I agree with you AbRASiON. In all respects. The bottom line is that the PC industry has to move forward, inexorably forward, in order to support this that and the other thing. 64-bit computing. DirectX 10. Touch and Cloud computing. Voice recognition. Multi-core support. The list goes on and on. OS vendors cannot waste time and resources to continue upgrading obsolete operating systems with these new features. Even the Linux world has to continue endlessly coming out with new releases, in order to support new features and drivers. Windows XP has indeed been THE BEST product ever produced by Microsoft. It is such a clear winner, that I still continue to use Windows XP Professional both in the office, and at home. All Microsoft needs to do is come out with a BETTER OS, and then the entire industry will realize it, upgrade, and then move on. That's what happened with the transition to Windows XP. That did not happen with Windows Me, nor did it with Vista. If Microsoft gets it right with Windows 7, then hats off to them, everyone upgrades, and technology advances to the next level. Sure then we have more bloated OS, that DOES work slower if you don't upgrade the hardware. But as technology advances to support this, and machines get more powerful, we can upgrade our operating systems, and still experience acceptable performance. What Microsoft did wrong with Vista is that they tried to force the entire PC industry to upgrade their hardware. And in the current economic climate, they encountered way too much resistance. Now that all that more awesome hardware has been unleashed, and almost everyone is running dual core machines or better, all Microsoft needs to do is repackage the next Vista ServicePack as Windows 7. And get it right. It needs to work acceptably on slower machines. It needs to scream on fast ones. It just has to work. If they get it right, I will upgrade. Everyone will.

(20) The Obama administration will bail-out Google. (21) Alternative energy will finally work its way into this country's energy grid. (22) More and more people will begin riding bicycles to work. (23) People will lose weight, and improve their diets. (24) Apple will launch another shiny new toy, but only the very rich will want to buy it. (25) It will be 2010 before we pull out of this recession, because the Bush administration f$@#-ed us over so bad.

I like your comical reply to this philosophical dilemma. It is funny. That's what many people do when they can't decide whether to believe in God or not. Many others just imagine that there is a God, and then just believe in Him, so that the perplexing questions of reality can simply be dismissed as something too complex for mere mortals to understand. On the other hand, I prefer to agree with the author of this article - with the following caveat. The meaning of existence is is due to the fact that infinity and nothingness exists simultaneously. This means that anything is possible, and that nobody is right and nobody is wrong in their beliefs, because everyone is right. One God exists for those who believe in Him, just as all those pagan gods exist for those who wish to believe in them. Likewise, these is no God for those who want to believe in that. This way everything has meaning, which is the nature of existence, and that cannot be refuted. So the best way to live is in the moment, for what you believe in is your own reality.

Brilliantly put. I am a Canadian Permanent Resident in the United States, who has been very excited about this election ever since it begin. I hate GWB and his administration so much that in my mind - ANYONE would have been an improvement. However, I quickly caught Obama Fever, and have been backing him all through his presidential campaign. That's right, even though I can't vote yet, I have been helping him with his campaign via the internet, and with small donations. You are right. Obama and his new team need to dig America out of a VERY deep hole. Finally the end of the corrupt Bush Oligarchy is in sight, and America can once again re-attain its greatness - eventually. Let's just hope that Barrack Obama is the first of many new administrations that will serve to cause the fatal mistakes of GWB and his cronies to fade away into the history books.