I have 4 tablets at home and not one uses a standard mini or micro USB to charge the damn thing.

Xoom has a Mini usb port but won't charge from it. all the others have proprietary cables.

Yeah.. We got an app for that.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/black-sms-protected-texts/id448049263?mt=8

Put your self in his position..
You have been with MS for 24 years.. you pull down roughly 8.5 mill a year with pay and stock options
He probably has a nice pile of cash and stock to last him a lifetime or two.

The stress may be higher than the rewards and you got that last major release off your solders.

Time to step back, have fun with the family and find a new direction.

More likely is that it's been a revolving budget request from IT for years and years but upper management keeps pushing it down the list to fund high visibility pet projects to pad their resumes with.

Only when the shit hits the fan to these low profile projects get funding and suddenly need to be done ASAP without any proper selection process.
The bid ends up not with the best product but in the hands of the sales drone the boos is cozy with.

The lesson here is.. If you have an important project that keeps getting kicked down the road be prepared.. Have your selection and proposed budget done and ready to roll so when the boss runs in asking for ideas you cover his ass you have something to hand them.

I find this odd because last month there was one sitting at the terminal in Phoenix as we pulled in.
Our pilot was on the intercom telling everyone to look out the window at it.

Maybe it was on a test run and not a regular commercial flight.

If I get an really persistent telemarketer I tell them my wife needs to be on the call because she has the credit card..
Then I hit conference call and dial the Rock Roll hotline. Sit on the line and see how long they listen before giving up.

Yes but only for a limited time before they go back into the Disney vault for a generation or until a new format comes out.! Buy the DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital copy super double Platinum edition today before it's gone!

I'll throw on my conspiracy theory hat here..

If I were running a major campaign I would use the 3rd party to my advantage..

Secretly fund and promote a 3rd party candidate through shell corporations and anonymous donations that will pull votes from your competition.

I don't think remembering exact details decades later is the point of HS science classes..

The point is to let you know what is possible and if needed years later you can look up the details because you know where to start looking.
If it grabs your interest and you make a carrier of it great!

Chemistry.. you learned about acids and bases right? Maybe next time the batteries in your kids favorite toy leak all over the battery compartment you'll remember Alkaline is a base and some vinegar (a weak acid) will neutralize and clean that crap right up.. Toy works. Kids is happy and maybe learned something.. Yeah Chemistry!

My theory on time travel isn't all the exciting.. I believe that you are forever bound to your timeline.. You are stuck with the life you observe. You can travel to the past all you want but anything you do there has already happened. Try to change a historical event? you'll find you were a part of it all along. The past is fixed and unchangeable.
Going forward is follows the same path.. The future you see is yours.. If you managed to retrieve information from the future and use it the future you see will be the result of those actions.

Now I'm not dismissing the diverging timelines/ infinite parallel universe theory. I'm just saying you are rather stuck in your time line.. Moving forward and back within your track will be trivial compared to the energy needed to move out of your universe and into a parallel one. Conversation of energy might imply that to move mass into another universe would require the transfer of equivalent energy into the source universe to replace the now missing mass. Moving 1 gram would be like setting off the fat man bomb in the source universe.

Because it's a front wheel drive car it's much less work to bolt the electric motor to the stock transaxle than to build your own single speed unit.

Had they used a RWD car to start with they could have eliminated the transmission without much work..

Honestly I think the ultimate solution is 2 or 4 independent brushless wheel motors. Eliminate most of the drive train components.

I'm in the same camp.. I can't stand left handed mice. Back in the 80s my dad got me a leftie mouse when I was getting into CAD. I tried it but I couldn't stand it. I was much happier with the right mouse because I was better at typing with my left so I could easily mouse and type at the same time.
When I was doing desktop support I sometime run across the lefties with the mouse buttons reversed too. Those folks will really slow you down.