I have finally got my 3G USB modem working with the Acer Aspire One running Linux (Linpus Lite)!
After trying other flavours of Linux (Mandriva 2008 and Xubuntu 8.04) with varying success, I recovered to the Acer supplied OS from the supplied CD. This time, though, I decided not to run Live Update to get the latest patches for the operating system. Once again, I installed the Vodafone Mobile Connect Card Driver for Linux software, but this time it connected to the 3 network and I was online at HSDPA speed.
Acer have recently announced a forthcoming patch to support 3G USB modems, so when that comes out I will hopefully be able to use Live Update to get the OS fully up-to-date.
I had a bit of bother with my MacBook tonight after I popped in a blank DVD to backup my iTunes purchases. iTunes decided to display the spinning beach ball. Force quit iTunes didn't work. Then I made the big mistake - restarted the MacBook. It started up but didn't boot into Mac OS X, the optical disk drive just kept spinning and the fans started whirring!
The first few recommended solutions didn't work at all. Hold down the trackpad bar. Nope. Press F12. Nope. Leave it for 10 minutes and it will eject itself. Nope. In the end, technician Annie shoved a business card into the slot to stop the disk from spinning. That did the trick! The disk immediately ejected itself...
