I thought specifically in the case of Surface, Microsoft had all their OEMs working on tablets, which Microsoft required their own involvement in the development. Microsoft then cherry-picked the best features from each OEM, and then released their own tablet hardware, the Surface.

Hold on while I count my stack of 5 cent bills while the Christmas shopping lineup wraps around the store.

-Some old guy 10 people in front of you.

I prefer to click the task bar, then ALT+F4.

It's also useful in remote desktop when you're trying to shutdown or reboot the remote machine. Also included is Microsoft's "Windows Virtual PC" which uses remote desktop as the integration technology, and makes it difficult to shutdown or reboot the VM.

Not yet anyways
For Parts, NASA Boldly Goes . . . on eBay

My favorite part is having to change the password every 30 days.

A LOT of people will use base password+date. EG:
Slashdotnov2014
Slashdot1114
etc.

Gee. I wonder what it might be in December...

I even know people in IT with passwords like that. When setting up a new computer for you they'll ask for your username/password so they can log in and setup your profile, so they are well aware that people do that.

This is a useful skill in the real world. In no fewer than three AD workplaces, I've seen people's accounts get locked (for one reason or another: IT had the wrong end date for the term position, too many failed login attempts, etc). Unplug the cable, log in, then plug the cable back in. Network drives won't work, but anything stored on the hard drive will, Email works, and internet works (even when you need to authenticate on the proxy). Good workaround when waiting for IT to unlock.

In 2009 when the concept of "Universal healthcare" was floated around in the USA, one Republican FUD'er going on about "death panels" was saying "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Hawking was born, and lives in England.

Oops!

Good old The GIMP. My favorite UI fuck-up of theirs is making save do a project save, and having to do export to save as JPEG, PNG, etc. If you complain about the interface You're told you aren't the target audience. They are targeting a professional Photoshop knockoff market that doesn't exist, and yell at their actual core userbase.

For all the talk of the ridiculous name, at my conservative Windows based workplace GIMP is available in the software catalog. I think they want to have a free offering to avoid people looking for Photoshop, etc. Thankfully they also have Paint.NET.

The 5 minutes isn't so bad. It's the 15 extra minutes the bus takes over driving in my case, or 70 minutes for my friends with 1.5 hour bus rides. You picked the smallest amount of time to take issue with instead of the colossal wastes of time?

And my comment on the subway, though you might have to wait 5 minutes, they come so frequent you don't worry about the timetable as you do a bus with a 60 minute frequency. I don't take issue waiting 5 minutes for a subway.

Hey! That's my line!

You mean like the ones Google Uses?

In my city, by my house, it takes 15 minutes to drive a route to downtown that takes the bus 30 minutes. That's on a relatively direct route, on a Saturday, with no traffic. Plus figure that you need to be at the stop 5 minutes before, and you're wasting more time. If your route requires a transfer onto another route, it's very easy to end up having to go to a terminal that's not exactly on a direct route, and then wait another 10-20 minutes. If you need a second transfer your day is basically shot. I know people that takes them 1.5 hours by bus what takes 20 minutes by car. That's each direction.

My city has gotten better by setting up express routes that aren't that bad, and cities with subways avoid street congestion, and normally have a train coming every 5 minutes or less.

Similar situation: I was on an older bus, some passengers leave the via the back door, the driver goes to pull away from the stop but can't because the bus thinks the back doors are open (green light on). Bus driver gets up, goes the the back door, pulls the doors closed. The green light goes off, brakes release, and the bus starts rolling down the road. He didn't seem that concerned when people point it out to him. He should have pulled the parking brake before leaving his seat (which I assume is standard procedure). Transit company didn't seem that concerned either when I reported it.

The door-brake interlock on modern busses require that the drive have his foot on the brake when the door closes to release the interlock. Sometimes you'll notice after the door closes they try to drive away, but the engine just revs. They push the brakes, and then are able to go.

In either case these are bad drivers, and hopefully an automated driver would keep to the SOP. There are many cities with driverless subways that function without problem.

As much as I dislike taxis, I can't really blame them for this. If your destination has them stuck in traffic, that prevents them from otherwise making money.

One thing that works against drivers in an unintended acceleration situation, is when they first panic and press the brake, although it may overpower the engine, it won't be a screeching halt, so they may release the brake and reapply. If the engine is at WOT, there will be no vacuum, and the vacuum reserve for the power brakes will be depleted, and the brakes will require a substantial amount more effort.

Try this exercise: Stop a car at the top of a hill (steeper the better), put it in Neutral, and shut off the engine*. Release the brake, now pump it several times to deplete the reserve. See how much force you need to slow the car down. In my experience I basically need to prop myself up with my shoulders, and put all my weight on the pedal. That's as an able body male in a compact car coasting down a hill, not as a frail old biddy mashing the brake and gas in her Camry.

*Someone's going to complain that shutting the engine off will lock the steering. In every automatic I've seen, if the shifter isn't in park, you can't turn the key back far enough to lock the steering, only shut the engine off. With manuals you usually require an extra release button, or other noticeable detent to move it back to lock. You only need to move it one detent. Hell after you kill the engine you can move it back to ON, as long as the engine isn't running. There will be a loss of power steering, but it should still be controllable especially once rolling. Automatics usually only allow a restart in Park or Netural, by using Neutral if you can't overcome the brakes, or steering, restart the engine (will not work in DRIVE, REVERSE, or LOW). In a standard you may want to try leaving it in 2nd, with the engine off but ignition "ON". That way if you need power you can pop the clutch, or restart with key.

The first reaction in the case of a runaway car should be to shift to neutral or de-clutch. All modern cars should have a rev limiter to keep from exceeding the redline, and many modern automatics (at least, don't know about manual) have a very low revlimiter if in neutal or park (they will only go up to 3-4000RPM when the engine redline is 6500RPM), so engine damage shouldn't be a concern. Second reaction if that doesn't work is to shut off the ignition (I hate push button ignitions for this, you usually have to push and hold for a couple seconds for a forced power off... Just when I thought an ATX powersupply was a PITA with a crashed computer) . Third should be to try any available parking brake (don't know how the stupid new electric parking brakes would work), and finally as a last ditch effort, I'd try Park as I look for a nice guard rail I could graze against.