Of course you can run VMWare on the Surface Pro 3. The Core i5 has all the Intel virtualization technologies so you could go further than just VMWare if you wanted.

I needed a Windows machine for remote work and got the new 3. I find it to be a very nice machine. Not at all perfect, but I am quite impressed. And I have found that it has nearly replaced my iPad as an eBook reader. The large (for a tablet) 3:2 screen is fantastic for reading.

OneNote is a bit odd though. You get the touch-enabled version installed out of the box, which is great. But if you install Office on the machine, you then get OneNote 2013 as well. When you press the stylus button to instantly bring up OneNote, you get the touch-enabled version. But it seems that at other times, you are not quite sure which version will load. However, they are interoperable and they save the files in the same location, so it really doesn't matter which one loads. It's just odd, that's all. Maybe the next version of Office will combine the two versions.

Did you bother asking the dealership what the cost to reprogram was? It might have been very inexpensive or even free.

My local Volvo dealership plugs the cars into the computer and runs diagnostics and software updates as a matter of course (no charge) any time you bring the car in for service. Their labor rates are competitive with independent mechanics and they offer a free shuttle to/from work, so I just have my maintenance done there. They clearly want repeat customers (they need repeat customers) and in my opinion are doing quite well at it. I've had a number of German and Japanese cars and prefer the Volvo approach. I'm not interested in fancy drinks in the fancy waiting room - A) I take my coffee black, thank you very much, and B) don't really want to spend my free time in a waiting room.

How this got moderated as Interesting I have no idea - I found it to be quite funny.

But the truth is that that industrial corporations are very sensitive to economics. Crude oil is very valuable and dispersant is very expensive. Any product that allows them to recover the oil economically will be used extensively.

The environmental movement really advanced when people started explaining to corporations that pollution was nothing more than raw inputs that they paid for and are now throwing away. A lot of industrial companies have entire divisions dedicated to selling products produced with what used to be stuff they threw out or paid someone to dispose of.

As others have mentioned, the full download occurs only if you update via iTunes and not on the devices themselves.

However, if you buy the OS X Server app from the App Store, it includes a "caching server" that provides a local cache for all Apple downloadable content. It's US$20, so that's a big bummer. But you only have to buy it once and if you have to pay for all that extra bandwidth it might be worthwhile, not to mention all the other "features" you get with the Server app.

I'd like to see Apple make the server app free - it's reasonable to keep it a separate app - or if not, to roll the caching feature into a future iTunes release.

Yes, absolutely. I live in Chicago so both Northwestern and U of Chicago have these programs. They are outstanding. And expensive. Generally, expect about $1000-1500 for a 3-4 month class that meets once a week. They are a large profit center for the universities, but that is a good thing - you are paying a lot for a good experience and they are delivering a good experience. Real professors that have received high marks for teaching ability. Books that are the standard for that subject matter. Quality course content, etc.

The networking opportunities are unreal - each class will have accomplished but curious and friendly people from a wide variety of companies and industries. The type of person that looks down on anyone without a masters degree is off getting a masters degree and the type of person that feels that they have already finished their education is at home watching TV. The people in these classes are the ones you want to meet. Mid-level or so and definitely going places.

Oil changes at my local Volvo dealership are cheaper than the independent shop down the street (and I live in a high rise so I can't exactly change the oil myself). Any time a car comes into the service garage at that dealer they hook it up to the computer which runs a diagnostic scan and then pushes all software updates that are available. Why not - it makes for happy customers and doesn't cost them a dime.

If you push a Node.js application to Azure, Microsoft uses IIS to serve the static files while Node.js uses Nginx for its http module.

How does that get counted? What about all the instances of Nginx serving as a load balancer in front of a set of Apache servers?

Silicon Valley sure knows how to rake in the cash hand over fist, but has absolutely no clue what to do with it once they have it.

Many years ago I tired of the frustration of getting a Linux-based solution to work well. Not just working, but working well - easy, looked nice, not having to reconfigure everything any time a library/software update on the Ubuntu box occurred, etc. I bought the 2nd gen Apple TV and have never looked back.

I fully believe that today there must be other solutions that work well, but I'm happy enough with the Apple TV that it's not worth the time trying anything else. There is no need to feel that you are trading in geek cred - you have a solution that works and it gives you the time to tackle other geeky problems.

They don't have to hire twice the people, but they have a strong incentive to hire more people - and the incentive heavily favors the employees who are giving up more of their time than they need to give up.

This is not the only solution - although you are right that we need to give more people a share in the economy. Our society needs to recognize that highly productive people work too much and would be happier if the worked less and earned less. Yes, one of the world's elite business schools says that productive people work too much.

Research shows that highly productive people would be far happier (and still have plenty of economic security) if they worked fewer hours. If the amount of work to do doesn't change, the economy has room for more workers.

I think that a better solution to taxation changes is for the government to change employment law - no more exemptions for overtime. All employees should receive overtime pay if they work more than X number of hours in a week. Period. The X number of hours should be indexed to productivity measures so that it changes in step with the productivity levels of our economy.

Yes, MS screwed up the original Surface sales projections so badly that their corrected sales projections (and thus manufacturing capacity) for the Surface 2 are so low that they cannot meet demand. Have you been under a rock? This has been in all the financial press as a huge negative for their revenue and profit numbers.

So... Bill Gates isn't going to be giving away some device when there is a line of people waiting to buy it.

The linked wikipedia entry that you are calling bullshit allocates ~$2500 per year for food for a middle class teenager. You may want to pay a bit more attention.

I have the early-2011 15" MBP and paid for the matte upgrade as well as the higher resolution screen (standard was 1440 x 900 and the optional is 1680 x 1050).

I just recently purchased the 15" rMBP and while I would prefer matte instead of glossy, I'm never going back. The display is just that good. I'll be sure to ask for a premium price when I sell the old MBP. It's nice to know that it is in demand.

Sometimes Apple fails to properly advertise some nice features, such as this. Target Display Mode actually makes me more likely to buy an iMac the next time I need to buy a computer. If it can work with my wife's ThinkPad and an Intel NUC running Linux, I'm sold.

I have used Target Disk Mode on a few Apple laptops in the past, which was also a very nice feature.