Often, older developers cannot learn new tricks for one simple reason: They know most of the tricks already, in some form or another.

It has been my experience that older developers don't just adapt just as quickly to a new technology, they bring in knowledge from other areas of experience that a younger developer might not consider.

This isn't to say this is true of all older developers - not even close: there are as many dinosaurs as there are greenies fighting above their weight class. But, as so many will point out, you can't generalize.

I'm turning 40. I need to believe this.

On one hand, as a hyperintelligent super powerful alien, why would you bother introducing yourself to a bunch of mindless apes? If you have questions, just disguise yourself as a human, have a couple of chats, ingest a bit of our media, and whatever passing curiosity you'd have about us would be quickly satisfied.

On the other hand, you could just come down here, forcibly take a few humans for study. Who the hell cares about witnesses (which makes the whole shady-abduction-in-remote-forest thing seem stupid).

I personally think that such aliens, if they exist, do already know about us as well as most other aliens in the universe. And they don't really care, except for the ones that are on par. In that case, they probably greet each other with a yawn and move on.

Oops, "they can complete the picture by bringing their pretty weak Xbox Music and Video offerings" edit:

they can complete the picture by *vastly improving* their pretty weak Xbox Music and Video offerings ...

My prediction is that the 720 will run Windows 8 metro apps. It makes sense for MS in all respects: it increases the audience, drawing developers. It gives Xbox a bigger software library out of the gate. It bolsters consumer confidence in metro.

If they can map Kinect input to what would normally be touchscreen gestures, it would effectively become a living room PC; perfect as Microsoft's stealth play into being just that.

If they can complete the picture by bringing their pretty weak Xbox Music and Video offerings, they might have both a strategic and sales win through 2014.

That is, if they can don't do boneheaded things like always-on DRM or releasing hardware that can fry an egg and gives you a double red ring of death.

This sounds shockingly fast.

Win8 bashing aside, I think there may be a new netbook revival coming. I actually think netbooks did a lot of cause these issues. People bought these $300 el cheapo WinXP / Win7 machines instead of shelling out $1000 for a quality machine. And they found that these things actually work pretty OK for what they are. So well that their expectations have adjusted - they'll shell out no more than $300-$400 for their new PC. This is after HP already cranked out tons of $799 el cheap PC's which set expectations low already.

Then Intel comes in with $1000+ Ultrabooks, proclaiming a new birth of PC's. That didn't work.

Which tells me that should Wintel produce a next generation of $350 netbooks, with touch and Bay Trail, perhaps some nicer design, they'd sell a lot of those. And this would be bad for Microsoft and its partners, because they really want you buying $1200+ PC's. A race to the bottom would be bad for the Wintel industry. But they'd sell.

My wife is one of these users. She bought this crappy Acer Aspire some 4 years ago. She refuses to buy a quality PC - she even refuses to buy a tablet! But now she's looking for a replacement *netbook*, and if one came out she'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Plus, god forbid we leak radiation into space. Keep space black!!

I did the same calculation, and I came to the conclusion that the black hole would burn to a crisp as soon as it touches the astronaut.

Yada yada. Notebooks may become the new desktop, and Microsoft makes just as much off a notebook sale as a desktop sale. With Win8, Microsoft may even have some tablet play, supposing they successfully blur the lines. Microsoft will keep drawing much revenue from Windows and Office, struggle with cloud stuff, continue to sink money into Bing, keep a big consumer presence with Xbox 720, and slowly creep up to barely interesting market share with Windows Phone.

The industry will shift from time to time, and Microsoft will invest 1% of its huge war chest to gain a foothold into new things, never quite succeeding, but never quite losing their whole stack. They are like that poker player who won a huge stack early on, and 5 hours later still has the same stack. Others also have big stacks, and everyone keeps wondering when they'll lose it, and then they get frustrated and derisive when their stack actually keeps slowly growing.

When it comes down to it, people are going to buy what is kick ass in at least one area. The WiiU doesn't kick any ass. Here's the problem:

Game library: Doesn't kick ass, but then it never does with a new console.
Hardware: Doesn't kick ass even when compared to current gen consoles. It's comparable to current consoles. It needs to not be comparable.
Integration: Missed the ass by a foot. Doesn't bring anything new or amazing.
New interactions and form factor: No asses have red marks.
Release strategy: Owners of asses are pulling up their trousers out of boredom.

Wow, finally a phone with a readable screen. Those 300ppi screens were just killing my eyes. That 1080p screen totally makes my 1280x768 screen obsolete. /s

I have a solution, but it involves simultaneous use of biological viruses and nukes. At a minimum, my solution will at least erase anyone's desire to care.

Many of you accuse Microsoft of understocking, and yet when it doesn't continue to sell a whole lot of units, you laugh at their sales? Maybe they just know roughly how many they expect to sell, and stock accordingly? That it sells out on the first day seems to draw unnecessary ire. You weren't really interested in buying it anyways, so why the hell do you care so much?

Really, it's almost as if many of you gain some kind of strange exhilaration from laughing at and faux outrage at Microsoft's missteps. Really, why? The only explanation I can think if is that you WANT to see Microsoft succeed - that many of you are secret Microsoft admirers who are left disappointed and needing an outlet to vent your frustration by mocking them.

Microsoft is doing an excellent job at ensuring their own mediocre results and their own gradual downfall. It really doesn't need you to mock them on the way down. That seems to be a byproduct of your own personality flaws.
 

After several years, you can become a true Broftware Engineer. Or, if you're more customer oriented, a Senior Brogram Manager.

And yet, if you somehow could do that with an iPad, I think you'd happily bash tablets that couldn't.