When you get into the "real world" use of tablets, not Jonny Ive sat lounging with one in an ad, but actually using one, you realise that they're actually a pretty bad idea. The positioning is all wrong. How do you watch a 2hr movie on one? Hold it up or look downwards. Neither are as comfortable as watching a movie on a TV or even a laptop where the screen is supported. Touch screens might be new, but they're not progress over more accurate and faster keyboards and mice.

A tablet offers less than a tablet, with few upsides. OK, they're smaller and lighter, but they're not so small as to give any advantages. Anywhere that you can take an iPad, you can take a laptop.

This is what I can never get about this "great media consumption device". At best, it does a lot of different media consumption quite badly, meaning that you still can't replace all the dedicated devices.

It'll play MP3s, but you can't exactly use it down a gym. It'll play movies, but a 10" screen with no stand isn't as good as a laptop, let alone a 32" TV. It'll give you eBooks but a kindle is far easier to read

A laptop is actually a better "media consumption device". Larger screen, self-supporting. Every single service that can give you content on an iPad is also available on a PC, and a PC allows you to watch a load of internet media that you can't get on an iPad. You can watch a Blu-Ray or DVD. You can plug in your movie library via USB. You have far more storage space. If you want to put it on a TV, you need nothing more than an HDMI cable.

The problem is that until someone makes the design more productive than a laptop, it won't be as good. That's not just about the keyboard, but also that the laptop is designed to give you a vertical, self-supporting screen. An iPad may be smaller and lighter than a laptop, but it really isn't any more portable. Anywhere that you can take an iPad, you can also take a laptop.

They're not even better as a "media consumption device". 10" 4x3 device with no stand is better than my 14" 16x9 laptop? Does it have as many formats? Can it store as many movies? Does it have an HDMI connector built in? If I use LoveFilm, can I watch it onto my TV or does the app block that?

No, we're technology skeptics. Show us why these are better than what we had before and we'll use them. And we're about to be proven right about the "bonnet welded shut" thinking as the iPad 1 is about to stop getting upgrades. It's likely to be a redundant device, 2 years after they were sold.

The whole survey looks odd to me. I work on MS sites and a decade or so ago, there was quite a lot of C around, but with today's hardware, I hardly see any of it now. Maybe I'm hanging around in the wrong sites or job boards, but most of the demand on places like Jobserve seems to be around .net, Java and php. Any chance that this survey is including a load of c# results in c?

I give it a year, maybe 2 before the 3D thing dies out. The studios liked hyping it because you couldn't see it on TV, the theaters liked it because they could charge a premium. But the fact is that audiences have got bored with it. They're opting for 2D.

I guess it's a rally car, then.

Some of the global warming is man-made. You drive a car, it burns fossil fuels and produces CO2 and the planet warms. You won't find many skeptics doubting that

The problem is all the stuff about feedback effects and just how much of a problem they are. The results of the past 15 years are that we did not see warming that was within the range of the models. I know scientists working in other fields who say that the methodological approaches and their attitude to open presentation of results are poor and would not be tolerated in their field of science.

Oh, he's been a writer for 25 years. Not a CIO, not a businessman, not a geek. He should go and actually try working in the real world.

HR are mostly about covering ass and are fine for checkout/call centre staff. Beyond that, they're a pain in the ass.

I had a manager who had a huge fight because HR wouldn't hire IT guys without degrees. They'd screen out people with 10-15 years experience.

Like paying a composer by the number of notes that he writes

There's already drug tests out there. This makes it cheaper. Expect to see more drug testing, citizen.

Seriously, I can only hope that the people at UEA DIAF because a fireman was suspended for having a joint a week ago, because their technology made it easier to drug test them.

If you're working to support the war on drugs, you're a money-grabbing fascist. Go and research how to make drugs that can't be detected by sniffer dogs and make the law a farce and we might see a change in them.

And really, that's just not a BFD. If Android saw that the world desperately used it and were moving to WP7 because of it, they'd soon get a release out that integrated it.

The whole thing with WP7 is two desperate companies getting together. Microsoft are basically throwing money at getting market share, and think that they're entitled to a large chunk of the market. But what kept Windows and Office in place (getting the lion's share of the market first, formats) just doesn't apply here. And while WP7 might do a few things better, the bulk of people are on Android.

What's funny to me is that MS are chasing Apple and Android when their natural home is stuff for corporates. They should be building a phone that's designed around all their business services, push email, Exchange and asp.net/winforms. Instead they've built a locked phone that's geared around silverlight, so for corporates, it's hopeless.

Let me get this straight: you're working for someone who is about to release a flagship project, but the code is a mess and you've got 2 members of staff and the only person who really knows about it is you.

Now I'll explain what your real situation is: you're filling in for your management being not very good. Those guys aren't putting in a real investment, and through your efforts you're keeping them going.

So, the question to you is this: what are you getting for being a crucial part of their company? You see, I've seen this dozens of times... people who work 8am to 7pm every day because the work needs doing without telling the management to go screw themselves when the management refuse to get more staff in. People who earn little more than the people doing 9 to 5.

Regardless of another job, I would go to these guys and suggest they make you a director, or put you on share options for your work.