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Wow! Over the past week I have been migrating from ******** to LastPass. This is one more reason to make me feel better about my decisioin to do so. I'm glad you have more patience than I. I would have used lots of profanity and uninstalled the software by now.

I think you are right about the future of table-top gaming with regards to the surface-like touch screen tables, and also the coming 3d/holographic projection tables.

Well, then take a look at this. 

Use Thininstall. It's pricey but creates a single executable file.

I'm sorry, but that is not a portable app creator. It is application visualization. That is a sledge hammer to kill a fly. HUGE difference.

Although for corporate IT folks, application visualization is helpful for several use cases.

Just a word for "outsiders". I am considered one of the Python fanbois on this site. And I have been a regular here for years. I just wanted to let you know that mouser is being sincere here. He just doesn't have the time to list the many things he likes about the language, and we around here don't feel ashamed to just cut to the chase when discussing things. So please don't take his comments the wrong way.

With out boring you with details and requiring time I don't have to dedicate to this, let me just say that I believe much of this has to do with keeping things as simple as possible and python being more "metaprogramming" focused than other languages.

And a reminder to import this, as it will give you a better understanding of python.

It's up to the program you are attempting to make portable. If it interacts with the registry you can just move the executables into a folder on a USB and run it. If it interacts with the registry, you will need to jump through hoops. Otherwise the PortableApps installer should work just fine. The missing piece is that you can manually delete stuff you don't need before running the install creator. If you don't need a multi-megabyte help file, remove it.

Oh, and regardless of what tools you use, use IPython. Yes, it is that good. I always have an IPython window open regardless of what platform I am on or tool I am using. Think of it as a fulltime realtime debugger with built in macros.

Just very brief comments, since I know you will investigate deeper if you care to (and have the time).

It boils down to static typing versus dynamic typing; and the workflow that goes along with that.

And most Python programmers do TDD, so bugs are found via testing and there is no need to compile so you just run and debuging realtime based on stacktraces (which are integraded into the python tools that are worthwhile using).

[got]

OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK 

I got it. I am now changing everything over to git. 

I am 24 minutes into a 1 hour 10 minute talk by God Linus Torvalds about git and I am thoroughly embarrassed to have resisted this long. I now understand that I stuck with SVN because I was comfortable with SVN. I am a moron. (I'm not joking here. I am complete serious.) 

I will begin moving all my projects to git, one by one, as I work on them.

It's all a matter of personal taste currently as the Internet is still learning how to best interact with Twitter. The idioms of working with email don't quite lay inline with tweeting. The two in the Windows world that are gaining the largest userbase are TweetDeck (Adobe Air) and Seesmic Desktop for Windows.

I suggest you shy away from Seesmic Look and I do use TweetDeck on my iPod Touch.

Two pieces of advice if you are fairly new to Twitter: 1)Get familiar with the native Twitter web frontend  so you learn how Twitter works "nativley" and 2) Understand that the "native" way of "Retweeting" is not the most common way retweeting is done in the wild. (Maybe Google your favorite popular web news site to learn the difference or ask a tweeting buddy to show you by example.)

p.s. As you would expect I am @Tinjaw on Twitter.

Not what you are looking for, but has the basics and has been around for long enough to be established.

Joe's Goals - Free Online Habit Tracker

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Corporate IT has been dealing with this for decades and everybody still comes with their own twist on things. I have never seen two shops do it the same way. Even different departments within a company often handle these issues differently.

What is a lowly home user to do?

The my whatever folders were moved out of the (My) Documents root because too many company networks were having issues with backing up users music file collections.
[ snip ]

Excellent comments. The corporate world is so different than the home. And small businesses are the ones that have to deal with things like this all the time with small staffs and even small budgets.

Just learned of this 15 minutes ago. Watched the video. Downloading now. I'll comment as I play with it.

Sikuli
http://sikuli.csail.mit.edu/

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDOlhysFcM" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxDOlhysFcM</a>

I was hoping others would comment these proposals. I am happy to add them, but I want to add them in the order they are most desired. So far your vote seems to be winning CodeTRUCKER. 

Let me did up the code and fire up me text editor and get started. I'll keep you informed here.

It's one year later, Jan 15 2010, and I wish it was on sale today. I'd love to get it at the discount. 

Or possibly Truecrypt the entire flash drive for something a fair bit cheaper.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I intend to use Truecrypt on the data flashdrive. (Something I thought of after my original post.)

Do those sdhc cards have any access speed issues?

Yes, very slow. Only about 6 MByte/s. The idea is that it would be a local cache faster than downloading from an online location and that it would be sync'ed in the background. But, now that you mention it, I could just as well use a second USB drive instead of the SD card.

And my reason for using a removable drive for the documents was so that I too could easily use them on other computers. But the more I think about it, maybe I should just download copies from online storage as needed. I would then delete them when finished.

The main reason for all of this is that I want to avoid the scenario of having my documents lost/stolen with the netbook as well as the ability to easily ship it off for repair if need be.

[internal HDD]

I am mulling over how I want to handle my new setup.

So far I am thinking that I might try:

1) My internal HDD is for the operating system (currently going with Windows 7 Starter that came with it) and permanent system-level software like backup programs like my SpiderOak.com client, Jungle Disk, etc.

2) External USB thumbdrive for my portable applications. This way I can use them on any computer, even though they will primarily be used on my netbook.

3) (Internal) SDHC Flash for my data files synched real-time to online storage.

Has anybody tried this configuration? Can you think of any pros/cons for this configuration? I am very interested to hear your comments on this.

[Level 1]

I got a shiny new Dell Inspiron Mini 10 for Christmas from my girlfriend.
[attachthumb=#2]

I knew it would be a time-sink the first day I opened the box, so I have waited until today to do so.

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• Intel®Atom®Processor Z530 (1.6GHz/533MHz FSB/512K Cache)
• 1GB RAM (fixed size on CPU/Memory daughter board)
• 10.1" Widescreen Display (1024x600)
• 160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 56WHr Lithium-Ion Battery (6-cell) (optional upgrade that can have up to 8-hours w/o WiFi or much HDD I/O)
• Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
• Windows® 7 Starter for Small Notebook PCs, 32bit, English

So today's task is to determine the best way to configure my new toy. So far I have just begun brainstorming about what software will go on it as "Levels 1-3".

Level 1 is the stuff used to keep the machine backuped up and sandboxed.
Level 1

• Acronis True Image Home 2010 Standard Edition (Most likely unless you folks think Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation client would be a better choice. I own licenses for both versions.)
  
• I am thinking about adding Sandboxie based on what I have seen here yesterday after searching the forums.
  

If I don't use an Acronis product for backup and recovery, I also have full licenses to...

• Backup4all
  
• Genie  Backup Manager Pro
  
• And probably some others I have forgotten.

Other items I could add to Level 1, but I am not sure about (and I would like to hear you opinions on.)

• FirstDefense-ISR as I have a purchased version of the origional professional workstation version that supports "Freeze". Not sure if I can run this when Acronis recovery is installed.
  
• RollBack Rx is also an option because I purchased a license as an upgrade when FD-ISR was discontinued in is origional form.
  
• Returnil Virtual System 2010 Home Free because it's free and I haven't taken a look at it in a long time.
  

Level 1a is online backup and recovery.
Level 1a

• SpiderOak.com for online backup and secure file sync that is cross-platform.
  

Level 2 is the security level, including anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-rootkit, firewall, etc. I don't plan on running any of these items fulltime. Realtime scanning just slows a machine down needlessly for any advanced used that remains conscious of what they are doing. I will only use on-demand scanning nightly and anytime I download a file. I won't use a personal firewall most of the time as I will be inside private LANs. When I am using public WiFi I will run a firewall.

I haven't made any decisions on what software I plan to use here.

Level 2
Software I have licenses for...

• Norton Internet Security 2010 - My girlfriend uses this as she is familiar with it and it has gotten good reviews from the trade press. She has a 3-license pack. I have used it recently to try, but the realtime stuff (as I fully expected) slows my other laptop to a crawl. I may install this suite and turn off all the realtime features and only use the stuff I need on-demand.
  
• On a whim I purchased a 3-pack of VIPRE Antivirus because it was dirt cheap and it claims to be fast. I have yet to try it and might try this to see how fast it really is.
  
• The computer comes from Dell with an 15-month license to McAfee software, but I despise McAfee and won't use it.

Other viable options are Comodo's AntiVirus and Firewall products. I have used both in the past and was reasonably happy with them. And I see they have added a Anti Malware software product to their lineup.

Level 3 is the utility level where I map drives by various means -- SMB, SFTP, SSH, online storage, etc.
Level 3

• Jungle Disk for Amazon S3.
  
• Livedrive for online storage via Windows Mapped Drive as well as FTP.
  
• ExpanDrive for Windows for simple SFTP drive-letter access.
  
• WinMount - Mount rar, zip, DVD, CD, HDD images quickly.
  
• Virtual Disk - Organize files on a virtual drive.
  
• PerfectDisk for real-time disk defragmentation.
  

I am very interested to learn what ideas for changes or tweaks on levels 1-3 you have.

I am not the only one that has complained about this, but today is the first time I became aware of this. I had purchased Multiwinia in the past, on sale, on Steam. Today they have Multiwinia bundled with Darwinia for only $2.99. (I know, I'll wait here while you go buy it. Back? Ok, let's continue.) So I expected to be able to gift my second copy of Multiwinia to my girlfriend so we could play together. Nope. When I complete my purchase my "old" copy of Multiwinia was "Not Installed" and my new copy was ready to be installed. I basically lost one of my legally purchased license keys to neverneverland. That sucks. I can't believe Steam still does this after all of the complaints. I am wondering if a class action lawsuit is in order.

My New Year's resolution is to stop mucking with DVORAK, COLEMAK, etc. and just become a better touch typist. My problem is that I am good with A-Z, excellent beyond compare with the Backspace key  but crappy with everything else.

And I am a programmer ! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So I need to work on [ ] { ] \ | > < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - = ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +

I am looking for a tutor or game that will allow me to choose the keys I want to practice and then help me practice in a way that doesn't make my want to hang myself by my thumbnails due to boredom.

My goal is to be able to do all of my programming without looking at the keyboard or removing my fingers from home row.

I don't want to "just type" because tying to (re)learn these keys while doing actually coding distracts me from the coding and my productivity drops infinitely close to zero.

Curt,

I run Fences from Stardock. It has a double-click to hide/show desktop icon feature as well. It works just find on Vista and Windows 7.

The idea of the free market doesn't work, and what we have isn't free market anyway.

I hope you know I was just yanking your chain. 

And yes, true, what we have (at least in the U.S.) is far from a Free Market.

,,.,...,.

[ed. all stupid parts of the quote have been removed.]

Um, that's how it is supposed to work. That is called the Free Market. We like the Free Market. 

OK, I am fully stocked up on games. I've got running Steam, XFire, Impulse, Comrade, and who knows else what. I need to figure out which one I am going to use as my main game hub. What all do you folks use and what games to you play? And post here your accounts on these places if you want to so I can "friend" you. If you don't want to post it publicly, you can pm or email me.