It's not 12.

China is a huge market for Mac hardware (phones, but also laptops). It's also a place where the only operating systems of note are pirated XP, pirated Windows 7, and bundled OEM Windows (various versions).

Have you heard of pagerank? The algorithm which google ran on? Larry and Sergy couldn't sell it. Your algorithm is worth less.

Sell a product. If you don't have the skills (or time) to make a "Photoshop for videos", make a one-touch "video-improver" app. Explain how it could be extended.

Threatening violence isn't passive aggressive. Passive aggression was invented by the military, to refer to underhanded insubordination. "Sorry sir, I was pinned down, so I couldn't get myself shot in battle. Maybe next time."

It's a perfectly rational response to an idiot in command (or, an idiot who thinks they are in command).

Saying you *want* to slap someone is outright aggressive. Saying you want to slap someone who's not here could be passive aggressive (if it's directed against a superior, or someone who'd hit you back). More likely, it's just tall talk.

"No True Scotsman" is a funny thing.

Atheists don't (or shouldn't) believe there is any real difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. It's a sliding scale between atheism, agnosticism, casual belief, and fanatical belief. Nor is there any reason to believe that one camp is really better in every possible way.

Lots of fanatical Christians *do* believe there are two camps - the "real" Christians, and everyone else. That's why they play the "No True Scotsman" game - most of them actually believe there is a real difference between "real" Christians, and the rest; and that "real" Christians are morally better in every way. So if a "real" Christian does something (or worse - believes something) they don't agree with, they obviously weren't a "real" Christian.

(OK, that's a bit of a simplification - they still think that "real" Christians do bad things, but then God forgives them and they try not to do it again ... but they should certainly all *try* to live by the same moral code, since God is guiding them).

Well, it can't be any harder than building a working space elevator. At which point we can just beam solar power down. :/

They asked professionals what they wanted. The answer was "Windows 7, fuck another upgrade".

Windows 8 is aimed at consumers, not professionals. It's not even aimed at making consumers happy, it's aimed at training consumers in Microsoft's touch UI, so the consumers will consider getting a Surface Pro / RT, or a Windows phone.

Microsoft realised, after about 10 years of Apple kind its ass, that touch devices are here to stay. So they are trying to leverage their PC dominance to drive the sales of post-PC devices.

Will this upset professionals? Most of them won't upgrade anyway. Windows 7 is good enough for them.

Wow. That Quora post has a lot of buzzwords.

You'd need a lot of reinsurance, because there's a chance a flaw in the system could result in an insurer-bankrupting class action. To get re-insurance, you call up a guy like Warren Buffett (Global Re), who scratches his head, runs the figures, then says "OK, here's the price". He can afford to take the risk.

This is how IP laws keep growing.

Every time 2 countries decide to "rationalize" their IP laws, they add their restrictions together, instead of compromising. You tend to end up with the longest term, the lowest bar, and the heaviest penalties.

AFAIK, none.

There's a lot of "privileges" that blacks get, though; and some of those can actually be detrimental. For example, black students are more likely to get the "privilege" of getting remidial classes, even if they don't need them (and would be better off in regular, or even advanced, classes).

MIcrosoft doesn't want to fix their UI. They want to train users in their touch UI.

The tablet space is an attractive market, and Microsoft wants to use their power on the desktop to win the tablet war.

This won't win them any friends in corporate IT, but corporate IT is so tied to Microsoft that they could release the next version with MS Bob as the interface, and businesses would still be forced to buy it when they upgrade. The only reason corporate IT is slow to upgrade now is that XP (and now Windows 7) is good enough, and corporate upgrade cycles are slow. Businesses skipped Vista, and went with 7. They'll skip 8 no matter what. When they are ready to upgrade again, Microsoft can just release a "Pro" version which enables a "classic" interface, and leave regular consumers with an interface that trains them to use MS tablets.

While there's lots of good self-taught musicians, generally educated musicians are better. The same is true for lots of things. People *can* teach themselves, but only if the skill is very easy, or they are hell-bent on learning.

That's the great thing about cloud computing. It's always there, like a cloud. Except when it decides to go away. Like a cloud.

Look at what similar jobs in the area are offering. Then email someone (via linked-in, or a search of the org's website) who's not advertising a position, so they only have 1 resume in front of them. There's a 20% chance that there's a position opening up, but it hasn't gone to HR yet (ass-pull statistic), and it's quite likely that the manager will forego dealing with 200+ mostly useless applicants if they have one solid candidate so you'll get the job with not other competitors.

> Tablets can't get real work done without add-on peripherals anyway.

A desktop can't either.