QED.

It has an OTP you're required to save before completing the process (ten keys), and the mobile app doesn't require a data connection to my knowledge, after the initial pairing.

Yet it seems you're very happy to use the internet, whose death you so crave, to voice your opinion and grief about the internet you use to give voice to your opinion.
Seeing the contradiction?

[First sentence is deliberately self-referential and obfuscated]

That's kind of a given, though. Fat lot of good "epic shit" will do if it bankrupts the company...

Wasn't it ruled that natural genetic sequences can't be patented, only the specific modifications biotech companies implement? And where ever did you get that stem cells are patentable, they're not even an idea to be patented. There was that case about the HeLa-line, but in that case, it was ruled that since the cells were considered medical waste, it was the hospital's responsibility to see to their disposal as they see fit, granting ownership over the cells, and their descendants (since they are identical to the mother cells).

So now it will languish because of a seriously bad rep, even before it's released, and developers will keep developing for desktop architectures (for what it'll be worth), because they expect low tablet/phone market penetration. This means they won't take the time and effort to make their apps cross-compatible (has anyone developed a cross-platform Metro app already? Is it a lot of work to make the jump between the two architectures?), there will still be few tablet-compatible apps, and the problem still won't be solved, unless Microsoft intervenes actively by developing native tablet or cross-platform apps, that are equal in capabilities between the two platforms (so no crippled tablet versions).

Trackpads usually move the mouse pointer on screen, so they can be considered mice. Unless you divide them up into active zones with no visual feedback on zone limits and functions, which means you just poke it in places, and hope you hit the button/zone you're trying to hit. All this while trying to scale and map the screen onto the touchpad: for many people, this might be a healthy mental exercise, but for those with not such a good sense of spatial reasoning, it'll be a reason to hunt down Ballmer and bludgeon him over the head with their laptops.

I don't want a touch-based desktop, even if it's a direct console to Deep Blue (or whatever is the most powerful supercomputer these days). A desktop's monitor is ideally just at the edge of arm's reach for me, and fingerprint-free. I don't want anyone touching my screen, except maybe tapping with a pencil or pen to point out things. Desktops/laptops are meant to be used with a mouse and keyboard, in my opinion, not poking the screen. That's for tablets and phones.

I seem to recall Android apps having to have the ability to distinguish between tablets and phones, and offer up potentially different UIs for both, each optimized for the amount of screen space available. I don't see why Microsoft can't go the same way, even if it means developers having to work extra to create two different UIs.

Or they can just ... not install Windows 8, and stick with Windows 7, which'll be even faster on the new, more powerful hardware.

There's always another way, you know.

It's not horrid on a touch-enabled device. The problem comes when you try to use an interface obviously designed for touch with no touch input. Sure, you can use it with a mouse, but that just feels awkward and weird.
Windows 8 is probably going to be amazing on tablets, but i don't see why Microsoft tries to force it on desktop users. In their stead, I would just keep the Windows 7 UI, and put that on top of the upgraded codebase. Or if they want to tie the platforms together so badly, make the OS detect the type of device it is installed on, and use the appropriate interface (Not-Metro for touch-based devices, regular for non-touch-based ones).

Wasn't it the Bhagavad Gíta (?) quote "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds"?

How does one break out of a chroot prison, exactly?

"I bet you my Nobel Prize and a beer you can't hit the unobtanium sample with the coils on manual!"
[Cue resonance cascade]

Or "Oh crap..". Or "Hey guys? This is pretty weird...".