It's only a colleague if your company doesn't outsource their IT. ;)

I don't think the customer ratings make a useful metric. A customer who receives a response they didn't like ("I'm sorry, but it's not our corporate policy to remove the Internet filter and let you browse porn at work") is liable to give it a poor rating regardless of how well the service rep handled the case.

Using a singular SAT test's rank to say their education system is rubbish is disingenuous at best. If you rank the states, somebody's got to come in 50th. They could still be only a point or five south of #1—not a significant difference—and still come in last, but that doesn't mean their scores are "rubbish".

If you really want a terrible Halo book, go with The Flood by William C. Dietz. If you want one that's actually readable... Nylund's are good, as were Bear's (though they aren't really "Halo" per se). Haven't read Traviss's yet, but her other books are pretty good.

They may have print copies, but Macmillan refuses to allow library lending of ebooks.

If the person is building on the patented product, that's fine. But there's absolutely no room for independent reinvention; if they're not actually building on the patented work, then why should they have to pony up licensing for something they never used?

The big problem with XPx64 was that it wasn't really XP—it's actually Windows Server 2003. With the assorted compatibility issues that implies.

They have a badge that says it's okay.

No, it hasn't been reversed yet.

That's what Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) is.