Who wants to download buggy, ugly, insecure stuff? And that's just the OS....?

MBA drones.

Only if it has pretty graphics.

Get them to use it under a true open source license, and then sue them for patent infringement! It may turn out to be a growth industry, or at the very least a new business model for some. But one would have to choose an open source license that doesn't deal with the subject of patents.

Some things in Windows would not be portable, but could be ported. Some (not me) would say that it would be a great advancement for humanity if all platforms could run IE 6 and ActiveX.

Cancer is Microsoft's term for it. Intended to have negative meaning.

If you are in favor of open source it would be better to use a different word or phrase. Basically the GPL spreads freedom.

Laughter is contagious (a negative term). So maybe we should say laughter is a cancer? It is unfortunate that there are not more positive terms for things that spread and the ones we tend to fall back on are biological terms that have undesirable meanings: infectious, contagious, cancer, etc. Freedom is contagious -- when people don't have it and see it, they want it for themselves.

If management trusts the person, and he is leaving on good terms, then you don't need to do anything unless directed to do so.

You could make sure you have plenty of backups. But you should already have them.

> NSA doesn't spy on nerds, they care about the real world, not Minecraft.

So you mean World of Warcraft?

Unfortunately, whether or not code is encumbered by patents is not up to the author of the code. That is one (of many) major FAIL of the patent system. Your code, yes yours, could be encumbered by some pending patent, that the 'inventor' is keeping from being issued until your code is suddenly making money. Poof! Patent is now granted and you are infringing.

> Code needs to fail in an easy to understand and predictable way.

Being written in C++ is a sure way to guarantee both!

Did it fail in an easy to understand way? Yes. It is easy to understand that it failed because it was written in C++.

Was it predictable that it would fail? Again, yes.

:-)



Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to be promoted to a decision making role.

Doesn't every self important developer think that their own code is the best?


How many managers does it take to reach a decision to begin a study to determine whether a light bulb should be replaced?

> If the project was "back on track" as the agency and Northrop Grumman claim,
> then why has the budget suddenly increased by another billion?

The project is back on track to be able to stick around for another fiscal year in order to ask for another budget increase.

See? How difficult was that? Simple actually.

Won't the sky filled with drones be in the way of the flying cars?

Will flying cars be self driving or driven by puny humans?

If all flying cars had surveillance cameras and weapons remotely operated, not by the car owner / driver, then wouldn't the flying cars serve a dual porpoise?

Among the stories of your life, family and other things, also tell a story of progress. Tell of things that we enjoy today that didn't exist when you were a child. How did those things come to be?

I am very sorry to hear of your impending death and the pain it will bring to your family.

Maybe also tell a cautionary tale for when she is an adult. The world has had dark episodes of history before. And it could again, but on a much larger scale. What lessons can be learned from the past to prevent it happening again?

To get the best of both worlds, use each tool where it works best.
1. Use Java Applets in the browser to get Java's famously good start up times and the kind of Security that comes with complex interactions between JavaScript and a Java Applet that has elevated permissions
2. Use interpreted JavaScript on the server (not Node.js)

Use Windows as the Server OS, in order to get the kind of security, robustness and stability you've come to expect from Microsoft
Use Linux on the Desktop to get it's legendary ease of use*


(* however Linux ease of use is great in the last few years)
(I hope I do not need to add a humor tag)

I am not complaining about the 2nd amendment. Only that crazy people can get weapons. And not just ordinary weapons.

> They have put a kill switch in them somewhere

Um, isn't the TRIGGER a kill switch?