Just to be explicit, superknoppix2.0's suggested command for "if you get sick of mac or linux" will delete everything on your hard drive in that directory and below. If you're at the top level directory, it'll wipe your hard drive.

Very interesting! Thanks for that info.

Excellent roundup! Just about the best, most lucid, easiest to follow (because of the videos) that I've seen anywhere. Thanks!

@Luziphir: If you right-click anywhere on the desktop, select change background and then go to the Themes tab, you can select "Clearlooks" theme which has the buttons on the right side. (There's also a slightly more complicated way to apply it to any theme. Search for "window buttons on the right" in…

I realize I'm late to this party, but, Lifehacker and Adam, you folks are the best! You just made my life about twenty five times easier. :D

@data_enabler: I wouldn't be able to use the web without AdBlock. Give Wladimir Palant a Nobel Prize, as far as I'm concerned! I'd still like a way of preventing my IP from being visible to everyone, without going to all the trouble of setting up a usable proxy. There's got to be a Firefox extension that does that.…

@Wabbited: Yeah, makes sense. ;)

@zelannii1: Which laws take precedence? If someone calls me (in CA, which requires both to know) from, say, Idaho, which requires only the initiator to be aware, does the caller from ID have to tell me, or not?

Okay, dumb question: Does private browsing save you from all the location aware crap popping up on web sites? It's bad enough having some marketer tell me to go buy shoes. It really creeps me out when they insist there are good ones right near where I live *and they know where that is*.

@sunglint: Thanks for the useful links! At least in ubuntu, tesseract turns out to be available right from synaptic (i.e. automatic install). It's also got versions for the main European languages, Brazilian, and Vietnamese. I'm trying it right now!

@Polymathe: You can do that in gvoice (not gmail). But maybe if they're turning the two into the same thing, you'll be able to soon??

Here's an alternate link to Reconstructor that does seem to be working.

@somidscr21: Yeah, I was curious about that, too. How about an update to the main article? ??

@sheerz: I've tried remastersys on three different laptops for ubuntu 9.10, and couldn't get it to work on any of them. Could've been just me, but I tried to figure out the problem for about three weeks, with the help of major geeks on the remastersys forums, and didn't succeed. :( Judging by the forums, though, it…

@inventorjack: Seconded!

@P_Smith: Agree, MS Word is the worst code, but OO gives them some real competition in that department. Ugly!

I'm looking to switch away from Virgin Mobile pay as you go. I use almost no minutes. They require at least $20 every three months to keep your account going. So that works out to $6.50 or so per month for an emergency mobile with okay coverage in the US.

@eien: Note the "universal AC adapter" thing in the parts list. That's the bit that steps down the current and converts to DC.

@JohnnySaber: Agree that seeing what you actually spend, and on what, is crucial, and that Mint isn't the only way.

Wordpress wins by a long shot. I've used it on my own site for years. I used Blogger for 2 years before that, but its so-called ease of use disappears the minute you want to do anything that's not already built in. I've also looked very closely at Movable Type and Typepad. Back in the day (2006?) MT was a…