Do Skype not have a hardware presence in your neck of the woods?

If that were my criteria I'd be looking at something along these lines.

Like I said I wanted a media device. Something can handle music, movies, internet, games, and SKYPE.

That mobile/skype phone combo is nice, but I don't think the US, especially my area of Minnesota (land of 10,000 lakes and extremely limited cell phone coverage) will have it.

All I want to know is if the Touch can make Skype calls.

EDIT: I think this answered my question.

Anyone know why a laptop track mouse would suddenly stop working? Literally one moment, full scroll, the next, hard to move at all?

I restarted with no great result. I'm hoping it'll self-correct overnight.

I'm using a USB-attached mouse for now, but it would be nice to know why it would just go kaput.

That sounds like something severe, but in the meantime go into System Preferences>>Mouse/Keyboard/Trackpad and make sure that accidental trackpad input is unchecked. I know that that's caused some problems for people. If that doesn't help maybe a pram reset, but it sounds more like it's the actual hardware that's done.

:( Your diagnosis makes me sad. And the fix didn't work.

Are your hands (finger tip) cold or very dry? I think that might cause problems with registering the touch.

Hm. If anything, they're the slightest bit moist. I puts the lotion on the skin (not immediately before the problem, though.)

Here's hoping a night sleeping fixes it.

It puts the lotion in the basket...

Is it flush with the case or is there any way that dust/crumbs/hair/tiny monkeys could get in to the mechanism?

That's the usual cause of track pad failure.

Failing that, remove the device from the device list then restart the laptop.

I had tiny monkeys get into my laptop and caused this problem.

I sent in tiny Amazon tribesman after them and that seemed to sort things

It's flush with the case...but a night's rest has it back to functioning. Huzzah!

(thanks, Lynx!)

I would love some opinions on netbooks.

I'm going back to school in January. I have a laptop, but it's cumbersome, and its battery life sucks.

Would a netbook be a good way to go for my school computer? I only really need it to do three things well: access the internet, run something like Word, and not die on me during a 3-hour class. I have a PC and a laptop to do everything else. So something cheap and small would be awesome, and a netbook seems to be what fits the bill. Any opinions about them, or about brands?

...I'm sure you don't want one for cost reasons, but I've had my Mac for 5 years now... it gets 6 hours of charge. And mine's an older model... (student discounts ftw!)

I have an Asus EEE PC and it's great. So small (about the size of a DVD case) but fully functional. In terms of the specifics of what you've said, get as big a battery (6 cell, probably) as possible.

Everything else is a given.

If you've got any specific questions then ask and I shall do my best to answer.

How long should one wait after eating a large meal before going swimming?

Thanks in advance.

I have an Asus EEE as well, and for the price, there's nothing better for that kind of use. Quick to charge, as well.

Although many people believe that swimming within an hour of eating will bring on fatal stomach cramps, this is, in truth, a myth. Whilst it is possible that extremely heavy exercise shortly after eating can, on rare occasions, bring on a cramp, the sort of effort employed in swimming is not going to put you at risk of that.

Provided you can comfortably tread water then there is no reason why a leg or other cramp should cause you risk of harm.

Swimming with a netbook is not recommended unless the netbook is in a sealed waterproof bag.

Have you ever used your EEE for a while and then started using a full sized laptop?

It makes you feel like you're a small child using daddy's computer...

No, I haven't had that problem, but mostly because I use my netbook when I'm away from the house, and it's just a convenience. So travel, mostly...And I don't use it that frequently while on trips. But it was great to have along in Hawaii--update people, post a few pics, look up the occasional phone number.

That said, I'm upgrading the drive, eventually. I'd intended to use my Asus to backup pictures, and I filled the drive within the first 2 days. Annoying!

Anyone have any idea why when I print a web page with Firefox the graphics look like this?
I print the same page with I.E. and it turns out fine.