The Compaq TC1000 and TC1100 were PCs running Windows XP Tablet Edition. They were just over a cm thick and had a nice tilt and swivel detachable keyboard. For the time, it was utterly astonishing and only really let down by its slow CPU and half-hearted support from Compaq/HP. Indeed I only switched back to laptops when HP discontinued the range. As far as form factors go though, it pretty much nailed how a hybrid tablet/laptop should function... ten years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_TC1000

...I'll let you figure out why, suffice to say that I've seen someone try it, fully believing they were somehow gaining CPU cycles... oh how we laughed!

The story here misses out one key piece of information; that just the administration pages don't work on IE. The sites they're creating with said admin system work fine on IE. The company explicitly points this out - go here and click the sign up button: http://4ormat.com/

Now, that's not such a big deal and nobody's going to complain because they can easily get the thing working by downloading another free browser. .

I'v done the same thing in the past, and also the exact opposite - making an admin interface that only works in IE. It's not a big deal, and in most cases it's the norm for intranet-style sites. That said, if someone reads this, runs out and decides to make their public-facing site IE-unfriendly, thinking they'll save $100,000, then they're nuts...

Seriously, 225 mph farts from a dog are really not worthy of modelling... Trust me on this.

...going for a walk. A good walk works wonders and is a little less extreme than electrodes in the brain. That said, my depression was a side effect of a long term illness and the walking may have had other health benefits that improved my mindset.

That said, walking might not be a great idea if you'd lost your job, sold your car, etc. etc...

...nuke to lob at someone. Seriously, this is why nuclear technician isn't up there with brain surgeon and rocket scientist.

...that's two years to do something about it. What does everyone expect; Microsoft to support it forever?

14 years of support seems pretty generous - I mean how many versions of OS do Apple currently support? Certainly not all the way back to OS X 10.0. I'm also sure that a lot of those embedded and industrial systems will be updated before then. That's more the job of the manufacturers than Microsoft.

...as if a million nerds suddenly went out and bought contacts...

Especially when you consider that the click wheel iPod is thought to be influenced by a 1954 transistor radio.

Plus even Jobs' comments about the iPhone 4 being "like a Leica camera" betray the fact to yes, their designers look to past gadgets for inspiration, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone given the task of locating the port saw the Polaroid camera and went "let's try that"...

Sometimes I wish I could remove the Stocks and Weather apps built into my iPhone, but Apple won't let me, even though there are alternatives... I just have to stick them in a Crap I Don't Use folder on the last screen...

I sure as hell wouldn't want it to crap out if I was loading a sidewinder missile onto a plane. Ignoring the very remote possibility of an explosion, the sudden appearance of hundreds of pounds in my hands is sure to cause some rather nasty injuries...

There was nothing in his speech about shutting down networks, merely targeting those inciting violence and disorder.

In that respect, it's bringing social networking in line with other UK media which are also bound not to incite violence etc. It's certainly not a shutdown of a service in any way.

Even WOPR was calling David Lightman back in 1983 for a quick game of thermonuclear war...

Many cameras - not phones - cameras, had this functionality way before the iPhone did. Granted that in most circumstances it was only available in a camera application, but I had my Nokia N95 about three months before the original iPhone came out, and it used the exact same chip to do the same thing...

I'm pretty sure that some high end digital SLRs had this function, possibly as far back as 2003 if memory serves me correctly.

So, why are Mozilla still patching FF 3.xx versions of Firefox?

That's pretty much based on the same open standards as FF5, so why not ditch it and support the most recent version only? Otherwise it's in danger of becoming Mozilla's XP/IE6...