There is more control and power if another language like Java or C++ is used.

That's true. However, Access and C++/Java aren't anywhere near equivalents. One is a database and a front end that most people can have working in minutes. One is a programming language, that somebody may be able to use to develop a database front end after a few years of training.

Maybe even give them a free linux laptop for the home. They can afford that because of the license fee savings for not using windows.

A retail copy of Windows 7 is about $100. Nobody sells a laptop for $100. Tack onto that the extra training and support for Linux, and you're nowhere near as cheap as using Windows.

And how does Amazon get your chip and pin, exactly, Mr. Einstein?

There is a price for everything and those that would consider themselves your betters force payment.

They're called regulations, and many of them are in place for good reason, such as public safety. In society, we all have to play by the same rules.

No, you have it backwards. A single soda is about 300 calories, which would take most people about 2.5-3 miles of running/walking to burn off. It's relatively impractical to think that one can exercise off the calories consumed from a bad diet. It's much easier to change one's diet.

So in other words, retarded people can no longer use the built-in Windows Phone maps?

Oh, please. Introducing one more species to our ecosystem isn't going to have any effect at all, relative to everything humans have done to the ecosystem.

No government should be forcing its citizens into proprietary software which writes its data in proprietary ways without good, permanent ways to retrieve that data in the far future.

You're right. Glad no government is doing that!

Why not just use the mapping stuff that comes with Windows Phone? Seems to work just fine.

You can, but its extremely difficult.

You just put less food into your mouth. Unless you're being force fed, it's not difficult at all.

This is good, but it's not self-control.

No, in many cases, it's just self-control. In my case, it's self-control. Believe it or not, some people can *choose* what they shovel into their mouths...

I didn't know what Twitch was. Luckily, the NY Times had an informative article about it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08...

Jesus Christ. Humanity is doomed.

Or you can just eat less.

I don't know anybody who pays his/her bills "writing and posting stories". I pay my bills by working in retail, and there are no real Linux options for decent point of sale systems. So yes, for "real work", I rely on Windows.

From a privacy aspect, anybody shopping at Amazon already doesn't care about any kind of privacy.

From a business aspect, I'm shocked that they're not doing it already. They have more information about their customers than probably any single organization on the planet. Considering how badly they're bleeding cash, I'm wondering why they haven't been doing this all along.