Of course the alternate version of that story

PHB: We need to add features X, Y and Z to our legacy inventory system
IT guy: The code is a giant pile of garbage, it would be cheaper and faster to rewrite the whole thing.
PHB: Ok, give it a try
(Six months pass)
PHB: How's the new inventory control system?
IT Guy: Going great- we just need some more time to get it functional
(Six months pass)
PHB: How's the new inventory control system? We really could use it
IT Guy: Almost done. We just need to make sure it supports the latest standards
(Six months pass)
PHB: Need that inventory control system guys...
IT Guy: Well, the standards have been in a bit of flux and when you're trying to put out really modern code you need to deal with that. By the way, we need a lot beefier server to handle the load, ok? It's a bit slow right now
(Six months pass)
PHB: Um, hello?
IT Guy: Really, it's almost done. It's going to be amazing! We're in the process of rearchtecting the main DB module to support Foobar 2.6 right now since Foobar 2.5 wasn't quite ready for prime time.
(Six months pass)
PHB: Look guys, we have to have this *now*. The legacy code can't run much longer without maintenance.
IT Guy: Well, here's my notice- I found a great new job programming cool Ruby code with a startup. I've put some comments in the code that should let you figure out what it does. It should build fine provided you only use the exact environment I specify and the front end works on a beta version of Chrome I downloaded. Go ahead and ship!

I always tell my students that Wikipedia is a great place to start learning about a topic.

It's a lousy place to stop. Cite nothing but Wikipedia and you're going to get a crappy grade.

(Cut+paste from Wikipedia and I haul you in front of the honor commission, along with nice color coded pages showing exactly what was lifted.)

Same reason they call porn actors/actresses "talent"

I got one and commented (favorably) in the other tablet thread, for which I was told that the iPad mini will blow away the Nexus 7 and that I sounded like a douche.

Clearly you should avoid the Nexus 7

Why? Not buying from a company that engages in business practices you dislike is one of the very few powers ordinary consumers have. Don't like Apple's sue-happy policy? Don't buy, and let them know why.

As I mentioned in the other tablet thread, Apple better worry about the Nexus. It's flat out a better device than the iPad- yes, it's smaller, but going back to iOS on my iPad feels like stepping back in time. Really, it's not close anymore- Apple's sat on their laurels and has decided to sue rather than innovate, and iOS 6 has a ways to go to catch up.

As far as the profits argument, that's very true, just like it was back in the early days of the PC vs. the Mac. Apple has always had better margins than the commodity makers, but that doesn't matter since there will always be another member of the horde to take the place of anyone squeezed out. I own some Apple stock and I'm beginning to worry about it- the parallels to what happened to the Mac are beginning to look awfully obvious.

Then again, I bought the stock back in 1998 at something like $2.50/share adjusted for splits, so I probably shouldn't complain too loudly...

I spent the last week with a Nexus 7- it simply blows the Fire and Nook away. It's not even close.

For that matter, it blows away the iPad as well. After using it for a week, going back to iOS feels like going back in time. The Nexus is easier to use, more flexible, more responsive and it just plain feels slicker. I suspect an honest comparison between an iPad mini and the Nexus won't come up too well for the iPad. I'm sure it will still be bought in droves by the faithful, but Apple's been passed by Google.

Against a Dark Background and Use of Weapons are close seconds. Just unrelentingly bleak- truly awful things happen to anyone likable, the good guys frequently turn out to be evil as hell and virtually nobody survives. I find it rather ironic that CP and UoW occur in the Culture, which is his ultimate techo-utopia. AaDB occurs in a star system that's been ejected from it's galaxy- there are no other stars within thousands of light years. The local civilization has occupied every space within the system over and over again, only to destroy itself in pointless wars. All three are truly awesome books though- he throws out more interesting ideas in a page than lesser authors do in entire series.

His last few SF books have been a lot more upbeat (at least for him) for some reason- Excession is laugh out loud funny in quite a few places, as is Surface Detail. Matter and Look To Windward at least end on happy notes.

You can use their notebooks, which aren't that expensive IMHO, or you can print your own paper. You need a color laser printer and it's pretty slow to print but they give you a PDF of a couple of various types.

Umm, yeah, about that. They've killed a whole pile more people than either the US or Russian programs, but most folks in China don't know about it since the Chinese government suppresses the news.

You're using the Skunkworks as an example? Seriously?

Hint: The Skunkworks built airplanes for the US government, under US government contracts. Here's the list of planes they built- see anything civilian on that list? A number of your other examples are dubious at best- a huge amount of GE's R&D is government funded through the military. Bell Labs existed only because Bell had a monopoly on phone service- it's no accident that as soon as that monopoly was gone and they had to compete in a free market Bell Labs was gone as well.

As for your thesis that government research crowds out civilian, I'd counter that long term R&D simply isn't something most companies these days can budget for. That's not because the government is competing with them, it's because the stock market demands that they produce higher quarterly profits every single period. Pure R&D is expensive and almost always results in nothing more than a bunch of research papers without any revenue. It's the first thing to go when the CEO needs to trim costs.

I know- $25/hour for a job that requires a bachelors, a ton of certifications and increasingly a masters degree. I mean, who are these folks to demand middle class wages? I mean, they're only responsible for educating our kids. We need to cut their pay to something reasonable like $10/hour. We'll save a ton of tax money that way, and I'm sure the kids will never notice. (At least those unfortunate enough to have to go to public school, that is. The deserving wealthy can use their tax cuts to pay for private school tuitions.)

You think that, but you're not correct. An awful lot of advertising has nothing to do with selling X to you right now. It's to let you know that X is available, and from company Y. In a year or two you might find a case where you need X, and your subconscious will remember that you can get it from Y. Most people only consider 2-3 options when buying something, so getting on that list is critical.

Yes, both Home Depot and Lowes do events like this. They also sell kits that work along the same lines. My kid's grandfather likes to give them to us and the kids have a good time putting them together. They're nothing very complex- you can usually assemble them with a hammer and a screwdriver in 30 minutes, but it's good practice. The kids were actually thrilled this year when the birdhouses they built over the winter ended up inhabited with baby birds.

Code all your websites in Flash! You get a stable, cross-platform rich browsing experience without all the issues of figuring out what version of HTML you need. With some work, we can turn the browser into a stable, speedy Flash-delivering platform and let HTML die like the dinosaur that it is.