How much was the insurance policy on those properties worth?

It's news to me that Google is dropping iCal support from Calendar. The whole rationale for them dropping support for ActiveSync was that standards based iCalendar support was available and most devices support that now (ie noone uses Windows Phone, they are all using Android or iPhone). So does someone have a supporting reference for that, or is the Unknown Lamer just confused?

Heck, I've been wondering why Apple hasn't opened the Apple TV up to developers, given its already running iOS.

Perhaps because it is running the marketing version of iOS, not the developer version.

For most ant species, the death of a small number will bring the hordes to fight off the attack. The death of a large number will make them retreat and avoid that area for a while.

On my supposedly "archaic" x86 desktop, I download any Linux distro I feel like using and can use the exact same installer to setup a 5 year old desktop or next month's Haswell.

This has nothing to do with it being Intel vs ARM, it is that the complete definition of a PC compatible platform is standardized. Intel Atom based tablets may not necessarily follow that platform standard.

My bank includes a "pass phrase" as part of its security check. They don't allow whitespace in this pass phrase and limit its length to 12 characters. I think someone at the bank is knowledgeable enough that the orders went out to change from using passwords to pass phrases, but they need to do a better job of spreading that knowledge around the monkeys doing the coding so they don't just change the name to please the boss.

90% of accounts I have created were so I could read some support documentation, or download an updated driver from a vendor etc. The only reason for putting password protection on such things is so the vendor can spam me in future. I really don't care if such accounts are compromised, in fact, I actively use obvious username and password combinations along with fake, or if they require confirmation before activating the account, throwaway email addresses. Another 9% are sites like slashdot, where the account gives some convenience, but nothing of value is stored there (a bit of reputation is at stake if someone hacks the account and uses it to troll, but the damage is minimal and easy to explain away). For the other 1%, I'll care enough to create unique passwords that are difficult to crack.

How about not pissing off a girlfriend when you have to clear up a STD from an Ex or a bad decision?

Sorry, but that is one case where full disclosure is warranted. Unless you want to catch that disease straight back from your soon-to-be-ex girlfriend after you've quietly cleared up the bout from the last one.

Other hardware vendors are be defrauded by the illusion that the patents have some legitimacy. Possibly the tax department is being defrauded by payments to Microsoft being falsely declared as license revenue instead of investment income.

So let me get this straight. Microsoft "invested" $300M in a business that sells a product at a loss so that another business (which this was spun out of) can make a profit on ebook sales. In return, it gets a "patent license" fee per unit sold. How is this not classed as fraud, or money laundering or something?

Avoiding them would seem to be a priority.

1. slashdot.org
2. ....

Too late!

which is coast-to-coast in The Netherlands, the home of Mars One.

Of course, I should have known they were talking about that island between the English Channel and the Sea of Germany.

Zandvoort to Amsterdam is about the right distance.

MTP has always been freely licensed by Microsoft, just not the proprietary DRM extensions that are required to talk to Zune and Windows Phone devices. And they wonder why noone buys them...

AirPrint is just Bonjour and IPP. It is less proprietary than its predecessor of Bonjour and AppleTalk.