In 2006/2007, you had two large fads in computing -- Web sites and Windows apps. There were billions of other things, but they were the big ones with high visibility. Today, add in 'remote virual hosted' (AKA developers are now the IT guys *shudder*) and mobile apps (A marketplace which is only now getting good tooling / support from more than a handfull of vendors) sure things may be crap compared to desktop/web which have many years of established practices and trained staffing. Look at the web in 2001 vs. 2007 and tell me there wasn't an entire f-ing world of difference in terms of quality and reliability? Try 1997 - 2004 for desktop apps?

There will always be 'developing technologies' that come out scrappy and crappy but over time they'll start getting boring and predictable like all the other technologies before them. This is just the way our eco-system (and most others) work.

Its a sad first world problem when you complain about possibly earning > 250K (gross) in property appreciation and then complain about how you can't claim 100% of a tax break that you're no longer entitled to (because you make too much). Dumb laws they may be, but you sir, complain for the wrong reasons.

I'd also address the note on savings accounts, but frankly its way to factual, boring and irrelevant to bother. Go look it up online if you want to know why your savings accounts are worth penuts these days, as sad as it is. There are reasons, but you may need to spend a lot of boring hours appreciating it.

Don't get me wrong, I know the nuance of the change, I just had to laugh that 4K video was the selling feature of a tablet. I'd be hard pressed to see the difference in 1080 / 4K with my 52" TV and I'm 20/20, forget a screen pixel density significantly smaller pixel density rating or even perceived pixel density rating.

Because what I was missing from a tablet was 4K movies!

Tell that to diaspora.

Microsoft has had arm ports of their embedded OS's for over a decade. The only reason it got any ink is because they tried to shove it into use by the general public. Since RT is probably more WinCE than NT under the hood, this just makes sense.

async+await seems a lot like features included in java.lang.Concurrent which has been in Java since 1.5 and as a popular third party add-on before that. Maybe they aren't language sugar in the same way level C# integrates with it, but it also means I can swap in various implementations of the provider if I found a more optimal solution for my specific problem area.

Dunno what you mean. Java has supported multiple JRE impl's on the same PC for at the very least 5 years and if a crap tool like FORMS does something wrong, then I'd say they're crap for it. Why not blame Flash because my Twitch video is stuttering, or blame HTTP because the web site I want to view threw a 404. Ultimately, if the end user vendor sells a crap product then blame the product, not the tool generally.

I think you missed the half-decade under Sun's stuardship where Java moved quite slowly between 1.2 -> 1.5. A language evolves to suit its community, and if it doesn't shove out the latest buzz word to the populace immediately, then I'm fine with it as long as they get to it eventually. Most library based tools have been out years before Sun/Oracle decided to standardize on a given set, which is 100% FINE. Let the trail blazers blaze trails and the standards follow. The aternative is building OSI model or maybe X.500 and expecting the world to change for them. Let a dozen interesting implementations develop and then combine the best parts of a few into the 'defacto' implementaion.

How is this post even relevant? The only way a cop will know how and who's door to 'bust down' would be through your ISP, and be damn sure that the ISP knows which IP's are being used by whom. Centsational much? I mean, one of my neighbours could be downloading child porn as we speak so I could randomly be arrested for absolutely no reason.

Well, that crazy American would be a defacto terrorist in such cases, but *shrugs*. I'm more concerned with people that are legitimately crazy becase they may not be on any list and just randomly snap on go on rampages. The best way to mitigate the 'random crazies' is to encourage mental health checks much akin to health checks and to take the dangerous toys out of their hands. But lets be frank, in America neither of those things will happen.

Apple subsidizes the OS in the cost of the overpriced PC, so it certainly isn't a free product. Plus, they charge for upgrades further sallowing your argument.
People who aren't of the pirate variety sure do pay for Windows 8 when they build their DIY kits. Most are probably gamers or PC enthusiests at this point, but people still do build PC's from parts. And of course essentially every new consumer PC runs windows and still hasd a healthy sales record. I'm sure many will also use Linux like myself but to assume that Windows 8 (or any edition) can't be given away is very narrows sighted.

DEC 94-97 had what? A not so popular PC compatible platform outside of graphics maybe, a low market share UNIX, and a DOS which was a good DOS, but still DOS in a windows world.

Windows still dwarfs all other OS's in the market space of consumer PC's. Consumer PC market has contracted, but contraction doesn't mean collapse. No Tablet on earth has been able to convince me that Tablets are replacing the PC; they're augmenting and bleeding soft corner cases certainly, but not replacing.

The world certainly needs both companies, even if Mozilla simply exists to keep companies honest, and Microsoft giving competing products and services companies a bar to step over. Microsoft could easily be in business 20 years paying out fat dividends without any significant product 'development' effort at all. Their market is very entrenched, and much like UNIX, some shops just can't justify moving off the the platforms given the amount of sunk costs +mintainance vs. replacement.

I'm pretty sure there's precicely 0 laws in place that makes it illegal to record criminal actions by a person or person's in public or in their private residence, but by all means dig one up and prove me wrong.

How precicely is this tracked? Are they forced to cast their votes on premesis? In which case I'd be sure to carry a tape recorder for discussions of this 'coercion' and sue their fucking asses into oblivion. Remember, technology works two ways.

Regardless of how much you've been indoctronated into thinking corporations are above the law and blah blah, sue them with good cause and see your justice system work. There are laws to protect you. Stop bitching and throwing your arms up in the air every time you think "well who cares? They'll just find some loophole to screw us over anyways". That Attitude just perpetuates the actual reality of a population detached from responsibility and hence authority.