I've just dealt with ACPI for the first time and I thought it was great. Given, this was under Linux, so I don't know how braindeadedly Windows handles it. And I once agreed with you about PNP until I used it under Linux. Works like a champ there, and you can decide which IRQs and I/O ports you want it to use. (Were you aware that Microsoft suggests setting your PC BIOS to indicate that the running OS is not PNP-compatible so that the BIOS will pick IRQs, I/O ports, etc?)

Bill Gates may not have said that, but he definitely did say that all encryption will be broken once someone finds a way to easily factor large prime numbers (from ``The Road Ahead'' -- go find it at your bookstore -- it's around page 110 or page 265, depending on the release).