...you're just kidding, right? Nobody in 2019 really believes the earth is flat - PLEASE tell me this is a joke!

Microsoft has never been good at thinking for anyone other than the most fundamental, least savvy user, and this clearly has not changed.

So I assume Google has figured out a way to make money on a new headphone connector, too?

I agree: maintain good relations but don't hand over the keys to the kingdom. There's nothing "beneath us" with respect to manufacturing, that's just the Newspeak explanation of why all the jobs went away. Take a close look and you'll see that there aren't enough good paying white collar jobs around and a lot of good, regular people simply aren't cut out for them anyway. And if manufacturing jobs are "beneath us", apparently a lot of I.T. related jobs are, too, since they're also being outsourced. Outsourcing manufacturing is mainly a money grab. I don't think that giving away manufacturing to the lowest bidder to increase corporate profits is in the interest of either national security or the majority of the population. The side effects are that yes, a few people in the U.S. are much better off, but also there's weaker foreign policy, fewer decent paying labor jobs, and a large number of people who are worse off. All while the competition grows richer and stronger. I live in the Midwest and the anger and bitterness regarding the loss of manufacturing is still widespread, and the physical and economic side effects are easy to see. The folks that were shocked when Trump was elected clearly didn't realize just how many people were effected by the loss of manufacturing jobs. How else do you explain Trump carrying a heavily Democratic, pro-labor states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania?

I agree, it's a good strategy from a political perspective, which is Obama's wheelhouse. This sound bite is getting a lot of attention in the media, but the inevitable NASA Mars Mission budget cutting will only get a short blurb on page 3 of newspapers that fewer and fewer people read. One thing I'm not sure of, though: how will going to Mars and returning safely, or for that matter, inhabiting Mars, make things better here on Earth? Why don't we just spend the billions of dollars this mission would cost in a more practical way?

True. If you notice, she doesn't really answer the question, just like a trapped kid. "He started it!" It's a mute point, though -- we're not getting an honest person no matter who wins the election.

I fondly remember when HP printers were worth having, and when the quality of any HP product was, without question, best-in-class, but the company has been run into the ground since then. I now own a Brother printer. It's OK, but the overall quality of consumer-level printers isn't really that great anymore. I no longer buy any HP products, and I've seen a trend away from them in business purchases, too.

I don't read a lot of sci-fi, but as far as classics go I really enjoyed Dune by Frank Herbert. Never read any of the sequels, though. I also liked another "Martian" book, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Regarding newer books, I really, really enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir. I didn't see the movie because I didn't want it to ruin the book for me. I also liked Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, but I read another of his novels and didn't like it at all.

What's wrong with that? Apple doesn't make a pile of money from it, that's what. They cash in on every sale with a proprietary connection. That's why it's "better". Plus they know that the Apple faithful might grumble but will eventually shell out the money. Ipad profits are down, the piles of cash have to come from somewhere!

I agree: he's selling something. The buzz words are there ("white guys", "diverse") and implies that current development practices are the same as they were 40-50 years ago. All coming from a guy with a degree in History & Literature, not Computer Science or any kind of Engineering or hard science, which tells me this isn't someone who's worked in the trenches developing code. I don't know his true intentions, but I suspect it's profit and I wouldn't trust him either.

Ironically, this is exactly what a communist/socialist dictator would do: squash any criticism as forcefully as possible. At least Bernie only has lawyers rather than an army of secret police -- for now.