Really? Surveillance flights along predetermined routes, with people from the country being surveilled on board the aircraft? Besides wasting fuel, what does this accomplish?

I agree, it is kind of sad. Most of the carriers have never really given it a chance or put it in a place in their stores where potential customers could look at and play with it. I'm in Western Washington, so I'm pretty certain it has a higher market penetration here. In my office (and no, I don't work at Microsoft), it seems like we have a fairly even mix between iPhone, Windows Phone, and Android devices (to be fair, many people in the office came from Microsoft and had their WP devices subsidized while there).

Outside of work, I have several friends who also use WP - a couple in the insurance industry, a couple students, etc. All of them seem pretty happy with them.

Each of the 3 OSs has some benefits over the others, but when compared side by side I wouldn't say any is at a clear disadvantage. WP probably has the best hardware quality available with the iPhone 6 a close second, Android is easily the most customizable, and iOS may win in the "mostly just works for everything you really want to do" department (has all the apps and the simplicity/consistency of UI).

So, to each their own, but counting out WP just because "it's Microsoft" or "because WP7 sucked" is shortsighted at best.

Among the people who use it, Windows Phone is already hugely popular. Every time I'm around people with iPhones or Android phones, I hear complaint after complaint about things that don't work right, underwhelming features, etc.

Everyone I know with a Windows phone loves it. Note that this was NOT true of WP7, but the latest WP8.1 phones are great! I've had a Lumia 521, Lumia 925, and now Lumia 830, and all have been excellent phones. The 521 is still my backup/travel phone.

How many models of phone does Microsoft make? Add to that, how many models of phones are available from other manufacturers running the Windows Phone OS?

How many models of phone does Apple make?

I don't think Microsoft is losing in the mobile space because of giving customers too few options.

Alright, you got me... hands up! don't shoot!

Everyone who enters starts saying impulsively, "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!"

That's the best they could come up with from their scrap pile? *puke* They'll pay more for power over the next 3 years than it would cost them to buy some decent enterprise-level servers with real switches.

The EX-4200 is great, for a basic SOHO or OOB switch, but I wouldn't use it where any real connectivity was required.

This. SaaS is NOT the way to go, unless you like supporting things like human trafficking and all the evils that go along with that. Even in countries where SaaS is legal and regulated, a very high percentage of the girls/boys are in some way victims trafficking, coercion, forced drug use, etc.

If you're going to go for the classless casual hookup, at least go to a bar with other people looking for the same thing.

Also, don't die if you can avoid it. I don't know who you are or what your situation is, but as someone who has lost many people I cared about, just... don't.

"it's so weird-looking; it's up in the air in terms of what it is. It is unbelievably fragile, and... it looks like it has wet tissue paper floating behind it. And it has a weird snout — it looks like a cartoon dog snout."

Sounds an awful lot like someone I saw walking out of the women's restroom at WalMart once.

Oops, I forgot.. pointing out that Microsoft does things for logical business reasons gets one down-modded around here. I repent. Microsoft just did it to screw you, *personally.* All the new beta features have been directed to whichever platform you don't use, as a way to screw you for being you.

Actually, suicide is typically not talked about in Western media because they're trying not to encourage copycats. That's why, with very few exceptions (Robin Williams, other famous people) you typically won't find anything in the paper. I know Microsoft has had at least one jumper from the Lincoln Square office in Bellevue, other tech companies probably have too. Funny thing, anywhere you treat people as sub-human for long enough, strange psychological things happen and they start to lose the will to live.

But, by and large, I agree with the lack of coverage in the media. People who may be borderline suicidal can be triggered by reading about other peoples' suicides, no need for the media to perpetuate the problem with in-depth coverage and how-to guides.

In case you never noticed, Skype needs customers to stay relevant. Even the idiots in management at Microsoft realize this. They also - at least mostly - realize that no matter how popular, not even Skype will bring users to a crap OS like Windows 8. They continue to support other OSs (and even add support for new non-MSFT platforms) because the world has moved on from being Windows-only. That doesn't stop them from releasing new features for their own flagshit OS first, however (typo not accidental).

I'll see your Denmark and counter you a Mexico. Guns are also extremely difficult to get legally in Mexico, and yet it has one of the bigger gun violence problems of any country that comes to mind - far bigger than the US.

Primarily because this "coward way out" leads to large numbers of people being unafraid to commit crimes. Would you also refuse to intervene in a rape if you saw it about to happen or in progress? I mean, the cops will catch the rapist eventually. How about a homicide, if you see a few kids stomping a homeless Tuba player to death, are you going to just walk on by? You pay taxes for this kind of thing don't you? The homeless guy can be replaced, your life and limb less so. The cops will catch the murdering youths eventually (RIP Ed, Seattle remembers you fondly).

Maybe you'd also sit placidly on a plane that was being taken over by a few guys with box cutters. I mean, the coward way out is more often than not the smart one, right? Let them have the plane, the airline has insurance and can buy a new one anytime.

Your victim mentality is not helpful to you, or society. You want crime to skyrocket? Play the victim, you seem to have the mindset down. You want crime rates to decrease? Refuse to be a victim. If I go down, I go down fighting. If I see someone being beaten, abused, robbed, raped, I will not stand idly by or walk on past, I will intervene on their behalf. I will not be a victim, and I will not stand idly by out of selfishness while others are victimized.

Is that supposed to be funny, or dumb? I'm not quite sure what you're going for. See, Indians are these people that come from a place called India. They're not known for casinos, they're known for working long hours for low wages to take jobs from more highly qualified American workers in this thing called the "H1-B" program.