No, but people in genuine fear of their life probably wouldn't even think about that, would they

That doesn't follow - Sony doesn't have my details just because I bought this laptop. Ebuyer do, because that's who I bought it from. Why should anyone other than the entity I buy from have my information?

It might not bode well to be supporting a post modded flamebait but jesus. Really. THE SUMMARY dammit! Nobody mentioned the article! Not RingTFA seems reasonable, but not reading the summary is pushing it, and not reading posts?

Actually, this raises a good point. There are plenty of boycotts I remember committing to - RIAA label music for one thing (I'll allow buying it 2nd hand) but you know I'm pretty sure that I've forgotten several of the things I've decided I don't buy/use/support anymore, purely from letting them slip out of my mind..

Perhaps we could organise a list on /. that we're all boycotting? That'd be a useful tool. It'd be useless propaganda because of the 1-in-20 ratio you mention (and I'll bet it's more depressing even than that) but it'd help my frail memory!

WD-40 works very well for everything

Yeah sure: hunter2

Heck, I'm sure there are loads of examples out there, but I've got a couple right here from my local Toyota dealership (from which I bought my car 3 years ago, new, and to which I'd have returned for my next car were it not for all this)

Turbocharger died, slowly on my car. Being a diesel this left it basically undriveable. Took it in, they cleaned the EGR Valve, problem went away. For twelve hours. It happened again, slowly, 200miles from home. Took it back when I'd crawled back. Mechanic suggested the turbo itself needed replacing - cost a few thousand. Luckily the mechanic that had cleaned the EGR valve was around and I asked him to intervene - eventually they just replaced the valve (cost a couple of hundred) and it's golden.

I pulled the seat forward too vigorously, and broke the sliding/locking mechanism. Took it in to the Toyota place - took them half an hour to tell me I needed a new seat at a cost of a couple of hundred. took it into my local garage, they simply re-attached the spring mechanism that had fallen apart. Nothing wrong with the seat whatsoever. They only charged me (for half an hour's labour) because I insisted on paying something..

And then there's the brake pad thing I've nearly fallen for twice. Now whenever the Toyota place says they need replacing I head to my local garage to have them checked.

I honestly believe it's mainly incompetence. They didn't even remove the fallen-out spring bits from under the seat, so if they were pulling a scam they weren't trying very hard...

Fuck off :)

Um... Why'd you need anything like that? Apache, locally installed on one PC designated as a 'server'?

"

" hmmm....

Alright, I'll give it a go: Affect: to affect something is to change it. ie "contamination from person working in cotton swab factory had an AFFECT on criminal investiagtions" Effect: To accomplish, to do. ie "Lady working in cotton swab factory effected an incredible escape from prosecution by deliberately adding her DNA to cotton swabs used in a multitude of investigations across Europe, thereby creating herself an alibi." Thanks you. I'll be here all week, be sure to tip your waitress.

Erm. I'm going to take a shot at this. The word you were looking for was affected, not effected. As indeed the linked definition should have made clear you. I can't be bothered to post links to the definitions of those words, but you know where to look..

At the risk of walking into a trap here, I think the reference was a (fairly tenuous) reference to the famous 640K is enough for anyone remark that was never actually made...

No, obviously not, but with great power comes great responsibility: Yes, you're free to say anything, but no, you can't openly accuse folk of things that they've been proven by due process to be innocent of. If you were to have no curbs on what can be said then I would be free to visit your place of work, your home and all your friends and make endless statements which might be provably false but which nonetheless serve to your detriment.

Sounds good on paper - but wasn't a massive hit when in the guise of UAC in Vista, was it?