Bless my users and their black little hearts, desktop support is highly unlikely to ever vanish. Certainly change, certainly remote desktop support (ie gotoassist) will increase, however there will still (likely) be situations where an actual person is going to be needed to go directly to a person and help.

With the increase in mobile computing and potential to see the desktop PC effectively vanish in 20 years (or less!), you will still have people who not only shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a means of communication more complex than smoke signals, and you will still need someone at the ready with a fire extinguisher. The current generation of tech savvy middle school age children will, of course, be part of that next generation of mobile users. However, problems happen. Mobile users will, most likely, still have an office which needs to be set up, which needs to have a person come and assist in problems. They will still need face to face time to help sort out issues, train in the use of a device, and possibly troubleshoot. I have many users who experience abject terror at the prospect of setting up even the most simple minded of USB printers, activating a phone, or even plugging in speakers! Odds are such phobia won't just up and vanish.

There is also a more human element that many people desire when dealing with technical issues. Perhaps we'll see more situations like Apple's genius bar, or *shudder* Geek Squad, taking shape in the business of support. But who knows? At this point, pundits shouldn't attempt to speculate about the IT industry in 2 years, let alone 8 or 20.

Meh.

They can read mine all they like. "Porn, porn, Slashdot, porn, porn, blank page, blank page, blank OOH SHINY! Porn."

Mighty fine reading, that.

Sorry, but "starting to" suggests Google's recent actions are somehow different or new. Google has been deliberately and willfully evil for years now. If memory serves, Google has revealed the names of Chinese dissidents in the past (single citation being used, though going back you do find more), and gleefully gave in to the Chinese government too many times to cite all of them, all in the name of a bit of dosh.

Why is ANY of this a surprise? Companies that have a great product, a great service, that lose focus on what their foundation is in favor of making money, will always do this, at least every instance I've seen. Even smaller companies. I'll use a local example; Here in the Boston area there is (or I should say "was") a great ice cream store named more or less for the neighborhood it was founded in. The ice cream was, to put it mildly, pure heaven. Even in the dead of winter people flocked to their locations, what they had was just that good. Over the years the quality has gone down considerably in direct proportion to how much the founder began making. Once he got some investment money from other parties, the bottom line became a bigger issue. Employees who had been with him from the first day he'd opened were fired because they looked "different" (it was a haven for artistic, counter culture people back in the 80s and to the mid 90s) and didn't fit in with his new "professional" look. The product they made became just sort of average. Walk into any chain ice cream store, and you'll get the same product. However their profits skyrocketed and they continue to do business not due to the ice cream, but the name.

Google has become no different. They own the market, and they know it. Rather than focus on doing what they do best, and NOT doing it in an evil way, they what... Release a browser, a (rather sad) OS, they see Facebook take off and using a page from Microsoft's playbook say "Why didn't WE think of that?" and come out with their own, much to the delight of dozens. Now Google is stooping to the same bush league dirty pool that other companies do.

Is anyone really surprised?

The movie about the particle collider this particle's discovery.

"Chi-b Chi-b, BANG BANG"

/me ducks

I hadn't upgraded for some time and (foolishly?) decided it was time. Unity was... Well, a disappointment. Not too long ago a friend who lives and breaths netbooks was having a strong dislike to Win7, and I suggested he try Ubuntu. It was faster than Win7, he was able to get drivers for everything, and he liked the desktop. I agreed with him entirely. However on a big screen or multi screen... Not so much.

Then I read some quotes by Mark Shuttleworth. For a minute I thought I was reading something by Bill Gates or the late Lord Steve Jobs: 'There is going to be a crowd that is just too cool to use something that looks really slick and there is nothing we can do for them'. My dear sir, it's not a matter of "cool", it's a matter of your desktop environment is crap. Now, I'm no power user. In fact, I'm more the "Walt the Janitor" of the computing world (or perhaps the Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor...) and really just use the best option for what I want to do, and in an ideal world how I want to do it. I don't use a flat screwdriver on a Phillips-head screw due to its looks, and I'm not exactly "too cool" to use something that looks "really slick". I like shiny, I like bells and whistles, and I like machines that go "PING". That said, Unity is complete shit IMO. I won't go into details on why I don't like it, and I'm sure of course that there are those here who would disagree with me on the reasons, but I just flat out have not found it an "enjoyable" desktop experience. As well, the statement by Shuttleworth: "I think the report actually meant that the launcher should be movable to other edges of the screen. I'm afraid that won't work with our broader design goals, so we won't implement that. We want the launcher always close to the Ubuntu button."

That quote right there was the nail in the coffin with me for using Unity. Yes, I know it's petty, yes I know that my reason is somewhat trite, but it just bothers me when someone says "This is how you should use your computer, and how it should look. No, you can't change that." I really did give Unity about 2 weeks of use, and got to the point where I was very comfortable using it, but it wasn't enjoyed comfort, it wasn't "ah, this is my desktop".

Credit where it is due, while I had some issues with performance, I was able to get around that (changing drivers for video card), as always with Ubuntu right from the get go I had zero problems with other devices, printers, etc. But now I'm using KDE.

When I tested it out, it did much better than my Android, with no "training". Try Android voice with a Boston accent. I tell it to call my favorite bar and it calls a sheep.....

One of the people who worked on Watson, the computer mind put to the test on Jeopardy, is my former brother in law. When BrotherInLaw -1 began on computer AI there was, at the time, no one more advanced than he to challenge his thesis. The stuff we're seeing now in Siri is very much like what Watson did and projects BIL -1 has been working on for over 10 years, only put to "commercial / consumer" use; something inevitable. I doubt anyone involved with the first missions to the moon were all up in arms saying "What? Velcro? *ththt* That's been out for ages." Remember, to much of the media and your average user, this IS bleeding edge!

This is what happens with technology. It gets invented, it gets used in science and technology circles for a while then, if it's got commercial appeal, it ends up in the hands of Joe 6GB.To those lambasting Apple, while I assure you is something I enjoy, is sort of shooting fish in a barrel.

All that said, I use Android for one very simple reason: Apple's Ap Store policy makes me rage. Their puritanical requirements on nudity, "obscenity", etc as well as their tight fisted control over interface is preposterous and reprehensible. When I'd heard they forced a German news agency change their iPhone ap due to a few boobies was when I decided I would never, ever own one. Many of my users have them, they're bought by my employer, I've been offered a new iPhone each year, but for the last two years I've very much enjoyed my Android. The voice command blows, no argument. The screen pivot is comical. But all the aps I have, I enjoy. I can play around with whatever aps I want and not brick the device. To me, that's a fair cop; One programs functionality (Siri) does not out weigh freedom to do as I wish with my devices.

Sup dawg, I herd you like Android, so I put an Android in your Android so you can Android while you Android.

OK, now I feel dirty.

As noted, do they ship refurbs? Ages ago while working for a computer retailer, we once had a Mac that someone took home which had been "re-imaged" by our service department... And when the customer got it home, it booted into BeOS. Not that I would have turned my nose up to it back then, it was a 9600 with "tons" of RAM (512, remember those days? If you had 256 people would come from far and wide just to touch your screen).

I just remove the tops then take the hammer to them. Brilliantly cathartic, let me tell you.

I've read the book by her handler, Roger Fouts, about Washoe and the other chimps he worked with.

Much as I am a proponent of medical research going forward, I can't help but feel strongly that testing on chimps/great apes is one of the biggest mistakes we could possibly make.

Really the best remedy would be homeopathy. What better way to treat an imagined allergy than an imagined cure?

On a lark, I created a username and accounts on both Yahoo and Google, then using a name something along the lines of "Honeypot", created an account on Facebook using one of the email addresses (Y! I believe). I then added a bunch of contacts in the address book of both Yahoo and Gmail, different people in each address book. In short order, I began seeing ads within Facebook while logged into the honeypot address suggesting I friend people from the address books of the account NOT tied to the Facebook account. Can't recall which email service I'd done this with first, but I am pretty sure that a Yahoo account was associated with Facebook. In other words, I would log in to Yahoo, then to Facebook, then to Gmail. Yahoo was associated with the Facebook account. After a few days, I began to see names of people whose names were in the GMail account (and I knew were email addresses associated with real Facebook accounts) suggested as friends in Facebook.

I then repeated the same; creating a new address in Gmail then a Facebook account. Few days later of going back and forth, I started seeing names in the second Gmail account popping up when I logged into the new Facebook account.

Certainly none of this is a shock to anyone, but I don't get why Google feels the need to come up with G+ and compete with Facebook. Stick to fscking search, stick to what you're best at. I don't understand this Microsoft mentality of "Oh, we didn't have this first and make money with it? Lets do one of our own! And fire the people in charge of marketing and precognition. They should have known social networking would become such a huge hit."

I don't know if I would entirely agree with this. As someone who services both Macs and PCs, across the board I would put the percentage of ignorance as roughly the same. Consider how many PC users willingly click on the popups that say "Your computer is at risk! Click here to clean" or "Your computer has detected spyware. Click to clean". As well, consider how many PC users visit video sites which claim that in order to view this video of Lindsey Lohan and a great dane getting freaky, you need this "special" video plugin. On both sides of the home computing world, there is at least as many gullible people on Windows as on Mac, it's just that Fruit Heads seem to have this foolish idea that they're somehow immune. As noted by many, the Safari exploit alone is an issue, but there are decidedly more.

Frankly what goes up my nose sideways is this statement: "One of those features is the introduction of the Mac App Store, an Apple-controlled storefront for selling and distributing applications"

So allowing Apple to have final say on what I do and don't get to install on my computer is somehow better? This is precisely what will make me jump ship again; I've used them since the mid 80s, jumped ship with system 7.5 ("Error type 11 has just occurred, please kiss your ass goodbye") then came back at around system 10.2, and while I really enjoyed the OS, this idea that somehow putting all my "trust" in Apple's hands, that somehow Mr. Jobs and crew must know what's best for me, that boggles my mind. Again, as noted by others perhaps not in this thread, Apple has become the Big Brother their ads once suggested they broke away from. If, now don't get me wrong I do mean "if", Apple decides that they want to make the app store the singular method to install apps as it is on the iPad and iPod, that'll be the end of it for me. Which is a pity, because it is a rather nice desktop OS.

The worst IT job I ever had was with Jayne Mansfield. You know, she was a fantastic bird, you know ..... big tits, huge bum, and everything like that, but I had the terrible job of retrieving routers from her bum. Bloody hell, that was a task. Well, it was quite a task 'cause she had a big bum ... But I had to, used to go round, you know, of an evening ... when Jayne was sleeping or sort of comatose, like, you know, you know, just lying there, and, er, I had to retrieve these routers from her arsehole.

(and if any of you get that ref, you're a very sick person)

Oh come on. It's not like he created something that *clicks the link* JEEESUS CHRIST!