Windows 8 is almost literally like going back to the 1980s. And the default wallpapers are all vomit-inducingly ugly. I agree that every UI designer at Microsoft should be fired and go spend their time making hideous public sculptures in major metropolitan cities that I don't live in like all their po-mo art school friends.

I'm amazed that Windows 8 is so advanced it's incapable of the "classic" Windows 2000 look that every other Microsoft OS in the last 15 years could do. And from a usability point of view, I could write a book on why Flat UI sucks. As far as I'm concerned the last version of Windows that wasn't eye-gougingly ugly by default was 2000. Actually, Windows 7 wasn't all that bad, but I still strongly prefer the "classic" look. But of course, Microsoft is so hypnotized by this whole "Flat UI" nonsense that they won't let me have it any more. Or they are so incompetent their state-of-the-art software can't display a 15-year-old UI scheme. Either way, stupidity or malice, it's really pathetic.

Flip a couple bits in the registry, make a SKU and charge and extra $100. They've been doing that for 20 years.

And the only pro feature I wanted (the Unix prompt)

What are talking about, Powershell? You can install that on any version of Windows. If you are talking about an honest-to-goodness Unix prompt then install cygwin or something that gives you bash or some other Unix-style shell.

Or is there something else I'm not aware of?

This voluntary online survey of academic fieldwork environments primarily shows two things:

1. These people aren't very good at science (See "voluntary online survey" again).
2. What science they've done which someone may consider valid serves only to demonstrate that one of the most left-leading, "liberal", feminist groups in the nation (academics, for whom government bureaucrats and main stream media would be their only real competition for the title) is apparently unable to successfully implement "solutions" to sexual harassment they'd confidently proscribe for everyone else to follow.

A reasonable alternate interpretation to #2, reversing causation, would be that academics are the ones who complain much more about feminist mythology-type topics and propose dramatic solutions because they happen to be the group with the biggest problem in that area, which causes them to be more concerned about it than most folks do.

Of course, they might also just be caught up in the pettiness which comes from arguing about less and less important things over time, but no one would suggest that...

Which is funny since I left the iOS world this because things stopped "just working."

Yes. This.

They've also already lost value (about 10% from when they opened). How is that a good deal?

It's just China trying to sucker punch the economy in the US and leech off more funds.

How indeed, does the SEC allow this. :(

Frequently the bank forces the user to use exploitable means just to communicate with the bank.

IE6+ActiveX required, anyone?

If your bank requires you to use that steaming pile of fail, why haven't you left yet?

Wells Fargo used to throw up warnings when you used a browser they hadn't yet evaluated, but I think the rapid-release schedule taken by most browser vendors put a stop to that. Even then, it was just a warning...it didn't affect functionality.

Wally is my role model.

Give a friend a coffee mug. Keep the red stapler for yourself.

Dammit, I was going to go with "Popplers"

Already taken.

If you told me someone was selling draft beer supplies (or whatever this crap is), my first assumption would be that it was for bars and taverns, not for home use. Thanks for taking time to point out the obvious.

I take it you don't know any homebrewers, then. Kegging is a hell of a lot easier than bottling. That said, the usual insurance against a keg running out is...wait for it...having a second keg on tap. Cheap and low-tech.

Mr Ellison is the head of a software company called Oracle.
If your computer is a car, then software is the fuel that runs it.
Hope this helps.

If your computer is a car, then Oracle software is the crank in the front that you use to start it up.

There's noting innovative or interesting about this kind of 3D scanning technology. It has no purpose, and will only be part of some "spec war" that goes on in the android phone circles. People just don't need - or want - 3D scanners in their phones.

Until 2019, when Apple includes the most revolutionary thing to ever occur in a phone - and it's the one thing you can't live without. The i3D module will be what turns the mobile device market on it's head.

(Sorry for the troll. Sooo many Apple fanbois on my FB feed these last few days. NFC payments, big screens, and optical image stabilization are the second coming, apparently. I just had to lash out.)