My recollection of our dinner conversation is a little hazy, but I suspect Suzanne is guilty of serious misrepresentation by intentional omission. John and I found a weak chink in Suzanne's armour, spent a pleasant half-hour poking at it, and forgot the matter entirely.

Suzanne seems to be trying to turn this into a diabolical plot to prematurely obsolesce computers all over the world.

Her comparison of computers to cars, however, is all too realistic. She imagines:

• computer payments
• lease plans
• computer insurance

These are available and common today, and have been for some time. My first computer payment, for example, was about ten years ago.

As for how long one holds on to one's computer - or car - this is a matter of personal preference or need. I kept my previous computer about four years; the current model may not last even one. And I'll be ordering my second new car in less than a year any day now (USA Today reported this week that the median age of cars on the road today is seven years).

So is Suzanne's Macintosh obsolete? You bet. Should she replace it? Her voice card more-or-less answers that question already.