While the seamless integration with the background image is artistic, the placement of the system meters is far from optimal. 99% of the time they're going to be covered up by some window. With a widescreen monitor, a more productive option is to place them to the left or right side of the screen.

@wunch: Oops, upon reading the Consumerist link: "The index was created by calculating what percentage of a city's residents making the median income can afford a house in that city."

I'm guessing those 10 most affordable places probably correlates nicely with a high local unemployment rate, too.

@object: Way back in the day (2003), Kevin Rose did this on The Screensavers:

@tommertron: See the 13th comment on the first page...

@zyzzyva: trackthis rocks. I only discovered it recently, but I love the combination of simplicity and ubiquity.

@wunch: Aha! I got the download by going to the US site, and logging in there.

Eventually got the registration page to partially load. Got the serial by email, even though the resulting page didn't load, either. I still can't log on to get the download, though.

VOTE: Betaclock

@Justin C. Miller: Aren't the Mac, Linux, and AppleTV versions in public alpha, now? I think only the Windows version is still invitation-only.

@Adam Nesbitt: It's called electromagnetic induction. Inductive chargers have been around for quite awhile. The EV-1 electric car used it, and my old Sonicare toothbrush used it, as well.

Apparently there are only 5 or 6 unique keys for each version that Microsoft is giving out. Someone on another forum posted them and, sure enough, they match the 32-bit and 64-bit keys that I got.

Both, depending on what they are. Links that I know I will visit regularly get local bookmarks (sync'd with foxmarks). Links that I don't need right now, but which might be useful in the future, I put on Delicious (using their firefox addon in classic mode).

Reminds me of the ridiculous pricing at Universal Studios Hollywood. Current prices on their website: a 1-day pass is $67, a 1-year pass is $69.

@Chef: In order of decreasing effectiveness: reducing > reusing > recycling. Using a plastic bottle means that bottle had to be made in the first place, which takes energy/resources. For example, most likely, it actually took more water in the industrial process of making that bottle than it actually holds.

@AlanR: Honestly, since they've been offering free blu-ray upgrades for well over a year, I would guess that the price increase probably is out of increased demand, and not greed. If not currently, then for projected future demand.

@Zepth: I would add two huge additional advantages to linux: free, and infinitely customizable.

@astrosmash: The new Natural 4000 returns to the normal arrow key and pgup/down layout. I did like the elite, but yeah the arrow keys were annoying.

@3choTh1s: I agree with all of your picks. Xvid4PSP is underrated and overlooked by a lot of people because of the weird commercial-sounding name, but it does a great job of converting to various portable formats with a super easy interface.

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000