Broke my computer

My work macbook has perished. Not worth going into details, but the drive failed. I have decent backup, so most files will be saved, but I am guessing not all my prefs are saved, so I may no longer have your IM name, and so on. Feel free to bug me if you already have my work email or IM address, so I can capture yours. If I wasn't so frustrated with the actual work of getting this back I'd complain about: - How hard apple makes it to get warranty service - How hard it is to back up easily - Why SMART is not included with OSs - Why Adium punishes you for network problems And I had this thought the other day about drivers. Why do I need to have drivers for my USB aircard? Why not build it as a bridge? So it looks like a USB modem, or ethernet network, and once configured (get to it thru a file or web page) it just connects. Works on anything then. Too easy, I suppose.