Well, literally, I'm not buying that.

Government where I live is big on OSS, interoperability formats and all, so no conspiracy theories there. And consumers always buy what is best for them. This monopoly thing is old already.

If you think big vendors should 'escape the microsoft tax' selling linux, think again. The casual user would be lost and end up with a useless machine. That doesn't make them money. And of course there's the Apple choice, with no 'microsoft tax' whatsoever, and quite a few people are happy with that. Just because you don't like other people choices doesn't mean they're being forced to choose that way.

And regardless how Mr. Gates obtained his money, he could be sipping martinis and watching it burn, but isn't. Of his own will he spends it with a purpose beneficial to us all. That part is always worth cheering.

Or trust lawyers about lawyering, or politicians about politics. Sure we can.

I may or may not have a particular nitpick about the "scientific method" behind psychology, but I'm certain your argument doesn't help because the analogy doesn't go beyond bridge building and the nightmarish math involved to the soft sciences. For the hard sciences, the physics is either right or wrong, and bridges stand or fail, regardless of the engineers outlook on life.

That's not to say judges or whatever are unqualified. But it's very hard for them to be wrong, because their opinion is what actually sets the precedent for what is right. And no objective error means no correction, no evolution, no science.

At least some psychologists know their field is highly subjective, and their science is very, very hard to do.

Well, they actually would, since I hear there's quite a few chinese around, and they don't like being in the dark.

On the other hand, a big marching army carrying torches would be quite scary at night.

I think so too. The second page of the article is completely absurd. What kind of PR departments are those?

But in the Microsoft response the editor comments they are in Malaysia, so maybe it's already April 1st there? Joke lag anyone?