No... It can kill them. You're running an application that isn't approved, and they haven't weighed the vulnerabilities. An open port is always a target for exploitation, which is why the IT department needs to be able to audit the machine and ensure what software is installed, so they can mitigate those vulnerabilities.

I'm going to guess that if this person set up a server just say, in their office, this machine is on a network segment that may not be as firewalled-off as a data center may be. That means if something malicious does happen to this server, there's a greater chance of infection elsewhere, as well as some risk of productivity loss. Besides, the machine itself doesn't have to be the target of attack-- it can just be the jumping-off point for something bigger, once they've installed tools to probe the network.

Especially when you're in a healthcare setting, privacy is a big issue. You could conceivably have someone post patient data in a calendar appointment, even. If that connection isn't TLS encrypted, and the devices not properly managed, it just takes one theft of a device sitting in a coffee shop to result in a serious breach of privacy and patient trust, even if the thief doesn't access the data that might be contained on the device.

You should have mentioned that in the first place. Yes, you can keep a child quiet and calm in a new and intriguing environment without handing them some device like an iPod. Parents have done it for years. You have a special circumstance where you've found an approach that works that might honestly be ill-advised for others.

There's a difference between "open" and "modular"-- "modular" simply means interchangeable components, and implies nothing about who is capable or authorized to do it. Conversely, just because something is "open", that doesn't mean it's going to be trivial to yank out one component and replace it with another, just because one has the source code or schematics for it.

Have you really been paying attention to the latest Windows OS's? Server 2008 isn't "monolithic"-- if you look at Server Core, there's not even an "explorer" to run. There's just a command shell, sitting on top of the Windows kernel.

I'm not a fanboi, but I do give credit where credit is due-- It's been a long time since Windows was as monolithic as you are suggesting. It is just as modular as any other OS now-- they just don't provide the users the opportunity to change the shell or other components. In this sense, it's perfectly reasonable to say that there's a modified Windows kernel, and WP7 just has a different interface to that kernel, same as iOS, or Android.

Not true. If you put in 3rd party RAM, they just expect you to take it out or put in the OEM RAM before they troubleshoot it. And it makes sense-- you go and buy some "high density" crap RAM from PriceWatch that isn't guaranteed to work with the chipset on the machine, it's just standard practice to make sure that it isn't causing the problem.

Actually, the new Windows Phone 7 is supposed to be pretty slick...

Sorry that's just not true. Computer companies are bound by the terms of their warranties to make sure their hardware works. If you've installed another OS, or wiped what was there, they still have to troubleshoot and/or replace parts.

I think he was comparing Doom, saying it was released 3 years after Ultima VI.

Actually... There are public waves. You can search for waves with a "Public" attribute on them, that anyone can follow.