I did this for an older relative, got her a Mac Mini. It was relatively cheap, as she could keep using her old monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer.

Yes, her incidence of problems has gone way, way down, and her experience of "things are fine" has gone way, way up.

But the best part?

When she does have a problem and calls me? I can say, "Sorry, I don't know anything about Macs. Can't help."

Priceless.

It's hardly a "myth". Hunter-gathers obviously depend on being in tune with nature, though over-predation is also quite natural. In industrial societies humans are adapted to an artificial environment which is itself dependent on nature, and is certainly in most respects worse than the natural world which is formed by much larger forces on a much longer timescale.

That depends very much on which kind of model you use. Some models have a tiny sensor and lens, others have good optics and sensors. Most of them beat the iPhone's camera hands down.

The point being people buy the iPhone by choice, and get Symbian because it is cheaper- but never actually use the device.

Sorry, but that's a ridiculous interpretation. If that were the case, people would only buy the most basic Nokia phones. But phones like the N95 and E71 have been big successes despite their high prices.

(You're seriously trapped in Apple's reality distortion field.)

Perhaps you should refer to the bulletin (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-048.mspx) in which it clearly states that XP is not affected by remote code execution. Those operating systems which remote execution are marked as critical.

All your arguments are actually making his point. Rather than line by line I'll just pick on one of your replies:

"There are entire franchises that run on Unix-based systems"
- Go back and read his post again for some perspective. He is not talking about Bank of America. He is talking about small business users who need an invoicing/accounting solution (hence his reference to Intuit). Feel free to understand his post before commenting on it.

Linux may be powerful but it's not ready for the masses or small business yet. Hopefully it will be some day because I'd love to see MS gone, but it isn't ready yet.

BC's health plan will cover a portable word processor or cheap laptop, if you have some sort of fine motor problem that prevents you from writing legibly. A friend of mine "tried it" as you say, and was successful. Got a nice cheap thinkpad, since he has a nerve disorder prevents him from writing. I don't know if it would be covered by other provinces, but BC does. BC also charges premiums if you want their health plan though. (Universal != Free)

I've never understood why women want the seat left down. If you think about it, it's in their best interest to put the seat down when they go into the toilet and put it back up when they're done. That way, they don't run the risk of falling in due to sitting while the seat is up and they don't have to worry about us guys getting the seat wet since it won't get wet in the raised position.

Unfortunately, I've found that even the most logical female will refuse to follow this logic...

Upgrading Windows is just asking for trouble.

The OS on my MBP, 10.6 is upgraded from 10.5 which was transferred over from an installation on a different notebook, which was upgraded from 10.4, which was cloned over from yet another notebook, which was upgraded from 10.3. I think that was the last clean install, although it could have actually been 10.2. So this OS has been upgraded through at least four major versions, run on three different machines, with two different major processor architectures (PowerPC and x86).

And it works just fine. I'm sure there are people running Linux with even more impressive provenances.

I don't know if i'd call it a niche, when it's more of a gaping hole. most people out there aren't hardcore gamers, and netbooks allow for these people to access the internet, write email, listen to music, and watch videos on the cheap. Netbooks are doing well because companies have realized that computers are no longer a toy for the elite.

Root access is allowed on the Pre, too. Palm has conveniently published instructions on their website for how to obtain a root prompt.