That's comical, Mike.

I owned Creative and other crap MP3 players when the original iPods rolled out. Other than the fact the Apple gear played music, it was clear that it was a whole new ballgame. Just like when the iPhone rolled out (and executives from Redmond to Nokia rolled their eyes and doubted Apple could ever compete in such a "mature" market).

As to the mouse/OS PARC-theft (that applies to every consumer OS in the land), didn't Apple have a GUI with mouse based interface since the early 1980's? And didn't Apple nearly go under ten years ago with a mouse-based GUI? Apple's phoenix-like rise from the ashes has more to do with innovation, quality, stability, and user experience than anything else, in case that isn't obvious.

gtd

...after saying thanks, but no thanks, for the stimulus $$$.

Before you want to spread the next round of misinformation, why not "snope" your patently incorrect propaganda. Better yet, expand your reading horizons.

Here's what Snopes has to say about your "facts" regarding charitable contributions from automakers.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/automakers.asp

As a man whose family mined metallurgical coal for steel in WV and whose wife's family worked in western PA steel mills, it pains me to remind you of this, but the fact is, US automakers got exactly what their shortsighted management deserved by producing crap automobiles while oblivious to the future of petroleum costs. And before you cry me a river about how the "health care component" of each US produced vehicle is so much higher than foreign cars, care to explain to me why the Big 3 turned a deaf ear to the Clinton attempt at Universal Healthcare while instead they decided to spend ten of millions lobbying against higher CAFE EPA standards and lower emissions?

...but the board is certainly NOT appointed by the CEO; rather, they are normally elected/appointed by the stockholders.

Be that as it may, boards ARE incestuous in nature. Executives of Companies A, B & C sit on the board of Company D and determine the compensation for the CEO of D, who of course, sits on their boards. Much like the way bank presidents get sweetheart deals from their buddy's banks and vice-versa.

Have to chuckle at your conclusion-

"an intelligently configured PC... is a far better value than a Mac." So banal on multiple levels. You use as an example your Dell Vostro with 3GB of ram. Do you realize 32-bit XP has no idea what to do with ram in excess of 2GB? Sure, it may "address" it, but is sure doesn't utilize it. You wasted money here, dude.

In your ill-supported conclusion regarding value, do you even bother to compare the wonder software "built in" to a new Mac. Funny, everytime I see someone's new PC, the "built in" software is bloatware/crap that takes the better part of a day to remove.

And please, "Fisher Price"? My 65 year old dad and his brother each needed a notebook 5 years ago. Brother got the 13" iBook, Dad got a (then IBM) Thinkpad. Thinkpad, while protected with glorious Norton Antivirus ($60 to buy plus annual license upgrades) AND Zonealarm became too painfully slow to use. He replaced with a Dell. Now the Dell is painfully slow. Uncle's iBook is still rippin' fast, body/screen doesn't creak when opening (at 5 years) like Dad's new Dell does, etc. There's your "value".

Even my best friend, who is a world-class Autodesk-preferred AutoCad coder, dyed in the wool MS guy, who owns a "top of the line" Dell notebook gushes "Man, you MacBook is just so much nicer" everytime he visits. Well, of course it is.

Washington has the sense to use a "vote by mail" system, and ballots were mailed weeks ago- thus, early voters caught up in "mitt-mentum" likely cast their vote before he bailed out.

Clearly- George W. Bush = Surrender Monkey

Sheesh, where do we start?

First of all, OS/X has nothing to do with Linux. Rather, it is based on FreeBSD, a Unix derivative. If you want to understand the difference, the internet is your friend. Then perhaps your rantings will make some sense.

Secondly, FOR FREAKING YEARS NOW, Macs ship with four button mice. Wake up and quit spreading untruths, please, it does nothing for this discussion.

And, finally, granted it is just form, but for crissakes, it is BIMMER, not "beemer".

Your cooperation is appreciated! ;-)

~gtd

Coming from 20+ years in the PC world, I understand how hard the transition to Mac can be.

You want to open second browser window?

Fine, go to the Safari menu bar (top of the screen) and choose "File/New Window".

Or

Command-N for a new window

Or

Right click the Safari Icon on the dock and select, yeah, you guessed it, "New Window".

What is so tough about that?

~gtd

When you-

"sell or give away a Windows machine, I would never do it without first wiping the hard drive, thereby solving any concerns about it being "gummed up" with viruses and spyware"

...just how did you "wipe" it? XP/DOS delete/erase? Format maybe?? Or even FDisk to eliminate a partition??? Guess what, your data is still there! As is all the adware/malware/etc and even a noob could restore most of it (including the porn, of course) unless the drive saw serious write activity subsequent to your "wipe".

Now, if you actually used government spec erase software that actually WRITES OVER your old data, you may be safe. Did you do this? If not, you really didn't accomplish jack with your "wipe".

Mac users needn't waste time and money looking for software to do this- "Secure Erase" technology has been built into OS/X for ages.

~gtd