Thx - I didn't know about any of those except Win-L to lock the screen. For my style of working (every window maximized on one monitor or another, no Aero or gadgets, file manipulation mostly from the command prompt) they are not that useful. But I can see why others might like them.

Yikes! How long is the warranty on Unicomp's keyboards?

When would you want to use the Windows key? Is Ctrl-Esc too difficult?

I agree that Apple's laptop keyboards are not very good but that's because laptops in general have crappy keyboards. I was reasonably impressed with the keys on the 13 inch unibody Macbook Pro (whereas the first generation Macbook Pros had lousy keyboards where the key tops would break off easily). Unless they have gotten worse with the new Retina models, I'd say the Apple laptops are among the least worst laptops for typing. What laptop keyboard do you like?

Does the Mac Mini have an external power brick? If so you could decide not to use the supplied power brick and power many Mac Minis from a single low-voltage supply. That would surely cut heat and power usage.

I use Windows at 200% scaling (both XP and 7) and it looks fine in pretty much every application; where are you seeing problems?

Looks like Slashdot still holds some of its power. 100,000 was reached sometime this morning 2/21/2013.

What still-alive platform has a decent C compiler (crusty K&R ones don't count), but doesn't have a port of Perl?

There are flickers you don't consciously perceive but nonetheless tire your eyes after long use. To show the effect you'd need a large randomized controlled trial. That does not mean no effect exists.

[T221s] Yup, me too, and I have mounted them in portrait format. Here's a photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7500206@N08/6851350945/

I have 1920x1440 in a 19" screen.

Sounds lovely - is it a CRT? If not what's it called? (A few years back you could get 1600x1200 LCDs but everything has become letterbox since then.)

It depends which monitor you have. A good monitor will have a wide viewing angle along both axes, but it's true that many cheaper ones are not usable in portrait format.

Get one of these and you'll be OK up to F24: http://www.ebay.com/itm/110693794545

French is the language of love!

This sounds reasonable to me - the telephone company has no business filtering phone calls, so it should not filter text messages either. Subscribers may choose to employ a spam-blocking service, which could be provided by other people than the phone company.