What we call "Christmas" traces its roots to various pagan festivals held around the time of the (Northern hemisphere) winter solstice. Basically, we celebrate sun and daylight. We celebrate days getting longer.

No, it also gives you a nostalgia for goto statements.

The lack of SD card is definitely a downside, but the reason I am staying away from HTC from now on is their feet-dragging when it comes to Android upgrades - when they do provide them. Any trust I had in them was lost when they broke their promise to bring ICS to the Desire HD. They say they can't upgrade it while preserving apps and settings - fair enough, but at least provide an optional upgrade (doesn't have to be OTA) for those of us who would appreciate it. Also, after realizing the offline turn-by-turn navigation provided by HTC Sense is not free after all, and with Google Maps now providing that functionality, I see very little reason for wanting HTC Sense.

I know Samsung are also slow to provide upgrades, but to the best of my knowledge, they have never announced an upgrade for a phone in no uncertain terms and then retracted it, like HTC did with the DHD. And Samsung's devices tend to comply with CTS, which makes it easier to release unofficial upgrades.

That's assuming he was not using a webmail (a pretty big assumption).

Yeah, life-critical systems, e.g. aircraft control systems, are often developed with that kind of formal specification.

But you have to be able to write the mathematical specification to begin with. I don't see how that's even possible for a mainstream operating system, or for any process that interacts heavily with the user for that matter.

That list could be more comprehensive, fair enough. Indeed it's good practice to run PDF/Flash only when necessary. And of course any necessary services must be carefully configured - e.g. old SQL Server installations come to mind, where the default administrative account was "sa" with a blank password.

I don't mean "use Linux", which has already been suggested a number of times, predictably. I mean no antivirus installed whatsoever, and do the following:

- Before you run any binaries and otherwise infectable files you download, run them through an online antivirus (e.g. ESET).

- In Explorer, don't generate thumbnails.

- services.msc and disable everything you don't need

- Run a firewall. Even a basic one will do.

- Don't use IE or Outlook.

That's how I roll, and I know for a fact I haven't had a virus for about a decade. I'm absolutely positive the machine isn't in a botnet or anything of that sort because I regularly monitor my traffic in the router. If I had a virus I almost certainly wouldn't be able to browse to ESET online or any other antivirus site. Finally ESET online also scans the RAM.

Of all the people/things you mention, the one that's actually a bit similar to Hitler is PVV - amusing how you don't include it in your list of things that are Hitler.

Is that the new way to say "violate users' privacy even further"? Gotta love the euphemism.

When I worked as a consultant for a software company I had to log every break I took, no matter how short, for billing purposes. While that sucks, it's understandable. But one didn't have to log "bathroom". One just logged "personal" and that could be a private call, coffee, bathroom, fresh air, whatever. Requiring the employee to log bathroom breaks strikes me as a totally unacceptable violation of privacy.

No thanks, the lack of an SD slot is NOT one of its good features.

People can buy and sell copyright just like corporations. But one thing is the content and another thing is the copyright.

(FWIW, I agree with GP.)

Really? I thought all patents were public by definition? A trade secret is something else.

One of the banks I deal with has adopted the "SMS to phone" approach, with no possibility to opt out, which I find a terrible idea. It must be so much fun when your battery or signal is out or the phone is lost/broken and you have to close those stocks urgently, make that urgent wire transfer, etc. Bonus points if this happens when you're abroad, with no possibility to go to a brick-and-mortar branch. Another bank, which I also work with, uses RSA tokens - I much prefer that; it is real security.

The vodka project doesn't look like it should require a lot of financial resources though.