I can. In the Netherlands. No tricks required. We even get dutch commercials (joy)

This is also the case for many of the commercial open source offerings. I know at least Zimbra supports the four protocols you mentioned. These protocols are really great and completely open, but their biggest drawback is increased configuration on the client side - not very user friendly.

It should be possible. I know it has been done for z-push (open activesync, originally from Zarafa) and Zimbra, an unrelated product. Implementing OpenChange for these projects might not be in the best interest of the involved companies, since most of their revenue comes from charging for their specific Outlook plug-in.

It's not that impressive, really. Zimbra has gone from six million paid mailboxes in 2007, to 40 million in 2009, to 65 million in 2010.
I do believe all these commercial open source projects should work together on the OpenChange project to finally get rid of those Outlook connectors.

OpenChange is very promising, but hardly production ready.
SOGo is not a feature per feature match for OX, Scalix, Zimbra or Zarafa. These are all mature projects with a large installed user base. If you are worried about license fees (which usually include paid support), you can always use the free editions of these projects and not use Outlook.

I just put all my photo's in a gigantic encrypted file labeled "WikiLeaks Insurance" on the Piratebay. For some reason, people seem to seed it.

Actually, things don't really change that fast. Most of the paradigms and patterns we use today are still leftovers from the '60's and '70's. Usually, I find that learning a new language becomes easier each time I try it. I think there are two separate issues going on here:
Running after new stuff just because it's there? Yes, out of pure interest in new technologies, this is what got me into IT in the first place, since I was a kid. The longer I work in this field, the more abstract (and often longer lived) these technologies become, from applications to frameworks, from frameworks to languages.
Using all this new stuff for commercial projects? Usually, no. I like to use whichever technology is mainstream and proven in a particular field. At least a couple of years of stability and upgrades to really flesh out those libraries. I really believe that picking up new technologies should become easier, not harder, as you gain a high level concept of what's going on.

Booting Bertha?

PS. Why do cleaning people need access to core infrastructure sockets? These things should be behind locks. On a separate feed.

We are one of the worst offenders in that regard.

Don't beat yourself up too much about it. I think, given the chance, any western government would be just as bad. It's just that yours is the most powerful.

You mean by dividing Germany up in two, giving half to the soviets and then simply waiting forty years for them to overthrow their communist government?
Yes, I guess that worked out just fine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany

Thanks to your link, I now know the Zimbabwean backbone uses someones 300 baud modem.

Here in the Netherlands, I pay about $65 a month for 120Mbps downstream. My cable provider very much likes me to use all sorts of streaming services, because otherwise I would have no need for a 120Mbps connection. They even go as far as to peer with the various Dutch media providers. Of course, this is a little easier here since everyone is on the same internet exchanges (AMS-IX and NL-IX) anyway.

Well, they should be. The whole point of this was to prevent the arms race from escalating further. Remember the cold war? No probably not.

Isn't that what the fifth amendment is for? I wouldn't know, I'm Dutch.

Wouldn't that be considered double jeopardy? I think they can only do that if new evidence surfaces. Unless they consider it a new crime, but that would be akin to convicting a criminal again and again because the victim remains dead.