Every once in a while I get the urge to try out one of the Metro apps, but I usually get too annoyed and go back to the desktop before it finishes launching. I haven't heard this complaint much, but in my experience the Metro apps are hideously slow to launch, even taking 10s of seconds.

My machine is reasonably fast (Intel i7 with 8GB of RAM) and it's very responsive when using "real" applications.

Encrypt the phone, and set a numeric PIN of 6 or more.

Cool, I'll just use my /. UID. Oh, wait... /me struts away trying to ride the old-timer credibility he doesn't deserve.

go home Sean Young, you're drunk

fly a gun inside

We don't accept this, we just take what we get. All the locked-down devices can be unlocked with some amount of effort. I've been using Android devices heavily for about 2 years, and I haven't felt any need to root them.

I worked with MSSQL about a decade ago and found it to be a fine product... but then again, maybe I didn't know better.

I think there are two main reasons: We are still living in a world where "You won't get fired for choosing Microsoft." is still a thing, although certainly not the way it used to be, and we are still living in a world where open-source isn't always seen as legitimate.

What can I say? The company I work for uses MySQL, and it does what we need.

Yeah, I always figured if he'd never bumped into Bill Gates, right now he'd be a regional sales manager for plumbing parts working in an small office in Scuffboot, NE, who's good at sales but whom everyone who works for him hates.

For about a year the only updates to IE were security updates; they added no new features.

Actually IE6 alone was around for 5 years, and really the browser's functionality was pretty stagnant from 1997 until about 10 years later.

BY DEFAULT HIDE FILE EXTENSIONS!

I always thought that was one of the stupidest decisions in the entire history of software... and I can't believe they are still doing it after almost 20 years.

e.g., There are 5 files named "setup"... which one is the executable? You have to go by the tiny, inscrutable icons.

Of course, hiding the file extensions of Office files didn't do much back in the day when Office should have been known as the Microsoft Virus Development Kit, but at least that has gotten a lot better.

I think the biggest arrogance of Windows 8, aside of foisting Metro on you whether you want it or not (you don't, and even if you did, all the Metro apps take 10-20 seconds to load.. is this 1989?) is that you cannot go back to the "classic" UI theme, which is, in my opinion, the last UI theme Microsoft made that wasn't hideous. XP had that awful "Playskool" theme, Vista was only slightly less ugly, but also had epilepsy-inducing animations. Windows 7 was a bit better. At least you could choose a color theme that didn't look like it was made by a color-blind mental patient. But in all cases, you could go back to the "classic" look, which was always slimmer and more efficient. Now you can't because either Windows is no longer capable of displaying it, or because they simply think that this hideous and ridiculous "flat UI" fad is so good that no one should be allowed to turn it off. "Flat UI" may be OK for a phone, but for a desktop environment, it's a huge step backwards, but it's not just limited to Metro. You have the stupid flat look on the desktop as well.

Windows 8 is the biggest exercise in user-hostility in the entire history of non-enterprise software. In the world of enterprise software, it's not bad at all, but that's because enterprise software is usually about as user-friendly as the Soviet bureaucracy.

It could lead to a new definition of "rolling blackout".

It could be that they were not stinkbugs you were killing. It could have been Coreidae, or squash bugs. They are in the same Infraorder and look similar.

They do squash very nicely, so you might have a point. Nevertheless, if there's fewer of them, I'll be happy.

the preceding post is an example of posturing

(facepalm)

the problem is you idiots have an effect on the rest of society. we have to bail your ignorant asses out when you inevitably fuck up. so grow a brain

payment processors getting together and colluding is an example of no regulation

your example supports govt control, it doesn't dispute it