Yes, IIS may have won the west, but thanks in part to its susceptibility to virus, the Apache came back to dominate the world.

^Yes, exactly.

A rather convenient, pointy-haired boss comparison of apples to oranges.

I'm just confused why his boss didn't compare an employed coder to a volunteer worker who does everything for free.

Your boss isn't only ignorant of the complexities of coding, he's also ignorant of the construction buisiness.

The builder's employees are usually paid by the hour, in which case they are also paid for fixes.

This.

Let's not make this a "bring back vinyl records" thing.

I'm getting up there in years myself, and seriously guys, a new look or a mobile-friendly design shouldn't be cause for a stroke.

Or perhaps those of us evil enough to be born outside the USA made a serious error in thinking that we exist?

Arctic vortex is an annual thing around here. Or at least it would be if we existed.

And of course, spying on your OWN citizens is completely normal and historically popular as well. Often with Orwelian results.

I guess I am among those who are surprised anyone is surprised that the NSA has been playing big brother. What does surprise me is that there are efforts to curtail NSA options in-country since it is surely expected that they keep an especially close eye on any terrorist cells within the border.

It wouldn't surprise me if they use their foreign leeway to spy internally from without.

Monsanto, a.k.a. federal government, will obviously kill any chemical bans long before they see the light of day. But are they doing any research on a patentable super-bee?

True.

I now accept that the only way to reach any destination from any point of reference is to turn right at every opportunity.

Imagine if someone were to tell a young person learning to drive that the only way to get to their destination was to turn right at every possible opportunity? (or left, depending on the source of instruction)

The idea would be rejected outright - the idea that not only is all problem solving binary, but that only one of the two is the correct answer to every conceivable problem, completely regardless of destination, and completely regardless of starting point. (student: But sir there is a cliff on the right. teacher: Trust me on this, turn right.)

And yet, we have people who otherwise are mentally functional fighting viciously for exactly this fantastic level of ignorance every day. That has taken a lot of intentional work and media.

In return for football, Nascar and Simpsons (or beads and hemp) we give them our life long vote.

+1 my friend.

People don't feel the need to commit crimes since they are already living in the prison of universal health care.

If the author of the comments were as unbiased as you it might indeed mean that.

However, he makes money telling Windows users they will be safe if they remember to pay him their fees. Not the same protection racket from the Linux crowd so I'm sure he's pleased to take any swipe he can.

And who spends not only money but huge amounts of valuable TIME developing a new OS and apps when a massively successful OS, and entire mobile software ecosystem, is immediately available to them for free?

But now you can manipulate it from Unity.

Imagine being able to hack your car from your laptop, tablet and phone?

Microsoft is willingly taking a hit for a few years in the hope that Surface will take over the tablet space.

If that ever happens people may very well like a desktop that apes their tablet. (Huge win if they would also like a phone like that.) But the only major selling point for Surface is that it supports Microsoft Office. So now everything depends on how much people want a tablet with Office.

My guess, which is admittedly uninformed, is that Surface will gain some traction in the business world. Any prognosticators out their with better info for us?