When you read that HP was "a company founded in a garage by a pair of engineers ", that means that they took off their ties when they got home from their day jobs.
After all, this was before the 60's... 8-)

A legal system that does -not- elect judges is also going to fail. Just in a different mode...

Bad writing slows down people's reading. It is a royal pain. It is also a favor to let someone know what they need to do, to be read.

It has gotten so bad that many people just skip over badly written messages, including me.

True. However, hardly anyone is anywhere near "average".
Depending, of course, on your definition of "anywhere near"... 8-)

Well... we know how bad he is, so she -has- to be better, right? 8-)

It depends very much on what is being done with the equipment.

Some have never been updated and updating it can get you fired!

Some are updated when new hardware is purchased, but not otherwise unless a definate problem shows up.

(Those are not usually connected to any network or internet.)

Some are updated about two weeks after updates are released, unless zero-day exploits are reported.

A few are updated immediatly. Either for hobbies or as early tests for the other machines. (Or both at once.)

It's true that rapidly advancing tech requires learning new stuff.

But the problem is marketers changing the UI appearance to make you think it is new tech, when it is not. You put forth the effort to learn the new UI, and then find that it was a fraud and there was no advantage to it. All your effort is wasted!

The difference in the younger people is just that they have not had that happen to them as many times, yet... 8-)

Yes, I drove a "column shift" way back "when". It was actually not so bad, the reflexes were similar to the floor shifter.

But the column shifters were more loose, particularly after they were no longer brand new. I like the floor shifter better.

I did the same thing, in an automatic. Slowed for a stop sign, reached for the center gearshift and lifted my left foot.

Then I pushed down the "clutch" and hit the left end of the wide brake pedal.
We found out that the car had -really- good brakes!!
One of the guys in the back seat ended up in the front... 8-)

The difference between Magic and Technology, is that technology -works-. 8-)

The word you want is "obsolescent". 8-)

Note that a propperly napped rock is sharper than a scalpel and makes a cleaner cut.

Actually, one of my relatives sells sets of napped rock flakes to neurosurgeons, for use in surgery. For real.

Tell me again, about how many things are obsolete? 8-)

Or maybe it was a subtle way of saying that he didn't know how many ways it could mislead you, and you didn.t know either! 8-)

I think the extra cost for the satcom was for getting -now-, when it's needed, instead of sometime in the future...

The phenomina, of bugs dissappearing when the Tech shows up, is well known in many industries. It can even be used to determine whether the Tech is experienced or not, by their reaction.

There could be many reasons, but no one has pinned it down that I know of. I just go out and come back a few times, and can usually catch it. The correllation can be scary, though.