After all, the plot was thwarted, no one was hurt, the computers could still count, and the country's safety nets seemed to work.
The recession is hurting the computer industry, albeit not as badly as the bursting of the dotcom bubble did in 2000-01 (see article), but those companies that enable their customers to benefit from the flip side of Moore's law, and do the same for less, will be best-placed to ride out the storm.
In a mark of how narrower margins are hurting the computer industry, computer distributer Ingram Micro im said it would cut 1,400 jobs and expects first-quarter earnings to fall short of analysts' expectations.
As much as some feel that they hurt the personal computer cause, consumers seemingly have no issue trading computing power for portability.
While price wars and cheaper imports have hurt the bottom line of many computer makers, consumers have been scooping up snazzy digital cameras and DVD players, which have been falling in price.
A slowing economy and lower demand for personal computers have hurt the semiconductor industry, prompting chip makers to order less equipment.
I.B.M. warned last year that the world's preoccupation with Year 2000 computer problems would hurt the company's earnings.
The lack of computer power has hurt the most at the pinnacle of climate science: the use of supercomputers to create detailed models simulating the interrelationships of the earth's atmosphere, oceans, ice caps, plants and other features that together set the global thermostat.
Falling computer prices have hurt the earnings of all companies in the office products sector.
