What if Microsoft offered their OS at a much cheaper price and modeled their revenue after, say, console makers? While the consoles are still expensive, the corporations sell them at a loss and instead plan on gaining a profit from selling video games.

In Microsoft's case, they would sell their software products like units at a profit, and they could concentrate on producing new types of software in house (like Apple does). Plus, if they went this route, they wouldn't necessarily have to pursue something stupid like new their software subscription services strategy.

the soap opera medium is slowly dying.

For the general malware infection, finding out what reg entries and what files to delete require:

1. Doing a Google search for symptoms
2. Reading through a LOT of forums/pages to figure out what you have.
3. Manually scouring your filesystem and registry for the culprits/doing many other steps that you found from the aforementioned search.
4. Crossing your fingers and hoping that you followed the appropriate instructions.

Contrast to Malwarebytes:

1. Start up the program.
2. Run the update (as needed).
3. Start the scan.
4. Go do something more fun (like, e.g., posting on /.).

I LOVE Malwarebytes. It saves me so much time, and it has, on occasion, found stuff I had no idea was even on my computer.

But it adds sooooooo much flavor to turduckens!

Looks like the Technocrat 'creeps' are already migrating to /.:

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/26/1126256

Actually, "federal officials are on pace this year to bring the fewest prosecutions for securities fraud since at least 1991": http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/business/25fraud.html?hp. One can't help but wonder if this freer market contributed to the economic crisis that exists right now and how something like Madoff's scheme went unnoticed until he decided to spill the beans.

Hell, even Greenspan, once one of the greatest cheerleaders for deregulation, admitted that he "put too much faith" in the free market: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html.

Federal regulation can suck at times, but when the core of the country's economy is based on abstract constructs that are intangible (like, say, toxic mortgage assets), I think at least some oversight is needed.

Buy a belt buckle version and take that sexy geek desk accessory look with you wherever you go! http://igadgets.com/22-jb002.html