World: r3wp

I've got a glass top computer desk ... and I have to be sure I put 
the optical mouse on the non glass surfaces if I want it to move

Graham  some years ago the first optical mouse I saw was gived as 
serial for sun mircosystem workstation. Sun was providing with tose 
optical mouse a mouse carpet (don't know if the term is the right 
one) with a metal cover but this metal cover was not uniform it was 
more like a grid. This show that the optical sensor to detect movement 
need to have unperfect reflection (on other optical technology like 
micrisift one engeneers have thinked that the surface must be omogenus 
so they make flash the lazer diode. In sun technology the lazer diode 
of the optical mouse was continous and that's why you will need a 
special surface to make it working ).

micrisift = microsoft ;)

The early optical mice I saw used special mice mats with grids printed 
on them

graham: I actually have one of those for my old Amiga. The mat was 
not in good shape when I got it so I scanned the pattern and printed 
it again on a sheet of paper. unfortunately the pattern was a bit 
too high resolution for the old 300 dpi laser printer, so the mouse 
got slow, but it was still quite reliable.

Yeah, Dale Luck sold a balless mouse.

I recently bought a bunch of wireless optical mice from Microsoft. 
 They make better hardware than software (or better said, they buy 
better hardware to resell than software).

I like it a lot, it is the travel moouse.  Actaully very well designed.

It's true, untill you install the software than come with the mouse. 
Intllipoint is a huge soft for so few functionnality and can causes 
some crash.

I mean "so few USEFULL Functionnalities..."

R: I agree, the Microsoft mice are pretty good.  Very comfortable. 
 D: I assumed that, and haven't installed their software :^)

they are eating into Logitech's share.

having said that, I came across a 'joystick' mouse from 3M.. that 
claims to be less stressful. Have anyone tried that?

I am contemplating the horrors of setting up a dual-boot system (XP 
and I thought I'd try 'Breezy Badger') on a new (almost -- I've been 
procrastinating for months) hard drive.  Any advice?

On the face of it, it looks as if I need a primary partition for 
each OS and an extended partition for my data (which I'll break into 
two or three NTFS logical drives).  But what to do first?  Should 
I set up these partitions, then run the installs, or run each install 
hoping they do it for me?

My new hard drive is set to slave on the same controller as my current 
hard drive, so I can format and partition while using my current 
XP install.

Chris:maybe get a trial version of VMware and then try different 
distros till you find 1 you like and then set up an ext3 or the newer 
reiser  fs(spelling ? )

Yep, I probably should have done that, but curiousity in hype and 
fads led me to try Ubuntu.

Actually, I'm surprised at the success I had.  Probably should log 
it somewhere.  I switched my drives' master/slave positions.  Ran 
XP setup first into a preset NTFS partition.  Then ran the Ubuntu 
setup, slicing up the remainder of the disk.  The most useful side 
effect is that GRUB lets me boot not only to XP and Ubuntu, but also 
my existing XP setup on the now slave drive (meaning no rush to get 
my new XP setup finetuned -- never a trivial task).

The only drawback (this is noted in the Linux group) is that AltME 
doesn't appear to work on 'Breezy Badger'.

But not noted in AltME group...

Chris:that is why I use Mandriva for a Linux distro,never had any 
problems installing View or Altme

manual resync...

What is presently the smallest computer that will run rebol view?

VMWare is now free

Louis, do you mean physically, or in terms of resources?

Brian, I mean physically, like little and light weight. :>)

There are some cell phones that could run the WinCE Core, some embedded 
servers that could probably run one of the Linux builds...

Does a cell phone have enough memory to run View?

For the smartphones, likely yes, but it doesn't matter yet as there 
is no build of View for a cell phone.

My wife wants a computer so small she can put it in her purse and 
not even know it is there. But it has to be able to do all the work 
of a desktop with a 21 inch monitor.  You can see that her's is a 
real reasonable request.

Try a UMCP, or, Origami device.

UMPC.

About US$700 I think.  Runs windows tablet os.

PDAs can do as much work as a desktop (of similar speed) with a 21in 
monitor, but limitations in the input and output methods can make 
it so difficult to use that it will be less effective. Try an OQO, 
Microsoft's Origami platform, or maybe RT can make a build for the 
Nokia 770.

Graham  and Brian, thanks!  I'll check out those devices.

Is it possible to transfer the entire contents of the harddrive on 
a desktop computer to the harddrive on a laptop? I mean including 
the registry settings etc. I have Norton Ghost; would that do it? 
or are there hardware issues that would prevent it?

No, that won't work.

There are too many drivers that will fail, and some low level programs 
need the MAC address not to change.

But it IS worth trying.  You might be able to correct all the errors, 
and since it is ghosted (both sides) you can return everything.

There is many issues when you do that.

Appart from what Reichart said, there is also SID and other things 
like that.

But

If you can, I recommand to ghost your disk to another one (as an 
image),

then, use the SYSPREP command to prepare your Windows system to be 
ghost,
then, ghost it to your Laptop HD.

SYSPREP can be found on your Win XP CD. I don't have one with me 
right now, so I can't say where it is exactly.

Thanks Reichart and DideC. I'm shopping for a laptop now. Once I 
buy it, I'll probably be back for more help.

You should, we can talk to you about how to configure your drive 
in the first place.  I have some simple tricks I do for my laptops 
(I only use laptops, and live on them). 

Quick list:

Put everything in PGP folders.

Install XP to a small partition, and have a ghosted version on the 
same drive (seperate partition).

Basic layout is C: = Boot and XP, D: = Data (your personal Data, 
E: = Extra applications, Z: = Archive og Ghost of C:.
Keep the custom Ghost CD for your laptop with you.


With this, if somoene steals your computer they don't get your data.
If C gets corrupted, you can recover.
And, it is REALLY easy to back up just your data fast.

I'll definitely try to get back for more detail, Reichart.

The the laptop I have been eyeing:


http://www.xtremenotebooks.com/index.php?section=specs&model_id=1054


But it is too expensive for me. Does anyone know of a similar one 
at a cheaper price?  Or perhaps someone knows that  this would not 
be a good choice anyway. I'm open for suggestions. I just need a 
big, high resolution screen, large harddrive, and lots of speed. 
I'm not particularly worried about weight.

Wow...I don't track laptops the same way.  I'm on this right now 
http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=P7120D
Very small, but I LOVE it!

I also own an Apple Powerbook (still learning it).  And I have a 
great Toshiba.  I alos REALLY love both Toshiba and Fujitsu's tech 
support, and is worth giving up some cool feature from another copany 
in exchange for the support.

my kind of machine, I have a small ibm thinkpad, and wouldn't trade 
it for a bigger more powefull one... only thing I regret, is not 
having internal CD support... although I don't really need it... 
you can't do everything with a memory stick!

Yeah this little guy has a cool removable CD drive, 7-9 hours of 
batery life. kicks ass.