I have to wonder how Apple viewed this turnover/replacement rate earlier in their lifetime as a company. My current G5 DP PowerMacs have been run HARD since they were new in 2004; they were made well, were *meant* to last, and they still perform like champs, considering their age.
The problem is that I'm brickwalled. My OS version, Pro-level apps (Adobe Suite, Logic, Final Cut, and browsers, plus ancillary apps & utilities) are all as updated as far as the hardware will possibly allow.
  The HW is still great, but I'm choking on the dust of all the upgrades that Intel architecture has forced, or demands. And it's not just the hardware that's the problem...coders are creating features and functionalities online that my browsers used to be able to deal with, but they put in so much proprietary "cutting edge" scripting—which my browsers refuse to deal with—without providing any fall-back functionality. Cripes, I can't even access my own damned Soundcloud page, because of all the "improvements" which have been made. The engineers say their pages and features should all work after I have dutifully reported all my system specs and have vehemently promised them that I have followed all suggested troubleshooting procedures. I tell them it doesn't. They got tired of fielding my questions and won't reply anymore. F***K them with fire.
Getting new hardware would only be half of the expense for me...updating all the software I use on a daily basis would cost more than a mid-level fully-tricked iMac...a system that would run circles around my G5s.

"I have an actual web site if anyone wants to contact me."

So, what's the name of that site, mate? Anonymouscowardnumbersixpointeightthreebillion-giveortake.com? Sorry, Captian Luddite, but you're confusing the medium with the content. I'm 50 years old and have prodigiously developed abilities with Google Fu. After over a year of badgering to join Facebook—which I countered with arguments similar to yours, such as:

• "I've been online and had my own sites and blogs and photosharing galleries for over a dozen years...why can't all these people find me !?"

—I finally relented. Since doing so about a year ago, I've reconnected with a ton of old friends I couldn't find any other way.

As a shining example, two of us had an idea to start an ACTUAL website to gather material on musicians & bands we knew from our area, and from days and decades gone by. Despite sending tons of emails, and making tons of phone calls pleading for friends to get on board with the idea, nobody wanted to go to the trouble of contributing to it. I was even offering to send out pre-paid mailers for them to send me stuff to scan and audio/video material to digitize. It was just too much trouble for them

So, my friend and I started a Facebook group hoping to create a historic record of bands, clubs, & musicians from the Central Pennsylvania area, and in less than 2 months 360+ old friends and acquaintances have found each other again, to share hundreds of photos and stories, and to get back together to jam, or to go see each others' current bands.

I could also regale you with tales of smaller BBQs, ballgames, golf outings and beer bashes organized and thrown, of old loves rekindled, of new jobs found, of dogs and cats saved from being euthanized, of rare car parts bought & sold, of bands booking money-making tours in markets they would have otherwise never reached, of small group renunion cruises and vacations taken, and many more.

But apparently, you've explored it all enough to know that Facebook, MySpace and other SocNet sites are just for the pathetic, or the tech—challenged, or the kids...so good luck, and have fun with your decision to dismiss them out—of—hand. In the meantime, there are a whole shtload of us who are having tones of fun, both online and in meatspace, precisely because of them.

"Or is this some hilarious attempt to sidle in at the last moment and hope everyone forgets..."

<Elaine Benes-ish>"That's what they are! They're real sidlers!!!"</Elaine Benes-ish>

Someone needs to slip little boxes of Tic-Tacs in Microsoft's pockets.

But can an idiot grandma in a hurry figure out how to do that?

That's a great question, and an even better request to broadcast to manufacturers. I have a 4 unit/1 base V-Tech cordless system at home that I love (rugged [survived a drop in a toilet and kept on working], battery life, etc), except for wishing that it did stuff that it doesn't. The feature tech isn't the difficult part, it's getting the manufacturer's attention so they know it's wanted.

Clearly, you're not an electric guitar player.

Pragmatic does not necessarily make for the best guitar tone possible.

I attended a 2 year electronics engineering college (shout out to Electronic Institutes in Highspire PA!!) in the early '90s with the aim of learning enough about vacuum tube circuitry to design and build best-in-class guitar and audiophile amplifiers. My instructors looked at me like I was insane, insisting that solid state and digital was poised to take over everything in the industry.

Funny how those old-fangled tubes are providing data transfer this fast over nearly 400,000km distance.

Bloody lugzhury.

We had to write "dent-code" in braille using a white-hot knitting needle on sheets of wet tissue paper of while being submerged up to our tits in lava.

The worst punishment of all? The only thing we were allowed to drink was shitty American megabeer.

Disorderly conduct is one thing.

Felony is quite another.

Smarten up, you fuckin' fuck-brained shit sucker!

This is real, I sent it to Senator Ford's office just a little while ago.

Hyperbolic, for intended effect.

http://sparkbox.blogspot.com/2009/01/lick-my-stinking-asshole-sc-senator.html

Go ahead.

Arrest me.

I dare you, you motherfucking assholes, you cocksucking alterboy abusing shit-eaters!.

>>>Ahem wrote, "... the ending was a bit anti-climactic for my tastes."

Uh-Oh.

The Great Corius is gonna get mad at you and hold a grudge for years .

You can forget ever registering an account to leave comments on the new BoingBoing 2.pi, because he knows people at both Google and the DHS.