My solution to having a battery that refused to power sleep-mode thru' a whole weekend (resulting in a nice "this computer was not shut down properly" message on Monday morning) was to replace the HD with an SSD. Now boot up from cold (win7, core2duo, 3GB RAM) is ~24 seconds until ready for use, and shut down is ~12…

@Lexan: Did you post this on instructables' paracord-hacks? If not then you should. Another great use for paracord!

In my experience at using a Linksys/Cisco NAS200, one word describes the experience...

@TheFu: Surely you meant to say "having the house re-roofed this week"? Any roofing contractor that can get the job done in a day is clearly not doing a good job.

With gas at $3 a gallon, is it any surprise they're giving away pickup trucks for chump change?

@emren: I think the U110 is discontinued now. I got mine back in August of '08 and then another one in Fall of 09. Staples still has them according to google shopping, but v. pricey.

Tried this a while ago. Actually I froze the drive with the SATA cable and power cable still attached, so I could seal the bag and keep it cold while I tried to recover data. No luck - it just plain old didn't work!

@emren: I'd recommend an ultraportable laptop, which sounds like it might meet your needs. Right now I'm using Lenovo U110, which is the size of a netbook, but has a core 2 duo processor, 3 USB ports, a VGA out, 2 batteries, OLED 10.3" widescreen, SD card slot, PCIex slot, and is very fast. It also weighs less than…

One approach (if a little extreme) that seems to be working for me, is switching to a SMALLER drive, specifically an SSD.

So my netbook, which has a SSD, and also lacks a CD drive and other "bulky components" can stay in the bag too? That's just weird. What about other non-iPad tablets that have been around for years (Fujitsu)?

@raygungirl: I have not tried it on a Mac. All I know is it was a nightmare when I first found out, as several hours of work evaporated in an instant!

A word of warning...

A good example here is laptops vs. netbooks. A lot of people are still convinced that you "need" to spend about $1000 to get a decent laptop, when in reality a $300 netbook will get you 90% of the way there.

Now I know the 3Ss before leaving the house in the morning includes s***, but I was unware there were 5 of the things in Japan. You learn something new every day.

A bit too monochrome for my liking.

Disagree on the tip about throwing everything you won't eat within 2 weeks from the freezer. There are several things that keep for months in the freezer (breadcrumbs, herbs) and I might not need them for another 2 months, but when I need them, I want them to be there, not in a trash can.

Maybe I got a bad cable, but the $6 cable I got off amazon didn't work at all, and a $30 cable seems to work flawlessly. At least you can send things back when you buy it at the store... ever tried sending something back to a small amazon sub-retailer lately? Royal PITA.

@nhcotrim: The UK in general tends to be quite expensive for computer stuff, compared to the US. Most laptop power supplies will work world-wide, so I'd say shop online in the US and get it shipped overseas. Amazon (US or UK) will ship between the 2 countries quite cheaply, and will allow you to pay with a credit card…

@Unionhawk: That's a LOT of good'n'plenty candy!

@celcinc: Agree, the significance is not altered, just the potential mechanism by which it is causing obesity. Either way, HFCS makes you fat, even if it does occur via an indirect mechanism such as making you eat more food.