My first thought was "but... the children!?" ... I would think that the primary marketing for such software would be for parents. Not that I condone such actions, at the very least it would be socially acceptable.

I actually like Metro UI (for phone/tablet) ... it's horrible as a desktop UI, and the metro apps are pretty clunky.. but for a phone/tablet UI it's decent. Not as nice imho as even the WebOS' UI that Palm had done, which is still one of my favorite UIs for mobile devices, and Android and iOS have adopted some ideas from.

Forcing Metro on the desktop versions of windows, and even into the XBox UI was a pretty big error imho. It is passable on a touch screen laptop but still not great. To this day, I think that Windows7's UI is one of the best desktop interfaces I've seen. I like Unity, but it's still really rough in some respects, and the menu interface for it is really bad if you're actually clicking through, for super+search it's okay. OSX is okay as well, but finder has its' own warts for power users. I'm currently running Windows 8.1 for my desktop with ClassicShell over it, and that's not bad. My laptop is OSX and I run Ubuntu's Unity on a couple machines as well.

At least MS stopped trying to shove a desktop paradigm onto mobile users, now if only they could stop shoving the mobile UI to the desktop. I think that there are some really bright people at MS, but their management style has really hindered a lot of things over the years. That's now changing (somewhat) if only because they are now trying to adapt.

If I were a company, and there were a matching stack exchange site, I'd simply have a few paid employees answering questions there...

They don't even ask for any special access to your profile. Also, if you are writing any kind of script or software today and don't have a github account, you're probably not paying attention. I know in some circles it's a little less important, but github is pretty much the common denominator for development today.

It's no less likely for their target audience to have a github account than say twitter, facebook or google plus.

No kidding... I doubt this would have issue running on a couple medium sized cloud instances for db and web... unless it's in an enterprise framework like Java or .Net designed by an enterprise architect. (Or by Oracle) ... I kid, knowing you can build fast and scalable software with those tools, but that doesn't always work out to be the case.

I just wish i could get the 7 bitcoins back I lost early on... ran a miner really early on to play with it... didn't get much use, and deleted the software and wallet... if I sold at a peak to USD, would have a bit of cash. I didn't think they'd be as successful as they have. When I see a traditional bank offering exchange rates, I'll convert.

Which is true in the same way that you need to use an exchange when going to/from USD and GBP or Yen.... If you get paid in BTC, and buy stuff in BTC, then you don't need an exchange.

I think that 4K displays will shake things up, once they hit a point where they can support >= 60Hz at 4k, and hdmi2 becomes more common, I think it will be relatively awesome and I'm looking forward to it. Though for my own use (mostly development) 4K is probably sufficient today... been considering a 39-42" 4k screen even at reduced refresh rate for my desktop.

For those, like yourself, that don't already know CERT is now under DHS. CERT has some pretty big credibility.

The last time I installed linux... I had only my SSD plugged in... when I connected my other drives everything was fine, then I ran updates a few days later... part of the updates included an update to grub, which after said update would no longer boot. This was a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 a couple years ago. Prior to that, my attempt for linux as my primary desktop OS was in 2006 which resulted in a lot of effort to get both 3D acceleration and multi-monitor support... prior to that, was a regression issue with intel video drivers on a laptop selected for linux back in 2004 (or so) that made it unable to watch youtube videos, or play frozen bubble... Every time I've tried linux as my primary desktop, I hit a level of frustration that is intolerable. I have a Cubox-i4-pro that was doing XBMC chores (for two months) that now won't boot, not sure why... I use linux without a GUI for servers... I am building a new version of the web apps at work targeting node (to run in linux) and find that android works pretty damned well. All of that said, I'll take my macbook or windows desktop over another attempt at using linux for my primary desktop OS... I don't have the free time or patience to deal with edge cases that seem to pile up to unusable solutions. I've tried Linux on the desktop and it failed repeatedly.

I actually appreciate Amazon's approach.. imho a business should either expand/invest or return dividends... I don't like companies that simply bank significant profits or hold onto under-utilized assets for years. Amazon uses its assets. Also, the share price has grown to reflect this overall growth in value, while not specifically paying out dividends... Good for them, this is a very small blip, and you're right, I don't think their phone is the answer.. maybe at a sub $400 out of contract price (in line with the Nexus phones from Google).

Agreed, the RDP client is decent too... been considering using a windows vps for dev work that needs VS, from my chromebook.

What OS is this $99 device you speak of going to run?

It's funny, because (starting with the smokers, which I am not), we are headed in that direction... there's already soft discrimination against smokers and increasingly with fat people. This is going to be increasingly backed under the cost to provide insurance, and will only get worse... those genetically disparaged will eventually feel the same pains.

I'm not meaning to seem like a tinfoil hat type... but I am seeing the trend, and it frankly is upsetting to say the least.

Honestly, the real name thing didn't bug me so much as the "vanity" url name they give me is "MyFullName" instead of "nickname" ... when I search for my nickname, I'm a significant portion of the results... I should have been able to get this.. with their old profile system, I had it.. now I still don't.