I keep being asked to register .eu domains for people, but they never want to use them for anything new, just to stop others from using them. It would be interesting to see some stats on how many have unique content. I'd guess under 2%

//curious -- how come Microsoft has to compete with everyone who's making good progress in particular areas? Do they have a team of people who do nothing but read technical articles and news to see what everyone else is doing //

Every modern hi-tech business has a team of people who do nothing but read technical articles and news to see what everyone else is doing so they can target them as a potential competetive prospect. It's called a "marketing team". For a number of years I was employed in a company of just ~120 employees, compared to microsoft what, tens of thousands, and it had a quarter of people in just marketing and research, as opposed to only 5 in Research and Development.

Offtopic, yet why would one get an XP system for gaming, a few hundred bucks for the box itself + ~200 for the OS? Might as well keep the Mac and use a console for gaming, be it PS2 or Xbox or other. Just curious?

Vlad Petersen