thanks stinerman - figuring out why 2/3 was required was the only reason i clicked on this one :)

hardcore "liberalists" ?

i wasn't familiar with the term so i googled it, and mw says:

1: the quality or state of being liberal
2 (a) often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity (b) a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard (c) a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties (d) capitalized : the principles and policies of a Liberal party

2c sounds a lot like the american libertarian party. i'm assuming that this is what you meant. if so, why did you use "liberalist" - does it include parties similar to but distinct from the libertarian party ? if not, what did you mean

fwiw, i agree with portions of the libertarian platform. as for reinstalling the os ... let me think about it :)

i use multiple firefox profiles - make's it easier to access multiple yahoo and gmail accounts, and try to keep my real work from heavy flash and javascript pages that are more likely to crash the browser. haven't tried chrome, but being able to set profiles on a tab by tab basis would be great. hope that's what they mean

and if i have trouble with a web app, it's nice to pop into a fresh profile so that you know plugins or settings aren't causing the problem. i start firefox from bash, using:

firefox -P myUserName --no-remote &

i've got:
    amd 64 x2 at 25W (BE-2350)
    690G motherboard with onboard graphics (ASUS M2A-VM HDMI)
    $165 total in dec 2007

and it runs fanless fine (tho i do have the fan hooked up idling and thermally controlled most of the time). doesn't look like they're still selling the BE-2350, and not sure if there's a current equivalent or if you can accomplish the same thing by underclocking.