Someone I knew in England had the same criticism of the US that is mentioned in this article: We ask "How are you?" and don't generally mean it. It's usually not an invitation to say, "Well, I'm miserable because of...."
"Oh, Mother...I find immense jocularity in your noisy mastication. It is reminiscent of that Cookie Monster fellow, minus the blue shag fur. Crunch on, oh giver of 23 chromosomes!"
My pleasure! By the way, you used to be able to plug in a school's code and get an educational discount on Apple's site. I don't know if that's still the case. You can also design your own computer there -- adjust how much memory you want, add/subtract different bells and whistles.
I agree with Jeremy that if someone is a hardcore gamer, PCs have a huge edge. With the surge in Mac sales in recent years, the number of titles available for Macs has increased but I would still recommend a PC.
And btw, Macs used to have a huge disadvantage with software availability. That's much less of an issue now. There are Mac versions of PC software and in those rare occasions when there aren't, you can get Windows for your Mac and run things there. I worked at Carnegie Mellon University - a serious tech-oriented school - and the majority of the laptops I saw there were Macs.
Seriously?