DISQUS

I spent some time a year ago researching mailing services for a friend who was looking for one. MailChimp seemed to be the best of the bunch back then as well. I think it's a good choice.

I think laptops are sometimes fine in meetings, especially for folks who don't have much to contribute (or too much to do) but want to stay apprised.

Nevertheless, I find that I'm more inclined to participate, and I get more out of meetings, when I turn off my laptop, so if I'm in a meeting where my participation matters (for me or others), then I try to shut off the laptop and focus on the conversation.

I downloaded VMWare Fusion beta 4 a couple weeks ago, and yesterday I replaced it with RC1. I don't have a lot of experience with it yet, but based on the experience I do have, I recommend it over Parallels.

Besides the advantages that preed and tglek have pointed out, VMWare has better tools and fewer quirks for Linux. For example, their tools for Linux includes clock synchronization, and Parallels has problems running Ubuntu VMs with more than 512MB of RAM.

I'm in the process of switching from Parallels to VMWare for my own VMs (one of which is my primary desktop).

Here's an article about a region of China where Internet cafes have been banned to prevent youth from spending too much time on the Internet playing games:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802389_pf.html

It's an interesting look at China's Internet (and political) culture.

The difference between income and the cost of luxury goods probably isn't quite so stark in Hungary as it is in China, but Hungarians make less than half of what Americans make (according to the UN Human Development Report 2006: http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/ ) yet pay the same or more for clothing, cars, CDs/DVDs, cell phones, etc.

Nevertheless, Hungarians also enjoy national health care, much cheaper housing, and great public transportation, while the American middle class seems saddled these days with large costs for all these items (especially on the coasts).

I have that same hesitation about a $3-4 coffee, but I bet that if I owned a home outright, got basic health care from the government, and didn't need a car to get to work, then I'd be much less hesitant.

Perhaps there are some similarities to the situation in China.

This'd make a great devmo article.