It's only fair that he takes it out at least long enough to let wacko get his tounge jammed up there a while...
so if i plug say a wireless usb card into a mac and it doesnt recognise it, is it a simple case of like in windows, get the installer package from the website and run it, then plug the card in again
or is there some stupid mac way of doing this
Nope. Download and install the drivers.
IF there are any available. Just like Windows.
i wonder is it possible to put a blank firmware onto something, i suspect no ones ever tried as it would be quite quite pointless
No reason why it shouldn't be. But as you say, quite pointless (unless you want to fuck up your mate's hardware), so I can't imagine why anyone would bother creating one.
i downgraded my psp the very first time it came out so i could play games from the memory card, likewise my 360
dunno why people are afraid of these things
Because it's one of the very few things that, if it does go wrong, will destroy your system. If you're very lucky, and you get the BIOS battery out of your motherboard sharpish and leave it out for a day or two, your system might be okay. Or use a Gigabyte mobo. They come with (or at least used to) two BIOS chips in case you fuck one up.