As a power user I hated the ribbon for about four weeks, until I actually quit bitching and moaning about it and started using it. Now I prefer it, and don't like the former interface. Even for relatively advanced spreadsheet tasks involving remote data access with cubing and other analytic voodoo, I find that the ribbon is faster and easier to use for every task I use Word, Access, and Excel for, and on the rare occasions I have to use a new feature it is easier to guess at what category of task they filed it under than the old nested menu bar. Even our oldest, gnarliest, set-in-their-ways troll-beasts in accounting have grudgingly accepted and even begun to admire the ribbon.

Even worse, many standards business are forced to live with (PCI-DSS for one) require the kind of account policies you and the article decry. You can either require ridiculous password policies and be compliant or not and risk significant fines and penalties. The decision is completely out of the admin's hands. On the whole I think PCI has lead to good things overall with bringing many companies kicking and screaming up to base line security competence, but some of the requirements seem to cause as many problems as the solve.

And the United States, a self-confessed democracy over its existence, managed to kill at minimum one out of 50 of its own citizens in a civil war, eradicate a substantial fraction of its native population, forcibly import a substantial number of people for servile labor, imprison a large number of citizens based on coincident heritage of one combatant party during a mid-century war (but ignoring those of coincident heritage of other combatants), and expend a significant amount of post-war energies persecuting those who made the mistake of agreeing with the governing philosophy of a nation we had made an erstwhile ally of that conflict.

Goddamn what a great country! USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!