In response to the question that I got today from a reporter at Computer Reseller News asked the question: "How might [Apple] be more strongly affected by the financial crisis than other PC makers, simply by virtue of the higher price tag of Macs?"

My answer:

As the financial markets have exhibited in the last week, even the most man made of systems (our own financial markets) can act in what seems to be unpredictble ways. Even for the most informed of financial experts, the destabilization of global markets have been sudden and - with the exception of a few lucky guessers - without any warning.

The essence of such unpredictiability is the simple realty of complex systems, which react in vastly different ways with even the smallest changes of inputs.

When I getting my degree as an aerospace engineer, I saw that in most large engineering projects - airplanes, spacecraft, and satellites - this complexity could be easily observed, but many times it was impossible to control until you had a complete grasp of how everything worked together.

In early August, I took my first "off the grid" vacation since 2002, when I went to Mexico for an abbreviated honeymoon.

This time, the trip was to the polar opposite - literally. North of the Arctic circle, on an island in a lake in Norway where electricity was provided by a single solar panel and batteries, the "loo" was an outhouse where you burned used toilet paper, and your carbon footprint barely existed because you had to bring everything in that you might use and take everything out that you might have left behind. To get out to the "hutta" (as they call it in Norwegian), you had to take a boat. A small one.

Although most countries with nuclear arms will likely disagree, this was the statement made by Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research in talking about the iPhone 2.0 launch today.

Here's just a few numbers from our hosting servers to give you an idea of the scope of how bad a problem spam is:

Total messages handled for February: 2,835,385
Spam for February: 2,116,337 (75%)
Ham for February: 581,487

Total messages handled for March: 3,512,870
Spam for March: 2,026,343 (57%)
Ham for March: 510,425

Total messages handled for May: 2,598,944

If you recently came in for service at our 252 Newbury Street location, you may have received a label with your service number placed on your equipment. We've found that recent labels used for this purpose are not coming off as easily as they were intended to. Below is an explanation of the problem and what you can do if you're experiencing an issue with removing one of these stickers.

Critics I'm sure will have a lot to say about the latest stat of Mac sales:

"Apple Accounts For 66% Of PC Sales Over $1000"

Since the Boston Globe coverage of our "Jersey" buried under the Apple Store broke earlier today, we've been inundated by calls and emails. Is it a curse? Have we been planning it for weeks? Do we want Apple to "lose"? Do we expect Apple to dig up the shirt?

Earlier in April, a reporter from the Boston Globe called me to get my opinion on Boston's so far lackluster efforts to provide ubiquitous Internet access throughout the Hub.

Last week, Apple made a somewhat understated announcement of the coming of their new iPhone software, version 2.0, and the software developer's kit in late June. While this wasn't a Steve Job-sian big media event, it was covered by technology and Mac press in detail.