The two aren't even remotely similar, and you havn't made any effort to prove that they are. You simply assume that they're the same situation, and argue from that point of view. That makes it very hard to explain anything to you - your ideas aren't even internally consistent, so adding an external voice is more likely to confuse you even further ... and in response to that confusion, you'll just ignore any evidence (or logic) contrary to your opinion and keep on talking.

... obviously no true [STRIKE]scotsman[/STRIKE] network administrator would disagree with me...

Yes, an obvious troll. But no one said that trolling can't also be 100% truthful...

No, the reinforcement of the premise is bunk. IT departments will still hate 10.7, if for the only reason they've always hated OSX - not for stability or user-friendlyness, but for the simple fact that having an apple backend will draw hipster know-nothings to apply to work at their company.

So how many books have you read in the last several years on your ereader/computer? Just because you don't have physical books in the house doesn't mean you don't have immediate access to literature. A library isn't immediate access. Having an e-reader is...

I'd sell my privacy for a cheap social networking platform I could use to organize my social events and keep track of old friends, a network that realistically I could never develop or build.

Just because *YOU* wouldn't trade your privacy doesn't mean others can't/won't. You're not protecting those "poor africans" from themselves, you're protecting your ideology from new ideas.

How many would let someone spy on them if they were given a piece of technology that they realistically could NEVER afford in their life, EVER. I'd suggest that all of us would.

But don't take skills away from the community. If you're going to contribute, don't replace someone who is already doing the job, and don't remove the need for the community to engage someone locally to do the job.

Going in to train others to do some sort of techincal work is good, but you have to remember that their values and yours won't really mesh, and you can't force people to learn C++ when they really want to use Basic.

One word : Americans.

Why? Because everywhere else in the civilized world, that sort of investment in the school system shows immediate results.

Well, to be honest, I'd rather not feel OR fear evil, if it's all the same to the good book.

After you, good sir. You are trying to disprove my claim, so as the incumbent, it is your responsibility to dislodge my universally accepted doctrine of truth. Isn't that how things work down in the USA?

Read an interesting book (was reviewed here on slashdot) called Backtrack 4: Assuring Security by Penetration Testing. Look into it, if you need to learn ... or would like to see what the next gen of script kiddies will be using to turn to the dark side.

Yes, and people like you, born in the 1990s, like to pretend they're actually older and smarter than people born in the 1980s. Don't worry, I've seen it all before.

Or someone who doesn't go out of his way to irritate people, unless they're apple fanbois who don't know their PPC from their Nehalem ...

Perhaps there are plans to turn the application into a network wide, integrated solution once the bugs are worked out and the security force has habituated. Think about it. He's programming for law enforcement-style organizations, and there's no way they're going to a) be able to shell out for an overhaul at once, and b) want to prove that the solution is workable on an individual level before linking it up. Or maybe there is no reliable connection, but network functionality will be built in.

In any case, you're not really answering his question, you're just telling him that his approach is wrong. If I had mod points, I'd mod you down.