I spec'ed out the xoticpc as closely as I could to the MBP 17" stock model at $2499. It came to $1218.

However, it has a 1400x900 display (vs 1920x1200), no wireless-n option, no GeForce 9400M/9600M GT graphics, no information about weight and, possibly most importantly, no information about battery life.

While it does come in significantly less expensive, I don't think that you can argue that they are equivalent.

It's not hard to write a better one. It's hard to write one that's still compatible with the a) unpublished, b) quirkily implemented, c) voluminous spec that is MS word. At least sufficiently well enough to be a modest replacement.

I'm sure the folks at OO.o have been trying VERY hard to match Word behavior, but it's obviously not that simple.

I've run into several issues where OO.o doesn't render word docs properly and many more where an OO.o saved doc doesn't render properly at all in Word.

A shame, really. But that's the reason that we still have MS Office in the house. My wife and I use it for work just often enough that we can't afford not to have it.

That's Diet Coke breaks(tm) for those of us on this side of the pond. :)

Caught me off guard there thinking "That's not the way the commercials went..."

Dammit... there you go leaking national security secrets.

Now we'll have to come up with something else to make them out of.

Paper towel rolls and Dixie cups with tissue paper for "flames", perhaps?

Congratulations! You have just expedited your addition to the no-fly list by using those two words in the same sentence!

Now you can get "assistance" at the airport when bringing your replacement batteries along!

--Your friends at the TSA (or your local equivalent)

It wouldn't be a /. car analogy if it wasn't flawed...

When _I_ read the headline, I thought it was an announcement of a new product called "Microsoft Caves", which would change security in Windows 7.

I figured that in order to improve security, they would put you in your own "cave" (figuratively or, perhaps, literally). Seemed like a terrible concept, but from the makers of "Bob", who knows...

"User switching now called 'visiting another person's cave'!"... uh... wait... maybe not.

Think of the ear-infection diagnostic opportunities!

Argh... if only it had a flash.

Isn't that when all the parents take their kids there?

My Walmart horror story:
I have a vivid memory of going to pick up baby formula (something that couldn't wait) at 0730 on a Sunday morning and passing a streetwalker near the food section who'd apparently just gotten off her shift.

I'm hoping she was a working girl, given the scariest leopard print dress and tallest heels I've ever seen.

Scary, scary stuff, that early on a Sunday.

</trauma>... <please /trauma?>

Uh... they do. They have the same sort of records for the breathalyzers. I was "fortunate" enough to be chosen for a DWI jury in Texas and we were offered testimony and evidence of exactly that.

Sadly, we had a hung jury because two jurors thought he "didn't look that drunk", even though he was clearly not behaving the way a sane, sober person would act in a situation with that much on the line and he blew more than twice the legal limit (while under age, no less).

DNRTFA: Do Not Resuscitate The Fine Article?

A modest proposal in so many cases...

Whoah. Wait a minute here. I agree that microsoft has a pretty good track record for backwards compatibility. And I will concede that I stopped using their crap over 6 years ago. But this rah-rah crap needs to be taken into perspective.

We all, I think, will concede that microsoft's biggest problem with their operating system is not their look and feel, not their inability to produce powerful applications, but the sheer amount of cruft in their applications and operating systems due to the "bolting" on of features that should have been inherent in the actual design.

Apple bit the bullet many years ago (as the System 7 team originally demanded of Amelio in order to give a true 32-bit multi-tasking os) when Jobs came back on board by making a new OS that was mostly incompatible with existing applications. But, since I fled Apple back in the 90's because of how crappy their OS had become, they have me back in their fold BECAUSE they took this step and thus made their platform finally stable.

I still use Linux and OS X on a daily basis and eschew anything microsoft. But here's the deal, guys. microsoft has to take the hit and actually redesign their system to be SECURE, NETWORKED, AND MODERN. This was promised with NT. No dice. Was promised with Windows Millenium. Again, nothing changed. 2000? Nope. XP? Better, but still the promise was broken. Each time they promised the new system was "rewrite." And each time, it was a lie.

I don't expect microsoft to protect all stupid users from themselves. But promising these features and the stability and reliability I have had with Apple and Linux for many years and then using those promises merely for marketability without being able to produce is the biggest fraud in our industry (well, aside from Duke Nuke'm Forever, maybe).

Eventually backwards compatibility, as sacred as it should be, has to bow to modernity. And microsoft needs to figure this out.