A careless programmer can code an insecure API in any language - was it specific PHP flaws that led to the hack? Blaming the language is like blaming the printing press for vile proganda or pencils and rulers for failed bridges.

Programming should use the simplest possible solution (and no simpler) for the task in hand - not whatever answer Google currently returns for the question "what is the best new programming language". Devs love technical challenge, and they love being able to speak with a highly technical (preferably new) set of words that lets everyone know how 1337 they are. No different really to music hipsters listen exclusively to obscure indie bands, most of whom are shit. If mgmt is not technically proficient enough to understand x,y,z hipster code and elucidate why moving everything to it isn't helpful in their specific application they can bow to technical "judgement" and end up with NoSQL where relationships are required, Angular js for flat web pages, etc etc.

Laptops. Because some developers (like me) want to move from OSX (or rather Apple's pricing vs rubbish spec) but our experiments running Ubuntu et al on semi-decent hardware has been excruciating (I'm sorry, but trackpads working is non-negotiable) and we want more than Unix software for say image/sound/video editing. And no, I used Emacs for 3 years and I'm not switching back. And yes, it would also be nice to have a dev machine that can game. A Stealth with a unix dev environment you say?

Apple have good form cannibalising their existing product set (see iPhone consumption of the iPod market), although this was Jobs caring more about great product than the effect of that (its not clear whether Cook has the same level of chutzpah). Also, iPad sales have dropped off dramatically, so this looks more like something to shore them up / upgrade to.

Largely agreed, except where the gender imbalance comes from a barrier to entry caused by the incumbent powers self-selecting or creating a culture that suits their own kind to the detriment of other cohorts. I don't know if Wikipedia's male dominated editors are creating such a culture and precluding women who actually wish to contribute in collating humanity's knowledge, but it's potentially self-reinforcing.

Unix is still the go-to OS and is syntax has remained largely unchanged for decades. What's wrong with PHP and C? Most of the online/offline world so runs on these

Kernel changes temporarily suspended as Linus devotes time to building Linux Capsule

Agree only partially... Having a start button will help enormously for aging members of my family - the big confusion was that the active corners are completely hidden giving no inkling that's where you need to go to make stuff happen. That in itself is probably the single worst UE design of the last 10 years, as most people look at the screen and think about what to click rather than fumble around in the vain hood something might work. Is Microsoft also addressing the 'how on earth do I shut this thing down' issue?

Procasturbation is more common amongst those who work from home

Apologies for being all tech history anoraky, but what year was this?

No, I would definitely go for that over Linux