The big issue is that Marijuana is currently schedule I. Because of this, the ONDCP isn't legally allowed to do anything but keep opposing the attempts to legalize it.

Responsibilities. –The Director– [...]

(12) shall ensure that no Federal funds appropriated to the Office of National Drug Control Policy shall be expended for any study or contract relating to the legalization (for a medical use or any other use) of a substance listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812) and take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form) that– is listed in schedule I of section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 812); and has not been approved for use for medical purposes by the Food and Drug Administration;

And it'll maybe... just maybe be about ISDN speed.

Who the hell decided to not do the format conversion when they phased out the old system?

Not only are there security ramifications of opening your network like that; but there are also legal ramifications as well. Do I really want to be sued or have my house raided by the police/FBI because my jackass neighbor or some random person decided to use torrent or look at subversive material on my connection? No.

Yep. Not to mention that Government IT is heavily limited by bureaucratic bullshit. The contractor I currently work for is barred from using Wi-Fi on our laptops with the government image on it (they're disabled in the BIOS). But we're for some stupid reason allowed to use cellular air data cards. It really fucks up our employees who must connect in a hotel since most hotels are dropping the Ethernet connection and going pure wireless.

I use old burned out DDR3 sticks for a mirror decoration. They even have a little convenient hole to put a thread through.

Optional, but a pain in the ass since you'd have to sideload all the applications since you cannot get it from the Play store.

Bingo.

When it comes to outsourcing/contractors, it is all about the stock numbers. Many places will lay off employees before getting rid of contractors. Payroll hurts stock outlooks while contractors can be buried in the paperwork.

We're starting to Migrate to Windows 7 where I am at. Windows 8 is too untested with our systems to even consider it.

Plus anyways, you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to tell end users where something is at without the safety of the start menu to fall back on?

Government IT of any kind is mostly inept. I used to work on government systems and holy hell were they buggy and prone to downtime.

Simple: In order to complete a call, you have to enter a captcha into the phone (eg, you are told a string of numbers and then must enter them.) Applies to all outgoing calls except for 911. Now where's my 50 quid?

The closest competitor to Intel after AMD is ARM... and I really don't see too many desktops/laptops with ARM. PowerPC is another, but since Apple ran to Intel, they're mostly out of that sector as well with the exception of a few niche machines (such as A-EON's machines meant for the AmigaOS fans).

Because unfortunately many companies focus too much on profit margins and EBITA. My company used the EBITA model and laid off enough production workers and IT support that it ultimately bit us in the ass when our largest client completely changed their requirements for the contact we had with them. The industry I'm in requires everyone to have a clearance, and you just cannot replace that many people who need to pass a 3-7 month federal background investigation on the drop of the hat. Luckily our current CEO (came in after the mass layoff) also hates the word EBITA with a passion.

"Do we even need a space heater division?"

FTFY.

Well, RIM was doing well until Apple decided to release their own smartphone in 2007. The iPhone stole a large chunk of the young female demographic that RIM depended on (before the iPhone, most girls I knew with a smartphone had their crackberries), as well as a large chunk of their executive/business clients (the only member of management still using a using a BlackBerry where I work is our CEO). Also the emergence of Android in the mainstream mobile market has also buried BlackBerry as well.