Periodik Labs

When ordering a new system, Skippy was asked by Dell, "federal law requires that we ask what will this server be used for?"

This is sad. The PATRIOT Act has more than its share of problems, but requiring computer vendors to ask what the systems they sell will be used for is not one of them (at least for systems like the kind that Dell sells — supercomputers have long had various restrictions to keep them out of the hands of somebody planning to use one to design a nuclear bomb). Dell is simply taking advantage of people's concerns about terrorism to gather marketing data. One more reason I will never buy another Dell.