Yes, I rolled on the floor laughing when I read that...if you really want to destroy the utility/flexibility of Linux/Gnome, call some key part of it "Visual Basic" and before you know it, the language snobs will .NET it up...errrh, make it "better".

Methinks Microsoft is blowing up because it is huge, gigantic Microsoft and the guy running it has let that size and power go to his head to the extent that he thinks he not only can but is driving the consumer. I see that attitude in Windows 8, I see it in Office 2013 where people are actually describing Microsoft's attempt to change Office into a fee-based subscription service as "conditioning" the end-user..."conditioning", as if either the consumer were somebody's pet rat or Microsoft were a cult!!!

Somebody forgot to tell Ballmer that putting on the CEO suit of Microsoft is not equivalent to assuming godhead...

(Although come to think of it, that assumption of godhead has become quite common among American CEOs...)

I tend to agree with you...a consequence of having had to clean up after too many people who believed that the approach(es) they learned in their specialty were applicable to all other areas/specialties.

Ah...so one should infer that - because it is "poor people" who use cash to "avoid taxation" - that the individuals who keep the tax havens in Panama, Lichtenstein, the Caymans, and so forth in business because of their desire to avoid taxes are the poor?

Or would it be wiser to disregard your assertion in favor of the notion that poor people use cash because they don't have checking accounts or debit and credit cards?

What does Microsoft do? "Promote" people who design clunkers like Windows Millennium and Vista into their PR department?

Gorilla arm smearing banana residue all over touchscreen...

Four decades of "stellar" leadership, and the swan song is the auctioning off of America's space program.

But some few Americans - and the OPEC nations, and the last communist nation and burgeoning superpower on planet Earth - got rich...

So Wall Street selling America's technology and manufacturing infrastructure/defensive arsenal/war reserve to the communists in the PRC directly (for example, Bain Capital is a leader in the field) is "OK", but Americans exercising their right to free speech and assembly is a "no-no"?

Hey, NCIS/FBI? Think about it: Why bother? There isn't any America left to protect when the only thing that defines treason is whether or not you're making money at it.

Useful to China, by the way - when the news spreads that it was just a spoof, it in turn spreads "Western journalism is all lies, and only Chinese journalism is trustworthy.". Between China's superior manipulations at home and their ally in News Corp abroad, they're winning on the propaganda front.

Quite obviously they've honed playing the greed of the West's few to a fine art, and so are far, far ahead on the industrial infrastructure/defense arsenal and financial fronts.

It's been sad to watch, really...like watching Confucius pick on Western kindergartners.

Don't make fun of China, 'cuz Fox depends on people making the exact same assumption to get away with their bovine scat: "If it wasn't true, they wouldn't be allowed to say it."

When your government lets you down, you're a prime candidate to join the march of the lemmings.

Snicker. Guess you told us how you'd answer it - if you answered it truthfully.

Do you evaluate performance based upon specific goals - that is, lines of code/subroutines/class modules/interfaces/boards/prototypes/thingamabobs built, or something more ethereal, like how well I kiss ass?

lollll...only 'cuz Immelt controls a "corporate person", and that "corporate person" can afford to buy America's politicians in bulk.

The generals who know damned good and well that they will have to watch their men die because of Immelt's betrayals in the here and now work for those politicians, and so they know their hands - and the hands of the intelligence community - are well and thoroughly tied.

I.e., capitalism - as re-corrupted since 1980 by the modern American right - is a self-betraying system; it ensures that the hog trough is crowded with both corporate and political leaders - and the PRC plays it well.

I swear to God that loyalty to each other (Harvard/Yale grads/Skull and Crossbones/whatever) is a substitute for the lack of an individual code of morality and ethics.

But you didn't hear me say that.

...seems like there is an underlying lesson in the comments.

The increasingly stultifying "Corporate America" scene values "networking" over talent and ability (herein noted by remarks such as "getting past the human resources department"); that has consequences: Managerial incompetence must be concealed with offshore production and continual M&A activity. A startup might do well to filter hiring based on raw intelligence rather than "well-known school" and, in particular, make damned sure that potential candidates do NOT have preexisting "connections" that lead to the internecine politics that destroy from within...i.e., if the new hire has an Ivy League or well-known B-school degree, show 'em the door...

lolll...unless, or course, you're looking to turn'n'burn...that is, your intention is to unload into the hands of those who have money and/or connections to money but no brains. It is amazing how many individuals come out of Ivy League schools with degrees and connections but who are literally as dumb as rocks...George W. Bush, for instance, has a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard.

A fact which might also suggest that they do not teach the finer points of ethics in the Ivy League schools - a consideration any idealistic startup would do well to keep in mind.