- I write in Java because I have to.
- I write in PHP because I choose to.
- I write in C because I can
(originally was Windows/Mac/Linux)

There are many interesting aspects about Multics that deserve to be heard about if not studied. To name a few: the second-dimension access system or protection rings via "ring brackets" that allowed a 'r', 'w' or 'x' access to a "segment"/file depending on the caller (user or daemon) own "running ring". Thus, a lower (higher privilege) ring program would extend its r&|x access via brackets to allow a user to enter that program (a "gate"). For instance the continuums (now forums) were usually running in ring 3, while a simple user was in 4 (the core system was in 0). Multics had also convenient and powerful ACL, accesses provided to user/group-project/login-mode. Using long names or short names for a file(segment)... Studying a bit of Multics helps to realize that most of OSes concepts were already invented ~50 years ago...

MIT Project MAC

Gmail, bottom, right, "recent activity", Details.

If you happen to tap your Apple ID / password in a subway, in a crowded place or under a surveillance camera, and someone can see it, your account is not blocked, it's hijacked... and you know nothing about it! Thanks to iCloud, where is my i* and the like, that someone may see your personal data, where you are at this very moment, and where you go usually etc... As long as he doesn't alter your data, you don't know. It's been a recurring problem with Apple IDs. Google gmail shows a list of recent activity with IP adresses, and warns immediately about suspicious activity, like a connection from a far/different IP. http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2012/08/04/the-dangerous-side-of-apples-icloud/.

This is due to a (bad) implementation / development strategy. Take Office for instance. What would most companies do to provide a multi-OS/platform software? They create a bunch of system-dependent libraries per system, and at the same time develop a system-in-dependent software that is linked with the proper OS-dependent library for a given system. Thus, any new feature for a system X is also available for system Y.

But when Microsoft implemented Office for Mac (from 2009), they did a fork! Thus two distinct versions co-existed, Office for Windows and Office for Mac, each of them evolving more or less independently - with the outcome Excel developers in particular know (even at the time Mac Office was made available): some functions exist on one system, not the other, some having different parameters ; lack of consistency etc...
On purpose? Malice or incompetence? Wouldn't be surprised that they meet a similar problem with the Surface due to lack of genericity in Windows.

Aren't we told "never assume malice where incompetence will suffice".

A Japanese startup... the first client could likely be Toyota - Toyota is constantly welcoming innovation, and a Japanese startup would prefer to grant such beneficial technological progress to another Japanese company, regardless the amount of money coming from overseas. Japan is known for national preference.

At least thanks to Webkit, Javascript optimization pushed the main browsers (looking at you, IE) to improve dramatically, in the recent past. Developers may now expect a JS application to run as smoothly on webkit as on the latest IEs for instance. This is a huge progress.

Actually whatever level you may have, age is a critical factor: the higher the level, the higher the chances to get a job, but the higher the age, the lower the chances to get a job. Usually the level goes along with experience, which in turn goes along with age [up to a certain limit]. In other terms, to get a job you need a high level, that you get with more experience, acquired with extended work time, which increases your age, and that prevents you from getting a job.

From the beginning this MH370 disapearance is strange: the Malaysian many mistakes (why would they lie about the cockpit last words??), satellite analysis, to the discovery by georesonance of an aircraft thousands of miles north, on that same path calculated from satellite data (they couldn't say in March if the plane went north or south...)...
Sounds like the next time we'll hear about mh370, the plane will be on its way to a building near you...

Actually the "cumulative probability" was related to the wrong big one predictions in Tokyo: at first, it was said the big one will happen within a couple of days (after 3/11) within ~70% probability, then, after a couple of weeks (since nothing happened), it will happen within a year with ~70% proba... retroactively, if you position yourself in the past, the cumulative probas of all "big one certainties" tend to be very high!

What don't you understand in my post?

Finding out when (ie soon) and where an earthquake will occur is still almost pure luck. Of course, when the frequency of EQ is high, the probability that a bigger one happens is higher. But that almost the best we can predict. After the Tohoku EQ in Japan in 2011, amazing predictions were made by "specialists": a "big one" to occur in Tokyo within a couple of days, the Fuji mt to erupt soon, etc... nothing happened. (the cumulative probabilities of a big one in Tokyo was more than 90% at the time!).

So the guy hires Microsoft compliant engineers and surprisingly they're most efficient on MS products. What isn't said is that probably that guy himself has always been a Windows user, and thus he prefers to hire windowsians. And there... I am not surprised. How would you feel hiring Linux people when yourself you don't have a clue about what it does and how it works. The thing is, Linux engineers would have no problem learning Windows stuff, while the opposite is more seldom. Hiring engineers interested in open source, Linux, openness in general would be more profitable for the company in the longer term, though.

Indeed. 12.04 is a bit old...