"Okay Joe, here's your options, you can take this box home for $699, plug it in, turn it on and it will work reasonably well...*OR* you can use your old PC to download one of 1000 linux variants, all with different advantages and disadvantages, copy it over to this new box, spend hours installing and tweaking it, with no guarantee it will work with this hardware, and then it will work....reasonably well.

which way is Joe gonna go?

It's too much hassle to switch back *for the average user*.

Yes, the Slashdot crowd will rollback, but for Joe "I just wanna check e-mail and look at my porn on the Intraweb", whatever comes on the box at purchase time will be the OS he uses...and that's a majority of the market right now.

Characteristics of a flu...

• Overrated in impact
• makes you feel sick if you come in contact with it
• Those who pay the least attention to science will be impacted by it the worst
• makes you feel much better once you're beyond it
• Costs the nation billions of dollars in lost productivity
• invades countries without any concern for borders
• the world would be a better place without it.

given all these, the choice is obvious...

I hereby dub this latest flu the CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN FLU

Many (most?) state's laws regarding prostitution require actual physical contact (or the promise of same), so, since a digital being can't perform physical contact, an agreement to "I'll let you enter commands on Second life that will show animations where your avatar appears to be fucking mine and use poseballs to enhance the animation for 30 minutes for 1000 Linden" actually *might be* valid. (assuming all the other requirements for a contract are met)

Regardless, though...the contract in question here wasn't actually *for* cybersex, it was for the creation and ownership of a digital thing *used in* Cybersex...and that sort of contract would almost certainly be enforceable, assuming all the other requirements were met.

Or the successful repair/upgrade missions to the Hubble Space Telescope

Or, you know, building a space station...

Or any of the 2700 other successes they've had. Yes, you're right...the manned program...not going so good...but considering that they'd jettison it if they weren't forced to keep it by Washington...they're doin alright.

Registered mail gets you a shiny sticker on the front of the envelope that has a tracking number, and a receipt of what happened. Also requires a signature on delivery, unless you waive that.

It doesn't do thing one to prove the envelope wasn't unandresealed.

You *could* write it up, seal it in an envelope, and deposit said envelope with a lawyer/barrister along with an affadavit stating what is in the envelope dated appropriately. That's gonna cost more than the USPS charges, though. Probably easier just to publish it somewhere and be done.