It was for a TCP server for sending new file open calls to a single running instance, It was a feature I added to an existing app where all the preferences do get saved to Roaming, but because I'd already coded a 'reset' function that completely overwrites the preference directory with a fresh set of defaults it was just easier to store the port number somewhere else.

Sometimes using the registry is just easier. For example if I need a high port I let the OS grab a randon free one and store the number in a user hive registry entry - saves having to worry about the different user directory configs you can get on the different versions or on networked corporate setups.

Windows Phone is not really struggling anymore. It has a small market share but it seems to be growing very quickly and is already around 10% in Europe. With the purchase of the Nokia division they will most likely merge Phone and RT and let the ex-Nokia people make a range of devices at all screen sizes sharing a single OS with appropriate features enabled depending on the device. Much like iOS on iPhone and iPad.

I read a nice quote. "You don't stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running"

Back in the day when I maintained my own motorcyle the pub-talk was quite often about the problem of replacing spark plugs in early Japanese fours that seemed to have heads made out of a special alloy that was softer than chocolate, especially when getting to the middle two was more like gynecology than mechanics.

Another +1. I had an X220 dual booting W8 and Ubuntu. Ran both perfectly and with a six-cel battery it would last as long as a tablet for normal use and a good six hours of heavy (e.g. compiling) use. Build quality was excellent, the only downer was the screen, which was a bit low res by today's standards.

I was going to say that seems a painful way to get a Windows Laptop, but I'd not looked System 76 for a while and some of their stuff looks pretty nice

It runs flawlessly on my pure i7 Quad Ubuntu 13.10 box (Intel grapics - all FOSS) single monitor. It runs flawlessly on my shitty Atom netbook (intel graphics) on the built-in screen, but I had to switch back to X to get it working properly with an external monitor.

Ubuntu LTS releases are now supported for five years even on the desktop since 12.04

I can still log in to my server using a sweet putty client on my iPaq running WinCE2003SE. I don't actually do that because the wifi stack doesn't support anything except unsecured anymore, but I could if I really wanted to, jus sayin...

UK != European, which is where I suspect you are from. In Germany I see them now all the time. In Spain I have the impression that coloured plastic is everywhere and it's NOT iPhone 5cs. I've not visited Italy recently but I hear it's doing even better there. don't take my word for it

I've been posting this on /. for months now. only in the US is (a) iPhone so dominant and (b) Windows Phone so under-rated in the rest of the world. iPhone is declining and WinPhone is burgeoning. Let me put it this way: your 8-year old wants an 'iPhone' why not pay 1/4 the cost and get a Nokia 520 that does most of what an iPhone does just as well , and a lot of it a lot better.

It may well have been an orchestrated plan by MS from the start, but Nokia was worthless the day the iPhone was released. That was a long long time before Elop took over. All he did was bulldoze the collapsing tenemant and start a new building form a clean foundation.