Isn't this pretty much exactly how Skydrive works, and isn't that being integrated into Windows 8? Nobody has been complaining about that...

Corporate IT runs XP because it runs a set of time-tested apps, that are either custom or extremely vertical. Updating to Windows 7 would mean:

1 - Upgrading licenses for the OS and probably office suites
2 - Possibly upgrading hardware
3 - Upgrading licenses for all your third party software
4 - Upgrading licenses for your web-based software to run in a newer browser (this is why so many companies still use IE6)
5 - Possibly upgrading server licenses to work with Windows 7
6 - Validating and testing to make sure all the new software works together (no small feat for large companies - think VPN clients competing with new active directory configurations, new authentication mechanisms, new IE mechanisms talking to new web app stacks that are probably custom, etc...)
7 - Re-train your support staff so they know the new software inside and out
8 - Finally you can re-train your users to use the new stuff

All that, for what? You're replacing a system that's known to work with an unknown quantity. The new functionality you get had better be WELL worth it, 'cause it's going to cost you.

1970's gas price crisis in the US. People started buying smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

Europe, pretty much all the time - people buy the most fuel efficient cars they can afford as gas prices are usually pretty high.

"Sure the timing was off, but it's impossible to predict the oil peak accurately given uncertainty of reserve data and technological progress."

So you are saying their prediction was right even though it was wrong?

As energy use increases, energy will get more expensive, providing pressure to use less energy or find more efficient ways to use energy. It's a self-correcting system, as long as there are no market distortions like, say, massive oil subsidies, or ridiculous regulations preventing new energy generation methods from being adopted.

Does that include Snort/AirSnort? EtherApe?

Sorry, this is dumb. If the government is really interested in promoting "internet freedom" or whatever, they'd promote technologies to make it difficult to monitor or censor the internet. Of course they aren't going to take that path, as it would prevent THEM from monitoring or censoring the internet. Notice the bill only covers US businesses dealing with foreign countries, not the US government.

Right hand at 11, left hand on the shifter, right foot cantilevered across the clutch and gas, left foot out the window so I can adjust the rear-view mirror with my toe. The way cool people do.

Microsoft made Internet Explorer for MacOS, HP-UX and Solaris. Why? To gain market share. They still make Office for MacOS, a competing platform to Windows. Why? Market share. They made FrontPage server extensions for Apache (and SuiteSpot IIRC)

If Gates was still running the company, I'm sure Microsoft would be successfully glomming on to Android. Instead Ballmer is successfully running the company into the ground trying to play catchup and me-too.

This is what confused me about Windows Phone 7. Usually Microsoft tries to take an already popular platform or technology, and extends it until they take it over. When Android took off I was sure there would be a Microsoft-created platform that would run on top of Android, and tie in with their Live services, have Office,Outlook, etc... Maybe port .NET compact to Linux to run along-side Dalvik, probably with a significant speed advantage. Basically something cell companies can drop into Android that replaces the Google ecosystem with a Microsoft one. Start out by giving it away for free, then once the take rate picks up, start charging for it.

Instead of hopping on the Android bandwagon, they did their own thing. Their own completely un-leveragable thing, with no incentive for anyone to adopt it, short of them dumping tons of money into Nokia.

Here here. Business should have *some* say in trade negotiations, however, it seems like they been writing them whole-cloth.

When the tariff schedule, when printed out, is the size of two Encyclopedia Britannica end-to-end, free trade is a bit of a misnomer.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that hasn't happened in a few decades. It's mostly been we'll cut taxes AND you can spend more. Recently it's been we'll raise taxes by 1% and you can spend 5000% more.