Each phone has an IMEI burned into it's hardware. This IMEI and the phone number are transmitted to the cell tower every time you communicate. All IMEIs for a given carrier are whitelisted. What the system does is remove the IMEI of stolen phones from the whitelist. A hacker would have to change the IMEI of the phone to another one on the whitelist. This may be trivial or hard based on the hardware, but such systems have been active in Australia for 20 years now, and the market for stolen phones is still non existent.

MSFT can't afford to abandon the entry level market. All those low end phones that teenagers can afford on their prepaid plans all being loaded with Android. Later getting enough money for a plush smartphone.

Go with the platform and apps they know OR buy into an unknown platform and hope it's better than the one they are used to.

Why are ipod touches relatively cheap?

Coca Cola. A beverage. Quality is mistaken for consistency. Penfold's Grange. A beverage (Australian Shiraz for all those not willing to do the footwork) Quality places it at the top of the market for beverages.

Nike. "Everybody wears Nike" until you actually look at people who take their sport seriously. And then there are a plethora of shoe makers who offer custom fit shoes. Then it comes down to "Nike is worn by newbies, and people who are sponsored by Nike"

Ford. You buy Ford if you can't afford Aston, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, etc etc

All examples of MBAs providing us with mediocrity when there are people out there trying to provide excellence...

Nope. That right is reserved for those who can competently operate wire cutters and have them stashed in their draw.

I'd pay for a 1:4 size raptor skeleton in plastic to sit in my lounge room. Even 1:1 if it would fit.

I'd be happy with this arrangement, because I would get my decor, and the palientologists would get the original to discover stuff on.

No. There is a simple mathematical way. To register a copyrighted work should cost a dollar in the first year. Every man and their dog can register that. It costs double that on year 2. After 10 years it's costing you $1000 ish to own the copyright. So you had better be making more than that for it to be worthwhile. After 15 Years, it's costing you bucket loads.

You can keep paying for the long tail, but now it becomes a business decision over whether you keep a copyright or not. Disney can keep Steamboat Willie indefinitely, if they can afford it.

"Bitcoin. If you cant hold it, you can't flip it."

By my reading of the summary, it seems to me that a coin (which can be used in the noble game of Two up) would be considered a "Device that can be used in Games Of Chance."

Not only have they banned computers. They seem to have banned currency. I wonder how they will pay the police to police this.

Congratulations. You have won the Cynics badge.

No matter how bad you think things can get, Realitiy will always go one better.

And of the other 3% of client scientists, Half of them have "No opinion"

Yes. Much better in test than in prod. I have to agree with you there.

Tablets with Keyboards were called "laptops" because you need to put them down to type.

*Disclaimer: I use an Asus Transformer and like it.

You don't have a dev environment... Go grab 2 workstations and a switch and MAKE ONE NOW!

It also sounds like your testing regime needs working on. Devs do not say the code is ready. Users do. They get to break it 15 minutes into the test. They don't have to follow the Official Tests. This is called User Acceptance Testing. Devs will whinge about this because their mistakes are hi-lighted and "It worked for them" I speak from experience. I hate when users fail my code. But it's my fault, and I need to make my code better.

ITIL. Make everything in the IT department managed.
Pick the metrics that best suit the needs of the business. If you are a 9 to 5 operation, 5 nines means nothing.
Examine and improve those metrics. Alter metrics when you find the situation being gamed.
Any new project has a business case. That business case has metrics that the success of the project will be measured against. If there isn't a "10% increase in production of widgets", then the project was a failure. The manager can be held accountable for all those numbers. The manager (given the data) can forecast projects more accurately. The manager manages based on numbers rather than gut feeling.

But people do work in print houses. They are copywriters, They do like viewing their finished leaflets. It's not so much about the power of the product (and lets face it, for image manipulation, it rules the roost) it's about the ecosystem that goes with it.