... is that almost all of these big software companies step on each others toes in the pursuit of profits and market share, and probably all infringe on each patents at some level or other.
If the weight of these patents were different (as in, if the patent system wasn't out of touch with modern applications of software and technology), they wouldn't have so much leverage over each other, and maybe we could get back to innovating instead of litigating.

I just got a new iPhone 4 via advance-replacement repair. I'm in Canada, EST, and the alarm has been going off an hour early since Friday. Beats an hour too late I guess...

Just don't buy a 3D TV. The manufacturers will get the hint.

or just use BootCamp. Ever try to open a MacBook Air?

Second that... it's pretty amazing. Don't even have to use USB, the iPhone can stay in the pocket thanks to Bluetooth.

omg... bong water in all the equipment! Imagine the stink!
We'll need to train tiny ants to get in there with little cleaning utensils.

I fail to see the mutual advantage of this deal.
How will the end user benefit from this at all?

If you don't have objective proof of somebody performing poorly, why should you be able to endanger that person's living?

In any case, nowadays any company worth its salt has performance appraisals, that way people that could do better are offered the carrot of bonuses and raises

Bad analogy. Kia =/= Honda whereas a Compaq PC-compatible == Mac in terms of reliability. Here's a better analogy:

So Honda announced a bunch of new Acura models.

Cool. I was looking at buying a new Civic for $15k. Can I buy one of those new Acuras for that price? I don't see any listed here or on acura.com. (shrug). I guess I'll buy the Civic instead of the overpriced luxury model. (i.e. I'll buy the mass-produced Compaq instead of the luxury Mac. I'm not rich.)

Quaero ergo cogito?

To be fair, Ubuntu 9.04 really needs 512 Meg of RAM to run well...

Behemouth size?

Big Blue ain't as big as it used to be? And vs MS it's smaller.

Who's being shut out of the market with Ubuntu?
Who's being trampled on?

IBM is mainly a hardware vendor, and I see no problem with them competing on that level and reletively little for the software. Will IBM machines force users to keep Ubuntu installed and keep other OS installs off of their machines?

Ubuntu is already free. How is IBM's use of it reducing the cost? Also if you look closely the cost isn't zero for IBM, far from it. IBM still has to do support work and programming for the Ubuntu platform same as they'd have to do with MS.

Those two statements are contradictory, you know. There's nothing magic about them, so if you call them magic then you clearly don't know what they "do".

Do you call Protestant ministers' collars "magic collars"?

crap. you made me spill my beer! LOL

you can't compare quiet, scheming bigots to a whole nation full of war protestors who actually show up themselves, not speak through well funded media mouthpieces.