It has everything to do with the bank. If you choose DEBIT, it asks for chip and pin, and also the retailer gets hit with extra fees. If you choose CREDIT, it asks for chip and signature. I can do this on ALL my cards, even ones that are straight credit cards and also just debit cards... (IE ring my debit card through as credit, and ring my credit card through as debit). Debit cards = backed by a checking or savings account, credit cards = backed by an actual credit line, just so everyone knows the difference

Metro UI is fine as long as you are using group policy to manage it (a la locked down start menus).

The big problem with with Win 8 was that when you installed an application, any start menu icons it would normally throw on your start menu all got tossed onto your Metro UI. SO that app that had 3 icons in its root folder, and then another 6 folders each with 2 or 3 icons ends up adding 15+ icons to your Metro UI screen. Two application installs and the thing is filled with useless junk.

Frankly, those chargers should have ALREADY had these changes on revision one...

Who designs a car charger that is using 230V at 30+Amps for hours on end and leaves out a temp sensor and a mechanical mechanism that would shut it off if it overheats?

The temp sensor for statistics and monitoring (since these are still early generation) and the mechanism for safety.

Hate to respond to myself but I forgot to add:

I don't necessarily agree that every company should just drop their hardware and get thin clients...

I think the right type of company, with the right amount of users will save money long term by properly building their own private cloud and offering virtual desktops. Even if that private cloud of theirs is being managed by a 3rd party.

100+ users I would say go create your own private cloud.

You are a collection agency / call center? Even better reason for this... I can't tell you how many times I was forced to move computers around or re-image a huge group of physical PCs because some client decided to cut their staffing levels in half.

Managing a cluster of enterprise level hardware will always be easier than managing a hodgepodge of general purpose workstations that were all bought at different times... (assume your "replacing 1/5 your towers every year" or sooner based on customer requirements).

What happens when that 600 dollar computer shits the bed or gets a virus?

most of these offerings come with backups, proper setup, etc...

THat tower dies and so does that users excel / word / powerpoint documents they had stored locally.

The second you bring up "oh but they have a server that it gets stored on" you complicate things 10x and Amazon's offerings (or other companies for that matter) become competitive.

Also if they are using PCoIP, I feel bad for them - All my tests show that the protocol citrix uses is far more efficient and offers much better control of quality / bandwidth consumption.

That's BS and you know it - US CC companies have some of the best fraud detection around...

The second a charge on my CC goes through in a state I have never been or never lived in (or couldn't travel to within the time of my last legit charge), they are calling me and asking if the charge was valid.

Last time I purchased something on eBay, I received the very same phone call because it was over $1,000

125KHz is the same freq. that they use in the little rfid pills they inject to your pets...

I'd love to be able to track / control my pets around the house with this

- Sick cat? only give it access to one of the litter boxes.
- Cat with different dietary requirements? Give them each their own bowl that are 5+ feet away from each other and have it with a door / retractable cover.
- Outdoor cat? Have the cat door unlock when it gets close to it, but only for that one cat.

People cost money just like robots.

Its a money pissing match plain and simple.
(and a tech pissing match)

Do you know how much these drugs cost to create and get approved for sale?

HERE

Also, the IP clauses shouldn't be an issue... they last for 20 years, and most of the time the drug patent is submitted prior to clinical trials. I am way over simplifying this though, as there are other items that can be done to extend.

It would also be nice if people could start trying to actually back up their points with some solid proof/articles.

This seems stupid at best, and a complete waste when they can just go to the ISP / backbone and get EVERYTHING, not just what said person is posting on G+

It isn't amazon's job to setup a DR plan for their entire datacenter. That is the customer's job. You can pay for Amazon support and they will gladly help you setup a DR plan for your setup, but there is no way what-so-ever that it is their responsibility.

They provide you with an easy way to rent their hardware from 1 or more locations, and you can build in redundancy into your own system.

- Americans also have family to take care of (say the H-1B sends money back home... that money goes way further than it would for an American doing the same)
- Americans also have student loans, which is constantly rising due to the nature of how College tuition / loan stuff works

This right here would probably solve the issue in one iteration.

Of course it could also backfire and bring our wages down to the point where they still recruit H-1Bs

There is only one reason STEAM is doing this, and it's pretty simple.

When they decide to release their own console (oh and they will), they want to make sure their platform will work on it, and that game developers have already started thinking about porting them over to *nix. Why pay a licensing fee for some OS to put on a console (or a licensing fee to XBOX or Sony to get STEAM on their platform), when they can instead make sure their platform works flawlessly on *nix, and then create a console using *nix.

the desktop *nix community will be like a beta test for their console, without all the demands of "I want a fix yesterday" that you would get from the Windows community.

Long term, they will end up taking a significant chunk of the current consoles market share.

This right here.

This is how Valve will play this out.

1) Release Linux version of STEAM + Source games working from day 1
2) Release new Console version based on Linux (no MS licensing overlord). Console comes with all source games
3) Release STEAM client for mobile ...
Profit?

If they now have a linux client, doesn't that mean that if I make a game using their source engine, it will work on Windows, Mac & Linux right off the bat? If so they would basically be able to say "Use STEAM & Source engine to make your game and it will work on our console (#2 above), and PC from day one."

Bonus points if they release a brand new Source v2 engine or something along with a console.