It was magical for him...

Organizations big enough to use tape have been using hybrid disk / tape backup solutions for a very long time. We use locally stored centralized backups that we can push to remote sites from disk, and then also perform offsite backups nightly with tape. It is really the only way to go when you have multi-terabyte incremental backups.

You should have performed a better google search, since I buy LTO-5 tapes (1.5TB uncompressed, 3TB compressed) for roughly $60 each. Included in that cost is pre-labeling based on my specifications and series numbers from previous orders, and two day shipping. Roughly 1/3 the cost of the tiny tapes you found, and under half the cost of the comparable hard drive. Tape offers many benefits that you don't have in a hard drive, including better drop resistance (moron resistant), and the ability to be physicaly write locked (again, moron resistant). In addition you have tape libraries that swap tapes out automatically, so I can store a month worth of tapes in my library and not worry about someone else managing backups while I take vacation (moron resistant!) or wait out a bad winter storm. Don't get me wrong, tapes and tape libraries aren't for every company, but I have incremental backups upwards of 6TB (comparable to the full backups of people I've read here) and full backups roughly five times that. With the volume of data I manage I can't just keep ordering disks and controller cards, so tapes help me save time and money.

Symantec Advanced Pre-emptive Defense tech... SAP'ed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baton_(law_enforcement)#Sap

You can't find helicopters that haven't been hit by mules, it is part of the training process for combat mules.

My $600 phone can barely take a drop from my pocket to the server room floor without me wondering if I now have to spend another $600. Land warrior systems can be thrown out of a helicopter hit by a mule and smashed against rocks while the soldier wearing it does his job without wondering if it still works. Quite a bit of the money involved in systems like land warrior is dedicated to ensuring stability and reliability during combat operations in extreme heat, cold, rain, and snow. All of these are things that a $600 cell phone can't do.

I agree on all points, except my chair, which is custom made by my brother who also built my desk. Other than that I'm really just being an asshole, so please continue.

I think kids see all of the solutions in the world and then think "why bother?" I have to admit that when it comes to programming something yourself in-house and spending a few months getting exactly what you want, or spending 5 minutes buying a package from someone else and the next two weeks tailoring it to provide the results you require, it makes sense to take the existing solution. Programmers face a different problem today than they once did. Before it was an issue of "this code doesn't exist yet", while today its "almost everything you can imagine needing, someone has already written." The incentive to write effective and innovative code in a sea of "effective and innovative code" is a moving target that previous generations of programmers never faced.

The "serious shortage of qualified people" is mostly the fault of the companies themselves. Businesses want to pay pennies and earn dollars when it comes to developers, and they only want to hire the absolute "creme of the crop". Also it is not that there are only a handful of rockstar programmers, but simply a lack of opportunity for programmers to become highly skilled. It is difficult to work a job, go to school, and then find time to become some sort of master coder in the small amount of time you have left to sleep / eat / avoid divorce. Businesses want pre-packaged master programmers with a decade of experience and two degrees, and they want to pay $50,000 a year with meager benefits to match. If they set the bar lower and actually hired college graduates with little experience for a decent wage they might find that the average person can learn to become what you need them to (in this example, an amazing programmer). But when you go looking for a job all you find are "Sr. .NET Developer, minimum 10+ years experience" and you rarely (maybe 1 a month) find "Entry level .NET programmer, Bachelors or 2-4 years experience". Everyone has to start somewhere, but they never become masters when you fail to give them a chance.

Because Bill at the patent office works 12 hour shifts and rubber stamps pretty much anything that comes across his desk at a nice leisurely pace so as not to get fired and yet never truly accomplish anything. Meanwhile his boss Ted regularly decides that 'scotch:30' is the best time to start his lunch break and stroll over to humiliate Bill for a few minutes. Satire? Perhaps, but considering the "crank them out" attitude held by the administration I doubt this is hits far from the mark.

You should probably submit all of those before Steve Jobs or one of his hoes (I'm sorry, "users" ) does it for you.

You need to check your history book. The Internet was paid for by the government and slowly allowed to be handed over to corporations over two decades once it was already long established. Many advances (including computers that you claim are corporate gifts) are actually creations paid for by governments (typically for military purposes) and then handed over to corporations over time for civilian use and implementation.

Source: http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Also, claiming that some form of fair competition exists between companies is either a misunderstanding of how modern MSCs (multiple service carrier) operate or a blatant manipulation of the truth to suit a rant. No company can or will attempt to overbuild another MSC in a zone unless one of them is AT&T (in which case you can actually get government grants to over-build them, and money from AT&T at times as well so they look better). Between franchise agreements and city divisions where cable companies will cut a city in half (effectively choosing to "compete" only in certain regions where there really is no competition) customers don't have any semblance of real options.

People here keep assuming that America is doing nothing, but that is highly unlikely. The entire purpose of the SOF community is to go into shit holes like this and get out without being noticed. It only takes a small team of green berets to move in, train a militia and then pull out after the rebels know what to do. Hell, they probably would even help procure regional weapons to avoid suspicion (like, I don't know, blowing up Lybian arms depots similar to the ones that were blown up) and make it look home grown.