I can't count the amount of Android apps that I didn't install because they want to have r/w access to my contacts, even though they obviously don't need it for their functionality.

There are also too many apps that demand an Internet connectivity where I ask myself why. Or I had to deinstall apps where the background process keeps downloading data all the time that I only need on a holiday, but not now; and I found no way of disabling the background process short of deinstallation (without rooting the phone, then means are available).

So I'd say, Android has it's similar share of problems.

NTP also uses "the web"

Just FYI:

The technical part of the /. crowd uses the term "the web" as a synonym for the set of Internet service that communicate via HTTP on publically reachable IP adresses, maybe encrypted via TLS. Very often, access via browsers is also considered an important attribute of "the web".

NTP has none of these attributes.

US' persons views on their soldiers is always "interesting".

In my country, a soldier would be expected to go beyond his command structure if he has information of the type that Manning had. In fact, theoretically he should be persecuted if he doesn't do so -- but sadly, that persecution doesn't succeed. (Witness Oberst Klein at the Kunduz bombing.)

90 minutes ago, my mod points expired.

I applaud your comment, and would have liked to still have them.

I know that there are a few questions that no one on my team or my boss could definitively answer.

Then your boss doesn't know how to do his work. If you get run over by a bus and lie for a few month in coma in a hospital, what would he do then? Fire you?

If what you're writing is right, you're a SPOF in your company, and that must not happen. At least, in the company where I'm CEO of, I wouldn't let it happen...

(1) Maybe he's not able to select his working times himselves? (I don't.)

(2) Allocating time slots for various activities (movies, cinema, concerts, usual eating times) is not done by oneself, but by our social environment. As, in Real Life (tm). And they care for these old-fashioned digits on the clock.

(3) 8am? What's this? I've heard of it, but I doubt it exists. :-) :-)

I myself like widescreen, after all our EYES are oriented on a "wide" manner.

This statement is against every research report that I ever read on that topic.

All typography research shows that readibility slows down after more than 70 columns. Your statement is false, IMNSHO. Human perception is not best supported by "wide" manner. Except if you think that looking at Hollywood movies is the equivalent to human perception. Me, I decline to go as low.

Well, at many customers I have a 2nd monitor. At my company, where I do real work, I have only one.

And I'm the CEO, so it's not about money. (A lot of my staff have two monitors, or more -- and they get all they want; it's ridiculous to discuss about the low prices that are involved here in our line of business.)

The real difference: At my work place, I have a *real* big one of the old 24" 4:3 monitors. When this one dies, with this crap of 16:9 monitors en vogue now, I'll have to get two. I don't look video at work; I don't need widescreen. Give me lots of vertical space, and I'm much more happy. But the hardware industry is driven by consumer market today, no hope to get better. (Don't make me start about that insane disk companies... ;-)

In what country do you live?

I'm a CEO, in Germany, of a small/mid-sized company (10 persons + freelancers). If one of my tech staff needs an item below 1.000 EUR to work better, I tell them to buy it and please don't bother me with it. Just make sure that there's a proper invoice for the books.

If my company doesn't make enough money to support this mode of operations; I'd close it down -- it'll be dead in a few months/years anyhow. In the European countries and in the US, where I know the economic situation, this kind of costs are swamped away by cost of operations, and cost of staff. Especially, since it's a one-term cost, and not an ongoing cost on the budget. Any tech staff person costs me at least 100.000 EUR per year, to veto any monitor that makes him more productive doesn't come into consideration at all, that would be foolish.

I wouldn't call myself an audiophile, but in a home-situation, of course one listens to a room. At typical homes, one has neither the nearfield nor the full-range option -- or in only very special cases: I know a person who designed his house around his music equipment, both private and pro; but he's a musician and an audiophile.

That's why IMHO any decent speakers must be taken back home and tested there, in one own's room and with one own's amp, before they're bought. (Last time, I ended up buying B&W Nautilus, because they were the best compromise that I could find at this time. In any other room and with any other equipment, the choice could have been different.)