Actually, I believe them when they tell me they don't own a big screen TV or video game console in their homes. They have cell phones and computers, but they are a business necessity. I guess when I was thinking 'high tech', I was thinking entertainment-wise as I was cross-posting on the XboxOne at the time. ;)

Our school's main contractor for IT wiring is owned by two Mennonite brothers. They are indeed 'high tech', but interestingly, not for themselves!

Yes, and during Rumspringa, they find out how unprepared for 'English' life they are. I've lived among the Amish for 30 years now, often working directly alongside them. My point is that they still struggle with the balance in their lives - like everyone else does.

I should also mention that MANY in the Amish/Mennonite community have computers (mostly for keeping track of their farming business). If you travel around my area, you'll see more solar panels than Silicon Valley adorning barns and farmhouses. HINT: They're not just powering the lights for a 4AM jaunt to the dairy... ;)

It's funny when people talk about the Amish as if their assured piety somehow comes from genetics or something. The truth is, the Amish have ALWAYS sought for 'loopholes' in their situation - what the Bishops allow for is a different tale altogether.

I could give you LOTS of examples, but here's a oldie AND a goodie. Back in the early 90's, I worked for a Commodore dealer in Lancaster County, PA (BIG Amish and Mennonite community). C= had kind of a non-sequitur deal: Buy an Amiga 500 bundled with a 1080 monitor, get a 'free' VCR - which was kinda silly. The A500 had no color composite out, so actually hooking it up to a VCR required this phallic-looking 6 inch long module (the A520), which of course, was not included.

And yet...

The Old Order Mennonites and even a few of the younger Amish were buying into this deal - big time. We sold more A500s than ever during this time - and the vast majority were going to that community. While the A500 didn't have a true color composite out (C= = STUPID!), the VCR did, and it just so happened that the monitor that came with the bundle did as well. I found out what was going on when I suggested to a conservative-looking young couple that, with an antenna connected to the VCR's tuner, you could actually watch TV on the monitor.

I was taken aback by their shocked and seemingly terrified response, "Oh no! Don't SAY THAT! We don't want to watch TV on it!" What they DID want to watch was VHS video though. Because the Bishops were not up on the latest technology, they could claim that the computer system was the primary purpose of the deal - the VCR would not be mentioned, and they could watch all the tapes they wanted in the secluded privacy of their bedrooms.

Today, if you see an Amish or Mennonite woman on the stoop of their house, cradling something close to their ear, you can bet it's a cell phone. There are cell vendors who specifically cater to the Amish's 'cash only' lifestyle.

Folks, the Amish are as human as any of us. There are pious ones, but many are essentially trapped in a lifestyle out of necessity. Imagine this: With only an 8th grade education, and all of your friends and family belonging to the community, you'd probably stay because you'd fear the total abandonment of the only life you've ever known. But that doesn't mean they don't get rebellious or 'get up to dickens'... ;)

Gun holster?

Imagine if the government of Australia, rather than bitching about prices, actually funded GIMP or LibreOffice directly? I'll bet that MS and Adobe would 'adjust' their pricing accordingly as this would not just affect Australia's buying preferences, but the markets worldwide.

No, I think it is in relation to the kind of people he's really talking about: Developers. Developers develop because they want to scratch an itch... THEIR itch! Codemasters are rarely interested in making things 'easy' as opposed to making them functional - and that's the real dichotomy.

Patches, you say? What about SP2 for Win 7? Other than making us move to Win 8, is there a good reason why I should have to d/l 250+ MB on a clean install? A roll up for .NET 4 would be in order as well...

...is that there is no version for Android, IOS, or Linux. They've certainly had long enough to port, so I can only assume the problem is related to some sort of business politics. IMHO, MS are idiots for not taking advantage of the mobile mobile - MILLIONS of dollars on the table and yet here we are - NO mobile versions.

It might be time for Steve B to go. He's still thinking it's the 80's where you just ignore the competition or buy them out. Well, here they are now, Windows 8 and Surface are failures in the market - so much wiping out the existing order. Google Docs and LibreOffice finally giving Word a run for it's money - well, they MIGHT, if Word could be found on Android/IOS...

MS needs to shift course quickly before they aren't the only option anymore, although I think that ship has sailed now.

...and think: Skeksis?

Yeah. Pretty much THIS...

This was pulled on me last week. Apparently, my email about understaffing didn't go over too well, and it was assumed that the network was incorrectly configured. The funny thing was, it had NOTHING to do with anything but normal network issues, and for the most part had more to do with getting everyone's itch scratched concerning more mundane issues like laptop battery replacements and toner.

Management simply does not grok what I do (everything from A+ level to VMware), and with a tripling of students in the last three years, things have gotten out of hand. So the 'network audit' told them nothing but that we had 'a leg up' on most schools and that I could use some help... Heh.

From the article: "an eight-bit central processing unit to command electromagnetic actuators..."

The 6502. Is there anything it can't do?

Awesome! So in other words, all someone has to do is upload a music file to an opposition's candidate's site and get them shut down? When they pass SOPA in the U.S., I'd love to see some of this go down - imagine the sites that could be shut down... Yeah, those pro-SOPA too. ;)