WRT the warranty thing, my boyfriends Emac died from a KNOWN Emac problem 2 months after the warranty expired. After spending $60 or so to diagnos the problem (which, IMO, should have been subject to a recall comparable to a vehicle recall) and finding out that DESPITE the fact that this was a known problem the fix would cost us almost $400, we bought him a refurbished PC with Vista.

The other thing for me is this--yeah, tower PCs are kind of ugly--but Macs look really dated really fast. I mentioned this on a tech website and got a LOT of angry comments/downratings. I mean. COME ON. The Emac looks like a bean bag right now. (and my aged tower looks like it was in my office in 2000 running UNIX, but IT still works despite being 7 years old--the slightly-under 4 year old Emac might as well be a bean bag). Hell, my iPod that I bought in 2006 looks ancient now--at least I can buy cheap accessories for it! Never mind that I used my Zune much more often because the interface is better and I LIKE the brown... and it doesn't scratch so easily.

Typing from an EeePC (not immune to tech fads, but this does everything I could want a MacAir to do for 1/4 of the price and no annoying, precious "singer-songwriter" ad).

whether integration of the sexes will result in women ultimately not being able to compete.

I can think, off the bat, of two "team" sports where women are just as competitive as men. Of course, they both involve dogs--Agility and Flyball.

In Flyball, you and your dog are part of a team of 3 other dogs and their handlers. The speed and training of the dogs count, and your timing counts. In Agility, you and your dog are the team (unless you are involved in a team tournament). Once again, the speed and training of the dog counts, and your timing counts. Good timing and a well-trained dog can be achieved with work and aren't specific to men or women. In either sport, your own personal speed and power, or lack thereof, confer very little advantage/disadvantage.

Just saying.

Why is this NEWS?

Guess what I did today? Took a vacation day from work and spent the day vacuuming water in the basement. It's been raining here, for like 15 years, and the basement finally gave up the ghost and said "I will flood. I cannot help it. I am 66 years old. Sucks to be you and your carpeting!"

I'm a woman. I THINK. I have lovely spiked boots and miniskirts that I enjoy wearing, even though I am over 35 (hell, I am over 40) but I don't often wear them, because with 3 dogs and a leaky basement, I gotta do what I gotta do. So today I have on the boyfriend's AC/DC pants and a hoodie.

My totally hot boyfriend is in Florida visiting his father. He is bummed that he's not here to help me with the mess in the basement. He doesn't CARE what I have on. He likes that I am reasonably competent and know to go to Target and buy the damn wet/dry vac when it's required.

I'm kind of disgusted. Men are more complicated than this. WOMEN are more complicated than this. The ability to do what needs to be done and have a little fun along the way are the important things. You do what you do, you are what you are, and hopefully you find someone to share that with you along the way.

Talk to your husband. Failing that, get a water-loving dog (Labrador Retrievers and Portuguese Water Dogs are good). When your cousin is over with the kids in the pool, open the back door and say "Hiiiii!!!" Let Rover shoot out and dive into the pool. Go back in the house. It's Rover's pool too!

If your cousin doesn't mind sharing the pool with the dog, good for her. But she probably will.

Especially when you are starting up. My XP laptop at home starts up MUCH faster than the one I use at work, primarily because it doesn't have to reconnect to a network and half a bejillion shared drives, and doesn't have to start up all kinds of company-mandated programs. And if you have any kind of security protocol (as I did at a previous job) forget it--you might as well turn the computer on and go shoe shopping. (As an aside, I recall the UNIX workstations I used to use being mighty slow too.)

My completely unscientific observation is that most of the people I know who use Macs at home either use Windows at work, or don't use computers at all at work.

I gotta agree with the poster below who said that Macs don't run anything he needs. The productivity stuff I need Windows for. The kinds of things I could use a Mac for (surfing, e-mail) I use my EeePC for. And that sucker is cheap and FAAAAST to start up and shut down!

People need to see that Obama is a POLITICIAN. Much as most of you seem to need to believe that he isn't. And I've voted for him 3 times (in the Illinois senate primary, in the senate election, and then in the presidential primary) so please don't start accusing me of being an Obama hater.

Another point that ought to be made REALLY clear is that Obama basically ran for senate unopposed once Jack Ryan dropped out. His huge lead over Alan Keyes was meaningless--there wasn't a CHANCE Keyes could win in Illinois. Keyes was brought in because the Illinois Republicans needed to run SOMEBODY (it would have made more sense for Jack Ryan to stay in).

Have a look at Engadget (I'll link to the post in my signature) and think REALLY HARD about whether you want to let your current iPhone out of your hands...