It can even be a bonus in other ways- one of our newer guys in datasystems teaches CS at a local community college on the side, and ended up recruiting one of his best students directly into an open position- he already knew what he was capable of.
PHB: We need to add features X, Y and Z to our legacy inventory system
IT guy: The code is a giant pile of garbage, it would be cheaper and faster to rewrite the whole thing.
PHB: Ok, give it a try
(Six months pass)
PHB: How's the new inventory control system?
IT Guy: Going great- we just need some more time to get it functional
(Six months pass)
PHB: How's the new inventory control system? We really could use it
IT Guy: Almost done. We just need to make sure it supports the latest standards
(Six months pass)
PHB: Need that inventory control system guys...
IT Guy: Well, the standards have been in a bit of flux and when you're trying to put out really modern code you need to deal with that. By the way, we need a lot beefier server to handle the load, ok? It's a bit slow right now
(Six months pass)
PHB: Um, hello?
IT Guy: Really, it's almost done. It's going to be amazing! We're in the process of rearchtecting the main DB module to support Foobar 2.6 right now since Foobar 2.5 wasn't quite ready for prime time.
(Six months pass)
PHB: Look guys, we have to have this *now*. The legacy code can't run much longer without maintenance.
IT Guy: Well, here's my notice- I found a great new job programming cool Ruby code with a startup. I've put some comments in the code that should let you figure out what it does. It should build fine provided you only use the exact environment I specify and the front end works on a beta version of Chrome I downloaded. Go ahead and ship!
It's a lousy place to stop. Cite nothing but Wikipedia and you're going to get a crappy grade.
(Cut+paste from Wikipedia and I haul you in front of the honor commission, along with nice color coded pages showing exactly what was lifted.)
Clearly you should avoid the Nexus 7
Nothing is more douchebaggish than "I won't buy XYZ any more because of blah blah emotional decision" posts on the Internet.
Why? Not buying from a company that engages in business practices you dislike is one of the very few powers ordinary consumers have. Don't like Apple's sue-happy policy? Don't buy, and let them know why.
As far as the profits argument, that's very true, just like it was back in the early days of the PC vs. the Mac. Apple has always had better margins than the commodity makers, but that doesn't matter since there will always be another member of the horde to take the place of anyone squeezed out. I own some Apple stock and I'm beginning to worry about it- the parallels to what happened to the Mac are beginning to look awfully obvious.
Then again, I bought the stock back in 1998 at something like $2.50/share adjusted for splits, so I probably shouldn't complain too loudly...
For that matter, it blows away the iPad as well. After using it for a week, going back to iOS feels like going back in time. The Nexus is easier to use, more flexible, more responsive and it just plain feels slicker. I suspect an honest comparison between an iPad mini and the Nexus won't come up too well for the iPad. I'm sure it will still be bought in droves by the faithful, but Apple's been passed by Google.
His last few SF books have been a lot more upbeat (at least for him) for some reason- Excession is laugh out loud funny in quite a few places, as is Surface Detail. Matter and Look To Windward at least end on happy notes.
They apparently have built up real political support for the program by not turning people into funeral pyres
Umm, yeah, about that. They've killed a whole pile more people than either the US or Russian programs, but most folks in China don't know about it since the Chinese government suppresses the news.
It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.