Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away, some good old boys and girls meet for brunch in the dining room of some five-star hotel. A fly on the wall might hear this conversation. "Hey, I hear you guys are having trouble selling all the PCs, laptops and other gizmos you manufacture. That must be hurting the bottom line." "You know it is, but over this brunch, we may be able to figure something out." The person to the left of the talking executive pipes in, "I hear you guys are coming out with version eleven of your software. Couldn't you do something to help us out?" "I don't know how a software change could help you sell more units." "Here's an idea, what if when the software is being installed, it checks the date or something on some component and says the machine is too old to be updated or replaced? Couldn't you guys do that?" "We might be able to do something, but what if some nerd figures a way around that?" "I don't think we need to worry about a few nerds crying foul. Most of the people buying these things barely know how to turn them on, let alone figuring out there are a few workarounds to load the software." "If we do this, won't it create a lot of waste and environmental damage?" "That's not my problem, I have to keep these things moving out the door, or profits will be in the tank. Besides, isn't that what landfills are for?"
