"With the future of Microsoft now in question ..." Huh? Who is questioning the future of Microsoft? Ya got a link timothy?

Scroll down the page to the Mobile Phone numbers.

"@Ravaldy; Although I don't see how buying RIM would help them at this point."

RIM is still a (albeit shrinking) player in the enterprise. I think a possible MS acquisition (or as others have suggested, a Blackberry "Patent buy") could go a long way toward enhancing the attraction of the Win mobile phone environment to enterprise IT.

Nokia Q2 2013 mobile market share was a bit over 14%. Symbian numbers count too, because the not-as-smart-as-a-smartphone phone business was part of the MS/Nokia deal.

Not to argue, but in a few weeks time I expect something more along the lines of this: "From the desk of S. Balmer: We announced some exciting news today: We have entered into an agreement to purchase Fairfax Financial’s BlackBerry Devices & Services business, which includes their smartphone and mobile phone businesses, their award-winning design team, manufacturing and assembly facilities in Canada, and teams devoted to operations, sales, marketing and support." If MS isn't doing this they are nuts (a possibility to be sure). Adding a BlackBerry acquisition to the Nokia deal would get MS to nearly 20 percent of the smartphone market.

It might have helped if the quote had been as follows: "one point twenty-one jigowatts!" (Notice the corrected spelling)

El condensador de fluzo!

1.21 Jigawatts! Science!!!

I thought it was: H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's, H1B's ...

Nah, just feed those students a nice cocktail of Ritalin, Strattera and Bupropion ... they will then mindlessly do whatever you tell them to. The search engine is just a start.

But *now* is Google "unbelievably better than all the alternatives"? I think not. Bing is as good as Google for most search (if not better in some instances). Functionally there is nearly no difference. Bing/Yahoo have grown to around 7% of search traffic as of 2010 and that may be an even larger market share by now (I didn't Google it). Maybe Google can stay on top with Cloud Search but Google is by no means invulnerable. Currently I'm using ixquick because they delete private details of their search users. For some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, privacy seems more important than brand loyalty lately.

Cool! maybe we can finally measure the speed of dark!

3D Print-head reference? That's how I interpreted the comment. Very erudite in fact.

In good company as well... ”The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20.” ~Sam Cohen (inventor of the neutron bomb)

Total non sequitur. They are talking about passing a local LAW ... not an AMENDMENT to the constitution. The controversy here is that the proposed LAW that the POLITICIAN is attempting to pass may VIOLATE said constitution, (sans your fantasy AMENDMENT that no one is actually proposing because it is generally considered political SUICIDE to do so). You have a lot of nerve calling anyone here "ignorant".

Historically, the "Liberator" hand gun that was distributed during WWII was deployed with exactly the strategy above in mind, a weapon valued for its psychological warfare effects as well as for its actual usage ... as a way to arm one's self with a better weapon, and more ammunition ... obtained from a defeated target of the resistance. I see much the same psychological effect on the totalitarians of today with the 3D printed gun. It's no accident that it too is named the "Liberator".