Yes, but everyone does this, at least, of any size. IBM at least seems to get a product out of it.

It's not IBM's fault if you don't leave yourself some breathing room, though I agree that is shitty. Still, if the going rate is falling, I'm going somewhere else.

They truly do have a massive stack of useless consultants. That's not to imply that the majority of them are useless, although I suspect that's the case. I've simply met several of them.

The thing is, that's often what's called for. Except the pile of shit part, but seriously, old doesn't mean bad.

On the low end it costs twice as much as an entry-level windows PC. On the high end, it is also a ripoff.

Uh no. I can still get more performance by building my own.

Being willing to accept a computer a couple mm thicker does not show that I don't care about design.

Anyone who thinks we should be proud doesn't have a CLUE as to why we were in those conflicts in the first place. Even WWII, which we should have probably been in, we deliberately delayed our entry so that our "allies" would get their asses pounded so that we could come out ahead economically. Proof? We were selling war materials including Alcoa aluminum and of course fuel to the Third Reich. We knew it was going on, and we let it continue and then seized the assets. But that didn't stop vital war supplies getting to the enemy.

Obviously not.

Yeah, when people start talking about how great positive thinking is, I always think, "Sure, as long as things are going well."

Your mindset is, to some degree, a prediction of the future. For that prediction to be helpful, it needs to be fairly accurate. Now many people will point out that predictions can be self-fulfilling, and a positive expectation is more likely to lead to a positive outcome. It's true. But it can also leave you unprepared for a negative outcome.

I think positivity needs to be measured, constrained, and tempered by a realistic assessment. It's useful to consider the what happens if things don't go well, and prepare for things to go very badly. Perhaps more importantly, I think it's important for us all to understand that different people just seem to have different mindsets, different approaches, and different personalities. Whatever your mindset, it can be helpful to have someone around who is very positive, because they can help to keep us all motivated and moving forward. But it's also very useful to have a pessimist around, who will point out the problems with your plans, force you to confront some uncomfortable truths, and rain on your parade a little bit.

People of all kinds can be useful and valuable, so it's important to not shit all over pessimists all the time. As if they don't have enough to worry about, without y'all treating them like they're useless.

Microsoft entertainment division may or may not have paid off its investment yet but Xbox is profitable year-by-year now. That's one area in which Microsoft has executed well, RROD and Xbox 180 aside.

There is, but by making it just a few CCs larger (for a bigger cooler) they could also have made it cheaper and faster. But presumably, that would eat into sales of still more expensive products with larger margins, so that would be a mistake for them. Which just underscores the point of how bad a deal you're getting when you buy Apple hardware.

right, but just like retail, it's not clear that this is possible,

It's not clear that it can. Amazon's model depends on endless growth, but you can't grow forever.

No, no they were not. The problem is that hiring criteria have gotten all fucked. Instead of proving what you can do, it's having all the right buzzwords on your resume, and being young. So they hire young people who haven't developed common sense yet and then wonder why there isn't any in their organization. They fail to reward their most valuable players, literally often pushing them out the door, and then wonder why they can't execute.

It's not because there are not people out there with critical thinking skills. It's that the people doing the hiring lack them. They're hiring people based on ooh shiny, and not on actual abilities needed to get the work done.

TL;DR: If they stop hiring people based on bullshit and actually hire for creativity, common sense, flexibility, and yes, critical thinking skills, then they won't be having these problems.

Not really. An unloaded gun is a shitty club. A sword can take parts off of a person.

That doesn't prove that at all, nor does it even try to.

If someone told me I voided my warranty for installing CM, I really would see them in court. They're going to have to show that CM is incompatible, and in the process, they'll basically have to declare that their phone is not an android phone, which will make them look like cunts in the press.

That's because it's such a successful imitation of life. That feeling is supposed to galvanize you to action... hopefully not involving firearms

But a lot of government really is after their guns. Why do you see this as an unrealistic concern? Forgot Waco already?

[citation needed]

Before you even try, you're completely, absolutely wrong. The assault rifle did nothing to blow away the second amendment, because it does nothing to change the reasons for its inception. And the internet does nothing to blow away the first amendment, it only makes it more important.

But, I can't wait to see your reasoning as to why freedom should be reduced because progress has happened. You just want to maintain a balance of progress, and we have to go backwards socially to make you happy?