One night a few of us were sitting round a friend's house (a highly paid IT professional) listening to some music being played out from his PC. I noticed that notepad kept opening and strange words were appearing, then lots of windows would open and the machine would go mental. Cue my friend; "someone's fucking hacking me!", he opens Notepad and starts typing "Leave the fuck alone, I know who you are" etc etc, while we laugh at his rage. Later that night I discovered that the Speach recognition had been turned on and the Mic was picking up the music and our background chatter. It was interesting to see how Windows interpreted inane chatter and minimal techno...

I just wanted to say that this I reckon that this is one of the best answered "Ask Slashdot" questions in ages. It could have descended into a "don't drop out in the first place..." argument but instead it appears that many people here have either been there and done that, or have a "There but for the grace of God go I..." mentality. Great work guys.