...at the company where I work they stress to each employee not to work with certain companies (and Iran is on the list) because if we do we will be in violation of US Export laws and the US government could decide that we can't export anything to any other country. That would cause me and just about every other person in my comany to lose their jobs.

That's not proof that a big company like HP wouldn't do it; just that they'd be creative in finding ways around the export restrictions.

And if they really weren't aware that this has been happening, this would be a good time unload stock in a company that hasn't got a clue about due diligence. Compare this to e-waste disposal. My company audits our e-waste recyclers, who audit their downstream recyclers, to make sure our used computers don't end up in an illegal e-waste shipment to China. If HP doesn't periodically audit its distributors, especially those in the Middle East, they're doing a pretty crappy job of covering their asses against federal prosecution--especially if the distributor boldly stated on their website that they distribute to Iran.

Has HP unknowingly been supplying Iran with technology

Only if you put big finger-quotes around "unknowingly".

On the other hand, maybe this is a secret government plot to bankrupt Iran by selling them cheap printers, then gouging them on cartridges.

Printers and faxes? Either they're complete enough in their thinking to include written works, or they're afraid people are going to share mp3 files by faxing hundreds of pages of ones and zeroes.

Still, it would be faster than some torrents I've seen.

No doubt with free spyware and internet filtering

Was that really necessary to get the story across?

Of course. With only one small, relatively unobtrusive ad at the top of the page, it takes all of the trolling and flaming elicited by that baiting for /. to rake in the ad revenue. ;)

McDonald's does not actually SHIP anything.

I wonder why they haven't tried this yet. With the sheer inorganic durability of their products, it's surprising that you can't go to McDonalds.com and order a Big Mac via USPS regular parcel service.

Or they could fax it to you; it wouldn't increase the nutritional value that much.

While you could argue that a mouse is a consumable, it isn't/shouldn't be designed as such.

I'd agree with shouldn't be, but not with isn't. Logitech is a typical consumer product manufacturing company, whose primary goal is to convince you to throw away the mouse you bought last year (or even last month) and replace it with the latest model. (Try our new 68-button MegaMedia(TM) Mouse with built-in subwoofer!!!)

Of the 1 billion mice Logitech has sold, I wonder how many currently reside in a municipal landfill somewhere.

Not just the processing, but the design. It's not like someone mixes up a big bowl of ground beef, a few eggs, spices and whatever, then roughly forms round-ish patties before shipping them out.*

Everything produced for McDonald's is the result of a very stricly controlled manufacturing process to ensure that every meat-like patty, every tallow-spiked fry, every creepily long-lasting chocolate shake is the same to within very strict tolerances, whether you eat it in Miami or Whitehorse.

Make no mistake; that Quarter Pounder with Orange Dairy-Like Substance(TM) is as much the product of a technical manufacturing process as your Cordless Trackball with Media Whiz-Bang!(TM).

.

*That only happens at good burger joints.

Who thinks it would be a good idea to have a public wireless internet managed by a division of the US Postal service...?

Oh, great. That's just what we need. If the USPS takes over Internet access...

• E-mail will take 7-10 days to reach you
• You'll have to go to the nearest postal outlet to pick up any attachment larger than 64k
• I'll have to spend hours convincing my (blonde) secretary not to stick stamps on her monitor--AGAIN!

I think Apple can come up with enough "prior artwork" for this one.

Changing "prior art" to "prior artwork" paints an interesting picture of a potential courtroom exchange...

"I would like to present Exhibit A, "Motherboard Descending a Staircase" by Ed Picasso, painted in January 2006. Despite its neo-cubist style, this work shows an example of "client hardware architecture" much more clearly than the patent troll--I mean, defendant's patent documents.

I mean, sure, they have a much larger inventory then most stores, but they don't expect the long tail.

No one expects the...

Oh, bugger.

I deal with that kind of thinking every day. I'm trying to convince management to install auxiliary power units on our heavy equipment so we can save tens of thousands of litres of fuel a year, and the operator can keep the heat and the computer on while waiting for the next movement, but what kinds of suggestions do I get for energy savings? Make sure the office staff turn off their computer monitors at night.

It's got everything to do with trademark law, but indirectly. Coke still tries to protect its trademark from dilution (even though "coke" is pretty much a synonym for "cola" in popular terms). So they won't let Pepsi use the term "coke" in their marketing, obviously. Nor does Pepsi want to. But if Pepsi allowed the people who sell their products to use the term "coke" when selling them, Coke could take legal action to protect their trademark. So Pepsi vendors have to clarify that they're selling Pepsi, not Coke.

It would mean disaster for business.

Considering the staggering success of Vista, you point is...?

Windows, by contrast, hides the issues -- having programs you download actually be installers that download more files and install them to a non-obvious place, for instance.

Perhaps the example that causes the most confusion is the missing Word document. When you save a document attached to an e-mail on a Mac, by default it saves to /username/Documents, which is a single click to get to in Finder. Compare that to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKD3.

Disclaimer: For all I know, Vista has removed this ridiculous obfuscation. Having not used Vista, at home or at work, I don't know and don't really care. :D

Language is defined by users of the language, not those who don't wish themselves or their products to gain a certain name.

Only if an organization doesn't actively protect its trademarks from dilution. That's why restaurant servers are required to ask "is Pepsi okay?" if you ask for a Coke in a Pepsi joint. As far as I know, Apple does actively protect its trademarks.

Of course, that doesn't prevent tech support callers from insisting that their computer doesn't have a MAC address because it's a PC.