I use my own old-fashioned portal—a table of links. I've been too lazy to switch to something smarter. But the OSX-like look of Symbaloo makes me want to try it.

@Gina Trapani, Lifehacker Editor: Ah yes, I recently did an upgrade so I thought I had the latest. BTW, thanks for putting the list together; I'm keen on trying the shelf module.

Blacktree has been down for some time now (when connecting through QS). Any ideas how to install plugins manually?

Disappointing.

@dgeezer: so true! In a perfect world, we would all act as rational agents for our own good. However, we are highly irrational. We cannot discount the emotional in our financial decisions. I'm glad to hear this worked out for you.

@Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr.: Too damn funny...owned a dell exactly once.

Cool. Anyone have recommendations for linux software that is worth installing via fink?

I agree with the 'must be passionate' posts and will add: understand your own passions. Sometimes the idea of 'being' something (as in 'being a doctor,' 'being a lawyer') can mask the truths of 'doing' something. Do you really want to 'do' what a doctor does or do you just want to be known as one.

@Lauram: If you can shell out the clams, I would buy an external drive with firewire, and use "super duper!" or a similar program to make an exact copy of your hd. That way, not only does your data get saved, so do all of your apps, settings, etc; basically, you will have an exact clone of your mac on an external…

Amazing! I come to LH right after I did this myself. I *normally* use the same trick of putting the attachment first as well; my mind just slipped this time.

Would love regularly scheduled segments that featured side by side comparisons of commercial software and their freeware counterparts, e.g. photoshop vs gimp: what are the limitations of the freeware? Which features of the commercial product make it worth spending the money?

@Lula:

Wow Adam, your QS tutorials really opened my eyes...and there I was just opening apps with it. Thank you for making the series; it is just the kind of thing that I come to LH for.

For macs, I like:

I have a Dell 600m that is really, really flaky. It shuts off randomly, goes into BSOD, sometimes does not turn on. Now, the clock runs 10 times faster than real time; I reset it everytime I restart the machine!

Has anyone found a mac finance software that allows you to import from MS Money files?

How about a faceoff for competing tax filing software/online services? It's about that time of year right?