...and conversely, I'm currently seeding some shows that are pretty unusual and definitely no longer on the air or available on disc.

Yes, that's my point: there is strong but elusive and allusive evidence that manufacturing processes are nasty across the board, except for companies like Apple who publish audits (and that is suspect, given some of last years' events).

Yet Apple is guilty of IP violations of customers' and developers' rights.

What's an ethical person to do? Buy used, avoid paying the manufacturers directly.

I too love using my Media Access Controller, without it I would never get online, and even my Mac has one! F'n awesome!

Well, hating Apple for their business practices is really a political decision, not a hardware/software evaluation. Uniquely in the computer world, a Mac is not limiting in any way, because you can literally run any software or OS on a MBP, either natively or through emulation. One also needs to inquire whether HP or Dell or Sony are such great companies from an ethical standpoint (certainly Sony is every bit as perverse and unsavoury as Apple). Basically, when you factor in environmental and labour practices alongside IP, the entire industry is pretty sleazy.

But by all means, if someone here can accurately vote through your wallet using your conscience, do so and share your findings with us.

The other side of the Apple Tax is resale value. Macs hold their value more than any other PC, much like a honda or toyota, and you need to factor that into the equation. Take longevity, quality, and resale prices into consideration, and the mid-to-low end Apple laptops are actually a pretty good value.

More than this: I was annoyed by the lack of a mid-range headless mac, so I set out to build a hackintosh. At the time, the IPS monitor on the iMac 24 was what I was aiming for (1.8 yrs ago, time to upgrade soon), and I needed video editing capabilities with Final Cut.

By the time I'd priced out all the parts (newegg/NCIX, don't say I didn't shop right) to find equivalent function and similar quality, I was $120 under the price of a refurb iMac, except for the crappy video card. I'm not a gamer, so I bought the iMac and saved time and money.

OTOH, I needed a cheap laptop. HP netbook for me, and I never bothered to hackintosh it, because Win7 is just fine (and linux netbook offerings aren't good enough yet).

To be clear, there are only two Mac OS choices: OS X (currently 10.6) and OS X Server, so for a desktop user there's really only one choice. (iOS is mandatory on relevant devices, no choice there.)

OS X is a pretty complete unix install, apple flavoured, with proprietary stuff lathered on top... i.e. the base model is the pro version, not crippled in any way (other than general apple buggy/quirkiness).

Yes, let's just agree that the universe is out to kill us, and that Earth temporarily has very favourable conditions... until the climate flips out, or a big rock comes spinning in.

I say start working on colonizing both. The next few hundred years will be well-spent terraforming, in opposite directions.

>1/3 gravity would be healthier.

Really? Are you so sure? Sounds nice, but also sounds like a recipe for all kinds of bone and muscle problems.

It really depends on what group of humans you're talking about. The Pacific Northwest, for instance, was so abundant in biological resources, that the work week was less than 20 hours. That left lots of time for art, showing off, and other social pursuits. It was a pretty comfortable existence.... until the Haida came around to bust your ass and take slaves.

The link you're looking for is here: cliqueclack.com.

And Nadia was actually a hermaphrodite, haunted by the vision of the man she could have been.