Good thing the xServe is not built for the "I need maximum performance in a 1U box", then.

An xServe, with OS X Server, is designed primarily for small businesses to get rid of their IT department by replacing their expensive IT guys and yearly MS CALs with an xServe and maybe one OS X tech. Generally a company with 1,000+ employees will not be using it, so the need for > 48GB RAM or multiple TBs stuffed into a 1U box really is not there.

Or are we just working with the "bigger numbers are better" argument?

I have no idea how far back the stolen data goes, but I was a student at Cornell in the mid-90's. I can assure you that Cornell does not have my current email address (my university address expired after I left), and they do not have my current mailing address, either - I never receive mailed solicitations for money.

On their FAQ page, they assure everyone that they contacted everyone who had their data stolen via email or USPS. I am not saying that I was necessarily one of the victims here, but I am sure that there are other people in the 45,000 for whom that is true.

The very last PowerBooks were sold October 2005 - January 2006. Not only that, but Apple announced the transition on 6 June 2005, or almost exactly four years ago.

If your PowerBook just expired its three year AppleCare, you must have bought your PowerBook *just* before the release of the MacBook Pros, and most certainly after Apple announced the transition.

Four years is a very long time for notebook computers. Apple gave you four years of full support after announcing they were planning on EOL PowerPC machines.

As far as security patches go, Apple continues to release updates and security patches for the previous generation OS. For example, with the release of Snow Leopard, support will cease for Tiger (OS X 10.4). Apple just last month released a security patch for Tiger (PPC). In addition, I believe all of the updates released recently for the various iLife products run on Tiger/PPC.

This means you should expect continued patches for your Leopard/PPC machine for at least the lifespan of Snow Leopard.

What confuses me most about your comment is your mention of a classroom of machines running MacOS 8. This proves that Apple software (and hardware) continues to be useful long after it has been EOL'd, but somehow your PowerBook will cease to be useful the minute Snow Leopard is released and is unavailable on your PowerBook?

I up and moved to St. Thomas, USVI because I wanted to stay closer to the East Coast. I moved for the exact reason you mention - why not? Moved down without a job and two days later had an interview and two days after that started working.

I worked afterschool at a private school. Job was 3pm-6pm on weekdays. I could walk there, and the pay covered my (expensive) rent and basic groceries/laundry/etc. I was not living high on the hog, but was paying the bills.

All in all I stayed on island for a year. It was really nice, but being far from everyone gets to you (it is a long flight just to Miami, much less any further inland) and you can only go sit on the beach with a few hundred tourists so often. The resident population is very divided - very low income and very high income, with little middle class. A lot that fall into the low-to-middle class tend to be highly transitory. After I had been there for over six months I almost became an "old timer" on the island.

I am glad I did it, but unless I came into a good amount of money I am not sure I would move back.

I am not sure what your nationality is, but a lot of Caribbean islands "belong" to various European countries. May not be difficult for you to move there.

Yeah, this page listing all of the security patches in every Apple update must surely not exist. You know, complete with links to knowledge base articles containing links to the CVE-IDs patched by that particular patch.

Posts like yours are the reason that Slashdot needs a "-1, Factually Incorrect" moderation.

I agree that Apple should have patched this a long time ago, but your argument that Apple does not care about security is just plan asinine.

I had considered wanting a camera with a GPS built-in, but there are so many times that it would not be worth it - any indoor shot, for example. Seems like a waste of upfront cost and battery life.

Instead I will use the GPS I already have, the camera I already have, and any one of a few different programs that will compare time stamps between the two devices and add the corresponding EXIF data automatically.

Right now I am using GPSPhotoLinker for OS X.

I use Sprint and was about 250m from the Washington Monument. While I had full bars the entire morning, texts were hit or miss - sometimes they went through, othertimes they did not. Calling was impossible. I tried calling twice and neither ever actually got through.

A friend with AT&T was able to get texting to work, but was not able to call nor to send a picture message.

All in all? I would not say they "survived".

Only in the sense that I can use my Sprint phone today, I suppose.

The Marine One replacement, the VH-71, saw its budget more than double and face enormous delays.

One can only image what will happen to the Air Force One budget.