which is one of my favorite things, so that's good. If I hadn't lost mine, I doubt I'd be itching to buy one, but I'm having to physically restrain myself.

I've used Ubuntu (various flavors) on a lot of machines, as well as some other Linux distros, and the standard Ubuntu is as stable and friendly a thing as you'll ever want to find in the Linux world. Unless you have some particular project in mind (in which case, do tell!) I'd suggest starting with the default flavor; it comes with a broad range of stuff installed, and of course one of the joys of it is that you can always just try a different flavor if you decide it doesn't feel right for you.

Thanks, amych. Stable and friendly sound good. I'll give it a shot.

I use Ubuntu on my dual-boot home desktop. I think the Ubuntu distribution is probably the most friendly to use though I've used Fedora with good results. Like all Linux distributions, things tend to be a little rough around the edges and you might need to visit ubuntuforums.org and be ready to use the command line if you run into an issue. Software too, tends to be less polished on Linux.

You will want to make sure that the wireless chipset in the laptop is supported, asking on ubuntuforums.org would be a good place to check. If it is Intel, you are probably good.

All that said, I like the GNOME UI better than Windows, and I've found it to be very stable and more responsive than Windows especially under heavy CPU load (like two threads both transcoding video in the background).

Has anybody bought iphone earbuds that they like? My sister bought me a V-moda set for Christmas, and they are already sporadic in terms of playing music in both ears.

I actually switched my grandfather's computer from Windows to Fedora because, for the limited number of things we does with it, Fedora is a lot easier to deal with than Windows.