Just to clarify: The SW documentation I had to write was for my job, not for my education. At the university I never had to use any MS product. Even in the nineties, some tools were available only for Linux, and Linux was encouraged.

At work, I was later able to switch release note generation from Word to LaTeX, which was much easier to script (extract change logs from the vcs, match with some extracts from the error database and test results etc, feed a database with release specific information [which bug was fixed in which release and merged to which branches]), and generate the final release notes as HTML and PDF.

In my pre-master time I had to write some SW documentation using Word. I guess there is a reason Word is named "Word" and not "Text" - that's why I wrote my master thesis with LaTeX as well (typing most of it in emacs), and I'm pretty certain it saved me a lot of work, even if it meant to invest a small bit up-front in learning.

Lawyers are supported like normal people, yes

A Shotgun should eliminate that risk...

I thought that is what I wrote? They can't fork Android, but they can invest in Tizen... That's why I'm looking forward to Tizen :-) I wouldn't if I thought it was Android...

Quote from http://www.amazon.com/kindle-f...:

As far as I understood the restrictions, they could use the word Android, but they can't use the Google logo or Google Apps (Mail, Maps and others) without Googles permission. For Samsung, they might not be allowed to fork Android, but they do invest in Tizen. I'm looking forward to finally see the first devices.

I object. But do agree that "Not all the other people in the world are morons.", it's just I'm convinced as well that "Not all the other people in the world are not morons." Takes all kinds...

Yes, but not any letter. It would for sure be a quite strongly worded one!!!111!1!

HERE (including former Navteq!) has 80% market share in all car navigation systems. The map data is quite good, the routes calculated by here.com are also on par with Google (sometimes slightly better, at other times slightly words). Maybe Google has some more point of interest listed, but this is a matter of market share of the software as a guide rather than only routing. The more people use HERE map data and software as a guide, the more points of interest they will add.

Unfortunately most people do not understand the significance of privacy and free speech. Ask people if they'd sell the right to speak out on one tiny specific topic for 1000€ annually, and you will see that freedom has a price-tag. Nevertheless I think governments should prevent people from selling their privacy and freedom. (Yes, sounds illogical to force people to stay free. I'm still working on that one :-)

We were discussing surveillance here. But Ok, lets broaden the scope; only in that case lets not restrict it to NSA, but include other american secret services as well.

Ever read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...?

Or about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...?

Or about do you know about the Taliban history, how they were created by CIA to fight against the Russians? (Steve Coll: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, February 23, 2004, Penguin Press HC, )

NSAs actions regarding surveillance are worse than the wettest dreams the East German StaSi could ever have imagined, for several reasons: 1. They didn't have the funds to do what NSA does 2. Technique developed a lot, everything is connected nowadays 3. USA pretends to be friends with most western countries, while East Germany was never trusted The StaSi did some pretty bad stuff as well when it came to physical actions against opponents, but since most of it is not publicly known (neither for StaSi nor for NSA) it's hard to compare.

The only segment Google is really market leader by quality is IMO search. For all other areas (Mail, News, Social networks, Maps, Mobile OS, whatever) there are technically equally good or even better alternatives, for most areas even within Europe. (Mail-providers are available for ages, for social networks Facebook is not European but more widely used than Google+ while Diaspora would be a technically better solution than either of them, for Mobile OS there is SailfishOS [Yes, with an Android compatibility layer to let Android-Apps run; not because Android is better but because it has more market share by now and would be difficult to catch up], Meego and others, for Maps we have HERE and Openstreetmap). These alternatives are not widely used due to Googles market dominance, but they are good and available. I'm not sure what the impact would be if Google Search would vanish, but I think we will survive.

The device is definitely faster at draining your cash balance. Or, if we are lucky, the cash-balance of e.g. NSA/CIA.

Maybe, but I wouldn't judge by any of those low standard questions. Either the interviewer is from HR, then his competence does not necessarily say anything about the engineers technical competences and team atmosphere. Or the guy might still be a quite good engineer and just sucks at interview planning, or was scheduled on short notice to do the interview for another team. I'd probably tell the interviewer that I consider the questions a bit generic, took the time to learn the usually expected answers, but would prefer to go into more job-specific topics. Depending on the reaction, I can still blow the interview, or if they consider the interview blown because of this, I could probably live with it.

My stock answer (which usually appears to be well received:

There are no strengths or weaknesses. Just properties with positive and negative effects depending on the situation. I got this question in several interviews and always give this answer with appropriate information about my properties, and how they proved advantageous or disadvantageous