Yes, it is a shame the rest of the world equates Americans with Texans.

As opposed to the Europeans who, now that Putin is acting like a Tsar, appear to have rediscovered the value of military power...not that it will make them defend themselves yet. When they realize the U.S. cannot do it for them, I expect it will change...or Putin's little toy government collapses and the Europeans will go back to sleep until....

The MidEast crazies decide they're entitled to making Europe the cesspool that is the MidEast. The regular pop. is too scared of the nutjobs to instill law and order, and when they do, it comes out like Egypt which sees an Islamist behind every grain of sand...which echos the Saudis thinking about the Iranians. And after Iran get the Bomb, the rest of those well-adjusted countries will decide they need one as well.

India is mire of corruption and presumably they will last the century without getting nuked by the Pakistanis, who are in the process of turning their country into nutjob central.

China is doing wonders...in fouling their environment so that one cannot even see more than a mile in Beijing on a good day. Japan is into their 20th year of failed economics, when they aren't hiding from the few foreigners they've so graciously allowed in to work for them.

Africa still cannot produce a stable democracy except in a few small nations. The economic problems will only get worse now that China had decided to export any economic progress they were making.

Yep, compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. is ignorant and shallow and these other countries are beacons of enlightenment.

Not a fan of agile, I take it. Thank you for that accurate perspective, made my whole day.

That's nice, you left out architecture. Who's doing the overall architecture? Has it been done before? If it is new, better spend a lot of time doing the architecture. Unless....

You have caught Agilitis. In this case, spend no time doing the architecture up front, do it on the fly. Add time to every single task you think you see for doing architecture related stuff. At the end, allocate a large blob of time to figure out the correct architecture rather than the one you built which now resembles a dirty snowball. And begin rebuilding the thing, reusing any errant parts you did in pass one. And because you are agile, be sure to appropriate time for execs who understand agile as they get to change what's necessary on the taste of their coffee that day, whether their secretary gave them a perky Good Morning, or whether their hair will turn sufficiently silver in time for that next promotion.

Clippy the Guard: Hi there, I see you are attempting to break and enter, how may I be of assistance?

Burglar: (thinks "WTF") Errrmmm....have you got a key to this lock?

Clippy: No problem, I can open it automatically. However, have you tried the door over there?

Burglar: No, I want to break in through this door.

Clippy: The door over there is very nice, are you sure?

Burglar: Please open this door?

Clippy: Would you like me sound the alarm first?

Burglar: No, just open the damn door.

Clippy: The alarm is very nice.

Burglar: Will you pluuuueeessse open this door, you damn robot?

Clippy: I don't like your attitude.

Burglar: (pulls out gun, shoots self in head) BLAM....THUNK.

Clippy: Look it, I'm not opening the door if you are dead. Are you really dead? Hey...you??? Damn humans (stomps off).

Yes, but this is in New York State and upstate NY at that. NYS has been taxing the living hell out of corporations for decades. It started under Rockefellar, Rocky never saw a tax he could resist. The Unions did their bit, and county governments did their bits...all to screw any enterprise that was productive out of their money. Dunkirk probably couldn't do much on its own.

Nah, he told the true. You can find an environmentalist who likes wind but not solar, or nuclear but not hydro. The enviro movement, if I can call some so diffuse that, cannot collectively agree on anything. The only thing they can agree on are environmental regulations to stop something so they can cater to the one segment who doesn't like that something. The consequence is the polyglot energy systems we do have.

I believe in environmental regulations. However, choices have to be made. The biggest threat is global warming due to CO2. So start accepting nuclear and the rest and STFU already.

What is it specifically you object to about the ACA? Covering more people? You do realize the whole idea behind any health insurance is that healthy people support the unhealthy. My main objection to it is that it let the health insurance companies and their "death panels" ("actuaries" to you) live. It has only been since the 1960's that insurance companies have gotten into health insurance in a big way. And we can mark the cost rises for health care to them.

Or distorted his view of computer systems.

"We could, perhaps, use a bit of enlightened self interest and work on the Ebola epidemic, work on the virus that is decimating the crop, work on creating an infrastructure in those countries so they can move themselves out the shithole that everyone has managed to create over there."

The U.S. is already doing this as well as the Western nations. Even China has anted up a pittance. You know it is serious when China decides to fund something with no immediate payback.

I can totally see most people not having the jack to pay for $15 candy bars. They'll use something else for their sweet tooth. The high end producers might survive if their current market is small enough and well enough heeled. The rest go bye-bye.

More like the line between religion and insanity is a thin one.

What I'd like from Microsoft is suicide. They are unreformable. This latest push into open source is merely another attempt at sinking opposition to their malware.

Yes, that's true, but it isn't easy to spot someone going over the edge. And if you get pushy about it, the ACLU will show up and tell you in no uncertain terms that the mentally disabled have rights.

Or....use a fraction of the money to inform parents that if their kid comes to school with one of their guns and no mitigating circumstances, the school system will sue them for everything they have ever owned and everything they will ever own. Proceeds go to the victims.