It became the mantra for web advertisers: the more irritating an advertising technology was, the more the ads that used it would get noticed… and the more business they’d generate.

Well, maybe not. Tech firm X10 — noted mainly for those “pop-under” ads for tiny wireless surveillance cameras — has filed for bankruptcy.

It’s a direct challenge to those of us who believe the universe is a fundamentally unfair place. Apparently, there may be some justice around after all.

Apart from the annoyance factor (and that’s a mighty big “apart from”), there was the creepy feeling of viewing an ad that encouraged you to take nudie pictures of unsuspecting women. This wasn’t in the Web’s seamier neighbourhoods, either; the New York Times had X10 pop-unders for a long time.

X10’s web site used to have a little disclaimer that said, in essence, that you shouldn’t be upset about their ads because they were financing Web content. Great — groped by the invisible hand of the marketplace.

But while markets are a pretty unreliable karma delivery system, every once in a while they get it right. Kudos, Adam Smith.

The shock of election night in California wasn’t Gray Davis’s recall or the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.

It was hearing commentator after commentator fall all over themselves to say what a great speech the victor gave.

I listened to the speech and, after hearing the commentary, sought it out online to read it, thinking I must have missed something.

Nope. “And today California has given me the greatest gift of all. You’ve given me your trust by voting for me. Thank you very much to all the people of California for giving me their great trust.” That’s boilerplate stuff, only a little better than “(insert grateful remarks here)”.

There isn’t a line in that that couldn’t have been spoken (with a little tweaking for geography or backstory) by practically any winning candidate in history. Nothing memorable, with the possible exception of “For the people to win, politics as usual must lose.”

Even that one line felt like it had been tacked on after one of Schwarzenegger’s army of consultants slapped his head and said, “Oratory! We forgot to include oratory!”

What people were reacting to wasn’t the speech. It was Arnold – the megawatt smile, the unfeigned delight, the genuine enthusiasm of the last un-ironic actor in Hollywood. (Watch a clip of him painfully shoe-horning one of his movie catch-phrases into a political speech over the last three months, and then try convincing yourself the man gets irony.)

The speech itself is indigestably bland – a collection of cliches lightly pasted together with schmaltz. That’s not especially remarkable; playing it safe seems to be the order of the day for front-runners. But coming from a maverick, the Last Action Hero himself, that kind of scripted, focus-tested-to-death performance doesn’t bode well.

Tools and materials required: Torx wrench, grounding strap, spirit gum, blowtorch and soldering iron.

1. Back up your hard drive.
2. Repair permissions.
3. Zap the PRAM.
4. Rebuild your desktop.
5. Run Conflict Catcher, Norton Disk Doctor and DiskWarrior.
6. Launch Terminal.
7. Close Terminal.
8. Reboot in single-user mode.
9. Reinstall the previous version of the operating system, using the archive feature.
10. Reboot in OS 9, and run ResEdit.
11. Reseat the RAM board.
12. Reset the PMU.
13. Boot from the system disk.

And you’re done!

My new computer has finally arrived at work — the Apple Power Mac G5.

Now, if you’re not One Of Us, you’ll probably be mystified by the awe and devotion that Mac fans lavish on their computers. But the new G5 series is getting even more drooling attention than usual.

Some of us are posting pictorial paeans to their new babies. It’s embarrassing to feel this way about a lump of metal, plastic and silicon, especially for those of us who actually have new babies.

In fairness, this goes beyond brand loyalty. Apple has designed every aspect of this beast to be both beautiful and almost obsessively thoughtful. The little hinge where the monitor cable meets the plug… the way the fans slide out from the inside… the series of jacks on the front of the computer… and then there’s just the sheer powerful design of the thing.

Still, at the end of the day, it’s just a computer. And the real baby awaits at home.