My answer?  I don't know.

I Googled and binged but nothing came up.  My guess is that it's either to prevent corrosion or the paint is nonconductive to prevent the PCB from short circuiting or it has antimagnetic properties.

That's what a typical hard drive looks like with the cover removed.  Notice how the inside and outside shell is painted black?  But the 6 none painted squares are where the cover is screwed down to.  Some hard drive's top edge is not even painted black, like the one sitting on my desk which I use as a coaster.

Some hard drive's top cover is painted black to match but most of them are not painted, leaving it in its natural aluminum color.  Back in the day there are a few drives that are not painted and now almost all the hard drives you buy today are painted black.

What is the purpose of the paint?  Why does it have to be black?

Looking to score an ultimate cheap flight?  Follow JetBlueCheeps and UA TWARE on Twitter to get your hands on their deals!

I only heard about this on the news last night.  Looking at JetBlueCheeps you can get a flight as low as $9!  Huart!

I downloaded the demo and gave it a whirl over the weekend, but I find it boring and uneventful.  Here's a short description about the game from the Steam website.  "Building on 10 years of constant engine development, ARMA II boasts the most realistic combat environment in the world. It models real world ballistics & round deflection, materials penetration, features a realtime day/night cycle and dynamic wind, weather and environmental effects. The simulation of a combat environment is so effective, the engine forms the basis for training simulators used by real armies the world over."

Sounds awesome right?  Wrong.  I was expecting full adrenaline rush action, bullets grazing your helmet, people getting blown to bits.  Instead I ran a lot from point A to point B, following orders from the commander.  During one of the demo mission I killed like 3 guys and died about 9 times.  You only get 1 life too, once you're dead you start over.  Sadly to say that's a terrible KD ratio.  The character voices are terrible in the game, one guy sounded like a teenage boy when he was talking in the helicopter as we're being flown to the drop point.  His mouth didn't even move so I had no idea who was talking and he was looking out the window the whole time.  During the mission everyone talks like those text to speech robots.  For example, "man.  straight ahead.  2.  o'clock." or "target.  here."

They listed a few key features of the game and let me tell you what I think just from playing the demo.

• PLAYER-DRIVEN STORY - Command your troops through a branching campaign full of twists and surprises.

I did not get to experience being a squad leader in the demo, but I did follow orders from the AI squad leader that talks like a robot.

• THRILLING REALISM - Explore the 225 square kilometer of highly detailed landscape, modeled using real-world geographical data and master each of 81 weapons and 120+ vehicles.

I'll give them credit to the realism cause I hated running around in the 225 square kilometers of land.  The details should be awesome if you have a high end graphics card.  I have a 8800 GT which meets the minimum recommended requirement and the setting was on medium.  I mastered about 3 weapons in the demo shooting at bushes because the squad leader told me to cover fire.   In the other game mode, which is capture the city, I found out you need money to purchase weapons.  What?!  You mean the government can't just give them to you?  I walk up to the weapons cache and I have to buy them!  I was broke after I bought a sniper rifle.  I did drove around in a humvee attempting to run over enemy soldiers.  There is also a fuel limit so you can't really drive it forever.  So realistic!

• AUTHENTIC SIMULATION - Game simulates various aspects of combat and environment effects from bullet ballistics, material penetration, ammunition types and stopping power to weather conditions.

OK...

• EXTENSIVE MULTIPLAYER - Play the campaign missions in cooperative mode or join duty in the massive multiplayer battles with up to 50 players.

With 225 square kilometers of land, I don't know if 50 players can cover it all or even have fun trying to explore all that land...especially on foot.

• ADVANCED AI - Compete the ultimate next-gen AI: no scripts, no predefined pathways. All units react on actual game situation.

Not 100% sure about this one but I did attempt to snipe 2 enemy troops and they sure ran for cover after the first shot missed.  Throughout the game I didn't experience much of the combat like I thought I would.

The controls were a little buggy too.  At first I couldn't look down the scope of the sniper rifle when I right-clicked.  After switching to my pistol then back to the sniper rifle it worked.  Also in the controls menu it said hold sec. mouse btn to temporary hold breath.  That never worked for me.  GPS didn't work and amongst other things.

There are a lot in the game that I didn't experience while playing the demo.  I didn't get to fly any aircrafts or use the other 79 weapons.  I didn't even get to drive a tank.  One cool thing worth mentioning is the support for TrackIR.  Overall this demo is quite a disappointment and I felt like I wasted time playing it.  At one point I got so tired of running around I literally sat in a humvee with 2 other AI soldiers just chilling because I just couldn't find any action.  I just don't get this game at all.

Have you ever been disappointed by a game demo?