You can then utilize several features of the disc to help you perform an installation of your operating system or advanced maintenance on an unbootable or unstable system.

These include Startup Disk, password reset, disk utility, firmware password utility, terminal (command line), network utility, system profiler, and Restore System from Backup.

Reasons to want:

Using the iPad as a multimedia remote. I think it’s going to be very capable with an app that runs through wifi and connects your iPad to your pc or mac which is controlling your media center pc.

Using the iPad to control my smarthome. I can’t imagine it will be too long until an app comes up where you can use the iPad to turn the lights on and off, control the heat, etc. I mean they already have devices like this. The iPad is a perfect candidate with its multitouch surface.

Using the iPad as a day planner. The full integration of email, calendar, etc. means that (theoretically) the iPad should make a great day planner.

Reasons I don’t want the iPad:

The price. It’s too high. Especially with the 3g network option. I’ll be waiting until it comes down in price.

No multitasking. This might not be a big deal, honestly, but I don’t feel right about the lack of multitasking.

There you have it. My iPad post.

I won’t bother trying to explain the show. You just have to give it a chance. Either on Netflix instant or through purchase, it’s up to you.

1. Delete 120 minutes a day of ’spare time’ from your life. This can include TV, reading the newspaper, commuting, wasting time in social networks and meetings. Up to you.

2. Spend the 120 minutes doing this instead:

• Exercise for thirty minutes.
• Read relevant non-fiction (trade magazines, journals, business books, blogs, etc.)
• Send three thank you notes.
• Learn new digital techniques (spreadsheet macros, Firefox shortcuts, productivity tools, graphic design, html coding)
• Volunteer.
• Blog for five minutes about something you learned.
• Give a speech once a month about something you don’t currently know a lot about.

3. Spend at least one weekend day doing absolutely nothing but being with people you love.

4. Only spend money, for one year, on things you absolutely need to get by. Save the rest, relentlessly.

How much extra for nice?

If I pay $1000 extra for a first-class seat, odds are the flight attendant will be nice to me.

If I pay $2000 extra for the presidential suite at the hotel, odds are the front desk clerk will be nice to me.

If I give the valet $50 to park my car, odds are he’ll be nice to me as well.

So, here’s the question: if all I want, the only extra, is for someone to be nice to me when I visit your business, how much extra does that cost? How much extra to talk to a nice person when I call tech support? How much extra to find a nice receptionist at the doctor’s office? Would you pay $9 extra for a smile when you dealt with the Social Security bureaucrats and were filing a form?

I know you’re rushed and stressed and stretched. I know your team deals with hundreds or thousands of customers, and a lot of them aren’t very friendly or warm. And I know that some of your customers (maybe a lot) would happily pay a little extra to get that one thing they want most of all…

I think there’s a huge gap between what people are willing to pay for nice (a lot) and what it would cost businesses to deliver it (almost nothing). Smells like an opportunity.

When Street Fighter II was localized in America, Capcom was afraid of a lawsuit from Mike Tyson over a character with his likeness and a similar sounding name (Mike Bison). Additionally, when the designers presented the game to Capcom USA’s marketing department, they believed that the name Vega was a weakling’s name. They decided to rotate the names of three of the four boss characters in the following manner:

The boxer is known as M. Bison in Japan and Balrog elsewhere.
The Spanish assassin/bullfighter is known as Balrog in Japan and Vega elsewhere.
The evil dictator and head of Shadaloo is known as Vega in Japan and M. Bison elsewhere.

Please mention any resources you know of relating to usability! I’ll be sure to check them out.