Except that it isn't the lifetime of a decade, is it? Microsoft will want you to "upgrade" and pay them more in a year's time, like they did with Vista -> 7 -> 8. And as I mentioned elsewhere, changing my PC hardware means I have to go through some stupid reactivation process.

Well there's also the issue of having to "activate" Windows now. What happens if I build a new PC? I have to go through some crappy procedure to "transfer" my licence onto the new machine... or maybe MS don't even allow that?

I stick with XP for one of my desktops because I put my own hardware together (no OS preinstalled), and I don't want to pay horrific sums of money (£135) for a new operating system - Windows 8 is even more expensive to buy a worthwhile edition of. It's behind my free Debian install which acts as a router+firewall. Works for me.

In Britain, MEP is a very widely-understood initialism so I'm not really finding this joke funny. :-) You Yanks use acronyms all the time anyway, don'tcha?

Hahahahahahaha, how do Japanese cut things then? Shinto willpower?

No, but you can pump it up your colon with a garden hose...

And now let's take a trip to reality: he doesn't. Most of this lynch mob had probably never even heard of Eich before this shitstorm happened, and if asked what Mozilla's stance on inclusiveness was, would've looked at the attitudes that most Mozilla employees had, and/or looked at their stated stance on their website.

Maybe one of the official responsibilities of a CEO is to represent the values of theri whole company, I'm not sure. If so, it's an idiotic one, and not at all reflective of how in fact sensible people morally judge a company (angry lynchmobs excepted).

Should God wait upon you hand and foot, serving your every whim and desire, preventing any pain of any kind because not to, you would consider evil?

Yes. If got is omnipotent, he can do this for everyone and still do infinitely more. And why would you need to "grow" and "mature" in the ways you describe if there were no evil to worry about? It would be a waste of time, and good riddance. As for learning, that can still be done in a utopia.

Of course, we have yet to see where the religious backlash will lead Britain. Government support of modern faith schools - centres of open indoctrination of children at the same time as their educattion - as well as cretins like Warsi spouting claims that "fundamentalist secularists" are trying to "kick religion out of the public sphere" may result in a misguided widespread sympathy for religion, as if it were being unfairly persecuted instead of frankly still being given far too much credence and privilege.

It happened to me when I first started visiting Japan and realized that there is a completely different way to look at the world.

Out of interest, what is this "completely different way"? I wasn't aware that Japan's world outlook was THAT different.

It's about judgement and respect. You need to be overflowing with both qualities if you want to be a CEO.

Hahahahahahaha. You think Jobs had a lot of respect for other people? You think Ballmer had lots of respect and good judgment??? If anything, these are qualities that American CEOs tend NOT to have, which is why they got to the top of the greasy pole.

I think this is a convenient, facile excuse. How many people, when they want to look at the values of Mozilla, will Google Brendan Eich? How many will look at the wider group of people that form Mozilla, and how many will look at the Mozilla website?

The idea that one guy at the top of a company is seen as representing the *whole* company and all its values is pretty dumb, and just not true.

I dunno if you mean because his cam caught the meteorite, or because he didn't get hit by it. ;-)

Either the government gets the hell out of marriage entirely, or it must be available to any and all, regardless of who is sticking what in which holes.

What about dogs' "holes"? What about the "holes" of 10 women? Marriage has not traditionally been defined as between man and animal, or man and multiple women. I support gay marriage, but I can definitely see where people like Eich are coming from in not wanting to redefine marriage away from its traditional meaning.

Amen to that. I've had to install the old Maps to get the old Navigate back again. Combining Navigate into the Maps interface was a HORRIBLE decision. If Google had a fucking clue about UI design they'd reverse the decision and separate them out again. It's 2 separate things god damnit!!