Nope, according to the paper, even if you don't USE Facebook, even if you have never visited Facebook, the like button appearing on other sites can gather data about your visit.

You need to block Facebook widgets because they track even without your being signed in (or even a member):
Facebook's 'Like This' button is tracking you (Whether you click it or not)
which is derived from this paper:
Facebook Tracks and Traces Everyone: Like This! (Social Science Research Network)
Assuming you are not a member of facebook and have no need of the "Share" and "Like" buttons, the hosts file is your friend. Just enter 127.0.0.1 for facebook.net, facebook.com, facebookcdn.com (there may be others but I can't be bothered to look for them right now)

I may not be much of a grammarian, but shouldn't the title read "PC Era Forecast To End In 18 Months"? "Forecasted" just looks and sounds ugly to me. It's an irregular verb and thus disobeys some rules.
Cite: Forecast or forecasted? (itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com)
Cite: English Verb - To Forecast (writingenglish.com)

Apart from that pedantic observation, I concur with those suspicious of the source and methodology. Market researchers are interested in selling reports to those interested only in high margin expanding markets.

Anecdote: My father finally decided to upgrade his computing experience and after much thought and consultation we decided replace his ancient desktop PC with a 15 inch laptop. This combined the speed he wanted with a screen size which meant that he and my mother would not have to squint at the new screen.

BTW, as part of the consultation process, my father asked me "What's the difference between a program on my computer and an app?" Good question.

Another direct link: http://www.haltadefinizione.com/magnifier.jsp?idopera=3

Fans of the Baroque will be aware that Andrea Pozzo is best known for his use of "quadratura", the technique intermixing paintings of architectural details with elements of fancy. What is less well known is that Pozzo was an early admirer of Spongebob Squarepants. One of these amazingly highly detailed pictures shows that his "Gloria di Sant'Ignazio", painted in 1685 for the nave of the church of St. Ignazio in Rome, include a sly tribute to our favourite right-angled undersea dweller. Hit the link and zoom in to the bottom right

http://www.haltadefinizione.com/magnifier.jsp?idopera=3

Perhaps as the WSJ continues its wrong-headed, sensationalistic and, indeed disingenuous* "What Do They Know" series they might just consider telling their frightened readers how to deal with this supposed danger.

But no, the only reference to browsing tools comes in the rather anemic comments section.

Note to WSJ: Next time you scream "won't they think of the kids..." please tell your readers to:

Use Firefox with the following plugins:

• AdBlock (and encourage people to disable it on sites which they visit often)
• Flashblock (to prevent flash objects and ads from running unsolicited)
• NoScript (& selectively enable scripts on your important sites. Temporarily enable just the "main" site for the kiddies game sites)
• Beef Taco (over 100 opt-out cookies in an instant! Easier and more thorough than going to the NAI site)
• Better Privacy (to deal with LSOs/flash cookies)
• CS Lite (simple cookie control)
• Google Analytics Opt-out Browser addon (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout - also available for IE & Chrome)
• Ref Control (control what is sent as refferer, set to block or forge)
• Track Me Not (if you are really paranoid, sends not quite random search requests in the background)

And use a host file with known tracking company addresses nulled

If my technophobic boss could do all this after one short training session, then WSJ readers can do it too.

*WSJ uses their own and outside scripting, places cookies and places partner tracking cookies, no? Also, if a reader has access behind the paywall, then the WSJ even knows the reader's credit card details.

Unfortunately not available for Windows XP 64k pro