Actually, it's not "completely unrelated." ClickOnce is part of the .NET framework. The addon allows someone using Firefox to download/install an application deployed using ClickOnce, instead of having to go to Internet Explorer to do so. The .NET Framework is a package of various tools for both developers and clients. Service Packs are designed to update, enhance, or add to that suite of tools. The addon is an addition to those tools. Java does the same thing when you install the Java Runtime client. It's just as equally uninstallable-but-disable-able. Is it shady? Certainly. It should be clearer when *anyone* that is not the user running the currently opened instance of Firefox installs an addon. Are MS being dickish about it? Not really. The disabled uninstall is, as someone else pointed out, a permissions discrepancy between program that installed the addon (the "user" it runs under) and the physical user. There's also an update, and other instructions, that allows it to be removed.

Then, there's also the fact that the only way to open the cannon to reach the roof of the castle to get to Yoshi and the flying cap for the outside part (yes, it's just a fun thing), requires getting all the stars. It also makes for a good time-sink when you're laid up in bed rest.

You mean the one that only has a tiny fraction of those SNES games? I think the console with the most games still currently has less than a hundred titles in it.

Then do a little research and don't download the update. Or disable the addon.

You just got too used to the PlaySkool interface. It's okay, it happens to a lot of people.

I disagree. If that was the case, then the Big Three would have let each other fall decades ago. However, they helped each other recover from past recessions for the sake of (in this case, American-based) competition.

Also, the fall of Circuit City left Best Buy flooded with customers. While you might think this is a good thing, they actually had to turn away Geek Squad customers for a time because their workload was too great for them to handle (even Geek Squad City was running out of room for the demand).

Microsoft is another example of a monopoly ultimately hurting a company. They're finally starting to pay the price of not improving their software (IE being a prime example) without competition. As a result, they now have to overcome the reputation that their software isn't secure and is behind the times (regardless of whether said reputation is earned or applicable to new software, that perception is still there).

And yes, while companies do strive to "take out the competition," when it comes down to it, the competition helps them thrive, and most good business owners know this.

Note the country of those sales. That's called market saturation, my friend.

Japan is now thoroughly saturated with Wiis, so Nintendo has to start selling more to the US (as opposed to giving Japanese stores hundreds of Wiis and US stores a few dozen per shipment). Many stores still have trouble keeping the Wii itself in stock, and games like Wii Fit are still damn near impossible to get a hold of.

You could better compare the two by making sure the specs are as close to equal as you could get. That would, of course, mean adding another $375 to your Dell to upgrade the processor to a 2.6GHz, as well as buying straight from the vendor, as opposed to going through a place like FatWallet and getting various rebates and discounts. Suddenly, your $1200 difference becomes a $550 difference, which is reduced further to a mere $50 difference after removing the sale price from Dell.

I think the idea of an "unlimited" diet is one where every type of food is at a person's disposal. Fruits, veggies, and red meat are all there in the same quantities as candy bars and cake. Given that kind of availability, the theory is that people would generally take the food that's overall more healthy (that's not to say they'll never take the junk food). If I understand it right, this stems from the idea that people want what they can't have. If something is readily available, then they have less of a desire for it than if it was restricted from them.