When instead critical thinking, reasoning, logic, and philosophy outsell let me know. Tech doesn't matter.

Microsoft is so desperate to get people to supply apps for their platforms, that they are sending Marketers to University students which try to convince them to learn .NET and write software for their tablets through fake workshops and "student sponsored" events. "Learn .Net, get a job!", etc.

This got me thinking about how much money, waste, and energy is being pumped into maintaining this vertical integration with developers. Irregardless, the sheer destructiveness of this "funneling" of young minds into closed technology tracks must be a huge hidden cost on society.

In addition to this, I also want: 1) A continuous mapping and quantification of the Military Industrial Complex, complete with relations to people, and businesses up and down the chain. 2) Continuously updated Corporate to Lobbyist to Politician studies, with full exposure. I want to make smarter decisions about the people and companies that I choose to deal with and give money to on a day to day basis. And I can't do that without such clear analysis. These people are only in power because _we_ allow them to be.

So who is running Egypt? Is it the international bankers, the west, islamic nutjobs, or military officials on power trips? At-least in the US we know it's the first group in conjunction with corporations. But with Egypt I'm confused.

No and No. You're forgetting the court of public opinion, which allows Wiki-leaks to occupy the moral high-ground, and that makes all the difference in the world. To add a little independence day flavor, this is the equivalent to stating that the British were justified in spying on American Colonies, because the Colonies had spies on the British side. One group uses the tool in the support of unjustness, the other uses the tool because there is no other defense against that unjustness. I have to wonder how much money, time, and effort is being expended on going after Wikileaks, rather then changing our mentality in how we view the world. But like every single problem that Washington faces, it looks at those as one in which the only solutions in the quickly exhausted tool-box are state terrorism, the military, and espionage. To those playing the long game, this is rightfully a sign of weakness, not strength.

Wonderful news! Does this mean that I'll need to compile all the pre-requisites for the game, and the game itself, just to play the game on this console?

And here I was thinking that it was the number of new buildings, department sizes, tennis courts, landscaping, and quantity of state certified content-crammed courses. What a shocker!

Estimates seem to be driven mostly by the following forces:

Non-Tech Problem Space

In the worst case, this is the equivalent of walking up to a student and asking how long it will take them to solve a problem in both a subject he/she hasn't studied yet, and in a problem with no similarity to those at hand. Any notion of accuracy gets thrown out the window under these conditions.

Tech Problem Space

What tech is needed? And how long will it take to acquire proficiency in this tech? Since tech is a road well traveled by others, this makes the estimation of the learning curve and the tech application easier.

I think the answer lies in patience, instead of demanding estimates that can be produced in the next hour. In many cases, the problem needs to be inspected and possibly specified further to come up with anything approaching accuracy. I have to wonder if this is something that is understood and being communicated effectively to non-engineers and those on the client side. Nevertheless, if businesses chooses to subjugate informed, honest estimates to salesmanship, then none of this matters anyway.

LOL, where do people like you get this notion from? Whatever fairly-land of academic value you suggest, it isn't one in which undergraduates around me currently live. My university for example has numerous courses that serve no other purpose than to make payroll and give students a hamster-wheel like challenge. People are realistic and game the system.

Isn't this precisely what specifications written in formal logic was intended to solve? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_verification