Or even use the PIN as part of the encryption key used to encrypt a random string sent from the bank once authentication is requested.

And the connection between the PoS and the bank should also be encrypted.

And that connection should be 100% private. ISDN or whatever. Nothing going across the Internet. Not even with a VPN.

You could confirm whether a PIN is correct without sending it.
For example, send sha1(card number + pin + time of day)
The machine at bank's end does the same calculation with the correct pin and returns whether or not it matches.

Every piece of $1,000+/seat software we use at my company comes with some form of obnoxious DRM/copy protection technology.

Every. Single. One.

We are not talking about expendable games here, we are talking about software that only gets away with those prices and poor customer service because it's still so much better at what it does than any cheaper and less encumbered alternatives.

Well, no, it's both.

If the SSD didn't fail, there would be no problem. If the SSD even failed with more than one minute's warning, there probably still would be no problem, since typically you can deactivate licences for software on this level if you can fire it up for a few seconds with an active Internet connection. It might be wise to back up anything you can, but a drive that fails young, suddenly, and with limited options to recover because of poor design decisions is still the drive manufacturer's fault.

Of course plenty of blame also goes to the software vendors, and as you can imagine, we have about as much respect for them in my industry as their customer service warrants.

You can't.

How on earth do you find Android more "annoying" than Win3.1, MacOS, OS X, or any Linux distro?

That's like saying you find a bicycle more annoying than a motorboat. It's a nonsensical comparison, because you don't use them for the same thing, or in the same places.

The comparison to iOS is the only one that makes any sense.

An old dual processor 3 ghz board with is going to kick ass for quite some more time...

Just as long as it isn't using Pentium 4 (or its Xeon variant with Netburst architecture) CPUs. That POS was such a power hog, it's worth it to upgrade to something newer as you'll recoup your savings on your electric bill shortly.

That's cute, but approximately 100% of professionals working in graphic design would disagree with you. If someone else made products anywhere the level of Creative Suite and with better customer service than Adobe, plenty of us would use them.

We can thank the morons at Canonical (Ubuntu/Unity) and GNOME for that.

All those specialty business applications and "mission critical" visual basic programs seem to only run on Windows XP, based on the various doctors' offices and other businesses I've seen computers running in. Now with XP being EOLed, I expect to see all kinds of havoc.

Of course the DRM crap is Adobe's fault, and they did eventually resolve the issue. However, it took a couple of weeks, demonstrating almost comically bad customer service except that it wasn't actually funny at the time. As I mentioned, the problem was finally fixed only when my patience ran out and I sent them the recorded letter that starts formal legal proceedings.

Regardless of where any blame belonged, the facts are that if the SSD had not died suddenly, this could all have been avoided by just deactivating the software first, and that backing up the relevant data is simply not possible using normal tools, because to back it up, you must first know that it exists and where to find it, and you must be able to restore it (assuming that it would still be the same after swapping out the disk anyway, which a hardware signature used in a DRM system might not be).

So, a better SSD would have been worth a lot to me in that situation, and saying "Just back everything up" still isn't a good answer.

That's just FUD, and FUD that hurts Mono for no good reason. I know there are plenty of oldschool /.ers who have never forgiven Microsoft for Windows95, but that's long past and Mono is a good project.

The interesting question is: what's the right toolchain for good cross-platform UI support? A see a variety of open source QT bindings for C/Mono that should work just fine in Android, plus the commercial solution above, but does anyone have first-hand experience?

I take it you thought these devices are dual boot, Windows OR Android. They are not. Instead, the run BOTH simultaneously, so it runs Android and Windows applications on the same screen. I started to say the same desktop, but of course Microsoft has thrown out the desktop metaphor in a return to Windows 3.1 style single-tasking.

That's just it. Mobile devices have already sent the message loud and clear. A PC that still pays the Windows tax? Not so scary.

I find Android even more annoying than Metro on a real KVM setup - I can't imagine using it unless some app I really needed was Android-only (and I've yet to find an app I cared that much about). Android just isn't a viable threat on a desktop.

Mobile computing is an entirely different landscape, of course, and clearly it finally hit home with MS that they weren't winning there with their past strategy, as their big reorg seems focused on fixing that - for sure it will at least change it.

You know, I like C# and Visual Studio - if I could easily write code that would run across not just all the Windows platforms, but Android and IOS too - and with a UI that looks native on each platform, like QT does - that would be a wonderful thing.

Come to think of it, I wonder whether there a nice C#/QT interface yet that works well in Mono - anyone know? Or have another good cross-platform UI approach using Mono? Xamarin seems proud of what they have - anyone know?

And once you've got your 10,000 monthly candidates, then what?

Then you have to use some kind of systematic process (whether automated, manual or some mixture) to narrow that list down to the 50 terrorists (less the ones that slipped through the first filter). Thus, you're back to the original problem.

If your story includes "I use an Adobe product", you really have no one to blame but yourself for any and all disasters.

I've never found a UPS useful. I used to buy them, but this always happened:

* Power went out
* UPS didn't quite come up in time
* Computer reset
* UPS now was happy to provide power for my computer to boot

I've tried very expensive and very cheap - they just don't work for computers in my experience, and the batteries need replacing every couple of years, and are difficult to dispose of.