...Pfft, nah, I have no issue with Linux, but I couldn't help adding that in there..

The free / disruptive logic is critically flawed, because a huge majority of people don't even know what an OS is, let alone whether it's free or not. The only way you could spin this is if you said it's free for phone manufacturers - which is a fair point - if they don't have to pay for it, it's more likely they'll put it on their phone. That's an argument against MS - but not Apple. Apple is defined by their software/hardware mix being unique, so to spin it as 'it's not free so it'll lose' makes no sense (Apple doesn't give out their OS to anyone, free or paid)

Same as what they were doing against Apple. They accused Apple of using the wrong font size in their court documents (hence claiming they were invalid) rather than actually fighting the case. They really are at the pinnacle of the BSing

I think the ribbon is O-K. It's not fantastic (not the amazing revolution MS seems to think it is) but it's usable. I think it works OK in Office 07 at least. But... why in explorer? Explorer isn't complex enough to justify it. Office warranted it because it has oodles of menus and features. Explorer is comparatively simple though, which makes me think this is just overkill.

I think there is a world market for maybe five tablets.

(here in the UK, at least) ...is that actually, the ones who get sucked in by the finance sector easily are the ones who talk a good talk (and seem to do plenty of ass licking) but aren't any good at the technical skills.

I'm not just saying this because of sour grapes or anything like that - it does seem to be a trend that the jerks who everyone dislikes (or the jerks that are awful at working in a team) get picked up by financial firms. So to be honest, 'nothing of value was lost' springs to mind

The thing with courier is that, whilst I agree it was a great form factor, it didn't actually exist. It was all talk - no shippable product. So for all the flaws that may exist in Apple's vision of the tablet form factor (or the Android ones for that matter) at least they actually exist - they're real, they work and they are being sold today.

Courier looked as though it was years away from even being thought of as a real product, let alone being sold to people in the real world

A degree is not a job training course.

End of.

MS are so risk averse that the likelihood of this UI showing up in Windows is as likely as them moving the Linux kernel.

They won't do anything drastic because they're in the pockets of their business customers: Who need everything pretty same-y to avoid retraining, software changes etc.

So? Pretty bloody obvious why it's worth noting: the task is wholly graphical in nature, so obviously hardware acceleration will give IE9 and FF4 an advantage on Windows (and FF4 is not HW accelerated on OS X). So it's kind of a no-brainer why there's a huge discrepancy

Isn't this also because FF4 and IE9 both use hardware acceleration on Windows? (+ The points made already about comparing dev builds vs. stable)

I agree. Apple II or Apple ][, sure. Apple '2'? What's an Apple '2'?

Actually for a better example, iPhone 4 would work better - complete forgot about that. But then they were somewhat pushed into that name (for clarity reasons) by the stupid names of the previous iPhones. Not so with the iPad

In my opinion, there are two big issues against this supposed iPad 2: First, prototypes of Apple stuff have shown up before (on eBay) - however the key thing is, they tend to use the name / badges of the previous generation, or their name plates are simply blank (prototype Macbooks had 'power book' on them and the prototype macbook air's badge was blank)

On top of that, Apple has so far never named a product with a '2'. There is no Macbook 2, no iPod touch '2', no iPhone 2 etc.

So the likelihood that a) the prototype is a reflection of the finished product (with a proper 'iPad 2' name on it) and b) Apple have put a '2' in a product's name seems doubtful

On twitter, the original link to the pastebin is from 'IntelGlobalPR'. Is that a fake account, hacked, or is this actually a publicity stunt from Intel for something?

...most young programmers understand that experience is a massive factor in being productive. Assuming they're not complete morons, most would like to spend time / work along side an older more experienced programmer (assuming they're actually decent and not complete morons themselves) - a la a mentor of sorts.

Heck, for most types of software dev I would jump at that chance. Someone who already knows the 'does and don'ts' of a specific area etc. can save you a bundle of time hitting your head against a wall. Further than that, I think I'm only in this field in the first place because of a relative who basically became my computer idol/'mentor' of sorts. Sure, you eventually grow out of your original mentor, but they certainly put you on the right track to learn more. And I'm certain most 'old timers' would also jump at the chance to show the youngsters the ropes