And interrupt 27h to terminate stay resident :) The fun we used to have with that one in my school PC labs...

What??

There's no doubt that linux game support has improved, but they're still a tiny minority. This is the list of 2016's best selling games in the US:

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Battlefield 1
The Division
NBA 2K17
Madden NFL 17
Grand Theft Auto V
Overwatch
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
FIFA 17
Final Fantasy XV

Guess how many have linux ports?

I have used Zenefits, it's fine. Certainly better than most of the in-house benefits systems that I've used at larger companies (from an employee point of view). Nice slick web site which lets you do pretty much everything you need in one place.

"not culturally compatible"? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?

I've worked in technology for 20 years now, in several countries, and I've worked with people from many nations. I've seen good and bad from here and overseas - there's no pattern.

And yet you said yourself, they're not on H1-B. F-1OPT is specifically for people in their position - who have studied here and want to get practical experience in the workforce. If you don't like them, blame whoever hired them.

For anything expensive, sure. But this isn't for that - the buttons are for things you already use, already have decided you like, and don't want to have to think about running out of. I have one for trash bags, for example. I don't need to spend time thinking about trash bags, I just need more to magically appear when I'm nearly out.

It's a convenience, nothing more.

It's worth pointing out that iOS doesn't allow apps to access the MAC, IMEI or any other persistent unique ID field (for just this reason). There is a unique ID field designed for apps to use for device identification but it is generated by the device on a per application basis, so it cannot be correlated with other apps. It also changes if you reinstall the app. Both of these facts make it fairly useless for nefarious purposes.

How on earth would Microsoft "thoroughly integrate" something so that "you can't uninstall or or disable it" on a platform owned and controlled by Google. You know, their competitor? Feel free to continue using your phone of choice but at least have a basic understanding of something before jerking your knees so hard you knock the table over.

Console games are $60 (at least in the US). It's also easy to get them for less than that, as an Amazon Prime or Best Buy subscriber you can get them for $48 on release day. I'm also not sure where your $40 figure comes from, everything I can find points to the prices being considerably higher. For example, this article looks at game pricing over history and concludes they're cheaper now than ever (adjusting for inflation).

You are right about phones, but I'd say that the specs of the top end phones have also gone up way faster than "inflation" (whatever that means in these terms) - so comparing "top of the line" then with now is not necessarily fair.

Your numbers are crap. Yes, the Wii outsold basically everything, it was a huge hit. It was also TEN YEARS AGO. Yes the DS/3DS sell great, no doubt. But in the current home console space Nintendo are failing spectacularly.

According to Nintendo themselves, the Wii U has sold 13.4 million units worldwide. Sony and Microsoft don't publish hard numbers, but most estimates have the Xbox One at around 25 million and PS4 at around 49 million. Or a total "not Nintendo" of 74 million. This is despite the Wii U launching a full year earlier than the Xbox One and PS4.

That sounds incredibly inconvenient. SMS & phone call & have to be home?

I live in the US, I get multiple packages a week delivered from all the major shippers. Unless the item is explicitly marked as "requires signature" (maybe 1 in 100) it gets left on the doorstep. Never had a single thing go missing in 10 years. Plus, 90% of what I get is from Amazon and their customer service is so good I'm 100% sure they'd fix it if something did go AWOL.

If I did have a crime problem here I'd install a secure dropbox, having to stay home or drive to a shipping center to pick stuff up is too much hassle.

Mine broke (started getting lots of packet errors leading to corrupt downloads) a while back and they replaced it with a new one. Would be a shame if something happened to yours...

It's a little different with FIOS because the router handles various video related functions (e.g. PPV) and acts as a MoCA bridge (the ONT sends the data signal over MoCA rather than cat5 in the default configuration). It can be done, but it's kind of a pain. In my mind, the only knock on an otherwise great service.

Just like everyone else replying to you, I know a couple of people with Surface Books and I usually see the tablet version every few days on the commuter train I ride (generally a 50/50 mix of Thinkpads/HP business laptops and Macbooks, but occasionally a Surface). Surprised me to see someone using the kickstand thing on his lap, didn't think it was possible, but he looked to be getting on fine.

And no, before you ask, I'm not going to take photos of random strangers to satisfy your bizarre need for easily falsifiable "evidence". Take my word for it or not, I seriously don't care.

Which high end cameras are using proprietary USB cables? I know all my Canon's use standard USB connectors, so I can just swap out the cable. And honestly, I've always carried a card reader with me because there was never a CF slot in a macbook :)

But you're totally right, with these updates Apple seem very confused as to who their customer is. They keep saying pro, but as a pro (be it photographer, or developer, or whatever) I need compatibility and flexibility. Only having one type of port (and a fairly rare one at that) is neither. Those Surface Books are looking mighty nice.