Well, today I was at my local (not so local, 20-30 minutes away by car/bus. :-S) computer/PDA store Handy, and I can safely say the fingerprint ID is pretty nice. Just slide your finger across and the password goes in and the computer hits “Login”/”Submit”/”Register”. If I ever get one of those (thought of buying one by Microsoft once), I think i’ll be using it immediately. It’s nice for those who use multiple passwords, though I keep a set of only about 3-4 passwords, mainly the 1st one for 95% of my services. *Gasp!* Still, it’s pretty nice and easy. And the configuration wizard was easy, just take 4 samples and you’re done! :-D

FTP: Try the firefox plugin FireFTP, I love it, and it works pretty well. Doesn’t do secure FTP (sftp) yet though, and I wish it would… still, it’s pretty useful.

Firewall: I agree, you want one. If you have a router with a firewall — and it’s configured well — then you can probably breathe easier, but I wouldn’t trust Windows to protect itself. At all.

Google Reader: another vote from me, it’s how I keep up with you :)

IM: I’m a fan of Pidgin, because I have friends on MSN and Yahoo, I love it. Also because it works on my Linux machines.

Fingerprint ID: I wouldn’t trust it either.

Have fun!

Alex, you’re absolutely right. She should. :-D

Aldo, true, as the GPU in it has TurboCache, which, “steals” up to 1GB of RAM as VRAM. It’s not a feature I like, made me kick my PC like crazy and afterwards when I upgraded the GPU, it worked beautifully. (AKA TurboCache made my 3.80Ghz Dual-core PC work like a 500Mhz PC.)

Dandellion, one sweet replacement i’m using which works greatly with SL, is CamStudio. Google it, and download it. It’s a sweet solution for tutorials in SL, Windows, and everything which appears on your screen. Look on Torley’s YouTube videos, some of ‘em use CamStudio. :-)

Mr Aldo Zond, I last night discovered that although my SL looks kick ass (and I know I need to tweek Nvidia’s native settings still, was the same with the card I so generously got from Miss Supercharge) I can’t snapshot it!. Upload snapshot goes fine, but when I want to save to disk it just crashes. And printscreen just don’t cut it for me most of the time! ;) Did you experience this too? Any solutions? Miss Veyron suggested updating the drivers, but as you say you have to wait for acer update the nvidia drivers and so far they havent, I fear. And tremble. And cry. *looks at you with hope, hope you encountered the same and solved it*

For although it does have 4gig you’ll only get to use 3 gig the other one seems to be bound up with the graphics card. I luckily got an advance notice. ;)

For the chat, I’ve tried Trillian and heard of Pidguin. I want to minimise being online on ICQ & MSN though, just need them in case. :d So no real need for a ‘one client fits all’. (Unless they can do Skype better than Skype does, eg. not delivering messages after 10 hours only or showing someone offline when they are on.)

Sered, newsgator feeddemon sounds interesting, as it then indeed synchronises between the two. This will also be an excellent occasion to clean out (and add to) my feed collection.

Torrent: lot’s of options here. Until now I held on to BitTorrent. Curious bout the others. I guess nobody knows an alternative for Frapps?

And Soraya, yes, I totally agree with usually those finger print scanners are horribly insecure and are generally just a waste of your time. I’d prefer to keep my logins password-based so if I lose all my fingers I could still type it with my nose if need-be :P My worst fear is not somebody else logging in, but me locking myself out! :d

1. Surfing: Firefox
3. Firewall: welll… you need one
8. Torrent: azureus
9. 3D software: Blender (you’ll get a grip with it, give it a chance), how about educational edition of Maya?
13. Office: OpenOffice and , if your text needs are reasonable, abiword, quick, laight, easy.
14. IM/chat: Skype and Trillian or Pidguin (both are multi-protocol)
15. Capture audio: Audacity
16. Capture video/screen: any good alternatives for Frapps?
18. Music playback: WinAmp for sure

Although it does have 4gig you’ll only get to use 3 gig the other one seems to be bound up with the graphics card.

with regard to SL it runs it beautifully, its the first machine i’ve had that will work reliably with all the graphics settings maxed out. On the down side you have to wait for acer update the nvidia drivers and so far they havent. I’ve had a couple of crashes caused by the displa drivers.

the cinedash media console is a real pain in the arse and pointless. I’m always accidentally touching the controls with my left little finger when typing and i drives me nuts bringing windows up and skipping tracks.

on the whole its a great machine and great for SL but it does have its annoyances that can make living with it difficult.

cheers

Aldo

re the fingerprint question: Usually those finger print scanners are horribly insecure and are generally just a waste of your time. I’d prefer to keep my logins password-based so if I lose all my fingers I could still type it with my nose if need-be :P