Actually we don't have that problem. I'm a native Dutch speaker and the mis-usage of then/than annoys the hell out of me. (Like college/collage, principle/principal, etc, etc, etc....) I've also heard that it's mostly native speakers who have this problem, as usually these pitfalls are pointed out and practiced when encountered in foreign language courses.

I have absolutelly no fucking idea how to use a car

No driving license, then? "Using a car" is worlds away from toying with engines and the other stuff your dad did. Using a car is easy, in some countries they practically throw driving licenses at 16 year olds.

Now, if you say that you wouldn't be able to service a car, then your comparison would hold.

In computing we are also at the same level: we have few people knowing how to service computers (programming, hardware troubleshooting, system administration, etc...), but plenty of people can "use" a computer (Where I use the verb "use" very loosely)

Yes, it is an option on XP. I have used it recently, because one of my users needed OpenVPN and that doesn't work Limited, but with those rights it does. It makes the user able to change all network settings. It really simply is a user group: add user to it, done. I assume that you could set every required right as a group policy, but I wouldn't know.

My experience says that misbehaving applications can be made to be run as limited user. Usually, it's a matter of allowing User R/W access to certain directories (Typically the installation directory of the application). If that doesn't work, it's usually registry keys that need to be set to User R/W. Worst case, it's registry keys created in the user hive during installation, that are expected to be present when the application is run. Running it on a different user (after all you installed as Admin) then fails. Temporary give that user Admin rights, install the application, revoke the rights and it usually works.

I won't say it works for every single program, but I've managed to make run 99% of applications that way.

I must admit having next to no Vista/7 experience and didn't need to look into the issue yet. To thanks for pointing it out.

You'd think so, eh? Look into the "Network Configuration Operators" group. Case closed.

Let this myth die please. You can run XP easily as a Limited User, I've been doing it for years. Any comptent IT person should be able to set up a Limited User Account so that the user can do his/her tasks. I actually find the implementation of XP better than in Vista/7 because you get "access denied" and that's it. Under Vista/7 you get a username/password prompt which hints to the user he could do something (which she/he can't, but the dialog suggests it). With "access denied", they'll call you and you can either tell them they're doing stuff they shouldn't or go over and fix the problem. In all these years, of setting up XP/Limited, the latter rarely happened because I try to foresee all use-cases for the user.

Do we change our coding habits to use any of this new-found capability?
No. We insist on scrunching our code in the left-hand column.
We shrink tabs from 8 to 4 or even 2 spaces.
We use carriage returns like crazy.

I did none of those things during my coding days. I always got lauded for the readability of my code and I credit the fact that I actually ignored inane coding guidelines like 80 chars per line, etc...

It's coding guidelines that often impose this crap and those annoy the shit out of me.

You journal was unreadable, by the way, but I guess that was on purpose. So I stopped reading until the quoted text.

Judging by the number of people still running on antiquated WinXP machines,

WinXP is not antiquated, it's mature.

Forget my comment... Within the context of the parent poster (which I didn't see), your comment makes sense and says the same I said.

My excuses.

Seriously, when was the last time your CPU died? Last time for me was years ago, when one of my Athlon MPs fans got stuck and it overheated. That's because Athlon XP/MP had no thermal protection. All modern AMD CPUs do, and Intels have had it since the Pentium Pro days (if not earlier, but I had our PPro overheat because of a defective fan, and after replacing the fan it worked fine again.

As for the fileserver/Media PC example, I wonder why you'd ever want to shell out $300 for such a thing. The Atom offerings are more than enough for doing that (For a mere fileserver, it's overkill: I use a Soekris net5501-70 for that.) Take an Atom 330 with an ION chipset or go for an Atom D5xx (You'll have to look, not all come with DVI/HDMI) and you're set for $150 given your requirements. If it breaks, and it won't unless you have a lemon, replacing it won't be expensive at all.

Oh, and in your scenario, you could just as well buy an older CPU for very cheap. CPUs for older sockets are still being sold. You want a 775-socket CPU? No problem! It's been out since July 2006 and you can still buy CPUs and they're cheap. So for just repairing the situation, shell out the minimum and be happy again for the next 3 years... until the CPU burns out again (unlikely). In that time, yet aside $10 per month for a future replacement, and you'll have a grand total of $360 to spend on new gear...

The problem with your scenario is that you want to use the "broken PC" situation as an excuse to upgrade. However, from the scenario, what is important is that you get the machine back up and running, ASAP so that the incoming visit can watch movies with you. Get your priorities right, and the scenario has only one valid solution: replace CPU with cheap replacement and get on with business.

Indeed, if you want "weird" stuff or make a machine from old parts and new parts, ASRock has some nifty options. My primary desktop is now based upon ASRock 939A785GMH/128M, which enabled me to re-use a Socket 939 Athlon 64 X2, which I removed from a computer with a broken motherboard, and 4x1GB DDR RAM (Removed from two other older computers), supports SATA-II, including an eSATA port and has an acceptable integrated graphics solution. The board was relatively expensive (~80€), but since it's the only part I had to buy, it was a great upgrade for an unbeatable price.

I admit, it isn't one of their most exotic boards, but it suited my needs perfectly.

Absolutely agree... (So, yes, that's part of "setting up computers", IMHO)

Only if you suck at setting up computers....

Absolutely, that one was the best April Fools of all times IMHO.