I think you're right, they're at maximum heel. I wonder at what point the sails touch the water. Or has this already happened?

> Despite all the bashing, Microsoft has done a decent job with server operating systems lately

Well, at least up until October 26, 2012. (Wow, was it really that long ago?)

> So if you will not be able to upgrade the OS and MS eventually stops providing updates to that OS will they at least release the keys to install something else?

No of course not. And the reason is, if you continue using your Surface RT, regardless of what OS you're running, you aren't buying some other Microsoft product. I think the expected behavior is to throw your RT away and buy a "real" Surface. So hop to it.

Which might have happened.

dodged that bullet.

Hence "speed of light in a vacuum".

Yeah, for a second I thought "space drive!" and then "wait a minute, surely you'd want to *increase* the speed of light". Serves me right for reading Slashdot before coffee.

Shocked, I tell you. That Microsoft would release a non-real-windows-compatible, promote it, and then leave users out in the cold. This has never ever happened before Windows CE. Sorry, I mean, Windows Alpha. Sorry sorry sorry, I mean Windows RT.

I should also have said, I agree with you on anxiety disorders - my daughter has a panic disorder and it's really been difficult for all of us to deal with. But sister demonstrably doesn't really have the disorder she claims to have. Test by: Although she tells the social worker she's incapable of driving, due to be terrified of the open spaces, so that the social worker has to do her grocery shopping, she has no trouble driving her 4x4 in the desert or taking her RV to the coast. (My understanding is that she tells them that a friend drives the RV and she stays inside the entire trip -- demonstrably untrue by anyone who knows her.)

My sister lives two states away from me. I'm not going to lie to any official who asks me about her, (I'd be happy to tell them she's faking her afflictions) but I'm not the welfare police and I don't see where it's my place to engage the government in order to rat on her. I just try to keep her out of my life and minimize the damage she causes to the rest of the family. Besides, she's known to be sue-happy, and getting on her bad side is not conducive to my financial health.

I actually don't know where she got the money. She got a lot of things by signing up to make payments and then... not making the payments. I'm not sure whether the vehicles fall into that category or whether they had some other source. I do note that neither her nor her husband worked a day after the mid 1990s, that they were both receiving disability and other forms of assistance, and that they also got a chunk of money from the lawsuit. I've tried to stay out of her drama otherwise.

Ok, here's a hard one. From the same novel, finish this quote: "A difference that makes no difference,"

It was actually not a bad novel, from a decent author (James Blish). Too bad about the title.

I guess you have to be really geeky to remember the philosophical discussion between Spock and McCoy over this very question in the novel somewhat stupidly named "Spock must die!"

I think I've heard this story before.

I'll have to go with "not perfect but better than the alternatives", then. I've worked hard all my life and there have been ups and downs. (I was financially wiped out by dot.com.bust, for instance, and had to really scramble to avoid losing the house.) I still think your character is measured by how you react to the misfortunes.

My sister (two years younger than I) quit her bank job in the 1990's because she saw a way to "work the system", went the disability route, is currently considered mentally (or emotionally? I forget) disabled ("agoraphobia") and physically disabled (She uses a walker during the times the case worker visits). She recently got additional income from a high profile lawsuit against the county.

In her copious free time she rides one of her 4-wheelers in the Nevada desert or travels the west coast in her 24 foot RV. (I note that although I've been in IT since the eighties in one capacity or another, I've never managed to justify the cost of a recreational vehicle or an offroad vehicle.) She's pretty open to her relatives about how she's gaming the system, and is forever telling me that I should chuck it all, get disability status like her and go on permanent vacation. Your tax dollars at work.

So yeah, obviously there's more to success or failure than hard work. I've thought long and hard about this, and even though how hard I work doesn't necessarily have a 1:1 correspondence to my success, I've decided it's the way to go to keep one's self-respect. Your mileage, as always, may vary.