Similarly switching off something like a vcr whilst it is playing shouldn't cause a problem. It should be designed to cope with it since it might be subject to a power cut. The same goes for a computer. Whilst Windows will always warn of an incorrect shutdown in most cases it will survive because the most likely risk is that open files have not been closed and written to disk. You might lose a bit of work but usually there aren't any major corruptions.
I'm not necessarily suggesting users should do these things, just that the technology is perfectly capable of coping with it providing it's properly designed. Regards,
Mike
Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64