Topics

326

General Software Discussion / SourceForge

« on: June 18, 2010, 01:43 AM »

<EDIT> I was able to get my download manager to work with SourceForge.</EDIT>

In long: Ah, good old open source applications! Nothing like some great free software to put on your PC. But what if you have connection issues and can't stay online long enough to complete that download?

Good thing you've got FreeDownloadManager(.org!)

But wait! What's this? SourceForge uses some trickery so that the download starts automatically in the browser.

Ah, no problem. Just cancel the download and copy the direct link they so kindly provide and paste it into FDM.

What the heck? 20kB? The file should be 40MB! Argh! The Direct link is just a link to a script that chooses a mirror and forwards you to the download!

In short: How the smurf do you use a download manager on SourceForge?

 

327

Finished Programs / SOLVED: Open command prompt at current directory

« on: June 16, 2010, 01:39 PM »

I've been playing around with Mercurial and the GUI provided by TortoiseHg and I've decided I don't like TortoiseHg that much. But I also don't like leaving the command prompt open all the time just for an occasional repository action. And I also don't like Win+R -> cmd -> [series of commands that navigate to the repo directory].

What I'd really like is some easy way to open a directory I'm in (from Windows Explorer) in the command prompt. Whether it's a shell extension so right click -> "Open dir in cmd" or if it's in the SendTo -> Cmd or even I guess a hotkey (though I'd rather not run a little hotkey app the whole time just for this one little use case scenario).

I thought I saw something like this already on DC but I can't find it. So if it already exists, please help point me to it. If not, please someone take up the cause and code it!

EDIT: Krishean made it super easy! (click the blue text below to quickly get to the download)

I took the liberty of compiling everything listed in the thread into one reg file (and one to reverse the changes)

features:
works on windows 7 (should work the same on both x86 and x64) dunno if it does anything on xp, may or may not work on vista
works with rightclicking on a blank area of the directory
works with rightclicking on a drive or directory
shift+rightclicking adds the additional option of "Open administrator command window here"

-Krishean (June 20, 2010, 07:56 PM)

328

DC Gamer Club / Dinosaurs Didn't Have Keyboards

« on: June 15, 2010, 11:14 PM »

http://www.sophiehoulden.com/games/dinosaursdidnthavekeyboards/

If the screenshot makes you think of Dino Run then you wouldn't be the first to think so. However, the gameplay is completely different and in fact it's the controls themselves that make this game unique.

I don't want to spoil the surprise, so just play the game and see if your keyboard survives!

329

General Software Discussion / Pop Up Chrome Extensions: A Potential Security Concern?

« on: June 08, 2010, 07:25 PM »

So I just clicked a link to view an article and when I loaded the webpage, Chrome popped up a little window asking me if I wanted to install that site's extension.



I'm no security expert and I don't claim to know the inner workings of how this happens, but it seems to me it that it's not a stretch to imagine injecting this "advertisement" for an extension on any website and when the user installs it, it's actually some sort of malware.

For example: Is it possible for hackers to inject this code into (or make a fake extension for) PayPal.com and then when people visit the site they'll be invited to "install the new PayPal extension!" but it's really just some malware that steals their login details or something similar?

Am I the only one bothered by this?

330

Living Room / 10 Suicides at Apple factory this year.

« on: June 04, 2010, 02:37 AM »

It's gotten so bad they have installed a net to catch the jumpers!

Since January this year 10 young workers have killed themselves by jumping from the roof of the factory building at Foxconn in southern China.

Jobs today described the worker's deaths as 'troubling' but insisted that the factory 'is not a sweatshop'.

-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1283389/Apple-boss-Steve-Jobs-defends-China-Foxconn-factory-conditions-10-suicides.html

331

Found Deals and Discounts / HDMI Cables: $0.60

« on: June 03, 2010, 10:01 PM »

I just came across these cables on Amazon.com.

6 foot (1.8 meters) HDMI cables for $0.60 + $2.98 shipping (each).

http://www.amazon.co.../product/B000M51NRM/


MonoPrice is having a Deal of the Day on a 6.5 foot (2 meters) cable for $1.97, but it's hideously ugly (bright orange) and shipping is over $2.50 for one cable or $6.35+ for 2 or more. So definitely go for the cables available (from a 3rd party) on Amazon unless you're ordering 3 or more cables, then it might still be cheaper on MonoPrice.

332

DC Gamer Club / Altitude: Free Weekend (and 50% off) on Steam

« on: May 21, 2010, 04:11 PM »

Altitude, which has been briefly mentioned on DC in the RoboKill 2 thread, is a simplistic and fun 2D airplane combat game.

Best described as a cross between Teeworlds, Team Fortress 2, and an RPG, Altitude is a shockingly addictive online multiplayer game from indie studio Nimbly Games. Grab a plane and take to the skies as you compete (and co-operate) with other players and earn experience points bombing the enemy base and taking down foes with a variety of power-ups. As you gain levels you unlock new planes along with equippable "perks" that enhance and alter each vehicle. The instant action grabs you from the start while the nuanced gameplay and healthy serving of upgrades keep you in for the long haul.

-http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/06/altitude.php

Best of all, you can try the full version for free this weekend (right now!) on Steam (Windows or Mac), and if you like it, you can buy it for $5 USD until Monday. It is also available for Linux, but you'd either need to buy it on Steam and wait for the Linux version of Steam, or buy the Linux version direct from Nimbly Games.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am in no way affiliated with Nimbly Games, however, they do have a referral program that will get you in-game points with which to "buy" skins for your airplanes. The above link to Nimbly games will give me some of those points just by you clicking it. As far as I know, there is no way to get the referral bonus for referring you to the Steam version, so if you're feeling generous, click the link anyway. If you don't want me to benefit at all for sharing this cool game with you, then don't click that link, and you may still visit the site at: http://www.altitudegame.com/

333

Living Room / Google TV

« on: May 20, 2010, 11:59 PM »

Remember how Microsoft tried to integrate the internet on the television with that crappy WebTV (aka MSNTV) box? Well it seems that Google finally has figured out how to make such a move successful:

Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web surfing with channel surfing on televisions.

To reach the long-elusive goal, Google has joined forces with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International. The companies unveiled their much-anticipated plan for a "smart" TV on Thursday.

...

... Google was able to conduct a series of Internet searches in a drop-down box that appears at the top of television programs. The search results pointed to Internet videos and other content related to the television program on the screen.

A telecast of a sporting event can be shrunk into a small "picture-in-picture" box so a viewer can look at statistics or other material about the game on TV.

Viewers can also make search requests by speaking into a remote that runs on Google's Android operating system.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt described the potential of the Internet TVs as mind-boggling, although he acknowledged it might be difficult for some consumers to grasp at first. That's one reason he said Google decided to team up with Best Buy, which offers a "geek squad" to deal with complex technology.

"You have to actually see (the Internet TV) to get excited about it," Schmidt said at a news conference.

-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FQOHQ84&show_article=1

I guess that's why I'm not at all excited about it.

And like I'm really going to trust Geek Squad to help me out with anything.

334

Living Room / Google Search

« on: May 17, 2010, 01:34 PM »

Did you know that Google handles all searches as if they were performed with lower case letters? In other words, Google searches are case insensitive.

This means that searching for an editor called "StarED" gives results about staring, or being stared at. I can understand why Google would do this by default, but even their "Advanced Search" lacks the option to match case.

Okay, so I admit that I've been using the Google Search Engine for years and never had this issue affect me before, but... how the smurf can they not think this would be useful or even required in some cases?

335

Living Room / Bought (or thinking of buying) an Apple iPad? You may have been duped!

« on: May 05, 2010, 05:56 PM »

How's that for a sensationalist headline/topic? I figured that with as well as my previous Apple-related thread has gone, I'd start this one up, too.

It’s pretty annoying to always have the iPad compared with Kindle and Nook and to hear all sorts of strange things -

iPad is the best-selling tablet – selling more than the Kindle tablet.

iPad is going to become the #1 eReader.

Kindle was the best tablet before the iPad came out.

There are two main ideas that are being propagated -

• The iPad is an eReader and it takes on eReaders like the Kindle and Nook and Sony Reader.
• The iPad is a Tablet and eReaders are tablets too.

It all makes sense when you dig deeper.

The real competitors the iPad is scared to be compared against

There are actually two categories that the iPad is much closer to than eReaders -

• Netbooks.
• Mobile Phones.

-http://ireaderreview.com/2010/05/04/pretending-to-be-an-ereader-is-better-for-the-ipad/

Of course, I don't expect this thread to be nearly as controversial as the other one, since generally the folks here at DC agree that Apple is all about marketing and hype. They're amazing at marketing, unfortunately what that really means is that they're really good at lying, and selling that lie for an exorbitant amount.

(thanks Allen for sharing this in your Google Reader feed)

336

Found Deals and Discounts / Steam Sale: 50% off Guild Wars Trilogy

« on: April 29, 2010, 09:57 PM »

Celebrate the Guild Wars 5th Anniversary with 50% off the entire Guild Wars series this week only.

-http://store.steampowered.com/news/3767/

If you don't know, Guild Wars is an MMORPG without a monthly subscription cost. Once you buy the game you're free to play it.

You can get the whole trilogy for $20 USD or if you already own one (or two) of the games you can buy them individually but at a higher total cost: Guild Wars: Game of the Year Edition is $10, while Factions and Nightfall are $15 each.

If you have it or get it, let me know. It would be fun to party up with some fellow DC members.

337

Living Room / Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 27, 2010, 10:55 AM »

Anyone hear about this?

Police have seized computers and servers belonging to an editor of Gizmodo in an investigation that appears to stem from the gadget blog's purchase of a lost Apple iPhone prototype.

...

"When I got home, I noticed the garage door was half-open," according to an account by Chen. "And when I tried to open it, officers came out and said they had a warrant to search my house and any vehicles on the property 'in my control.' They then made me place my hands behind my head and searched me to make sure I had no weapons or sharp objects on me."

...

Dalglish said that the San Mateo County search warrant violated the federal Privacy Protection Act, which broadly immunizes news organizations from searches--unless, in some cases, the journalists themselves committed the crime. The 1980 federal law requires police to use subpoenas to obtain information instead of search warrants, she said.

Editors at Gizmodo, part of Gawker Media's blog network, last week said they paid $5,000 for what they believed to be a prototype of a future iPhone 4G. The story said the phone was accidentally left at a bar in Redwood City, Calif., last month by an Apple software engineer and found by someone who contacted Gizmodo, which had previously indicated that it was willing to pay significant sums for unreleased Apple products.

-http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20003446-37.html

338

General Software Discussion / Any upload hash checking/comparing software?

« on: April 14, 2010, 01:17 PM »

Every once in a while I will upload some files to the internet as a backup, and when I restore the files back to my computer, I realize that the file is corrupt because my internet connection freaked out during the FTP upload.

Is there any FTP client/server software that will perform a checksum on the remote files and compare them to the local files? Or perhaps a php/website script that could do something like this?

The reason why I'd prefer FTP is because my host provides a special FTP-only backup account (with no web-access to the files) and that's usually where I upload my backups to.

339

Living Room / File Size vs. Size on Disk: Why such a difference?

« on: April 07, 2010, 01:26 PM »

Last night I learned something new that the geek in me found interesting. I learned the difference between SI prefix names and IEC prefix names. The details are summarized on Ubuntu's Units Policy but really the only thing that has to do with this post is that it made me curious about the discrepancy I see when viewing a file's (or folder's) properties and it shows the size and size on disk to be sometimes quite different.

For example, I have several PortableApps on a 2GiB USB drive and I wanted to see how much space they took up. So viewing the PortableApps' folder properties, it shows:

Size: 602 MB (631,544,356 bytes)
Size on disk: 993 MB (1,041,301,504 bytes)

So my questions is: Can anyone explain to me why the files take up 40% more space on disk than their actual size? Are they retaining water? Wearing a girdle? Did they have plastic surgery?

340

General Software Discussion / Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

« on: March 21, 2010, 01:19 AM »

I'm officially starting the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx thread. I know it's about a month early, but I just found out that the Beta 1 is available for trial:

The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. This is the first Ubuntu 10.04 beta release, which brings a host of exciting new features.

Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 29, 2010.

-http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/lucid/beta1

And here are a few changes in Lucid Lynx that I find interesting:

• Mozilla Firefox's default search engine has been changed to Yahoo! The default Home Page will use either Google or Yahoo! depending on user setting.
• Ubuntu One Music Store. Millions of songs are available for purchase from your Ubuntu desktop, integrated with the Rhythmbox Music Player and using Ubuntu One cloud storage for backup and easy sync. Watch http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for the public beta launch.
• Ubuntu One File Synching. Select any folder in your home directory for sync, pick from your existing contacts when sharing folders. An updated preferences application has been added, with more features.
• We now feature built-in integration with Twitter, identi.ca, Facebook, and other social networks with the MeMenu in the panel, which is built upon the Gwibber project, which has a completely new, more reliable backend built on top of desktopcouch. Gwibber now also supports a multi-column view for monitoring multiple feeds simultaneously.
• New default open source driver for nVidia hardware

For more information and download links: http://www.ubuntu.co.../testing/lucid/beta1

341

DC Gamer Club / Sniper Elite for $2 on Steam

« on: March 17, 2010, 10:16 PM »

Hello,

I personally have never played this game and don't know anything about it, but mouser is always talking about how it's one of his favorite games ever, so it caught my attention today when I saw that it is on sale on Steam all this week for just $2.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/3700/

I bought it, but can't play it since my gaming PC doesn't have an internet connection at this time, so I can't download it yet.

IT BETTER BE GOOD MOUSER! I bought it on your recommendation alone!

342

Living Room / Windows doesn't recognize HDD.

« on: March 14, 2010, 11:06 PM »

Hi folks,

I recently found some old HDDs and decided to put them into my pc to see if they still worked. After all, I had them removed because I thought (but wasn't sure) that they were going bad so they were replaced with new HDDs.

Anyway, I've got one that is recognized in the BIOS but doesn't show up in Windows 7, not even in the disk management. I thought that was a little strange, so I booted into an Ubunto LiveCD and Ubuntu at least recognizes there is an HDD there. It doesn't display the contents of the drive but it tells me the label and even knows enough to say it may be failing since it has a lot of bad sectors.

So I tried booting back into Windows 7 and before it booted, it made me run scandisk/check disk on that drive, and as expected, found a bunch of bad sectors and unreadable files and stuff, but when it finally finished booting into Win7 it once again does not indicate the drive exists at all.

I figure the drive is toast, and I certainly don't care about salvaging whatever data may be on it, but I'm really interested in finding out why the drive just seems to disappear in Win7 (ultimate, 32-bit) but everything else (BIOS, Linux) recognizes the drive is there.

Anyone got any ideas?

343

Living Room / Jetpacks are real!

« on: March 11, 2010, 11:09 PM »

I just found this:

I want one!

344

Living Room / Webmail spam.

« on: February 25, 2010, 05:20 PM »

Am I the only the only one who sees the humor in this? (image has been blurred in some places to protect the innocent)



Aside from the humorous oxymoron this image provides, can anyone offer explanation on how this would work?

It's an e-mail from a friend, but it's obviously spam. Normally I'd think she just got a virus but how would a virus get access to her webmail account? Maybe a trojan/keylogger? Maybe her password was compromised?

I've actually received spam from two friends recently (in the past couple months) who use Hotmail accounts. I haven't been paying attention to the Weekly Tech News that Ehtyar normally puts out, has the recent Hotmail account compromises been in the news lately?

345

Living Room / The interwebs are run by magic?

« on: February 16, 2010, 07:43 PM »

Maybe Google are getting a little too confident in their abilities?

346

Found Deals and Discounts / Trine on Steam for $5.

« on: February 10, 2010, 10:44 PM »

There's no Steam news item announcing this 75% off sale for Trine and no indication as to when this sale ends. So I'm not sure when the special started or when it will be over.

Trine is a fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. Set in a world of great castles and strange machinery, three heroes are bound to a mysterious device called the Trine in a quest to save the kingdom from evil…

The gameplay is based on fully interactive physics - each character's different abilities help the player battle an army of undead and defeat hazardous contraptions. The player can at any time freely choose whoever is best suited for the upcoming challenge or puzzle: The Wizard is able to summon objects to help solve puzzles and create new ways to overcome obstacles, the Thief uses her agility and dead-on accuracy to swiftly surprise the monsters, and the Knight unleashes mayhem and physical destruction wherever he goes.

-http://store.steampowered.com/app/35700/

Lashiec says Trine would go in his Best Games of 2009 List even after only having played the demo.

Trine on Steam also has Steam Cloud support, meaning your save data is saved in the Cloud and available at any PC you log into your Steam account from.

347

General Software Discussion / "Pointer" Directories in Windows

« on: February 02, 2010, 09:05 PM »

So I've really been interested lately in something that has been mentioned a few times on these forums. I don't know what they're called, but basically you can create a "pointer directory" that doesn't really exist, but just points to another directory located somewhere else in your computer.

This way you can have something like:

C:\Users\Username\Documents\My Dropbox\Games\Diablo II\Saves\

Which really puts all the files in:

D:\Games\Diablo II\Saves\

As you can see from the example, one of the purposes I have for this is to back up/synchronize files from places that don't tidily fit into the normal DropBox folder.

Any help on what these "pointer directories" are and how to make them would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

348

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Continuous/Repeating Goal/Task Tracker Website with API

« on: January 21, 2010, 03:17 AM »

Hello,

This idea may not qualify for a coding snack because it actually comes in a few parts, some of which might be simple enough to be a coding snack, but others I'm sure would likely require a much more involved process.

Part 1: What I'm looking for is a website that would allow a person to create an account under which the user could then set recurring tasks that can be checked off or tracked.

Ideally it would have an API so that a mobile app can be made for cell phones (I currently have an Android phone, so that would be my request).

So for example, I might have a goal of reading a book for 30 minutes each day. At the end of the day I could bring up my tracker and check off that I fulfilled the daily task.

But say I wanted to expand my social horizons and make new friends, so I might have a goal of talking to three new people a week. At the end of the week I could either have a boolean result (goal met or not) or a fraction (2 out of 3 talked to).

The idea is to make it very simple with only a few options for simplicity's sake. But to have a few options such as daily, weekly, and monthly tasks with boolean (check box) tracking or tally (2 out of 3) tracking.

Then the true beauty of the whole thing is that from the database kept, you could gather all sorts of statistical information, so you can track your progress and improvements over long periods of time.

I'm typing this all up from my cell phone at 2 AM (which I'm sure you can imagine takes quite a while) because I thought it was a great idea and didn't want to forget about it. I'll flesh out this post a bit more when I am at a PC with internet in the next day or two.

If you have any comments or questions, go ahead and post them, but please understand I know I didn't explain very well because that would take way too long on my mobile and I need to sleep, so as I said, this post will be fleshed out more in a day or two.

349

N.A.N.Y. 2010 / NANY 2010 Final Release: Leap of Faith

« on: December 10, 2009, 01:41 AM »

NANY 2010 Entry Information

Application Name	Leap of Faith
Version	1.2010.08.18
Short Description	w
Supported OS	Windows
Web Page	http://lof.deozaan.com/
Download Link	Leap of Faith (2.4MB)
System Requirements	Windows XP/Vista/7
Version History	1.2010.08.18 - Fixed buggy goal thingy as reported by Stoic Joker 1.2009.12.31 - NANY Final Release 0.2009.12.10 - Playable
Author	Deozaan
Screencast	http://donationcoder...ith/leapoffaith.html YouTube: http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=DFeSlOqd0kc
Credits	I'd like to thank Hamradio who took the time to make me a few graphics, which unfortunately did not make it into the final release. Your time and effort are appreciated. This game powered by Torque Game Builder.

Description
This is a Platformer game where the objective is to climb to the top of the screen and reach the goal.

Features
Contains Proprietary Paradox Technology: Every level is unique, yet they're all the same!
Implements amazing Greek technology!
Provides at least 10 seconds of amusement!¹

Screencast

Screenshots


Usage

Installation
Unzip and run the exe.

Using the Application
Use the arrow keys to move left and right. Use Space Bar to make a Leap of Faith² and try to reach the goal. You'll know it when you see it.

Uninstallation
Delete the Leap of Faith folder.
WinXP: Delete the \Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Craven Entertainment\ folder.
Vista/Win7: Delete the \Users\User Name\AppData\Roaming\Craven Entertainment\ folder.

Known Issues
The game will not run properly if the path contains non-ASCII characters. So if your Windows username uses non-ASCII characters, don't try running it on your Desktop or from within other folders in your User directory.

1. No guarantee is made pertaining to the amount of time, if any, this game amuses you.
2. No faith required. If you wish to play without faith you may press W to jump and R to randomize the level.

350

General Software Discussion / Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala (including Netbook Remix)

« on: December 07, 2009, 09:27 PM »

I can't believe there isn't an Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala thread yet. I couldn't find one in a search so I thought I'd take the liberty of starting the semi-annual Ubuntu thread.

I just installed Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and the Netbook Remix onto my wife's laptop and my netbook respectively using Wubi. I thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences I've had so far with Karmic Koala. Just remember, any time I'm talking about my netbook, I'm referring to the Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Any time I'm talking about my wife's laptop, I'm referring to Ubuntu Desktop Edition.

I'd also like to apologize in advance for using Windows terminology to describe Linux/Ubuntu/Gnome things. I know it's not right but I don't know the appropriate names for some of these things, so I just go with the closest thing to what I do know, and that's Windows.

The Good:

* This is the first Ubuntu release that recognized my WiFi adapter right from the get go. On all previous releases I've tried (8.10 and 9.4) I've had to go through a somewhat convoluted process involving downloading the drivers, building them, doing some other stuff I don't understand, and doing some more stuff I didn't understand so that it would load them up automatically every time I booted up Ubuntu. And then if there was a kernel update I'd have to do some of those steps again because they were apparently set up to work only with a specific kernel. Admittedly I don't know exactly everything I'm talking about, so some of my terminology may be wrong (especially concerning the "kernel update") but it sure is nice having the WiFi work just from the beginning.

* Ubuntu One, which is basically a 2GB Dropbox for Ubuntu users. I actually haven't used it yet, but I like Dropbox and I like free online storage/sync so I think it will be useful.

* Ubuntu Software Center. This is a really nice and clean interface for installing lots of packages. It's basically a prettied up version of the Synaptics Package Manager but I think maybe SPM had access to more things than the USC. Applications are organized by category (Games, Programming, Accessories, Graphics, Audio & Video, etc.) which just makes it so easy to browse and find what you need.

* Empathy is the new(?) all-in-one IM client similar to Pidgin, but this one is integrated with the system and when you're connected you can actually see and set your status from the "Start Button" (that thing with options to log out or shut down, etc.) in the top right corner. I'm not really a fan of all-in-one IM/IRC clients in general, but I like the integration of Empathy and Ubuntu.

The Bad:

* Oddly enough my netbook's Ethernet adapter doesn't seem to work when I plug a cable into it. This is especially strange considering that my WiFi works fine, but plugging in a cable doesn't seem to do anything.

* Speaking of network/internet, almost no internet browsing works without first disabling IPv6 in Firefox (use About:Config and search for IPv6).

* It doesn't recognize my netbook's built in webcam. I thought the Netbook Remix was built with netbook hardware specifically in mind? Or does that mean only the Atom processor?

* The screen brightness flickers from bright to not-so-bright for about a minute on my netbook--until the OS has had time to figure out the battery status (i.e. until the battery icon appears in the "tray" or whatever it's called in Linux).

* Mouse problems on my netbook. If I touch the touchpad it breaks the mouse functionality. I'm not sure what the problem is. The mouse cursor still moves around the screen, but clicking doesn't work properly. It's almost as if whatever I'm clicking on doesn't have focus. So I click all I want and nothing happens. I should also note that I always use an external USB mouse because my right mouse button is broken on the touchpad. But if I accidentally touch the touchpad while typing, neither the USB mouse or touchpad clicks will register. And since I can't figure out how to access the "start menu" (restart, logoff, etc) with keyboard shortcuts, I'm forced to use Ctrl-Alt-Del and use the keyboard to restart the computer completely. Additionally, if I unplug the USB and plug it back in (or if it wasn't plugged in when Ubuntu booted) the USB mouse doesn't work at all. And since using the touchpad completely breaks the mouse clicks anyway, I'm pretty much forced to boot the machine with the mouse USB dongle or else I have to restart it again. This problem has been resolved since I fixed my right mouse button on my touchpad.

* I still can't get Ubuntu to play DVD movies on my wife's laptop. I've downloaded VLC and extra restricted stuff but something keeps breaking during installation or download or something so nothing knows how to run a DVD. In my opinion, if it doesn't just run DVDs out of the box, then it doesn't "just work."

The Ambiguous:

* Netbook Remix layout is almost completely different than the desktop edition. It has been a little difficult figuring out where everything is. It's a little like making the change from XP to Vista/7. You know almost everything is there, but you're not sure where to find it. There's a permant (and huge) side bar which is akin to the Windows Start Menu-> All Programs. It has categories you click on and then to the right it displays all the (huge) icons/"shortcuts" to the programs for that category. You cannot hide this and it is always there. If you have an application running then that application will display on top of it, but basically this permanent "All Programs" menu is your desktop. And instead of showing rectangles for running applications in the "task bar" it just shows the program icon, much like Windows 7, except whatever currently maximized program is running will fill up the rest of the "task bar" with the application title and an X to close it. There is no button to minimize or un-maximize, though clicking on the icon will minimize and double clicking the title bar will un-maximize, much like Windows functionality. I wouldn't really say any of this is good or bad. It's just different and takes some getting used to.

* It's Ubuntu. Once it's installed, then what do you do with it? Besides uninstalling it (ha!)? As a Windows user, I'm still mostly lost on what to do in Ubuntu. It's cool to install, fun to download things and try them out, but ultimately I'm at a loss for reasons to use it as my primary OS, or even regularly for that matter. Typically what I find myself doing is booting Ubuntu whenever someone asks a question about it so I can show it to them (most "John Q. Public" people I know don't even seem to realize there are other OSes besides Windows, with the exception of possibly understanding that Macintosh has something a little different.) or booting it just to download all the latest upgrades and wiggle the mouse around a bit looking for something to do with it before ultimately going back to Windows.

Final Thoughts:

As a gamer, I'm surprised at how many games are readily available and cataloged for download right from the get go in Ubuntu. But ultimately I'm always returning to Windows to play the games I really want to play. But if Internet and DVD & MP3 playback worked out of the box, I think Ubuntu would be perfectly suitable for the every day average user who just browses, types things up in a word procesor, and listens to music/watches movies on their machine. I'd probably be able to get my wife to convert to Ubuntu on a permanent basis if that was the case.

EDIT: Updated status of mouse problems.