You should hold out for Microsoft Store 7. I hear many of these problems have been addressed for the best ever customer experience.

The year of Microsoft on the high street!

To be honest I'm surprised they aren't setting up shop as an online retailer. I would have thought that would give them a wider reach for less outlay, but I guess they want people to play with their products. In store surfaces and all that.

The other thing is the main impression that I came away with from the images of the concept store was, well, how dull and boring it looked. Not the sort of place I would enjoy shopping.

Knowing Microsoft it will put its corporate salespeople on the shop floor to be all 'customer facing' who will scare away most customers by the time they have stalked their prey (they'll call that 'proactive') and introduced themselves with, "Hi! Can I help you?" (They think they are doing you a favor but it's rare I will stay long if I sense any potential for being hounded into a purchase.)

Maybe I'm just being cynical?

... nah!

Strict inequality operator (I believe there are others too).

Problem solved. My password is 'sexgod'

What? I can dream!

Two months ago I turned down a job when I found out it was to work on software very similar to this. It was exclusively for cellphones and targeted to teens who want to find their friends at festivals.

I can see the uses but, whether stupid or not (what with the economy and everything), I just wasn't comfortable enough with it.

I like Google but that opinion is becoming strained because in many ways they have the potential to be much worse than a silly cellphone tool from a nondescript company. They already track a lot of information and due to their popularity and perceived 'coolness' they could cross that line (you know, that one) quite easily and so gradually that it goes completely under the radar at first. (Some might say they have already but personally I think they're some way off, yet heading in that direction fast.)

Ah, he has a larger ID then? Whether intentional or not I love the "must be new ... here" reference. I can only hope that you are peppering your speeches with such memes on a regular basis. ;)

As for the story, forgive my naïveté but how much difference would (will) this make? My pessimistic side makes me just think that the RIAA will go away and find someone who will do their bidding - can they reinstate the motion as though it was never withdrawn once the inaccuracies are (purportedly) sorted out? My optimistic side was unavailable for comment.

In any case, if this guy is new to the process, it is nice to hear of another lawyer who is concerned with ethics.

Pessimist!

I prefer to think it half empty of French.

No no, they fixed that. I believe somebody just kicked the box which was at the time being used as a doorstop in Brin's office.

Listen up Sergey boy. It's time to stop being so foolhardy. Send it back to Big Ben and we'll forget this ever happened, yeah?

I do not think that word means what you think it means. ;)

Exactly! HURD is the kernel, Emacs is the operating system.

For those interested in seeing this, here you go.

I'm the paranoid sort with this sort of thing, I have to say. I usually only use my credit card for select purchases and often in stores I trust (as far as you can). I never use debit or credit cards for groceries and trivial things like that.

As always though, there are new attack vectors coming into play all the time and you only need to be caught out once. It's entirely possible that I might be caught out one day by some new method I'm unaware of. For now I'm just content to reduce my 'attack surface' and try to be as vigilant as I can. (eg not specifically credit card related but a few years ago cycle rental place wanted to hold my passport until the cycle was returned. I refused.)

Ace! I'll take 10,000 blank American Express. Meet me by the disused warehouse down by the docks in three hours.