Alternately, Samsung will win, and Apple will appeal based on .... something lawyerly that I don't understand. and both Apple and Samsung get their names in the headlines for a good long while.

Bonus points from Samsung if they can prevent the release of the iPhone 5 in the USA.

Fixed that for me. Next time I'll spend more time reading back.

Yes. I have a low tolerance to Truthiness. If a device is not giving consistent results, it is flawed. If a program is giving inconsistent results, it is buggy. If a person is saying inconsistent things, they are liars. An IT background has forced this world view. Others will be less fault tolerant of people.

No. There may not be an "Unbroken System". But we should be filtering for flaws and implementing ways of removing flaws as quickly as possible. Something corporate lobbyists seem to be opposed to.

I don't care about my soon to be boss at this point. If they had asked when I started sending my resume out, then there would have been a different conversation.

Checked for bad spelling in sig. Does not parse as BASIC, sorry. Parses as English.

Good point. If my manager and their manager are not in the Exit interview, then odds are they are not taking the process seriously. Take it as a chance to do some origami, or basket weaving, or planning a holiday to somewhere nice. When the HR officer asks you questions, reply with "Who reads this?" "If nothing is going to happen, then let's use this as a chance to grab a coffee."

Odds are your peculiar behavior will get you locked out of the building. Think of it as free vacation time.

The problem is that, if a corporation does not obey the laws of the land, there is no convenient way of giving the corporation a "Time Out to think about what they have done." People are easy to train that way.

If companies were delisted people would be unable to buy and sell shares and therefor be stuck with the bad shares. The company then has to serve time by donating all profits for the next 5 years to "The public good". Now we have a system of crime and punishment that can deal with corporations in a way that corporations can understand. Nobody loses their job as the corporation can continue operating.

People would only invest in ethical companies on the grounds that unethical ones will not turn a profit.

Let me reply thusly.
Why am I sending word docs? If they need to edit it, then get them to edit the wiki. If not, send them a pdf. They can't screw with the contents of one of those.

I can use margins in Word... but prefer to use indents and bullets in html.

You are therefore using Office for traditional reasons and not for any other. Thank you for confirming my last paragraph.

I don't know who modded me up either. I am however a cubicle dweller of 15 years, so have some experience in office environments. I do not gloat the lack of fax machine or email address. I do however have no requirement for an "Office Suite" (free or otherwise)

Windows will be around for a while... Just as Solaris is still kicking around. Just as there are breakouts of OS\2, just as there are still Novell networks. If Metro is just as classy as Vista, then there may well be ire from even those on the corporate treadmill.

Who needs office anymore?
I need to create the odd document which I can do on the wiki we have at work.
I need to create the odd database report which I do with various database tools and then export them to html.
I need to send and receive email, again, a web interface seems to do the trick.
Sometimes I need to present something to a group of people. I use a whiteboard. (I tend to prefer the smart boards)

The reason people use Office suites these days is more from tradition than need. Microsoft will not die, but they will recede. Metro will probably speed up the process.

I Program in vb because the code base I use is in vb. When I am the only monkey that has to read it, I tend to opt for C#. I may well be worthless, but the org I work for keeps paying me.

Advantages of the Apple iPhone. A very well tied together interface that allows you to do most things you would expect easily. Also a large number of available apps and media.

Advantages of Android. Choice. Pick your phone manufacturer. Pick your phone. Customise your interface to suit you. Then pick your apps. (Also a large library.) Media purchase is a little flaky. (I can't buy music from Google Play in Australia for instance. But can easily download from my computer.)

Advantages of base model phone. It Just Makes Calls. This means for a certain subset of the market, it does it's job well.

The Windows/Nokia alliance picks up on the well tied together interface. Few apps (whilst you have all the apps you need, you don't get all the apps you want.) Media is still problematic. Little choice in available phones. Too complex for base model phone people. The thing the WinFone lacks is a compelling reason.

Yes. Provided they are running it on the OS and version you specify. With the supporting software versions you specify. On the chipsets you specify.

Any changes or if they fail to install appropriate security patches and all bets are off.

By the way. Only support defects and not Requests for Change. (They can want a new feature enough to pay for it.)

If I recall from science (especially biology) a good portion of the high school curriculum was rote learning of cool stuff other people had done. Because of the timescales involved in evolutionary biology, it is a little impractical to do too much of the way of experiments in the term you are given to work in.

This means that kids are learning this stuff from other peoples results and are unable to test it themselves. Which is more "Scientific" theory, experiment, thesis OR reading some book that basically says "It happened like this!". Because now we have set up two books opposed to each other and no convenient way of proving or disproving one or the other. Therefore your science is taken on faith (because you can't prove it in the 9 week term) or you keep believing the faith of your forebears.

Fair enough. I'll pay that. One of them may be virtual though.

Statistical outlier.

Has a network port.

Is a web page

Will make us more profitable

Is a prototype that we hope will work.

Gives people one more method to communicate with each other.

I'm being bribed to buy this product with someone else's money. WHERE'S MY IPAD!!!

Too long have I been listening to marketing presentations. sigh.