I tried several different ones on my notebook: 14 KDE, 14 Xfce, and MATE & Cinnamon from either 13 or 14. Turned out Xubuntu was actually faster for me.
Also, the latest (well, 12.10) Ubuntu lines have "full" disk encryption available during default install, and that's handy. Could be useful if your grandmother stores her bank information on that netbook, but even more useful if, say, you're setting up a(nother) laptop up for an executive who is always getting drunk and losing his at bars.

Beyond that, though, it's mostly a matter of which programs are set up by default and whether you need to (un)install a bunch of stuff in one distro compared to another, to get the programs you want. If I were you (actually, I do this anyway), I'd stick with my current distro for a while but start reading the weekly reviews over at Distrowatch to see what novel things other people are doing.

You're just encouraging them. But you have to know this. So, apparently you like it?

You're forgetting satellite phones. While they are often mobile, they're technically not cell phones.

Try a search for "gay people in Kenya," for example.

I don't know if these people all made the mistake of thinking the "interested in" sections of their profiles would not be publicly visible by default, or whether they set them public but were relying on the obscurity of only friends looking them up. Perhaps some made their accounts years ago, and haven't kept up with the ever-eroding privacy on this site that requires you to go back and re-specify as private some things that used to be private by default. The point is, it hasn't been this easy before to just search for masses of people based on one common trait.

Whether it's being gay [an orientation (not just a set of activities) still actively punishable by death or jail time in many countries], atheist or minority religion in a fundamentalist country, or some other minority that can be profiled ("people who like red hair in London" -- only partly joking, "gingers" do get bullied), a lot of people are about to find out what Facebook Feature Creep really means.

$25 an hour (if he works 8 hour days for that $200) is not bad at all if he lacks better opportunities. U.S. federal minimum wage is $7.25.
In fact, his parents might ask him for jobs, if they're retired. He could become head of an online crime "family."

Timothy? 'e's not 'arf bad.

I'm not one, but I think that software engineers use formalized approaches (Requirements Elicitation, etc.) to not only solve immediate problems, but also recursively improve those processes so that they're always benefitting from what they've done in the past, making them more responsive and nimble.

Also, and this is just something I've noticed: I see a lot of people identifying themselves as "Java developers" or "C++ developers" or giving some other specific language(s) in their title. I don't remember offhand any software engineer doing this. I would expect software engineers to be conversant in multiple languages and frameworks, and be comfortable in learning new ones (or even creating their own as needed), so that they can pick the right tool for the job at hand.

I open the phone app and type *3282#. They send me back a free SMS telling me what my estimated used data for the month has been, as well as any SMS overages, and when the next cycle begins.
(The number 3282 translates into DATA, if you want help remembering. Or you can just save it as a phone number in your address book.)