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Funny, I guess I'm glad you guys read it first. I'm actually really excited about this. I played with one when they came out at $500 and really liked it. I would be pissed since I got it so cheap now. I really like Web OS but I'm hoping to find a way to get android on it so that I always have an up to date OS.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3220862 HP is dumping their tablet brand and selling them off for $99! If your a student you can get them for $75. I got 2 of them for me and my fiancee for $180 with shipping. The downside is your buying a dying product with virtually zero support. On the upside you got a really cool tablet that can do pretty much anything that they all can for $100.

Newegg has a couple of old agp cards still: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139053 HD3450 They had a few for $30 but I think the HD3000 series cards can still use the newest ati drives, which means windows 7 should work just fine. They had a HD4000 but it was $70, I'd buy a new motherboard/cpu first as it would have graphics about as good or better.

Here is mine: I found this pretty cool theme called diffusion on the windows 7 theme site. It had lots of cool backgrounds with it.

Ubuntu needs WAY more than that. Ubuntu needs to get more hardware manufacturers to support their platform. I have 3 different laptops in my house and have tried ubuntu on all of them, the only one that everything works on is a netbook(as they all use the same atom chipset). The others have problems with everything you can imagine. Network drivers, hibernate, graphics drivers, ect. Not to mention the fact that windows kicks ubuntu's butt when it comes to downscaling the computer to preserve battery. A windows pc lasts way longer on the same hardware/battery. I cant comment on the first one as I don't use creative hardware but the other 2 are not fair accusations. .GIF files just open in IE9 for me, why would it matter that it doesn't open in the "picture viewer"? It actually makes more sense anyway as .gif is only really for web use anyway. I don't see how windows 7 could cause pixelated photos. Stretching out a small image is going to cause pixelation on any OS. I copy more dvds and blu rays to put on my laptops than I can count. The only difference is that theirs better software on windows to do it with. The average person is not going to use ubuntu no matter how bad windows gets. Ubuntu is not easier to use than windows, if you believe that than look at their forums and see how many people on there cant even get their hardware working(and just give up) because the only way to do is is to open up the command line. Ubuntu also is lacking anywhere near the support for professional grade software you see on windows/mac. You cant get MS office, photoshop, final cut pro, ect. on Ubuntu. If you actually follow trends of tech usage you would see that the most common transition from the PCs of the past will probably take form in cell phones, tablets, and other devices. Desktop sales are in a huge decline and while laptops still sell like crazy most companies are now investing heavilly in these devices as they see them as the future.(which is why windows and mac have started to carve out their pieces of the pie). I'm not saying you are going to see the traditional PC die anytime soon, but if you think people are going to leave Windows for Ubuntu then you've been reading too much linux praising on the web. Linux is less than 1% of all PCs. Moore's law is nothing about what you posted either... Moore's Law just means computers are going to keep getting faster.

Everything you put there you would have to enter in ubuntu as well(except a product key obviously), but at least windows works after you install it.

some hp netbooks can be upgraded easily. Under the battery there are these orange buttons. Press them and then pry the bottom off and you can see the ram and change it out.

Netbooks like what you have are not made for speed. About the only thing you can do is upgrade the ram like Nergal pointed out and try to reduce the amount of programs you have running at start up/in the background.

I'm surprised their dropping IE7 support as thats the last version available for XP. XP is old and dusty now, but their are still a huge amount of users and many of them still use IE.

I use Security Essentials and browse with firefox. I don't really do anything that would catch me a virus anyway. I do have a back up of a clean Windows 7 install that I did with the built in back up, but I don't really know how good it is.(its got only office 07 installed on it, no drivers, or other software). I figure if it works than great, if not than oh well. I haven't played with the image back ups much. What I generally do is just drag a copy of my "My documents" folder over to an external drive every now and then. I think the reason I don't like the idea of an image back up is that if I was going to do a system restore I want to download all the newest drivers, software, ect. without starting out with old versions installed, thus quickly cluttering up a "new" install. I did clean installs on my windows 7 machine about 5 times because of a driver bug I was having when it was first released.(something where icons wouldn't show on my desktop when I put them there, files, folders, nothing would show). When I did those reinstalls it maybe took me 3 hours to do the reinstall, update, and then drag over my files.

I think it looks pretty cool. You can still get a full blown windows desktop(which it shows on that video). This might be a cool way for MS to come out with a tablet similar to apple's but still give users the functionality of a full OS. (which Ios is definitely not.) I love windows 7 so I'm at least open to try it.

Try this: Go to Start - > Type Run in the Search Box and press enter - > type regsvr32 wmp.dll (or copy/paste in) and press ok/enter. You should get a message saying it was successful. Let me know if this works, I found it on another site and people claim it was working, it just re-registers WMP.

Great set up as long as you actually need all that power.

Sony is actually offering up some pretty good stuff for free. Infamous is an awesome game and I encourage anyone who hasn't gotten it yet to grab it while its free, its like GTA but your a superhero with lightning powers who can climb buildings. I played through it last year and its one of the better new games out there for the ps3. The others I couldn't care less about. (little big planet is supposed to be great, but its not my kind of game) I'm done with ps3 online anyway though. I've been using my xbox now and it really is no comparison when it comes to online. I will continue to use my ps3 for single player games though(getting LA NOIRE today!). http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/lanoire/index.html

I use skydrive: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-skydrive I like it because I can upload/download files to it directly from MS office 07. I no longer store documents on my laptop because I only use it a few times a week. With skydrive I can then easily get it without having to email it or use a flash drive. I also like how I can send people links to download stuff off my skydrive.

If you don't mind switching over to ati instead of nvidia, this would be a pretty good card for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102843 If you want to stick to NVIDIA this is the standard card for non gamers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814261085 If you want to step up to something a bit faster but still relatively cheap, then grab one of these: ATI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102874 NVIDIA http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162067 I'm an ATI Fan(they run cooler and like andavari said, they have better drivers). I would go with the 5570. (third link)

I found the gateway page for the motherboard in your pc: http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/Intel2/4006160R/4006160Rsp2.shtml Your pc has a PCI Express x16 slot so just about any cheap card will work. Here is the cheapest NVIDIA one I could find: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150498

I will be 22 in July. Pretty crazy looking back at some of these old threads that just refuse to die.

Every pc has a battery back up for the bios. Its almost always just a round watch battery. Go to any site that sells motherboards and has blown up pictures of them(newegg for instance) and look at any motherboard and you will see it clearly on every board.

Removing the battery is dead simple. It literally is just a watch battery, you might have to move a few cables around(not unhook, just push aside) to see it. I would be more worried about using software to edit the bios and bricking the motherboard than I would be worried about messing something up by taking out the battery. I downloaded a picture of what the inside of a computer looks like. If you blow up the picture you can see where I circled the battery in red with paint. Your pc may not look exactly the same but it should be pretty close.

Why don't you want to take out the motherboard battery. Thats just what I was about to tell you to do before I read your post. It will probably work since its going to reset everything. All you would have to do is unplug your pc, hold down the power button for about 5 seconds, then unscrew the side panel. The battery should be in plain site and all you do is push the release with a pin or screwdriver. Pops back in like a watch battery. Leave the battery out for about 5 minutes.

I'm not opposed to a separate sticky for other browsers. Theres also been discussion that maybe we should just have one topic to discuss browser extensions as a whole. I think that could get confusing as people will be trying to install FF extensions on opera and chrome or vice versa. If people are interested in seeing a chrome or opera topic than I'm all for it. Cant comment on that memory thing. I don't use any software that tries to optimize ram usage in any way as they always seem to cause problems.

Just like the freeware topic, I think its time we reboot the firefox extensions topic. The first firefox extension recommendation thread was started 5 years ago and can be found here: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=6328 Firefox has come a long way over the years and I know a lot of us are using very different stuff than we were using five years ago, so this is our chance to get a fresh start. Please try not to post the same things as another member unless you have something fresh to say about it, this will shrink the amount of reading required to find something useful and new. In order to keep things organized, I think its a good idea we follow a similar posting style to the freeware topic: - Extension Name (bold) - Link to extension page on official mozilla site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/extensions/ - Short description of what the extension does and why its useful. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'll start with one I use all the time: Adblock Plus - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/ - Blocks advertisements on just about any page on the internet. - Adblock plus is probably the most essential firefox addon I can think of. It cleans up the web so that your not annoyed with everything from flashing ads, to the worst off all: video pre-roll ads!

The time has finally come to reboot the freeware thread! After six years I think its safe to assume that many of us have changed our minds on the software that we consider to be the best. The old freeware thread can be found here: http://forum.pirifor...showtopic=17921 In order to keep this thread useful I purpose a new posting method this time around. When recommending a program I suggest you do it in this format: -Program name (bold) -Link to program -Short description of what the program does -Reason you like above others/discussion of the program This way we can keep the thread neat and tidy. I also ask that you try not to post the same programs as everyone else, if you see something in someone's list you can still post about it if you have something else to say about it, but there's not really any reason to have 50 people recommend firefox. It just makes more stuff for people to have to sift through for something new. Also remember that in order for you post not to be deleted the program must be FREE, VIRUS FREE, and USEFUL. Of course, just like the first thread I will start off with what I use: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows Live Essentials(Windows Vista, Windows 7) - http://explore.live....ntials?os=other -A free suite of programs from microsoft that includes Windows live mail, photo gallery, and movie maker(among many others). -The before listed three are the ones I use on a daily basis and I would argue that they are the best in class for the various tasks that they accomplish. I use windows live mail to access my live mail(hotmail account) and it offers free pop3 access that synchs changes with the server so I get the same experience whether I use the client or the web page to check my mail. Movie maker is not the same thing you remember from windows xp, it actually works! I use this program to edit the HD videos I shoot with my Kodak ZI8 camera(1080P) and its very simple to use and manipulate videos so that you can get exactly what you want. Movie Maker is also great for creating photo slide shows to send to family members.(add music, transitions, ect). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More to come, this was just to get the ball rolling. Hopefully this thread will last another 6 years!

I'm beyond pissed about this. I'm 100% done with PSN now. Once its back up I'm deleting all my stuff and renewing my xbox live. Sounds to me like these hackers basically got 100% access to their servers and then they waited a week to tell us they might have got our credit card info? I would sell my PS3 but I need uncharted 3...