I think the key to Balmer's statement statements is the phrase "that I see customers wanting". I think that the market has spoken in the past and what Mr. Balmer sees customers wanting does not always line up with what the customers actually want (all companies have misses). While sales have shown that customers want iPads, time will tell if Microsoft's Surface, when released, will meet the needs, expectations and/or "wants" of customers.

I may be wrong, but does't Windows RT also fall under the banner of "Surface", and thus probably will not be able to run the same applications that the customers are currently running? And, if so, what, then, makes Surface the solution?

I agree with the Hefty fine, but I think that the fine should be a calculated as a percentage of the company's worth, with a minimum of $200,000 if the company is not worth anything. Then a fairly large percentage (25%), that way, a large company that has 100's of millions of dollars will not just laugh off a $50,000 fine. The fine has to truly hurt the company for it to be a deturrent.

AuMatar, I have to respectfully disagree. A course can be very helpful, especially when tackling something that different to what you are used to. Like StonyCreekBare, I am also a long time programmer and, while I had years of C++ and UI programming experience, there are things in the iOS/Objective-C/X-Code world that were unlike anything else I had seen, so taking a course can be helpful in situations like that.

I do certainly agree with the "getting your hands dirty" part, in that you just can't read about a new language, etc.. You have to actually write some code.

But, for StonyCreekBare, wealth and fame in programming is hard to obtain. Fame sill be hard, but wealth is possible if you take the advice of some of the other responders and direct your efforts towards some of the lesser known, yet upcoming technologies. Also, I would look at what new technologies are being used in whichever industry you spent your time in (e.g. if you used to write CRM software, research the new technologies in that area so you get the advantage of your previous experience to help offset your lack of experience in the new language)

While I believe such a label is unnecessary, and ignoring the lack of logic behind such an approach (I do not believe that the Surgeon General's warning on cigarettes has slowed smoking), would it not make more sense to put the warning on games that are rated as violent? Otherwise, the labels will become like banner ads, which most people have learned to tune out.

Also, what are they fighting? It has been stated in earlier comments that the link between video games and violence is questionable at best. Perhaps they are fighting the perceived increase in violent crimes. If we are to believe wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States), violent crime has been stable or on the decline in past ten years. So, if there is the perception of an increase, it is probably due to the 24-hour news stations filling air time, so we hear about more crimes while the actual number is declining.

And (these points may have been made in previous posts), didn't they, back in the 1950's, claim that "Rock and Roll" music caused similar behavior? What about violent movies? How about caffeinated beverages? Alcohol (they have too strong of a lobby in Washington, so they will never be labeled like games)? Where will it end?

There is a difference with CD though. Someone can buy a CD, rip it to their computer and then sell it. They retain the continued use of the artist's work while not paying the full price. Then, when the next person purchases the used CD, they also are able to enjoy the result of the artist's work, but the artist does not get compensated again. If the first person listened to the CD, and deleted all digital or other copies prior to selling, it would not be an issue.

Games, on the other hand, seem to require the original disc, despite being installed on the hard drive, and therefore selling the disc prevents the game from being used on more than one system.

I am certainly not in favor of corrupt industries, but I feel that CDs are totally different in the "used media" space than games, due to the possibility of multiple simultaneous use from one disc.

I certainly do not like all the fees that banks have, but didn't B of A drop their plans for the fee? http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-of-america-to-drop-debit-card-fee-report-2011-11-01

Accepting the court's separation of sexually explicit material and violent material, does this ruling open the door for letting small children into R-Rated movies, which carry the "Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian" text along with the rating, without the "required" "accompanying parent or adult guardian" if the film is only rated "R" for violence and not sexual content? And if so, why have the "requires accompanying parent or adult guardian" text at all. And, what about NC-17, again if rated for violence and not sexually explicit material?

And, is it really that bad, from a First Amendment perspective, that adults have the right to decide if their children can play violent video games? I understand the profit motive, by restricting sales to any demographic the company looses potential profit, but I do not understand how the ability to SELL something to someone is a First Amendment issue, or how the corporations rights outweigh the rights of the parents.

I believe having multiple monitors, especially for software development, is very helpful. Not only can it aid debugging graphic applications (CAD/CAM, etc...), but it also helps when using a new API. I will have the documentation on one monitor and the IDE on another. I once had a manager who believed that the developers should have the oldest and slowest computers. He thought that having slow hardware would force the developers to write faster code. It only served to frustrate us and we ended up wasting huge amounts of time during build cycles. While, when I was writing code, I always WANTED the fastest hardware, I do not believe it i necessary, but developers should get the necessary tools because, as previously stated by others here, developers are expensive and small up-front investments in processors, memory, monitors, etc... that make them more productive pay great dividends in delivery of new features and bug fixes.

It seems that if the Texas legislature were truly concerned about discrimination, the bill would have stated "An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of the origination and development of organisms" This would then also protect those who believe in what is normally taught from being discriminated against by those who believe in the alternative theories.

I understood the possible "efficiency" gains when people your write "2K" or "2K3" for the years 2000 and 2003, respectively, but I have recently seen at least one advertisement using "2K10" for 2010. Unless you have the caps lock on, typing 2K9 (assuming that one uses the uppercase "K") still takes four keystrokes because of the shift key, but one less character. 2K10 not only adds an additional keystroke but does not save any space as even in most proportional fonts, a 0 and a K are basically the same width. Is this just the advertising companies trying to still connect with "today's youth", as they do by using abbreviations like "LOL", "ROTLF" and "OMG" in ads? Is it possible that they do not see that inserting the "K" as an abbreviation into the year no longer makes sense?