While nearly everyone is now well-acquainted with the Microsoft product cycle (announce two years in advance, release three months late, patch a month later, patch the patch the next day, etc.), not everyone may be as familiar with Apple's:

The Mac rumor sites spring into action. Liberally quoting “reliable” sources inside Cupertino, irrelevant “experts,” and each other, they quickly transform baseless speculation into widely accepted fact.

Eager Mac-heads fan the flames by flooding the Mac discussion forums with more groundless conjecture. Threads pop up around feature wish lists, favorite colors, and likely retail price points. In a matter of days, a third-hand, unsubstantiated rumor blossoms into a hand-held device that can do everything except find a girlfriend for a fat, smelly nerd.

One of our peanut gallery residents recently purchased a Dell Gateway laptop because he wasn't able to pay twice as much for an equivalent Apple product. His chagrin was almost palpable, and I was quite surprised he even admitted to it (facilitated perhaps because he was safe inside the confines of Castle Wingnut, a bastion of tacky Microsoft and incomprehensibly weird Linux). I'm still waiting for him to show up at my door being chased by The Faithful with pitchforks and torches for his apostasy.