I think it's pretty clear that you took the OP's comment a bit more seriously than either he or (I think) most people did, but damn, I gotta say...that was a pretty impressive burn.

Well done.

the content may remain available in a unary format forever,

Unary...is that one less than binary?

I think you're overstating your point. Unless you are saving your data in a truly useless format, having a practiced procedure for getting that data back into production only lets you get the data back up faster. We have one backup system in particular at my office - although we have never built a production machine from it, we do (manually and automatically) test the data to ensure that everything from production made it in. Will restoring that data be slow and sketchy? Sure. Is it fair to say that nobody will care if we have the data backed up? No.

That being said, though, if a system is capable of losing this much data without an act of god, then a lot of people need to be fired. With incremental backups, tests, and enough redundancy, it is nearly impossible to actually lose more than a couple days worth of data.

I agree with you about MS, though. People really need to get it through their heads that Microsoft is one company among many. They make great hardware (typing this on a Microsoft Natural keyboard), and excel is still best in class; on the other hand, they make a couple products I wouldn't be caught dead using.

On the bright side, I guess this should put the adage "Nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft" to bed, eh? :)

But Microsoft, which bears at least part of the responsibility for the mistake, is paying the price with its reputation.

Wow, this is a terrible blow for Microsoft. This might make people think that they produce unreliable products!

Best damn post in the whole thread.

Actually, the poll is written from my perspective, so anyone not in Boston is considered "remote."

If you're being serious, and really that good, you should look at http://www.rentacoder.com/ or something similar.

In Greek, yes (). The Greek word has made its way into English, but 'apology' is completely valid as well. Check out definition 2: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apology

Please turn your grammar nazi card in on your way out. Thank you.

Would you be so kind as to point out precisely which "personal attacks" in that article you are objecting to?

Really, you're only mentioned in passing in that article, and referred to as a "Microsoft apologist."

An apologist is defined as "a person who argues to defend or justify some policy or institution." Although it does have very, very slight negative connotations, I don't think any rational person would object to you being labeled a "Microsoft apologist," especially since you just penned an apology (in the apologist sense, not the "I'm sorry sense").

The amount of man-handling and smug stares I have to endure from thick-necked, multi-chinned police academy rejects is bad enough when flying domestically. That's no way to welcome the largest tourist event in the world.

Now, as you can clearly see, there are TWO gaps in the fossil record, where before there was only one!

Nice try, science! /s

Ahead-of-time compiling? Isn't that just regular compiling?

The New York Times is one of the most respected publications in the world. It's not going anywhere.

I tried asking a Democratic reformer in China, an atheist Iranian, a member of the Tibetan independence movement and a North Korean, but none of them could think of a situation where this might be useful.

If anyone can think of a situation where a person would want to be active online without being found, please post it here. My four friends and I are super-curious now.

If you don't enjoy using a work's minutiae to accuse perfectly innocent authors of misogyny, innuendo, (to add a couple you forgot) blatant colonialism or latent homosexuality, what the fuck were you doing in an English Lit program?

Umm...racking up easy A's for Law School?