First, I'm not a manager, which is why it worked IMHO, had it been management it would have felt more "in trouble" than "we're a team, let's keep this a team issue and not get HR involved, 'cause none of us want that"; perception is a powerful tool.
Second, My words here and the words I used with here are vastly different. I don't really remember what I said, but I know I went over it with our collective manager, and tried to be respectful to them both, while pointing out that neither had anything to gain by remaining in the state they were in.

I tried to use respect and dignity with both of them, and to be honest I was harder on the guy, partially because I think it is fairly obvious he was in the wrong, while we've never been super strict with the dress code, but she had gone over the line far enough that it needed to be called out.
-nB

Yeah, she still wears sandals in the summer some times and you could nit-pick the dress length, but compared to what she was wearing, it really is a vast improvement.
-nB

I've always believed in accounting for mis-communication and / or human mistakes.
I mean I really do understand your company's position, but I disagree with it. I could cope with a one warning (permanent written??), and out the door after that, but just out the door seems like it may result in terminations that really were not necessary at times.
-nB

The one problem I've seen is that the person who feels like it it was over the line is afraid to say so. This needs to be made clear: That joking around and being a cohesive team means not being a bunch of stodgy twits, but it also means be respectful and that it's ok to say "I didn't like that" and that it will be accepted and the person saying it won't feel isolated for it.
-nB

Really? not even one warning? Seems harsh except in the most egregious cases.

In my old team we had things get wildly out of hand and HRLegal got involved. The entire team suffered because of a manager who didn't just step up and handle it like a problem between adults.

In my current team I am at/near the top of the social pecking order and have a very good reputation for looking out for juniors in the lab (going to bat w/ management for them but not telling who I'm batting for, etc.) and a good reputation with management for telling things as they are and having people trust me. This (amazingly to me) has gotten me some measure of respect from both sides, even when things get heated (we had a reorg a while back that turned very sour).

We had a repeat incident that was very nearly the same as what happened in my old group, but I told my manager what was happening, and asked him to give me a shot at handling it. I pulled the two into a conference room (based on the authority of the managers e-mail to them both) and dressed them both down, her for wearing clothes that are against the dress code and sure to attract attention, and him for utterly failing to be a gentleman that when a girl wears enticing clothes and lets you know it isn't you she wants it's time to back off. I reminded both of them that they are adults and to act it, and that neither was guiltless in the whole mess. Problem solved. Year and a half later, still no issues; she's dressed at least a little closer to the dress code, and he's polite, but non pursuing to her.

I don't think informal warning straight to dismissal is the right policy, there should be two more steps in between: formal warning && second warning + suspension.
Just realized I mis-parsed that part of your post, but there's the two steps I'd put there.

-nB

I think this will not happen from a current studio. Once one of the indy groups grows enough to get big talent and big movies then they will be the first to enter this gap. After they break ground the legacy studios will move in. We already see stuff like this in the audio side of the industry, where on-line sales are concurrent with the CD release, sometimes at a lower price and often in MP3 format.

The big companies don't like change, are afraid of it even. I think this one change you suggest would vastly turn around their fortunes and cut deeply into the piracy market. Most pirates (IMHO) are not being cheapskates, they are being convenientskates. I know this is the case for me. I buy a DVD for the kids, I rip it and put it on the media server. It is simply more convenient, not to mention I don't have to worry about scratched disks, something that still plagues their collection of Wii games (but not my gen 1 Xbox games).
-nB

pretty damn close, yes. Also I wanted to make the point. Finance never questioned the amount, they questioned the paying for a cell phone. Had they questioned the amount I would have let them buy a $50 (which I would have been short a bit on). Fact of the matter is that manager did not respect the boundaries I set on use of personal equipment for work activities. It's not none, there are times when I will use my kit to ensure the job at the office gets done, just I like that to be the rare exception rather than the norm.
Hell I'd be at my bench, next to my office phone, and he'd be calling my cell before even trying the office number. To me that said this guy didn't even listen to the limits. As it turns out he was worthless as a manager (this became obvious when our reviews were copy paste jobs of the previous years reviews, down to spelling errors). Funny, he no longer manages. I used some of that loyalty to an individual manager I mentioned in another post, to successfully pull off an "open door" type meeting (often a death knell and we all know it) two levels above the worthless one, and brought a list of grievances from the entire lab. When I was asked why no one else said anything I replied that they were all too scared of making waves, so I'm going to go out on a limb for the team.
All in all it worked out well, I've since been promoted twice (one informal, one formal, both with money) and the useless one manages some equipment.
-nB

I work at home in the evenings a lot to catch up (after the kids are in bed).
I also collect OT for that work. Something I don't plan on giving up. One of my co-workers found out I get OT and was in awe about it. I replied it will cost him one week of vacation and some other assorted BS to deal with, but he can do it too.
Where I work there are two classes of line staff, one is exempt and the other is non-exempt. The exempts get an extra week of vacation and don't have to track hours worked or sick days, NE's do. It's a trade off.
-nB

Loyalty to a company is misplaced loyalty. Loyalty to an individual manager can be exceptionally well repaid.
This is an important distinction, one I only fully learned about 5 years ago.
-nB

My tech lead and immediate manager have my cell number. HR has my home number. My previous manager abused having my cell phone (I pointed out it was pre-paid, and personal, thus if work wants me to have a phone they can buy one, here is my personal number if something is genuinely on-fire [e.g. a customer is pissed off and it is all hands/lines down]). He would call me about quote requests, schedule dates months out, etc. Only once did he use it for a borderline emergency (he was in a meeting with his pants down about a deadline two days away). I submitted an expense report for a $100 pre-paid card. Naturally it was declined and I pressed the issue with purchasing/finance. I bulldogged it to the point it was paid.
Word got around (quietly).
When I gave my new manager my phone number and the emergency talk he paid attention, they consider me a star employee and I produce well for them, but I have specific limits. Have gotten exactly one phone call and it was because one of my debug systems actually started smoking and they turned it off.
-nB

My dad worked for Douglas Aircraft, and was laid off. Got a job at McDonnell Aircraft. Two years or so later they merged and my dad became his former boss's boss. How's that for a flip.
Always treat people with respect, you really don't know what will happen in the future.

My Sensi was telling us a story the other day how some years ago he didn't see another car and cut someone off.
When they pulled up to a light, right as the other person was getting ready to tell him off, my sensi apologized about how he was sooo sorry and was glad he didn't cause an accident, then opened a 12 pack of Coke he just bought and tossed the guy one.

Two weeks later the guy shows up in class to pick up his kid, and recognizes Sensi as "that guy who gave me a Coke" not "That jackass that cut me off".
-nB

I had a similar experience. I had to fire myself because my Ex Boss was having such a hard time of me being redundant. He kept stammering and starting over "well you see, um... I think I mean... well... um... I don't know how to say..." Me: "That slam dunk you mentioned a week ago hit the rim of the basket and bounced into the stands and I am now a free agent". him: "yeah, I'm sorry".
We had a lengthy discussion after that where I told him where I thought the process went sideways and covered who was staying and would be able to take over various aspects of my roles I held. I even consulted for him a couple times. When he called to ask if I could work for him again about a month and a half later it was a real ego boost. I told him that I already had a new job that I enjoyed and paid a little better. He offered a raise and I responded "Please don't take this the wrong way, but the cost to hire me is a minimum of six digits pay and a two year contract with a 90% buyout option."
He declined, but said her totally understood my stance. We still talk from time to time, and I still answer questions like: "Where did we buy the gearhead theta motors with the crown on them from?" (Rolex, if you're interested, makes very good gearheads).
In summary: My current job is working for someone who I worked with 10 years ago, when I left there is was due to a relatively (and obviously) hostile environment, I remained professional at nearly all costs. When he heard I was available he snatched me up immediately. He had me interview with a couple people on his tea that didn't know me just to avoid looking like favoritism.

-nB

How will the hypervisor load if it is not signed?
That's the point of secure boot, only your "trusted" os kernel loads, from there only "trusted" DLLs (or SOs) load, etc. Now the target of this is actually content protection with a nice side benefit to power users of having a secure kernel, but make no mistake about it, this is a DRM pre-loader.
-nB

This has nothing to do with vendor lock in (in the /. microsoft sense) nor is it really targeted at preventing viruses. It is so that microsoft or apple can sell an OS that is guaranteed to not have been tampered with for content protection enforced at boot time by the hardware.

I imagine there will be ways around this, but it is going to be much harder.
-nB