It's not called Crapple for nothing! No surprise here. As I mentioned in a previous post on this, Apple's concern about "security" is just a marketing ploy and posturing - that's it. If the FBI or anyone else really wants to get in, they'll get in.

It's all posturing on the part of Apple and its tech buddies. The FBI nailed it: it's a marketing ploy. If anyone really, really want to crack an iPhone, they'd do it. Apple's not going to stop them.

Learning math is part of an essential education, along with reading, writing, developing critical thinking and analysis skills, learning at least one foreign language, not to mention learning history, geography, etc. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant and almost all of the great philosophers throughout history were skilled at mathematics. In Descartes' case, his work had a profound impact on mathematics. To say that philosophers don't need to study math only reveals the paucity of Hacker's own knowledge.

Larry and Sergey run their company like two kids on Christmas morning. They're initially enthused, open package after package, play with their new toys for a while, then lose interest and move on. Let's hope they don't decide to arbitrarily pull the plug one afternoon on driver-less cars while millions of them are on the road.

Yes, that is true. I think one thing that might save Microsoft on this front (and avoid the fate of Novell, say) is that they've responded in an intelligent way to the growth of Google Docs. That, and almost 20 years' worth of inertia to overcome in long-time Office users - which is still just about everyone on the planet - will work in their favor. I do think Nadella is making clear that he is going to respond intelligently and with clarity to the challenges the company faces. Quite a difference from the craziness, chaos and contradictions of the Ballmer era. Assuming Microsoft is seriously embracing a platform-agnostic world, that will be a major disrupter. No one anticipated Microsoft diving in like this, however they've been inching in that direction for a while now.

I understand your point and it is well taken. Thanks.

Yes, I agree. It seems like Nadella is taking the cross-platform approach seriously and is not just blowing smoke. Refreshing, no question, and in direct contrast to Google and Apple as you point out.

Only 51 comments as of this post? Sort of like way back when Sun Microsystems tried to trademark "enterprise". Crickets. One can only imagine the trollbait / flamestorm that would break out if Shellshock were a Microsoft bug. Time to put on some pants, UNIX/Linux geeks: ain't no operating system out there immune to error. Or, as Immanuel Kant once wrote: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."

There is absolutely zero possibility that astronauts are going to be travelling to Mars in Orion which is basically Apollo + 1 extra seat. NASA has been misleading the general public about this for years. Oh yeah, astronauts are going to stay strapped to their seats for 18 months...in a capsule with almost no room to move. Major components of the project - including room to live and move around, along with mild gravity provided by a centrifuge - haven't been even designed yet, let alone price spec'd. No one has any idea how they will work or how they will protect astronauts from radiation from the Sun. I'm betting it's 2100 before we ever get to Mars, at least under NASA.

How about this: the rules of the road, are the rules of the road. They apply for everyone, not just the other guy or what they happen to be in/on: car, bicycle, motorcycle, horse-drawn carriage. Make sense?

Google are to be admired for their energy and inventiveness. However, all big companies (and those who aspire to be big) all want the same thing: dominate the markets they are in, or take over everything they can. Google hides behind the fig leaf of "open source" when it suits their ends. If we compare Google to Apple, however, it's like comparing the US to North Korea.

Not "systematic."

Tea Partiers don't seem to understand that the Social Security and Medicare programs they don't want changed in any way - both programs by the big, evil government they despise - are government programs. Oh, and that their friends in the Republican party - the people they're voting for all of the time - have spent the last 80 years (in the case of Social Security) and the last 50 years (in the case of Medicare) trying to destroy both programs. By any chance were the Yalies (that bastion of revolutionary thought) who conducted the study Tea Partiers themselves? ;-)

Meg Whitman - a totally hideous person - mean, small, vindictive - has no ideas of her own, so she's just stealing Marissa Mayer's bad idea. Both are insanely wealthy people who literally have no clue how the proles who work for them actually live their lives. Step by step, the US stumbles toward its own French Revolution, but ours will make the one of 1789 look like a walk in the park.

I really have to take issue with the "very literal" comment. In my experience (stretching over 20 years), it's the non-literal types who are the best software engineers. They not only have an imagination, but understand nuance as well. I'd say a literal-minded person might succeed at programming at a very low or entry level, but beyond that, it's imagination and creativity that win the day.