The Pirate Bay is already blocked by the major providers in Italy, for much the same reasons I suspect: total control over Italian media consumption by BS (Berlusconi Silvio).

I live in Italy, and the lack of unbiased information is incredible - half the population really believe that the press are under communist control and that journalists have an axe to grind with Berlusconi. The other half disagree and the result is a country that is incredibily polarized and divided - over Berlusconi.

The best thing for Italy would be for him to die quickly for as long as he lives he will be able to hide and manipulate information - a perfect modern Machiavelli.

There certainly must be potential, but the end-all device currently is the pc (or mac) for access to web based tv.

We live abroad and use a computer to watch dutch, swedish and Italian TV and a VPN to connect to BBC iPlayer and 4OD. Once you get past the slightly lower quality there is no going back to not-on-demand TV.

If only the new AppleTV would include a browser and Flash / Silverlight... It would be perfect for my purposes.

haha funny that rung a (distant) bell

Everybody knows mice and keyboards are only Bluetooth.

does it run linux?

Can the ribbon be switched off?

Flamebait me if true! I have not been asked to moderate in years.

I had the same experience with Mac. I only bought a Mac when they released them with Intel chips and got mine with VMware straight away as I had many licensed Windows programs.

However, it did not take long to let go of Windows programs, but the option being there made the switch less daunting.

I also have a pile of Microsoft software that didnt work as excpected and a collection Linux disks and books that were great fun when I had the time.

For a small company, whilst not perfect, Apple is the way to go.

I have a cracked back on iPhone 3gs, cracked back and front on 2007 MacBook (been replaced in warranty once - not worth pursuing again), and a pile of (wired and wireless) 'Mighty' Mice where the scroll wheel doesn't work (knows issue). My father has an iMac with weird lines in the display (also known issue).

My other macs are great however.

Why did I think the post was related to FaceBook?

Interesting read.

Jawn. Who cares where geeks go? Particularly which multinational corporation they 'love', 'prefer' or 'adore'?

These companies make products and services, if they are good value people will use them, if not they have to come up with something else.

The only company I distrust is Microsoft, and I stopped using their products years ago due to shoddy quality, unreliability and terrible security.

it works really well on an old MacBook without dedicated 3D graphics (Intel something)