I'd like to see one to explain Windows 8.1.

Windows 8.0 was installed on this machine, and it sucked immensely. Then a couple of months ago I got an upgrade to Windows 8.1 courtesy of Windows update, and it hardly sucked at all. Then, a couple of days ago I got my old Windows 8.1 upgraded to new Windows 8.1, and I know it is different because now apps have the big red "X" back in the right hand corner of the window and you can terminate them while they are running. Awesome! At this rate Windows 8.1 will turn into Windows XP around Labor Day. Maybe the boys will rediscover POP3 email at some point.

There's a windows 8 kit now? wtf?

For those of us old enough to remember, Java is, in fact, the new COBOL. COBOL, like Java, was the language of choice for software engineers of a bygone era (the 1970's), and suffered from a similar verbosity, clumsy syntax, and prevalence of boiler-plate code (substitute copylibs for jars and you are halfway there). I wrote COBOL for a living for decades and never, ever, coded most of the mandatory code sections.

When I was engaged in my first enterprise level Java project (a JBoss app), I was amazed at the similarities between the two languages. Despite the fact that the syntax and structure are completely different we have the same slavish devotion to form and "correctness". Of course, most people alive and writing code now are completely unaware of this, having never encountered COBOL in an enterprise environment.

Not saying this is a bad thing. Just saying. COBOL was also more or less controlled by one company, and that company was IBM due to the IBM's complete dominance of the mainframe market.

Same here in spades. I was a contractor working at a client site which had entirely outsourced IT operations to Accenture. I found myself reporting to an Accenture PM who revealed one day that her previous experience had been at Hooters, as a waitress. We had meetings at which we discussed novel means of gouging the client. The entire workplace atmosphere was poisoned in a way I had never even dreamed to be possible. They failed to renew my contract and mentioned it as an aside the day before. I did the happy dance for about a week and got a real job.

Because it is hilarious to watch you dummies flame each other? Most reasonable people on the planet have opted for universal health insurance and no guns.

I second that exception. I graduated from a nothing university in 1974 with a major in "partying down". There was no computer science department. There were two math classes which were, in fact, Fortran and Cobol. I got into programming via a now non-existent profession called computer operations, which involved a lot of watching antique computers do stuff in the middle of the night. And I got into it because it paid well and was dead easy. Fast forward 37 years and I am still writing code. I can do a creditable job because I have constantly taken outrageous chances with my career and upgraded my skills by taking classes. Plus coding is one of those peculiar mental abilities which can be strengthened with constant use. I can outshine my younger, smarter, and much better looking colleagues with such arcane skills as Oracle SQL, ETL, Cognos, intimate knowledge of outdated technology, work ethic etc. etc. That being said, I have encountered another species of old guy at various contract sites. This is the guy who refers to SQL errors as ABENDS, who refuses to even look at any SQL statement which is not a simple join of two tables, who thinks the "gang of four" has something to do with China in the 60's, has not seen the inside of a classroom in decades and on and on like that. Employers are often not willing to take a chance on getting stuck with the latter sort, no matter how good they look on paper. And nobody will hire you to work exclusively from home. Period.

another little trick mcaffee has up it's sleeve is to periodically mine their credit card database and ding random people for bogus charges. i had this happen to me a few years ago after i had foolishly subscribed to their on-line virus checker. After it quit working and i could get no support for it, I unsubscribed. About 2 years later i got a charge on my credit card from the friendly folks at mcaffee. The credit card company would not remove the charge and advised me to contact mcaffee which, of course, is impossible. mcaffee has an inferior product which they market very aggressively to the endless supply of uninformed and unsuspecting windows users. windows will die eventually and so will mcaffee.