16. failure to include a floppy drive in the iMac G5 and only use USB ports at a time when almost no one was using USB.
17. not really a pc design flaw but a decision that would haunt Outlook users for years, "Allow ActiveX in email made even worse with 'preview window' on by default" by MS
18. Any pc produced by Packard Bell. At one point when someone would start to ask me work on their computer I would interrupt and ask "Is this a Packard Bell?" If they answered 'yes' I would run screaming from the room.

Day the Universe Changed by James Burke if your interested in why and how we came to think the way we do. Its based on the philosophy that the universe is as we perceive it. If our perceptions change then the universe is changed. Everyone through out history has thought that their view of the universe was the correct one. If they thought their view was correct 1000 years ago. And we view most of their beliefs as silly now. Why should our view of the universe be any more correct in another 1000 years?

I loved the Logitek wireless keyboard and mouse so much I got another for my wife. She kept having issues with the mouse and keyboard going crazy. Finally replaced them on her computer. Only later did I realize that the real problem was a baby monitor.

Yes, giving the government the perfect tool to track everywhere you go, what you do, what you say and what you buy sounds like a great idea. No way that would ever get abused.

Paranoid? Maybe, but then I am amazed how we sheep pay to carry around personal tracking devices(cell phone). Now were did I put that tinfoil hat?

The US purposely stationed troops in the Philippines in the 40's and parked a large number of battleships as far West as possible even though Japan viewed this as hostile actions. And we were surprised when Pearl Harbor happened. Here in the US we viewed Pearl Harbor as a sneaky dirty sucker punch. I imagine that if I was in Japan and we had won the war it would have been looked on as a stroke of genius.

I have no delusions about our troops being angels but I will not condemn their actions. I heard one Vietnam vet that was a gunner in a helicopter describe it this way; "When you fly over a rice patty with some farmers working in it and they smile and wave at you, you feel good and wave back. Then, as your flying away they suddenly pick up rifles and start firing at you. What do you think happens the next time you see farmers in a rice patty?"

I read another report from troops in Iraq that talked about the frustration of taking prisoners, "It gets real hard when you see people that you took prisoner back on the streets a few weeks later taking shots at you. It makes you really question the benefits of taking prisoners and the justice system."

When you choose to fight a guerrilla war that means your willing to sacrifice innocent civilians for the cause. If you want to hide among them then you can expect them to get hurt. This does not make it ok to hurt civilians but it is a reality.

I am amazed that their are not more reports of bad things happening.

Amen brother.....

I hate to think how many companies are locked into MS because of Exchange.

Paper roll type accounting calculator. Its always on, not far from my hand, and keeps a record that I can rip off and give to someone else, attach to paperwork or go back to later and see what I was doing. Once you get the keys down like a touch typist you can fly when adding a list of numbers together. It has full size keys that I don't have to worry about miss hitting like when using a tiny calculator and the numbers are huge and easy to read on the display. If I need to do any kind of higher math, well that is what a computer is meant to do.

I have been wondering about that. I have been reading about it and it looks really good. I know that it is mainly CRM but it also has a help desk module.

My dad used to program DEC computers in assembly. He even wrote his own drivers for his plotter because he didn't like the ones that came with it. This weekend I had to help him set up a home network because he couldn't figure out how to set it up. Tragic hardly covers it.

The bias is subtle and I imagine unintentional. It is simple things like "the Republican senator from Alaska Ted Stevens has been found guilty...." vs. "The Illinois governor has been charged with....."
The most obvious case was when Bush was first elected and he and Clinton were at the same function. "President Clinton and Mr. Bush were at ....." It also shows up in story selection. Every Palin slip was replayed gleefully over and over. Biden slips were somehow never mentioned. I didn't vote for either but it was pretty clear who they liked and didn't like.

I should mention that I listen to NPR daily and thoroughly enjoy them. I just take everything they say and run it through my bias filter. I do find it irritating when someone claims they are unbiased. In a way Rush and Hanity are more honest. They never claim to be unbiased. I find it best to get your news from a variety of sources.