I served in U.S. Navy fighter squadrons for 20 years. Each shift began with a maintenance meeting. These meetings were always standup, very focused, and usually less than 15 minutes in length. We covered a lot of ground in support of maintenance and flight operations for the oncoming shift. I am now a software developer; that type of meeting could be valuable on larger projects if carefully controlled. Similar to agile?

Why would anyone think a corporate Outlook account wasn't being monitored by admins?

Electronics Engineer != Software Engineer and only someone uneducated in the profession would make such a foolish statement. Takes an equally large fool to find any stock in that statement. Air conditioning repairman should be able to fix my plumbing; after all they are both home maintenance professions. Go away troll, find something legitimate to wank on, I am finished with you

Maybe you should read the article I referenced: "That not a single one of them is an EE or software engineer borders on the criminally insane." Your statement is absolutely incorrect and seemingly based on a cursory read where you mistook author speculation for fact. Very reasonable indeed.

Providing data (stored on hardware or otherwise) to an organization that lacks the skills to retrieve, organize, and analyze that data is a waste of time. My point remains that the NHTSA admittedly lacks expertise in software analysis, and that isn't going to be fixed in 4 months. Gee, sorry for the question marks, it was coincidence (and speaking of coincidences, I thought of trolls while reading your response).

Did anyone else read this article about the NHTSA not having software engineers or any ability to evaluate computerized systems? http://www.thecarconnection.com/marty-blog/1042836_nhtsa-has-no-software-engineers-or-ees-to-analyze-toyotas Makes this conclusion seem a bit sketchy to me? This is a good answer for Toyota, wonder how much it cost them?

Entire dev team got the axe; budget cutbacks, no further internal development. Gee, and I thought I was missing out on the recession...

So *IF* I were a music pirate in Germany, this ruling would tell me to leave my router unsecured. The unprotected network fine is much cheaper than a RIAA lawsuit...

Does he mean to imply that driving licenses have kept morons off the roads? I'm not so sure it is working around here...

Why sit around and debate what the proper value of a refund is for a Windows license when you dont want it anyway? What happened to voting with your dollars? Do you want HP, Gateway, Toshiba, and Sony to sell Linux systems? Then buy a machine that comes with an "alternate" OS! I am typing this on my Dell Mini 9 netbook running Linux. I ordered it from them so I could cast a vote for alternate operating systems on new machines. I wiped the Dell Linux (old ubuntu w/ Dell launcher) and loaded UNR, but I wanted my vote to count. Yes, my desktop runs Windows and that is the right OS for the tasks that I do. Linux is the right OS for my little travel machine. I eventually chose another distro, but Dell sold a PC with Linux and got positive feedback from a customer. I actually liked the HP machine a little better, but wanted to support Linux by recording a sale, and I have no regrets. Canonical rewarded me with UNR 9.1 which is most excellent! So, want to thumb your nose at the big boys? Stop supporting them, there are many vendors out there with alternate choices. Vote with your Dollar!

Well written and thought provoking.

Not really. I just received my shiny new Dell Mini with Dell/Ubuntu outdated Linux installed. I immediately loaded the latest Ubuntu and rediscovered how great things are in Linux land. Visit dellmini.com or ubuntumini.com and you will find I am far from alone.

Not many business machines in your Mom's basement, eh? FYI, companies that don't sell clean business systems, don't sell many business systems (sorry I mentioned the exception)

I have not received a new Dell without having a lot of junk installed; this includes 3 Mini 9s, a Mini 10, and a XPS410 (excluding business systems, mine have always arrived clean or blank).

Your netbook must be special; I didn't get lucky like you. Oh wait, neither did my wife or daughter, they also got XP infested with Dell Support, 800 Search Assistant, Dell WebChat, etc. You should visit mydellmini.com. There are forums for Mini 9 users where people share tips and tricks. The Windows forum is the busiest because MicroDell XP is soo awesome. I think a lot of those people got the same version I got.