If it stops functioning, it's lifetime is over. Duh. :)

Nothing to hide, I admit it freely, you might have noticed that I said so when I linked to a page with ny name as the author and said, "Yes that is me...".

I spotted a 23" phone at CES.....

http://semiaccurate.com/2013/01/15/prototype-intel-core-i7-phone-platform-spotted-and-tested/

(Note: Yes that is me...)

Or to use the content MAFIAA math, there is 493700% of the content that you should be buying but are not, therefore you are a massive pirate and owe them the net value of Peru plus the total mineral wealth theoretically available in the Pacific Ocean. Experts will testify to this at the trial if payment is not recieved within 4 hours of this notice being put in the (snail) mail. Love, Content Lawyers Inc.

As a journalist myself, this made me curious because I really don't know the answer to the conundrum posed. The SEA is objecting to the way the BBC portrays the Assad regime, and that is their right to disagree. My question to them is how should the BBC portray the use of the leader of an a military outfit that uses chemical weapons on children and civilians? I can honestly say that I don't know how one would portray this in a good light. Can any SEA spokespeople enlighten me on this one?

And they keep bitching at me when I write up that piracy has moved past "free" and now is about a demonstrably better product. Free is almost lost in the noise now. The state of modern consumer fleecing has gotten painful to watch.

He forgot the line, "Try it yourself and see." :)

Reminds me of the old IRC days when n00bs would ask what the command was to get channel admin privelages. "+++ATH" was the normal answer. :)

                        -Charlie

So it was actually called the "Big Mr. Ed Burger" for a reason. I thought the name was the chef who invented it, not the actor that ended up in the first 91 copies. Chalk up one more mystery solved by teh intertubes.

            -Charlie

No, but I have been doing it since I started on forums in 1981 or so. That said, I now do it to annoy you.

                    -Charlie

"Frankly there are so many alternatives to sending mass mail from your own system, only highly suspicious people want to go around this."

I am a journalist, and I know what the laws are around email, subpoenas, (lack of any) protections under the (US) law, and the cost of lawsuits. I keep my own server, on my own premises, and keep logs only long enough for diagnostic purposes. All email is deleted after 2 weeks unless it is specifically moved to a location meant to be saved for the same reasons. I have been doing this, or parts of it, since before my ISP offered mail services, over 20 years now FWIW. Some people call me paranoid, I point to things like MegaUpload and call them ignorant. I guess that I would be considered "highly suspicious" according to many government agencies.

So there you go, there is at least one good reason to do the above, although I rarely send out mass mailings, probably less than one a year.

As for the rest of your points, I totally agree. Thanks for trying to stop the spam.

                      -Charlie

"For corporate users, doctors offices, plant floor, I think you will be surprised. There is more software written for x86 Wintel than all other platforms put together."

And how much of it is written to be aware of the new UI? And if you have to port your stuff to use that abortion of a GUI, why would you NOT go to an iThingy or Android? Last time I checked, most doctors, corporate users, coffee shop poseurs etc, had iSomethings, not Windows. Think TAM, not sales pitches when you develop your platform strategy or you are not going to sell very many.

                  -Charlie

You have obviously not used Windows lately, or any other Microsoft product if you say such abjectly ignorant things. You may laugh, but those of us who have to support Microsoft products know the truth, and how wrong you are. Microsoft-level quality products are indeed expensive, and for good reason too, do you have any idea how much it costs to support this crap? How hard it is to keep up and running? Clean it up after the latest security breach? Preventing breaches is a fools errand, give it up.

All this costs money, lots and lots of money. Initial purchase price may be low compared to everything but FOSS, but that is only the beginning. If you calculate TCO, you will see exactly how expensive this poorly coded pile of outdated security holes really is. It ain't cheap.

      -Charlie

[Yes, this may look like sarcasm, but sadly it is not]

More puzzling still is not just what appears to be letters on the sample, but the fact that they indicate "cool ranch", a flavor of Doritos that has been depricated for over a year now. The creation museum has a crack team of acolytes studying this amazing discovery now.

                -Charlie

I guess they don't ignore me like they say they do. Either that or the revalation was entirely promted by Microsoft's high corporate ethics standards. That said, it is still wrong, the one I tested had 15.0GB free, not 16. I guess MS didn't want to admit they have LESS than half of their storage free.

And I didn't even mention the impending service packs, patches, and related bloat. WART is going to be a disaster...... No, it is out, WART _IS_ a disaster.

                    -Charlie

"What functionality are you looking for in Windows Phone that it doesn't have? Not the early versions, but WP8 or even 7.8 or Tango?"

The ability to sync it with a non-MS or Apple device.
The ability to not feed MS's patent trolling machine.
The ability for me to customize the OS how I choose.
The ability to load ANY app I want.
The ability to not be tracked by MS.
The ability for me to tinker with it how I want.
The belief that the whole thing won't be sh*tcanned in the next year for a new paradigm.
The belief that the whole thing won't be pulled out from under me for the next MS lock in attempt.

FWIW, I feel the same way about iOS and some versions of Android.

                      -Charlie