How do I change a shortname in OS X? The shop that repaired my laptop set me up as firstnamelastname, and I want it just to be firstname. I can change my user name, but the "shortname" stays long.

You will have to create a whole new account:

• Create a temporary, generic user account with admin privileges. Call it "admin"
• Log off completely as yourself, and log in as admin
• Create a new user account, ita.
• From the command line, type "sudo mv /Users/itasurname /Users/ita"
1. Type "sudo chown -R ita:ita /Users/ita" (This make take a while to complete).
2. Log off as admin, log in as ita, make sure everything is OK
• Delete the itasurname and admin accounts (if desired).

Thanks. I tried something like that, differing because I'd renamed the user directory to "ita" beforehand.

Looking good so far.

Grrr. I downloaded AVG 8.5 and now I get all of these popups. Very irritating, even after I uninstalled AVG.

Kindle DX. It looks all ST:TNG. But definitely not something you can stuff in a pocket or smallish bag. Expensive for bedside reading.

I did the math for a Kindle DX plus NYT subscription, and it pays for itself (in savings over a paper newspaper subscription) in 2.7 years for most of the country and 4.5 in NYC.

Then I realized that didn't make sense for anyone sharing a house, because it's really difficult to separate out the Week In Review and hand it to someone if you're reading the paper on a Kindle. So not really worth it for most people.

I think the killer feature of the DX for a lot of people, which they're not hitting hard enough, is the native PDF support without scrolling. That's means business and technical journals that are available in PDF (a LOT of them) will work on it, and it has a large enough screen to make it worth it.

Not something I need. Not something the average consumer needs, necessarily. But definitely something a large number of really geeky potential buyers were looking for.

The next killer feature, if they can work out deals, will be college textbooks.

The next killer feature, if they can work out deals, will be college textbooks.

I just wonder how useful a textbook with a lot of graphs and illustrations is going to be in black and white. (Ditto for business & tech journals.)

The next killer feature, if they can work out deals, will be college textbooks.

I just wonder how useful a textbook with a lot of graphs and illustrations is going to be in black and white. (Ditto for business & tech journals.)

Not to mention how much students mark up/highlight their textbooks, make notes in the margins -- yes, I'm sure the Kindle can have a function that allows for that, but will it work as well as a visual study aid?

And also, I remember needing to flip back and forth within one textbook, or multiple textbooks, which seems like a pain in the ass on a Kindle -- I really loathe editing in Word (versus on hard copy) for that very reason.

It doesn't seem practical for students. Not to mention prohibitively expensive.

The other thing to consider w/ textbooks is that students offset the cost by reselling them at the end of the term. You can't do that with a Kindle.