The big issue here is that Amazon had previously sent transaction details (such as book titles, etc.) but without the user info. The state has these records on file - this judgement basically says that while the state has the transaction details, they cannot have the user information. If the state were to dump those details, Amazon might still be obligated to provide such information such as Joe Blow - $100 - Books.

This means for people like me, I still may be obligated to pay those back taxes (well, of course I paid them all already...)

*puts on sunglasses*

YYYEEEAAAHHHH!!!

Picasa is best, however, AFAIK it doesn't store the info in the files...stores the face stuff in its own database. I learned this the hard way...

I have worked fairly extensively with Sharepoint and used it as a platform for developing several different kinds of applications. That being said...

You hit the mark on most of your points
* Yes, the database is impenetrable (and it supposed to be - you aren't supposed to muck with it) - keep in mind this isn't an open source product

* Lots of the features are too dumb for programmers/power users but easy for regular users to muck up - this is a governance issue and all "portals" can suffer from this

* Canned web parts are moderately powerful but do have limits. Same thing applies to other portal products, such as Websphere Portal, Tibco, etc. As a developer, you can always extend these parts just as you would in any other platform...but of course, it isn't something Sally from accounting can do.

* Mysterious errors usually come back to poor administration or poor governance - you would have the same thing if you didn't know how to properly administer Apache, Tomcat, or any other number of complex applications or platforms.

* Yep, vendor lockin sucks and it sucks about MS. But if you are an MS shop, it works pretty damn well. If you aren't, you probably weren't considering Sharepoint anyway, were you?

So basically, yes, if you don't take the time to learn and adequately use, administer, and deploy, it isn't going to be easy to work with. Don't get me wrong, it has its problems and I'm not saying it is easy but I can't say it is any more difficult than any other application in its class.

Yes, we chose to do the same thing. There are several advantages to this, namely:

1) It is free vs. very expensive

2) The blood is banked for anyone to use - this means that YOU can use it too if you need it - assuming nobody else has used it already. In general, the likelihood of someone else using your cord blood is pretty slim.

3) There are a great many genetic diseases for which your cord blood will be of no use - because these cells contain the same defect your child already has.

4) You get the benefit of knowing you could be saving a child who otherwise may not be saved.

Of course, another big drawback is that (at least in my area), the cord blood needs to be harvested immediately. If your child is born in the middle of the night, the collection folks obviously aren't working (public/non-profit funding I suppose)...so then your cord blood is gone. Luckily for me, mine was born 11am on a Thursday, so that wasn't a problem.