Why do you say that? If my webcam worked under Windows 95 ten years ago, it will still work under Windows 95 today. The software doesn't stop working anymore than the hardware does. On the other hand, if you choose to upgrade your OS...

They tend not to eat as much cabbage and beans as they used to, so that's less effective...

Ehm, the fact that you couldn't download a browser with 128-bit encryption is, as you said, due to US export regulations. You were, in that sense, subject to US laws. I don't think the German law prohibited you from downloading American encryption software.

It does have an accelerometer to switch the screen orientation. See the specs from Palm: http://investor.palm.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=358392

Customer satisfaction is about as easy to quantify as AHT. We routinely send out surveys to measure customer satisfaction and correlate that information with our productivity metrics and our internal quality monitoring. Yes, high AHT is a problem in call centers, because it costs money, lowering our profit margin. But low customer satisfaction is a bigger problem, because it drivers customers away, effectively reducing our profit margin to somewhere approaching zero.
I understand there are a lot of not-so-good call centers, but the majority really is no longer just hiring monkeys to read out scripts to calling customers. And agents really are not fired just for failing to meet AHT targets.