Christianity has won the Western World (for now) so they don't need to worry about Wikipedia. Their power elite met in Constantinople 500 years after Christ's death to create a Bible to their liking. They've strictly controlled all major PR for their religion since.

The number of followers, their wealth, and the number of politicians in the flock.

Of course this is a generalization, but in the main the paradox is that free content usually ends up not being worth paying for because quality producers won't make it for long leaving largely low cost/low quality content over the long run. Quality producers and distributors stick to channels where the business model provides a sufficient fee structure (ad revenue, subscribers fees, etc.) via channel control to provide them revenue and profit. But consumers will only pay for content they value--both in quality and speed. The problem right now is most US internet connections are mostly too slow to provide high quality and delivery speeds that will command cable TV-level fee structures for advertising and subscriber fees. The US is way behind the EU in this. So the cable companies and telcos have a huge investment in infrastructure ahead of them before they can profit in the general market. Which is why they want a tiered internet--to phase infrastructure in slowly and match costs and revenues better to stay profitable. Their greed early on has them no painted into a corner--but you can bet they are figuring out how to make to consumer fund their rescue.

I just opened up Adobe Reader on my Desktop Mac and disabled Javascript in the preferences...

And then I just opened up Adobe Reader on my laptop Mac and disabled Javascript in the preferences...

And then I just opened up Adobe Reader on my stand-alone PC and disabled Javascript in the preferences...

And then I just opened up Adobe Reader on my XP Pro Parallels VM on my desktop Mac and disabled Javascript in the preferences...

And then I just opened up Adobe Reader on my VIsta Home Pro 64-bit Parallels VM on my desktop Mac and disabled Javascript in the preferences...

And then I remembered all my VM snapshots and my Mac TIme machine backups that would need to be changed if I ever used them..

OMFG! Why didn't they just disable such bloat as the default? Stupid is as stupid does.

Right, but with one characterization: entertainment has always been about restricting access to product to make it more valuable. The Music and Concert industries play this game well too.

We have been led to believe Microsoft does extensive testing of products and features. Even if the blocking was unintentional, certainly they must have noticed it and the fact they don't block there own server. As a result, they should have either, white-listed Google or at least expressly and clearly stated Google was being blocked. Given Microsoft's past history, this kind of "aw shucks look it blocks Google but let's just mirk and ignore it" behavior is not acceptable and is predatory in nature in keeping with past behavior. Convicted monopolists are held to higher standards than average companies because they are on parole.

I am so tired of the "all Apple gives for the extra charge is style" flawed analysis that I have to respond to this. It is utter nonsense--most Apple buyers, when pooled mention ease of use. power, flexibility and reliability over style. Style is the icing on the cake not the core reason to buy. This is the same bogus emotional ignore the facts appeal as the Republicans used to call the Democrats tax and spend, even though Republican presidents spend more and, worse, borrow to do it. Not quite the whole story, you are also paying a robust 32- and 64-bit UNIX with a remarkably easy to use GUI and free apps for video, photos, mail, web publishing, and more that few commercial apps rival n terms of ease of use. There are otehr platforms advantages too: I can run OS X, many falvors of Windows (in VM or mative boot), plus many flavors of UNIX and Linux in VM on one machine.On my 8-core 13GB Mac Pro right now I have running: OS X Leopard, Ubuntu Server 8.10, SuSe 10 desktop, and Window Vista Home Premium 64-bit. I am cross-developing OpenGL/SDL and Qt apps for all three platforms on OS X using UNIX tools. No other OS or System let's me do that on one box at one time. Plus Final Cut Studio kicks a*s compared to Similarly-priced Windows alternatives.

People try to make sense of GS catapulting this guy to fame to their detriment when they should properly just keep him in the shadows. Isn't it obvious why? One small Word, one big object: EGO The people who run Goldman-Sachs are used to running everything--including the Fed, Congress, and the Presidency. They have saddled everyone of us with a debt of $165,000 for the bail out (so far) and most of that money goes into their pockets in bonuses, guarantees for their failed investments, and other devious ways they bilk people for cash. It sticks in their craw that some little nobody on the net can flip them the bird and blow raspberries at them and be untouchable. And they just cannot accept that. Their egos cannot stand it.

Ahem...a ...no. The AIR is several hundred dollars cheaper comparing the base configurations for both machines. You pressed that knee-jerk moronic "apple is expensive" reflex button again without thinking. Where do you think you are posting? Some place where people hate facts and prefer unfounded opinion, rumors, innuendo, and fiction like Slashdot? Oh wait.

When it comes to security, the more physical the better. Wireless might seem a attractive on cost and convenience but reliability and vulnerability increase substantially. Again on that theme, the more complex a system, the more that can go wrong. It is all a matter of personal acceptance of a level of risk, but I'll stick with hardwired systems on a UPS and two good-sized dogs which gets me and my family to a comfortable sleeping level. that and Mister 12-gauge full of #00 buckshot and slugs. Your mileage may vary.