I agree with your points. They're valid for many governments where you are simply swapping out the top of the bureaucracy pyramid where the "Party" has power and wait for them to make small, or incremental, changes to the rest of it.

However, Trump was extraordinarily impolite and improper during his presidential visits to Europe (I include the UK in that whether some like it or not, we're still a part of the continent) A bull in a china shop takes more care than he did. He seems to think that the US presidency makes him world president. So I genuinely think that the EU won't back down with the fines and would simply wait out Trumps presidency.

The UK Prime Minister "Met" with him, but that seems to have been all that was reported. What Starmer thought of him, I have no idea. I suspect it didn't go beyond simple pleasantries though.

I won't take your kidney. You might need it for the next 4 years ;)

A question from a Brit. Would the denizens of Slashdot vote for Trump? Honestly. Personally I don't think anyone here would buy into the virtual reality that Trump seems to live in.

I'm somewhat surprised that the head of Apple would call him to have a moan about the EU imposing fines for abusing their dominance in the marketplace. If he was a sitting president, then maybe, but as a multi-impeached ex-president? It feels like it would dirty Apple's squeaky-clean persona, even though they are just as predatory as the rest of them. I can understand Trump ringing Pichai about google results, because that pokes holes in his alternative reality. But why would Cook call him to moan about having to hand out what amounts to pocket change? It sounds made-up, to me anyway and not the first time that Trump has said something that is patently not true.

I wrote a rant, but then deleted it.

This system should never have made it out of testing. The end. In fact, it should probably never even have made it into the test cycle into the first place.

Just about the Windows NT 4.0 comment about the Start button. There was a patch for Windows NT 3.51 that replaced the Program Manager with the newer Win95 style Start button Explorer. Which was much better than the old program manager, and really useful on the DEC Alpha machines.

They have watched War Games haven't they? Humans are awfully prone to social hacking. An A.I. Could duplicate a commanding officers voice after penetrating a "Secure" communications channel. Or, just like the WOPR from War Games, simply try and trick the humans into launching.

This is how we get the undead. They do realise that don't they? I mean, they must've watched ReAnimator to even come up with this crazy idea.

I was going to post... "Pot calling the kettle black!?" Sheesh! The entire android system calls home constantly!

That's better for the Linux community. "Windows" laptops tend to have better spec's than a Chromebook, and it's much easier (And less constrained by the hardware limitations) to install Linux on them.

Thank goodness that's over! Good luck America and all who sail in her.

You're welcome.

Signed Great Britain (United kingdom is looking a little tenuous right now)

Praying for nice AI is not enough. We need to treat any Sentient with kindness and grace. Yeah, I know. Humans really don't have a good track record of doing that, but if we do get to the point where a Hard/Firm/Software based intelligence comes into existence we're better off trying to give it a good childhood than abusing the heck out of it/him/her (Or whatever else they want to identify with) Which, of course, we'll do. Because to a lot of humans it will be "Just a machine" rather than a self-aware sentient intelligence and deserving of compassion.

Unless, of course, it's become a horrendous killing machine. In which case we're screwed because by the time we realise it'll have out evolved us and wiped us from the face of the planet.

So, thank Rome! Woo! Thanks for thinking about the children of humanity. At least you tried. You still need to sort out your own crap.

It looks like a rejected design for the Xbox 360 after they specified that the side should look like they're "Taking a breath" There was also nothing really on show from the games that the current gen doesn't look like it's they're capable of.

Funny... That's what I thought too :)

If I don't recognise the number on the caller-id, I pick up the phone and reply "Good Afternoon (Insert pizza delivery firm name of choice) pizza, may I take your order?" in the nicest, and sunniest, voice I can muster. After that you just need to stick to the script. Like: "I'm sorry sir/madam, we have no-one here by that name, would you like to order a pizza?" or if they pause in shock from the first part, get in there quickly and say "Hello? May I take your order please?"

You'll be surprised at how often the calls stop coming after that ;)

Oh, that feels better :). The horizontal banner ads are appearing at the top, and not in the right sidebar any more.
Just need to make the hover buttons toggle on/off for tablet users now. Or is it just IE10 on Surface RT that's doing that? I don't have an iPad available to test them with.

I'm talking about the topics menu. Not a problem with my type cover, but unusable without it.