Keep a written record each time something unreasonable is requested.

After a few months (6?) show the documentation to the manager of whomever is making the requests.

Then crack open a beer and wait for your new middle manager to arrive.

Political or not, software project or not, someone in the management chain isn't doing their fucking job and you should not simply accept that.

Actually, both programs abide by the 4th amendment.

Also, here's the 1979 supreme court case ruling that your phone records are not private: Smith v. Maryland ... (post-watergate era even!)

Yeah, it's a cute story but I wouldn't trust them with my backup data.

These people didn't have a risk plan for their business that included hard drive shortages?

Their product isn't worth $10/mo ? (raising price)

Can you imagine an airline that doesn't factor in changes in fuel prices? Or a farm that doesn't have a plan for drought?

Bone for tuna!

"Rock stars" - we called them divas in my company - are notoriously unmanageable

Smart people don't want to be managed by C-minus business majors.

Even worse would be managed by even an A-plus History/English/Psychology major.

Of which, corporate america is currently rife with.

Agreed. The designer in me goes nuts every time I see text artificially clipped on the right hand edge of the screen. It's just terrible;

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.
I was starting to think I was the only person who thought that was an extremely poor design decision.

Head over to your local coworking establishment.

100% worth it.

Maybe it's because you've got a bunch of C+ business majors running the show, continually fucking up simple projects.

And then on top of that, treating your software engineers like 2nd class citizens.

Fuck that noise. I left after 6 years and don't plan to ever go back.

Probably the only thing going for it is the price. Other than that, this seems... pointless.

If I can read in direct sunlight, in color, you can expect to see this device appearing on beaches everywhere.

I love my iPad but it never goes outside.

I want what I want when I want it

Ironically enough, this is the quote under Eric Cantor's yearbook photo.
(he is the House Republican Majority Leader)

How many times have you heard the 11 o'clock news "teaser" for an interesting story they wait until 11:28pm to put on the air?

Usually if you have your laptop, you can go to a news website and, boom, there is the story without waiting 28 minutes through commercials and a dozen local crime reports.

Local news needs to adapt. The "string you along so you keep watching commercials" passive-watching business model is gone for good.

I'll play along with your enumeration of Constitutional rights:

The 4th amendment states you cannot be searched without a warrant or probable cause.

The 5th amendment states that you cannot be forced to provide evidence to incriminate yourself.

Stopping people at random and forcing them to take a breathalyzer - without having observed them commit a crime or being informed from someone that they may have committed a crime - violates those two rights above. Clearly.

And then on top of that, at what point do you get to invoke your miranda rights? After you were forced to incriminate yourself or before? After you were forcibly searched or before? After you are taken into custody or before?

Dude. Every tablet I have seen from Microsoft, although a valiant effort, HAS A MOUSE CURSOR where you put your finger.

That demonstrates a complete, total, utter lack of understanding about how people want that form factor to operate.

Truly, if they just hide the fucking cursor and put 30-45 minutes into thinking about an operable main-GUI they could pull it off without much effort.

Yeah, that, and the BASIC interpreter itself. Not a small thing.

Guess what, newspaper reporters can be jerks! They often dash off at warp speed with poor information, and see conspiracies and evils where they do not exist.

That's why they work at ... small local papers.