The caveat is that those professions are able to deduct the cost of tools as business expenses (for tax purposes). IT tools need to be deductable if we're going to fully embrace a BYOT model.

Unless the employer provides ongoing cash payments to compensate the employee for use of thier device, this is a way of offloading IT cost onto the shoulders of employees. Add to that the fact that here in Canada, an employee of a company is not allowed to treat the cost fo a computer as a business expense (for tax purpoes), and the reduction in salary experienced by the employee is even greater than the benefit received by the employer.

Some years ago, I had a help desk in my organisation that did use this metric as part of how its analysts kept tabs on their performance. It was one metric in an overall package, and the whole team (all the analysts) reviewed the package every week. As I recall, other metrics in the package included Customer Satisfaction, Average Call Length, Number of Calls Back to Users per Agent, Incidents Resovled on First Contact, Incidents Escalated to Second Level, and others.

The help desk team very successfully used the overall metrics package as part analyst self motivation and peer motivation (as well as management oversight). Bob Lewis's piece is provocative journalism: devoid of concrete detail and full of high level innuendo. It doesn't contain sufficent detail (say, by way of actual detailed examples) to allow a typical reader to apply the thoughts he has expressed.

Since when is Apple an authority on the English language? Apple's use of the two spellings is neither authoritative nor applicable to non-Apple contexts.

Business conditions can and will change, and at some point in the future management will decide to charge at least some of their guests for Internet access. My point is simply: be flexible. Don't go with a system that prevents charging at a later date. Your best strategy might be to go with a solution that handles payment, and then set the price to zero (i.e., free). Then, at a later date management can set a different price.

Steve Jobs came to this realisation many years ago and the Mac and its spawn are the highly successful result. 99% of computer users want to use a computing appliance (i.e., something like an iPad where even the applications are controlled). They have no inclination or interest in making efficient use of the device.

Take this thinking into another realm: automobile driving. Almost everyone on the road is an incompetent driver. They don't know the basic rules of the road, don't understand how their driving impacts those around them, and—frankly—they don't give a damn. They also don't have the first clue how their car works; nor, do they care.

While an appliance, like an automobile, should be usable without knowing how it functions, the reality is that a basic understanding of how something works often enables much more efficient (and more enjoyable) use of the appliance. By way of an example:

• In an luxury car, the heating/cooling system is controlled by setting a desired temperature; the car then does the right thing.
• On a cold winter day, when most drivers of these cars start their vehicle, they immediately turn up the temperature control to its highest setting in the belief that this will cause the interior of the car to more quickly warm up.
• Their actions accomplish nothing, and if they had even a basic understanding that the motor must warm up before the heating system will be able to blow warm air, they might use the system in a rational manner.

Microsoft, in attempting to emulate Apple, has begun to make similar design decisions—probably, without understanding the “why” of the design approach. MS Office 2007 introduced the ribbon and a cursor pop-up menu; both of which override keyboard shortcuts. Most tasks now take 2 or 3 times as many mouse clicks or keystrokes to perform. For anyone attempting to make efficient use of MS Office, this is highly frustrating; but, most users don’t even notice the loss of productivity because they were never productive in the first place.

Most users are dumb as nails and like that state of being. Application and computing appliance designers need to realise this and design to it. That said, there is no reason that us geeks can’t also include efficient UI interaction mechanisms alongside mechanisms for the masses.

You have obviously never visited the USA or watched news coverage about the USA. If you had, you would realise that measured in USA terms, the Canadian Conservatives are a centrist party.

Note: I am Canadian and live in Canada.

Your post is 100% correct; but, that won't change the fact that our inept politicians will go ahead and enact online voting (and other forms of equally insecure electronic balloting). What's missing from your post is the fact that most voters don't have the intellectual muster to understand the risks, and those that do don't believe anyone would subvert the electoral process---after all, "We live in Canada."

Individuals are smart; crowds are stupid. We will suffer the fate of crowds and cut our noses off in spite of ourselves.