Why are you surprised? NASA spent millions to develop a pen that could write in space... the Russians used a pencil. Sometimes people look for a really complicated solution instead of going for something cheap and cheerful that gets-the-job-done.

I would find NOT hearing the wife/girlfriend/whatever to be a significant advantage ;-)

For e-commerce the VAT is based on the supplier's country, not the consumers country... unless they've gone and changed the rules again.

Technically, Luxembourg isn't a tax haven... but it does have some advantageous tax, as does Ireland. US companies use Luxembourg as VAT (sales tax) is only 15% so they use this for e-commerce, which means when selling to consumers only 15% is nabbed in sales tax, opposed to say 21% if they were based in Ireland. Which is a polite way of saying they have reduced their (sales) tax liability. Now, Ireland is used by US companies as they are 'tax friendly' in that to encourage US companies to locate there they only impose something like 5% corporate tax (on profits). The cherry on the cake is that when this profit is transferred to the parent US corp then its not taxed again (I can't remember if this was done as a double-taxation treaty of as a specific get out in the US tax system) So, now you know why people like Apple sell from Ireland but specifically base their iTunes service in Luxembourg.

Quite hard. This is stuff that has to work in space, so it has to work all the time and for usually a longer timespan than originally intended... its not like back on the surface where if your cable/hub/whatever goes futz you can simply get a replacement from the local store and swap it.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, per se, why don't they take a (not-so-secure or safe) open system, add a bit of hardness to it, so everybody benefits (apart from the enemies).

Nah... it would be more equivalent to the EU saying to Germany, France, and the UK that "you will now set your VAT levels to 25% and 6% instead of your current levels". In other words, the level of tax would be decided externally instead of by the countries themselves. One of the original ideas behind the EU VAT system was that, eventually, the VAT rates would be harmonized across all countries... but interestingly, Amazon can cope with the current disparate rates and does things correctly, i.e. when I order they always charge me the rate in my country (the destination) regardless of whether I order from amazon UK or amazon DE.

Not only Microsoft... don't forget Adobe as it comes with CS4... and Apple get some love with iTunes (at a guess for use with iTunes U)... you can be sure that any bundled software came at a bargain basement price as companies see this as a way of "getting 'em young, then when they go to work they [want|demand] the same software".

That's just plain discrimination... and also shows your complete ignorance that domestic applicants can be just as stupid, evil, liars, as non-domestic applicants. On a more serious note, why does the CEO want to hire globally... perhaps he's realized that getting in people from different cultures might actually add something new... I've worked in multicultural environments and they're far more interesting than working with a room full of my countrymen.

That really depends on the company. I've worked for some where this is very true... people never question anything and do things that are just plain stupid because they don't apply any common sense and check with somebody before they do something they know is stupid or could be just plain wrong.

On the other hand, I worked for one bank where you couldn't sneeze without several line managers signing off a change request. This meant that when things got done, it usually got done right; of course, getting several line managers to sign off is like trying to heard cats.

Direct debit is intended for regular payments, not one offs.

Its not an anti-piracy warning... its satire of the anti-piracy warning that is shown at the start of DVDs sold in the UK. As satires go, its very funny is you know the original warning. (And, to be blunt, one reason to rip your DVDs is to remove the very f*****g annoying anti-piracy warning that is shown at the start of DVDs sold in the UK, especially as you can't skip through it, grrrrr. When I buy a DVD, I just want to watch its content, not get bombasted with crappy anti-piracy warnings and all the stupid trailers they are starting to add now).

No chisels in the Cretaceous period then?

Yes, but Nokia has been in the phone business for how many years compared to the short time Apple has been there... so its hardly surprising they have more awards.

So true! Years ago when I worked at a software house our CEO was paranoid about the source code... he wanted it locked away as he was afraid our "competitors" could get it. Now, there were a few problems with this. Our customers got the source code when they bought our system, since it needed to be compiled on their systems (as no two customers had the same configuration). Also, we didn't really have any competitors. Now, the joke is that even though our customers had the source, and the security blanket that should our company go down they could continue, the customers could do no more than compile the code. The real knowledge was locked in the heads of the programmers who knew HOW and WHY everything was put together in the source code... and, sadly, this is something that is still overlooked. The source isn't everything, but just part of it, and most people don't realize what the missing part is.