I realize this would be difficult as a first-job type, but be very careful about taking on added responsibilities without any discussion with the powers-that-be about compensation. It is very easy for a "go-getter" to take on a lot more but never be recognized for those added responsibilities.

If nothing else, annual reviews should be an opportunity for you to bring up your now changed job description. As others have mentioned, salary negotiation is a key skill. If you are doing more for the company, you should use that as a negotiating advantage.

Oh, and start saving in a 401(k), IRA (Roth or otherwise) as soon as possible.

Out if interest, what "infections"? Do you have any examples. That's clearly a big issue if you're dealing with it daily. What infections are we talking about here?

Not that I'm doubting your story or anything.

(NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT CLAIMING THAT OS X CANNOT GET INFECTIONS)

For the past twenty years Microsoft's two major sources of income were Windows and Office. One is an operating system to make the computer go and the other is software to let people do something with it.

Windows is mostly tied to the sales of x86 computers. PC sales peaked in about 2010 and aren't likely to get back to that high point. That doesn't mean Microsoft is doomed. They're doing the smart thing and porting their software to growing platforms.

This means the market for Office can explode. Not only do they keep their position on PCs but can expand it to iOS and Android devices of which there are billions.

Office on iOS and Android means there's a bridge between the Microsoft dominated world of the PC and the mobile world where they have an inferior position. This reinforces their desktop position because Office remains the de facto standard in business, even when their mobile devices don't run Windows.

Microsoft isn't alone here. Adobe, Autodesk, and plenty of other traditional software houses are looking to extend their reach to mobile platforms. Mobile isn't necessarily replacing the traditional desktop but is growing independently.

You'd never get to see the pictures in any case (nor would any human anytime soon).

Many jobs can be automated, but not be cost effective. I imagine that as the cost of the fast food worker rises, for instance, the research on replacing that worker with a robot will also increase. It will be seen if robots are tolerated in what right now is a face to face encounter.

The telemarketer has already been replaced by robots, but robots are not tolerated so these jobs are still secure. It is the same reason that these jobs are still present in the US instead of completely exported to other countries. Consumer demand.

I still think that lawyers are doctors are going to see the greatest impact in wages and jobs. The salaries for first year lawyers, for example, have been fixed or falling for a decade according to published reports. As more data is collected on patients, and that data is correlated to outcomes, the heuristics and stochastic will reach a level where only the best diagnosticians will remain employable.

I suspect that the ATM won't recognize your personally unless you have your mouth open and your eyes closed.

Since copyright is dead I just created an new web site called slashdot.com. It copies all the content from slashdot.org and uses that site as its backend. I just replace the ads with my own, but you won't notice any difference really. Oh and it also deletes all the Dice Astroturf articles for added value to you my viewers. So please start using my new site instead of the old one. You can check it out while you are pirating some music or videos in this age of copyright nullity.

Subsidies are policy implementation devices. When people take the subsidies under the condition the subsidies are offered the result is that something the government wants to happen happens. Theoretically its an inexpensive way to get things done without the government doing it and assuring private investment in the outcome. (so there's vested interest in successes and usually commercialization).

Just because one guy happens to feed at the trough isn't a problem neccessarily. It could be. But that's why you have oversight.

Right, but it's an awfully lot more convenient if you can check from home - especially if you're poor and have a lot of other time commitments (other job, school run, kids etc).

The money is already there, they just need to amend the wording because it was written in the 80s to say "landline or cable/dsl connection" rather than just "land line" as it does now.

I'd be interested to see your success in a job hunt if you used only your phone and had no access to email or online forms vs having access to the net.

We'll leave out that a lot of school business is also conducted via email now, but we'll assume that they also send home paper copies of things that never get lost in between the kid's hands and the kitchen table.

Ahaha. Good one.

Obama has been nowhere near this. The phrase "obamaphone" originated in the right wing media sphere as a way to generate outrage fuel for right wingers to throw on the "we hate obama" fire.

However, don't let facts get in the way of a good, baseless Obama bash. Carry on.

"Use a library!"

"But they closed all the libraries due to public spending cuts. They said everyone already had smartphones!"

"So use your smartphone!"

"While Fox News said Obama was handing out free iPhones the reality is that it's not actually a smartphone"

Also, if you read the article (I know, I know, who has time for that before coming here to lay out their highly informed and expert opinion), you'd see that the money is not an "increased" expenditure, it's just a provision to allow the already allocated funds to be used for more than simply a landline since the legislation was written during the Reagan era and doesn't explicitly mention broadband for some reason. You think they'd have written it in if they meant for your precious taxes to be used for it, but such as it is. I can't think why they'd need to review the documentation.

Hold on there mister, the Laschamp event only lasted less than 500 years, and occurred in the middle of an ice age, over 41,000 years ago. I don't know about you, but I see a whole lot of unknowns that make it very difficult to conclude that "the climate didn't change".
How much of the surface of the earth was already covered with ice/snow -unknown
How much of an increase in annual cloud cover over non-ice/snow regions did the planet experience during this event -unknown
How accurate are the ice cores in capturing relatively short events measuring hundreds, not thousands of years -unknown
How much variation was there during this event in terms of the strength of the field -unknown I would prefer to not draw any conclusions from what little data we have of this event. We have the technology to measure GCR's, and we have the technology to measure cloud cover. Let's verify the theory of GCR's and cloud formation, let's quantify it, and then let's see if we can accurately predict cloud cover and irradiance fluctuations based on this data.

Of course this isn't Microsoft's fault, it's Apple's!

There are a couple of problems with your theory, though it could play out that way. Right now the smaller vendors are often more efficient than the larger ones. Smaller players can be more nimble.

Second the larger players all have vastly different models. Just to pick a few examples of the bigger players
AWS -- Generic low quality server experience offered cheaply. Walmart
Sungard -- Highly custom environments quality management lots of value added labor
Verizon (was Terremark) -- Moderately custom environments, mix of high performance cloud IaaS and colo. Some value added services with strong partner service model.
Oracle -- Unified cloud stack offering IaaS plus advanced management especially knowledge of Oracle applications
Azure -- IaaS with Microsoft based PaaS. Good pricing on SQL Server.

How do those consolidate? I think we are looking at a situation more like clothing where stores are genuinely different fulfilling niches for various customers.