Yeah, they've said almost exactly this on Twitter.

I was at a swap meet a month ago and saw a *pallet* of Core I7 processors. I used Red Laser to scan the UPC codes (they were "Extreme" models selling for $650+ on the open market), and a quick volume computation (the pallet was about 12 high, about 20 horizontal each way) suggested that I was looking at about $3 million worth of processors.

Except, they weren't actual processors. According to the person selling them, they were "fake" processors, but the heatsinks and fans were real and could be used with other processors and motherboards.

Uh-huh. Carrying the original UPC codes. I'm still not sure what to make of it.

Apple is thoroughly infused with self-righteous a..holes. That's the image one gets from the top down. I think they may even work on it. It's a valued trait in the company.

Well, duh. A smug sense of superiority is one of the things they are selling. Yes, I think they do cultivate it, just like Whole Foods and Coach bags. Although I don't buy Macs for that reason, I certainly recognize marketing when I see it.

The issue is not whether smoking is legal or illegal; there are plenty of legal things you can do a computer that would void the warranty. If they're going to make this argument, they simply need to support the claim that the damage to the computer goes beyond normal wear and tear.

For example, computers in chemical labs often fail because small amounts of airborne chemicals attack the PC boards and chassis. I've worked on boxes that look like they'd been strapped to the bottom of a battleship for a few years.

Having seen the office accommodations of some chain smokers, I can't say I blame Apple. I've seen environments where every surface is coated with brown, sticky residue and a multi-millimeter thick layer of dust and ash.

As long as you're demanding that somebody do something they might not otherwise do, and the demand is backed by a threat of some sort, it's blackmail.

"Obey the law or I'll report you to the authorities," is not blackmail. Period. No court would throw someone in jail for a good-faith effort to demand compliance with the law, and in fact the law specifically protects the rights of various classes of whistleblowers precisely so they can demand compliance without fear of losing their jobs.

It only becomes blackmail if you demand something other than compliance with the law.

Apple has a vested interest in maintaining their defacto monopoly on online music sales though their vertical product pipeline.

Are you certifiably insane? They have no such monopoly. You can buy music all over the place, without DRM. I've been buying music on-line for years, and I think the last iTune I purchased was 2005. Heck, Amazon's downloader (native versions for Win, Mac and I think Linux) will download albums and add them to iTunes for you, utterly transparently, and they have since at least 2007, which is long time on the technology clock. In that time I've moved my entire music collection from Win, to Linux, to Mac, back to Win without so much as a blip.

Do they have a de facto monopoly on portable video solutions that actually work? I might give you that, but it's purely de facto. They aren't preventing others from entering the market or abusing market power. It's hardly Apple's fault that nobody else (except Pirate Bay) can do it correctly.

Sturgeon's law still applies. I've paid for apps with prices ranging from $0.99 to $189.99 (no, I'm not kidding, and that app was worth 10 times that much). Wasn't the same thing true on every shelf at Babbages or Egghead? A tiny selection of good games and useful applications surrounded by an ocean of unremarkable shovelware. And the lower bar to entry for the App Store means that even more stuff will be crap. When TFA says things like, "But while the chance for success may indeed exist, the odds of triumphing are still pretty long", they act like it's a casino instead of a marketplace. It's not.

Kick him with your Converse shoe, all the way to Timbuktu.

> they should be taught trust and responsibility Of course, monitoring and control are part of trust and responsibility. First you monitor and control them, then you monitor them and let them control themselves, then you let them monitor and control themselves with periodic verification. That's how you learn responsible behavior. Once they pay for their own car/cell phone/credit card, they will *have* to monitor and control themselves. So monitoring and control have to be part of the learning process.

And you'll be setting up a special call center to teach people how to switch their boot drive on BRAND X PC to the CD-ROM?

"Yes ma'am. I know it says LG-DVD. No, not the movie kind of DVDs. Yes, well, I guess it could play movies. No, ma'am, there's no movie on the CD we gave you. I know I said that, but the CD will work in a DVD player. No, ma'am, you have to use it with your computer, I mean the DVD player that's in your computer. Now press F10 and... what? No ma'am, don't select RESET. No, oh crap, now you've totally pooched it. No, ma'am don't cry. Please don't cry."

Is it? Compensated endorsement doesn't always come with disclaimers. I don't know any of the law on the subject, but it seems like there is a pretty long history of "experts" offering compensated opinions without any particular disclaimers.