A belated thank you for the giveaway. Much appreciated. One comment, if I may, on the pricing model for your products.

We all have different needs, and the one feature for me that I would like from the ultimate edition is the Real-Time Disk Change Monitor. Now I'm happy to pay more for it and I note that you sell it as a separate product (DiskPulse) for $25. Fair enough, I suppose, except it would be more desirable to have it built into Diskboss, but the ultimate edition is priced for business users.

And while I completely agree that features such as the SQL server are business-oriented and should be priced as such, I think command-line access to features is another thing. Many of the "home users" who visit this site are the kind of people who like using the command line if possible. Likewise, is "running as a service" really a corporate feature? So many of us run home servers now.

I think there's room for another "home user" premium version of Diskboss. For non-commercial use, pitched at say $50 (per home user, not per machine), that incorporates all the geeky Diskboss features that users of this site appreciate, without the SQL trimmings. Whether it makes business sense to you is another thing.

I bought my wife an iPad recently. Overnight, her use of her laptop dropped by more than 50%. For the things she uses a computer for (email, web browsing, Facebook), the tablet is just as good, and more comfortable to use when slumped on a chair. And as other have mentioned, instant on/off is a huge advantage. Huge.

The pattern of use I describe above covers much of the computer-using population. That's why iPads are popular.

Me? I use a HP Touchpad, which IMHO is a better device than the iPad (a better OS). And I use that a lot too. In the evening, for casual web browsing in my favourite armchair. I also have a 7-inch Galaxy Tab (with 3G) for portable outdoor use. And a Kindle, which is a fabulous device. And I use a laptop. And a desktop. Each has its place. Each brings benefits to my life. It's not either/or.

Since the whole system is based on some form of magic (dividends, futures, forecasts) why would this be any different?

-rgdot (October 30, 2011, 05:11 PM)

Because this time, there is no way out. They can't fudge it. The Euro will break up, either in a controlled way, or an implosion. Either way, the effect on the world will be pretty horrible. Not just the economic side of things, which will be bad for most countries and devastating for others, but serious social unrest is very likely, and historically, that leads to growing popularity for extreme political movements, armed conflict...

This isn't fantasy. The only reason the Euro hasn't broken up yet is that Germany is holding it together. And the only reason Germany is holding it together is that Merkel is clever enough to realise that, whatever way the cards fall, Germany is screwed. So she's putting off the inevitable for as long as possible.