I dug into it some more, and I'm pretty sure that some of that money is for other work done for Medicare

It's not all their Federal work. It's all work for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is the group implementing and managing healthcare.gov.

Not that I'm all that worried about this attack, but the confirmation dialog would have to present some identifying information about the device, so the approval could probably be social-engineered.

Right, if you distribute software then you should sign the files and the reputation of the file will follow the reputation of the key.

Like I said, it's on Windows 8. On Windows 7 SmartScreen only has reputation on sites, not files. A file that Microsoft has never seen before can rightfully be judged as suspicious. If it's something you know is OK, for instance because you compiled the program, then you know more than they do.

It's only in Windows 8, but Microsoft does the same thing.

I think you overstate the point, but has it ever been easy to get a job as a contemptuous 19 year old college dropout? That's the person who would have a hard time getting a job now.

Why do they need a motivation other than revenue? In fact, revenue should always be the only motivation for taxes. When the government tries to do social engineering through the tax code they always botch things.

It won't fit under the seat in front of you or the overhead bin.

In the context of the article he's talking about Microsoft's *old* phone strategy. Windows Mobile was basically an attempt to do the Blackberry thing with Windows. It could have done worse, but obviously it didn't succeed, which is why they dumped it for Windows Phone. I don't think he's criticizing Windows Phone.