Before or after Elop?

Wouldn't it be more effective to open more trade with Russia and introduce them to more of our culture? That'll put them flat on their ass. Give them all the Coke, Meth, Gay Rights, Westboro Baptist, Al Sharpton, Ku Klux Klidiots, Hollywood, Ferguson and throw in a GIANT Double Helping of Illegal Mexican Immigrants who want rights, Indian Casinos, Kochs, Polygamous Mormons, "potpourri", industrial pork, McDonalds, WalMart, PBS and Diane Feinstein. Just see if that doesn't set them back a ways...

How much did cellular voice and data cost back then?

OVERKILL, because it absolutely works every single time.

Who is Elon Musk?

To be blunt, I would have expected otherwise from a private enterprise. To keep the rocket flying as long as it possibly can in the vain hope that it may recover, or to at least get more telemetry, and just hope it doesn't destroy too much when it comes back down.

Unless all smartphones on a carrier with service near your home and office and with the ability to run the apps that your employer requires have a battery not intended for end user replacement. Of course, one could "choose" not to take a job in the first place, but then complaining about not being able to find a job would bring accusations of not trying hard enough.

Just trust the free market.

Or, put another way, rest assured the first thing I do when I find shit like that in my fridge is to create a server that tells my fridge everything is all right and plays a Tom and Jerry cartoon (sans PC-censoring) instead of an ad on the built in screen.

I'll hand you the source when it's done. Just in case you prefer another cartoon

How is that true when I buy a phone up front?

"The world will pay me one gazillion dollars or I will unleash a rapid unscheduled disassembly upon the moon!!!!"

Do you write dystopian stories in your pastime? If not, you should.

Routers are (hopefully...) a bit more advanced in their security makeup, considering that they are routinely used by people who don't think TCP is the three letter acronym for the Chinese secret service, not to mention that there has been a bit of time now to find bugs in router hard- and software and iron them out.

It's "an" when the implication is that one might kill oneself, like "an hero". One who hunts unsafely, for instance, is "an Nimrod".

Sorry, but "Internet of Things", the term at least, has become a buzzword. As you correctly identified, it's bullshit bingo material considering that pretty much anything connected to the internet almost invariably has to be a thing (apologies to all the cyborgs out there). The "buzzwordism" (I really hope that doesn't become a buzzword now...) lies in the term meaning something along the line of "appliances connected to the internet that were not supposed to be connected when they were originally created". Routers, switches, hubs, bridges... they are by definition supposed to be connected to some sort of network. They have no use outside of one. Computers, gaming consoles and maybe even TVs kinda "belong" on a network, because even though they have a use without, it kinda makes sense to connect them.

It's different for what the appliance industry termed "white goods". Washing machines, dryers, fridges, stoves... they came into existence long, long before anything remotely resembling a computer or internet, and people don't immediately consider them something they would possibly connect to a network. Those are the "things" the "internet of things" talks about.

And this is basically also the reason why "internet of things" belongs to the buzzwords. Or, maybe rather, buzzterms. It's a made up term that qualifies a certain group of items that makes no sense whatsoever outside the world of marketing.

And that's what's wrong with our world. The most important positions remain unfilled, I'm almost certain that I'm the only household around this area that has a CISO.

Them explain applications in PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, Nintendo's eShop, Apple's App Store, Amazon Appstore, Google Play Store, Steam, etc. Sometimes a 30% cut can be can be easier than buying SSL hosting, a merchant account, and store tech support staff, especially with the swipe fees that card processors charge for small purchases and the $5 setup fees that stores charge for MC/Visa/AMEX gift cards.