I've got loads of whimsy. It's moxie I lack.

Though that "red flag" isn't what tripped him up in the end. They tracked him through information acquired about one of his couriers; the lack of phone/internet at the house didn't seem to play any role in locating him.

OK, I'll bite: All my 82 year old dad does with his WinXP HP desktop is read email and browse the Internet, and he's virtually Windows illiterate (sorry, Dad!) Yet the only administrative stuff I've ever done for him is install a free auto-updating anti-virus program. Yet somehow his computer isn't a "reeking virus-infested spyware-riddled useless pile of plastic." In fact it runs fine. (I know because I use it on occasion when I'm at his house.)

ChromeOS may take care of more things automagically than does Windows (backups, etc.) or it may not; I really don't know, never having investigated ChromeOS. But to suggest that any Windows box will crash and burn into an unusable mess without Extreme Admin Intervention is a bit beyond the pale.

And yes, I realize I'm talking issue with the comment of someone with a three digit user ID.

None whatsoever.

I am appropriately humbled. Though at least I could play Wolfenstein 3D on my 386SX!

FWIW I take it back. I now seem to recall the 486 was a different computer, and my girlfriend's machine (and my main Quake box) was actually a Pentium, probably 120 MHz. Even more reason to love her! (Good thing I married her too.)

User number 65939. Kudos. Get off my lawn indeed!

Huh, I am pretty sure the machine I used to play Quake on was also a 66 MHz 486DX (my girlfriend's machine; one of several charms she possessed,) and I recall it running decently enough. I'm sure I was running at a pretty low resolution -- no more than 640 x 480, maybe even lower? -- but it ran well enough to keep me up half the night playing through the $5 "demo" CD, then calling some phone number and punching in my credit card info so I could get a code to unlock the rest of the game. Good times.

Framerate was never an issue with Commander Keen :) I could probably play it well enough on my kid's old LeapPad.

...is on a 16 MHz 386SX cpu. At least, that's how I remember it. Time to go dust mine off. Now get the hell off my lawn!

I wonder if you're joking. Frankly I don't much care if his house and all his possessions burn, but as a somewhat stereotypical pet lover I think it is wrong to let the animals die in the fire. I mean they wouldn't just stand there and let a *person* die... I wonder what Peter Singer would say.

Of course that raises the question of which animals they should be required to save. Other primates? Yes. Dogs and cats? Sure. Iguanas? Cockatoos? Ant farms?

See? It's just easier all around if the fire department puts out the fire without question in the first place.

Yes, but you are "forced" to make payments to the government itself for those services. The new health care mandate forces us to pay *private companies* for services they render. Has this ever been the case before in the U.S.?

That's exactly what I do, and I am secure from these shenanigans. Now THAT'S security through obscurity!

Don't forget webOS. It's the Zoroastrianism of smartphone religions. And yes, I posted this from my Palm Pre.

That's a wonderful quotation; thanks for bringing it to my attention. Wish I had mod points!