I fix my computers. My friends' computers. My parents' computers. My friends' parents' computers. I'm so sick of it even though I love computers. I don't love updating and patching and cleaning and defragmenting. I love writing software. So give me an operating system with vim, svn and firefox. Give all my computer troubled friends and relatives an operating system with just firefox. And watch how we can *finally* start taking advantage of technology instead of the other way around.

I'm not associated in any way, but the Aptera gets a reported 300 mpg. I agree that most hybrids are lacking. That VW 2-seater you mention sounds interesting, got a link?

I love my mouse. I play starcraft and it's great for that, and I customize it and make it do a lot of stuff. But some of the things on your list, I just couldn't let slide:

- scroll bars in programming are totally useless. Page Up / Page Down, various shortcuts in vim and Emacs make them basically obsolete. Interactive search and proper knowledge of navigation techniques including setting bookmarks in your code is WAAAY more efficient than scrolling

- select for cut/copy and paste. Try learning VIM, seriously.

- menu options. This is my biggest objection. Shortcuts!! In well designed menus they're listed right next to the menu item

- setting and going to bookmarks - firefox has a great way of handling this. You add keywords to your bookmarks and then just type them in. I got $10 that says I can Ctrl+L + + Enter faster than you can click on your bookmarks

Here's my "elite" repertoire of mice:

IBM TrackPoint, great suggestion. It's not like other trackpoints, it feels great and once I got used to it, I became faster than with a mouse. For light scrolling/selecting, drag/dropping it's great. The other huge plus here is the renowned IBM keyboard which has been my favorite for years.

Logitech MX518 mouse. This thing was a workhorse for me on desktops before I fell in love with my T42p. BUT, and this is Huge, you have to set it up the way I do (just try it):
- left side button 1 for [Ctrl]
- left side button 2 for [Ctrl + Tab]
- front middle button for [Space]
- middle button (click wheel) for [Enter]
- button behind click wheel (hard to hit) for [Backspace]

This configuration allows you to do really cool things like switch tabs in IDEs (Eclipse can be configured), Ctrl+Scroll to resize web text or documents in Office, Ctrl+Click to open links in new tabs, space and backspace for those rare times when you're editing with the mouse (skipping around the text at a pace that you would break your brain if you tried to simulate in VI), and as a plus space and backspace work for going back in browsers and paging down :)

Trackball - A good trackball has no match in my opinion. The $100 Kensington you find at Microcenter or other places is the bottom of the line as far as this is concerned, and I was really unhappy with the software.

One final tip: Change your Caps Lock key into a Ctrl key. Not if you use Emacs (shudder) though, that'll probably cause your fingers to bleed purple or something.

Hey, here's a seemingly simple answer. Check out Opera Unite:

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/an-introduction-to-opera-unite/

From what I understand, it basically runs a web server when you run Opera. One of the applications is a chat app. So anyone in Iran that's trying to organize could potentially use this. It is alpha quality so maybe save the chat pages locally from time to time. I have yet to try it, but it might just work. Good luck!

I am good with both. I use Vim on a daily basis and I've used every Visual Studio from 6.0 to 2008. I love Visual Studio's debugger and file management, integration of a wide array of tools for adding references and configuration and code generation and endless other things.

But when you're talking hard core file editing where you just wanna jump all over a few files and produce more than two thousand lines of code per day, Vim really shines. You have to be good at it though, it's not for the faint of heart. you have to remember how to set marks and use them and make use of all the registers and write regular expressions fluently. You have to know how to select paragraphs and matching brackets and find / jump to any part of the file very quickly. All this takes time to learn and it could be argued that it wastes more time than it saves. So I think what it comes back to is that it's a pleasure to use because it doesn't get in your way or freeze, and that makes all the difference.

For any Vim noobies reading this, I have four tips:

1. change your caps lock key into a ctrl key and use Ctrl + [ to get out of insert mode.
2. use v and V to enter visual mode and marvel at how convenient it is when you don't want to think about all the crazy ways to select text.
3. use ctags and read online guides for how to jump back and forth throughout your project by integrating with it.
4. check out command references online and use it a lot, it took me about a year to get decent with it.

I've also used Linux for a long time. Reading this list made me clear my mind of prejudice and think about the situation more critically. I believe the author hit upon points that are more serious than just "installation issues".

To me, the great thing about Linux right now is that it's relatively untied to requirements. Microsoft is basically a sophisticated slave to the millions of corporate and home users that it has to satisfy. But with Linux we have a chance to start fresh.

Reading this list shows me a clear path: As a community of users and developers, let's compile a list of meta-requirements and beautiful design principles. Let's take Linux and push it to the next level. More polished than Mac, more compatible than Windows, easier to use than the iPhone. Let's re-architect everything. Develop the last version of the current generations of software and seal the packages and builds and write obituaries on the maintainers' pages. Drop all that and let's come together to build the true next operating system. I humbly offer my services to this ambitious endeavor. But I'm much more hesitant to start piling on hacked code on top of hacked code to just barely squeeze Linux past forgiving, tech-savvy users' standards.

I had a good feeling, when I wrote that, that I was full of hot air. Thanks for providing the proof. I hope that the people below you are wrong and that Amazon will make it easier for authors to interface directly with the kindle. Furthermore, I hope that authors will then not just settle for their rightful $.20 (as much as my wallet would love that). But wouldn't that be amazing... $2 books and content at the touch of a button. And the e-ink technology will just keep getting better. Great times :)

Textbooks are expensive only in small part due to the hardcover / high quality paper they're printed on. The IP of the authors is what costs the most money.

Most likely the Kindle + e-versions of textbooks will be only slightly cheaper than paper textbooks. To really see the savings of the kindle you have to look deeper. Pens, paper, notebooks used to write notes on will be in some large part replaced by the annotation capabilities of the Kindle. Mobile internet for life is also something that people seem to underestimate. Furthermore, reducing paper waste seems to me by far the biggest cost reduction. It's just not one that we typically factor in when we're sliding our credit card.

Here's to a better world and better Kindles to come.

I agree with this. I think big government is bad. But we can't make a transition from big government to no government in the present state. Consider doing this:

Follow us in this big government so that education and health care once again restores a level playing field among the citizens of the world. After that, we can once again attempt to co-exist peacefully without government meddling with these matters. But it would be unfair to embark on that journey now when 90% of us aren't wearing any clothes.