You may not have noticed, but Microsoft doesn't profit from making users happy. They profit by making users buy more Microsoft software. Did anyone really expect Microsoft to design this in a way that gave them a disadvantage?

First it's just plain politeness and good business to avoid calling your customers fat, even if they are.

Second, it's not just fat people. A large linebacker would probably also have trouble fitting in one seat.

Stop, you're making me hungry.

We have a similar situation in the US Senate, where abuse of procedural rules effectively requires at least 60% approval for any legislation. The end result is not cooperation and compromise, but individual senators essentially holding vital legislation hostage to get stuff for their pet projects. Maybe it's because we only have two major parties and winner-take-all elections, maybe it's because we allow bills about many subjects, but it's a dysfunctional system.

Anyway, good luck with your empty seat plan!

Actually it's "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." -- Mark Twain

Sadly, reports of real sex have been greatly exaggerated.

I like how you assume that they will die to save us.

Get your degree, then stop showing up until they fire you. Free degree! Although this plan might backfire and land you in middle management.

Actually you gain the privilege of becoming an administrator for the rest of your career. The only professors I knew who spent a decent amount of time doing real research were retired. The rest spent their time teaching, chasing grant money, and attending meetings. You really have to be a little crazy to go for an academic career these days.

A large portion of PHP's library is just a thin PHP wrapper around C libraries. If you just port PHP to an embedded platform, you won't get most of the library without a lot of extra work.

And it shouldn't. Aside from being disgusting for your neighbors, you're spreading whatever diseases and parasites your dog might have. It's really not hard to clean up after your dog.

There have been hardware Java machines, why not a hardware Actionscript machine? It's just bytecode.

As I understand it the paid certificates don't need a "web of trust" because verisign will verify your identity directly. The web of trust was just a way for them to save on administrative costs.

According to Nielsen, only one-third of US homes had HDTVs in February 09. Most people don't care about HD, they'll just get one when their current TV breaks.

That's called passive deterrence.