Not only have they had to re-image all their PCs, you've now slashdotted their web server!

So... if LibreOffice Base is not functional enough... and if a web solution is "too techy" for them... and if other proprietary solutions are too proprietary for you... and if an extant CRM isn't okay for them... and if a single-user single PC solution is acceptable...

Write a standalone Python app that uses PyQt for its GUI, design the forms in the Qt UI form designer, use the Qt database abstraction to use an SQLite DB on a local file.

If this is a solution that is going to be dropped on them and left without support, then you don't need a super-flexible (read "buggy") database-designing framework, so knock it out in PyQt and run.

If you are going to be around to support it, then just use your preferred django/mysql system. I'm sure the org can stretch to a couple of RPi's to run it on. Oh, and backups.

Are Adobe going to make a Linux version of the DRM module? Because their record with Linux versions of their PDF DRM tech is VERY POOR. We get research articles from the British Library which are DRM'd, and our Linux users can't read them. One solution is to complain to BL at which point they will often just email you a plain old unDRMd PDF. The mega-facepalm thing is that the British Library came out against DRM-content a few years ago, and have done a massive backtrack because the publishers didn't like it.

Whether DRM is a bad thing or an insanely bad thing (ok, or a good thing, whatever), I don't ever want to see "This Content Cannot Be Viewed On Your Nerdy Linux Operating System" popups ever. But if this is Adobe's shitcreek we're wading through, I think I will.

"Programmers have all the time in the world to get it right". HAHAHAHAHAHA.

No, we have deadlines like everyone else. And even then we only have all the time in the CPU. Yeah, we can add more CPUs to the system, but that makes it more complex, and that makes it harder to hit that deadline. What kind of idiot made that statement?

Braking power isn't infinite. Wheel braking will eventually skid the wheels (which is why we have anti-lock brakes now, so you can still steer while braking). Are you thinking cars should be equipped with dragster-style parachutes, or retro-rockets? Or just a bloody great anchor that the computer can deploy and tear up the road?

Even when the car has deployed the parachute, the anchor, and the retro-rocket is still firing, the computer might still not be able to stop going into that tree that's just fallen over. Plus all those negative G forces are going to smear the drivers eyeballs over the inside of the windscreen.

I think the assertion of a mobile phone listening device "universal back door" requires a citation. Anyone? Google only finds sensationalist journalism and not any real research, eg http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2006/12/can_you_hear_me/ from 2006...

And is the man in charge a PACMAN? There, I made it back into something nerdy.

Remember how graphene was first made? There's even a YouTube video on it now! Ban this dangerous sticky tape and pencils before terrorists get their hooks - I mean hands - on them!

What's the point of making a rugged system that can survive all that and then putting Windows on it?

Don't forget the 20% Pay-As-You-Spend as well (aka VAT), and the £2-per week tax on stupidity, aka the Lottery.

The prediction fail with that watch is the idea that you need any form of input. These days, phones, tablets, and smartwatches are purely consumption devices, designed to pump content into your brain, force you to watch ads, and take money from your pocket. At least, that's what the big corporations want. How many futurists saw that coming?

Is Free Speech so important to the USA that you can't relinquish it to a 12"x4" piece of metal on your cars?

US plates have always amused me. In the UK car number plates are highly regulated. They have to use a particular typeface, be a specific size, have a yellow background for the rear plate, white on the front, made from certain reflective materials etc. You can't even adjust the letter spacing to make words. If your car is "M35 EXY" you can't change it to "M3 5EXY". There is a market for custom codes but most of these are historic plates that have been transferred from old vehicles and are
more likely to be interesting than codes in the current scheme (I saw a Rolls Royce with plate "BR 2" - my initials - recently).

You've get several hundred square feet to plaster the rest of your car body with messages, so why so precious about your plates?

Hmm April 1st has a long tail this year...

Next year I'm not going to believe anything until the middle of May.

$23 for a side view mirror? Bargain! Some of these things are integrated into the door panels, with controls into the interior and embedded turn signal lights, and cost hundreds to replace. Plus installation.

Meanwhile I smash my side mirrors with impunity, since Land Rover door mirrors are £8 each and fix on with a wrench and a screwdriver.

Wow the union situation in the USA is so screwed up compared to us lefty commies in the UK. Can you seriously stop your workers getting together and discussing their wages and conditions? Appointing a spokesperson to come and ask you for an extra two minutes toilet break every day? Would you just fire the lot of them and re-hire?

But crudely put, employment law is there to try and bring the dicks up to the level of the good guys, rather than bring the good guys down to the level of the dicks. So if you're not a dick, you shouldn't have to worry about it.