Ah, those two dudes are the prime ministers of Malaysia and Singapore, respectively.

Durian is the favorite fruit of many people here in south east Asia - the aroma is "pungent" - you do get used to it - but the taste and texture of the flesh is just heavenly. And typically it does NOT cost $200 unless it's really really special.... more like $20 or less..

"if the S550 had a scroll /click wheel" -Big

it does have a scroll/ click wheel (COMAND). and so does BMW (iDrive). and so does Audi (MMI).

Acer has been very daring with designs before... back in 1995, if anyone remembers, they shocked the world with the original Aspire desktop PCs.. I had one of them, still remember them vividly..

http://www.global.acer.com/about/affairs_library/events/20001_computex/html/history-phase3-story1.htm

how the world does this even *remotely* look like a Shuffle?? different colour, different shape, different finish... sure it's not very creatively (har har) designed but lets judge a product on *its own merits*.

Now now, lets not pan Acer too much. The original Acer Aspire desktop was one of the first computers in the world to emphasize design, with interesting colours and shapes. Have we forgotten so soon (ok, it was almost 12 years ago, but still...)?

http://www.global.acer.com/about/affairs_library/events/20001_computex/html/history-phase3-story1.htm

mj: you said that HL2 doesn't run on vista. ho ho ho.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2096945,00.asp

i can understand dell's move - after all they probably have a stock of XP licences left over and it doesn't cost them more to sell them off. in a business environment it might also make sense to stick with XP until all the legacy hardware either has drivers or are phased out.

i can hardly imagine any consumer who would want to stick with XP, though, especially on a new computer :p

i can't believe the idiots on this board who don't even read the facts.

he has NOT been fined. he has NOT been sent to jail. and we do NOT know if the wifi was unsecured or not - and in any case, if it's a crime to do something, it's a crime to do something. how about "well the idiot wasn't carrying a gun so of course i should steal some money?"

and lest we forget, THIS IS HARDLY THE FIRST CASE IN THE WORLD: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/25/uk_war_driver_fined/

that was in the UK

read before typing next time.

wait now wait now panther_V: NOBODY'S fining the kid yet. that's just the maximum fine for such an offence. likely tt if no serious damage was done, they'd let him off with a warning.

Singapore is well known for enforcing its laws - that's why its laws actually work. but they're not idiots either: they do generally know the line between being firm and being idiotic... I can say this from several years living there myself.

*the concept usually prevails that the person who uses a services and benefits from a service is the one who pays for the service. As opposed to the idea that someone who does not use a service and does not benefit from a service nevertheless be forced by threat of government coercion to pay for the service anyway.*

of course, the fact that tax rates are much lower in singapore than in most of the western world makes it even greater :p

*BTW, you're praising the enlightened regime that imprisons and whips people for spitting out gum, remember?*

you're fined for that, not imprisoned or whipped. just to set the record straight although you're obviously tongue in cheek.

-- as for the initiative itself, well i'm not singaporean but i do stay here now. although not the entire island is covered yet, the fact that i can connect to the internet at most shopping malls is really good. think wifi PDA + skype and you've got the idea, even if you only occassionally surf the 'net.

" A MacBook Pro with the same setup is $2,299, and you a got a lot more with it for that price."

so it's the same, but you get a whole lot more.... hmm.... =)

IBM had never been shy about the fact that their computers cost more than most other companies, so i'm not sure they're the best yardstick to compare in the first place, in terms of price and also quality etc. i'm sure Lenovo is continuing that practice.