cars is sorta a good analogy. people are still driving cars but they are not running out and buying a new one every year. there are keeping what they have. same for gaming pc or otherwise. my pc cant play new games being they pretty much demand you upgrade every year with the shadier scam. guess what i just am not playing those games. i even quit my favorite mmo being the upgraded to video modes my pc does not support insane netbook sales have proven people don't care abought having the latest hardware just something that's cheap and works. same for cars people are just driving old cars around to avoid owing the bank. if gm came out with a cheap fule effcent car say 5000$ i bet it would sell like crazy.

Typically, neither do people who are innocent.

Over here (Europe) I'd just tell my bank (electronically) to transfer some amount from my account to hers. Banks don't charge you for that here. Actually, since this is a recurring payment I'd set it up once as a recurring payment and be done with it.

Interesting that you left out Google Search. It's the only one I would possibly pay for.

You could be forced by a third party to reveal how you voted (they would force you to give them your random characters and then they would be able to verify that you voted as you were told to.)

If a user installs some program on either Linux or OS X, what's to stop that program from making outbound connections to port 6667 (to receive instructions) and to port 25 (to send spam)? I've never understood this "if users wouldn't run as Administrator/root, we'd all be safe" argument, you don't need superuser privs to send email.

Whew... Glad we use dd/mm over here, I'm safe!

In my part of the world the Monday after Easter is a national holiday. I've actually implemented the Gaus algorithm to compute the date of Easter in multiple programs, to check if people working on a given date were entitled to extra compensation for working on a holiday.