Re:Yeah, right. (Score 1)

I've got a story for you about a couple of my clients. I am in the A/V installation and maintenance business. Part of what this entails is alot of serious programming for the control systems that operate some of these upwards of 30 component monsters, one of the greatest problems is trying to wheedle information from a company to operate a piece of equipment through the serial port they so nicely provide, yet refuse to give out any information about. then there is the research involved in tracking down this information. some of these companies are actually starting to lose business because they are so tight with their codes. oh well. These two clients both arrived from England with a fresh stack of DVDs. one of the called me up at 10 o'clock at night wondering why the movies he had purchased wouldn't work on his nice home theater. the first question I asked him was if he had brought a DVD player with him from England, he said no, and I told him that his DVDs were useless in the US. When he tried to get a DVD player over, it wouldn't clear customs either.. oh well. As far as dumping your old computer, it dependsupon how museum able it is, I know of quite a few people who still surf the web on '486s, and one guy who is still quite happy with his truly ancient Apple][. Myself, I have a PII-450/20GB HD/CD-RW/192MB Ram machine that was no where near this when I bought it. At this point, I figure that this old beast that I bought in '98 will get me a couple/three more years of use until I can't put anything new onto it. and freeze the software updates.