Apple already offers significantly more models than some computer makers with a larger market share than they have (like Asus).

I have an iphone and a mac mini and I love Apple, but why do you feel the need to make shit up like this? ASUS has over 150 laptop models currently available and Apple has less than a dozen. You're off by an order of fucking magnitude!

That's quite funny. Heh. Hehe. HAHAHAHAHAHAA!

Ahem. Now then.

sigh so add "among programmers." No offense to starving peasants but I don't think they need to be included in the set of current or soon-to-be programmers.

I think you mean "New and Improved English (TM) -- now with 20% fewer extraneous 'u's!"

You're obviously not a programmer. If you are, you work with some obscure programming language that has non-English keywords/reserved words. I'd love to hear about it as a curiosity. Please do tell!

Because some people "hate" English speakers more than most people in history "hated" Latin speakers. So there's a resentment factor. I'm not saying it's good or bad, right or wrong, but it certainly exists, and it makes this situation somewhat unique.

I will argue that someone who has Russian as a first language and Chinese as a second will most likely be better off to code than someone with merely English as a first language

Cool, that sounds interesting. Upon what will you base your argument? Or have you confused "argue" and "assert?" An unfounded, unbased assertion is not an argument. HTH!

Of course programmers should speak English. I'm not saying only English speakers can be good programmers, but let's be honest -- English is the most common spoken language on the planet (I didn't say first language.) So, it's almost like a "standard" for communication, which is pretty key for geographically-distributed collaborate development (i.e., programming, especially in FOSS land.)

This isn't so much a case of someone being so "bold" as to "ask the unthinkable" as it is someone asking a question with an obvious answer by which some (silly and offen-sensitive) people will be offended. Maybe a troll for blog hits/ad impressions?

Heck, even many of the most popular programming languages use English keywords! Not much to see here, move along at whatever pace you find most comfortable...

No it can't. The government doesn't own shit of AIG, thanks to Chris Dodd and Obama. It just gave our tax dollars to bail them out without even the simplest of oversight or regulatory strings.

You're confusing what any sane person would do with what actually happened.

They'll have to dump a cool billion in order to upgrade.

Well, since AT&T grosses $2.1 billion/month off the iphone (30M iphones * $70/month minimum), that's about two week's worth of revenue. Oh woe is them!

Don't disparage him -- hell I'd vote for Mr. Obvious. He's apparently got a much better grasp on reality than our president or congress, and even a huge chunk of the populace.

Are these guys intentionally trying to force Congress to shut them down? Too much more of this, and economy or no economy, lawmakers are just going to say "Fuck you, die die die" and let the international banking system take a nosedive.

No they won't. Obama and most of congress are beholden to AIG for all those huge compaign contributions they gave. This is payback. Obama/Dodd/Pelosi et. al. are just feigning outrage. They did it all on purpose, and got caught lying about it (See: Chris Dodd) but somehow the honeymoon is still so lovely that the media is giving them a pass and we're all pretending the bad guys are AIG instead of the lying thieving scum we elected.

And to think I, as with many of you, thought "it can't be any worse than Bush" as we cast our vote...

So the US taxpayer is bailing our Europe's banks? Awesome! I feel so much better.

(It bugs me how you and so many others keep claiming that AIG would have "collapsed" without taxpayer bailouts, yet provide zero substantiation. You know Chapter 11 exists, right? And that's what it's for, right? So how is the "controlled dissolution" of Chapter 11 good enough for every company except those who donated big to the political campaigns of those currently in power?)

How is that "problem" alleviated in any way by these bailouts? The execs are still raiding the treasury, while little guys are still getting laid off. Your succumbing to the FUD they use to rob you is the problem.

It's FUD-filled yet utterly unsubstantiated claims like this one that have gotten us into this mess where we're throwing trillions around will-nilly with no oversight. In short, I think you're wrong. I'll offer exactly the same amount of evidence for my claim as you did for yours.

Also, FYI, the US, Japanese, German, and UK economies are #1, #2, #3, and #5. Not #1, #3, #5, and #6