Great. With a bit of luck my new pending patent "Wheel" is on the way to be approved.

So maybe something changed(?). I've always been amazed by how CIOs behave in big organizations. The trend is "we change hardware on a regular basis" but regarding the OS (ie Windows) there's never been even a question about alternatives. Homogeneity (all the same OS) and certainly no revolution. The very high licensing cost is not even discussed - the same who chose the most expensive Verisign certificatea - CIOs are used to it, and it's budgeted. "That's the way it is". Microsoft may raise Enterprise licensing costs and I'm not sure they have to worry at all about the consequences in the industry.

To be fair, ESA (European S.A.) has also a few probes here and there, like Mars / Venus Express. But to be fair, NASA has always been very passionated about what they do and are very keen to share what they found. There are amazing apps about the various probes, where they are, their status, pictures they took etc... invaluable stuff for someone interested in astronomy/physics/more-than-the-ordinary.

To increase my chances to meet Mr Obama in person!

Probably not. But while paying 75k out of a 1B revenue is probably/certainly legal... that shows there is a problem with nowadays local and international laws / rules. The problem is that most of our economy rules are based on a system designed long ago, from a time where a man in a company did matter.

Sandy Island: reserve before departure

Gulf War I was 20 years ago... Some progress has been made in the meantime (just try the "AR missile" app!)

I hope they brought one of their microscopes up there ...

(or lichen)

I'll rather go for a fossil (of a ~bacteria)