I rarely remember what year it is....good thing I can check easily!

$ date

You might want to float the idea of having armbands. They're unobtrusive, sharp, and have been shown in the past to foster a sense of shared identity.

Might want to give a little thought to putting a logo of some sort on it too...maybe one of those Indian good luck symbols...you know, something simple that looks good in black and white.

That's an argument against foxholes, not atheists.

I've only really been in this situation once (non-technical manager, big deadline, his ass on the line), and I think the guy in question couldn't have handled it better.

First, he asked us for a list of things he could do to help. Then, he got us free takeout from our choice of local restaurants, a couple liters of soda, and a six-pack for when the job was done. Finally, he told us to get in touch with him if we needed anything, and he went around the corner and hung out in another office until we were done.

He had a beer with us at 1 AM and told us not to come in the next day until noon.

Good guy.

"Confederation of Dunces"

I think it's pretty clear that you took the OP's comment a bit more seriously than either he or (I think) most people did, but damn, I gotta say...that was a pretty impressive burn.

Well done.

the content may remain available in a unary format forever,

Unary...is that one less than binary?

I think you're overstating your point. Unless you are saving your data in a truly useless format, having a practiced procedure for getting that data back into production only lets you get the data back up faster. We have one backup system in particular at my office - although we have never built a production machine from it, we do (manually and automatically) test the data to ensure that everything from production made it in. Will restoring that data be slow and sketchy? Sure. Is it fair to say that nobody will care if we have the data backed up? No.

That being said, though, if a system is capable of losing this much data without an act of god, then a lot of people need to be fired. With incremental backups, tests, and enough redundancy, it is nearly impossible to actually lose more than a couple days worth of data.

I agree with you about MS, though. People really need to get it through their heads that Microsoft is one company among many. They make great hardware (typing this on a Microsoft Natural keyboard), and excel is still best in class; on the other hand, they make a couple products I wouldn't be caught dead using.

On the bright side, I guess this should put the adage "Nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft" to bed, eh? :)

But Microsoft, which bears at least part of the responsibility for the mistake, is paying the price with its reputation.

Wow, this is a terrible blow for Microsoft. This might make people think that they produce unreliable products!

Best damn post in the whole thread.

Actually, the poll is written from my perspective, so anyone not in Boston is considered "remote."

If you're being serious, and really that good, you should look at http://www.rentacoder.com/ or something similar.

In Greek, yes (). The Greek word has made its way into English, but 'apology' is completely valid as well. Check out definition 2: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apology

Please turn your grammar nazi card in on your way out. Thank you.

Would you be so kind as to point out precisely which "personal attacks" in that article you are objecting to?

Really, you're only mentioned in passing in that article, and referred to as a "Microsoft apologist."

An apologist is defined as "a person who argues to defend or justify some policy or institution." Although it does have very, very slight negative connotations, I don't think any rational person would object to you being labeled a "Microsoft apologist," especially since you just penned an apology (in the apologist sense, not the "I'm sorry sense").

The amount of man-handling and smug stares I have to endure from thick-necked, multi-chinned police academy rejects is bad enough when flying domestically. That's no way to welcome the largest tourist event in the world.