Their problem seems to be that Gates is focussed on building sustainable businesses that can survive after the charity taps get turned off. That bastard!

Doesn't he realise that he is just supposed to pump money into Africa and hope that amongst the missile launchers and the AK47s, someone manages to smuggle in some penicillin?

Are we supposed to be shocked that a man who made a huge fortune in the private sector, favours a private sector approach when he is trying to get shit done?

true - I should have added that caveat.

x86 tablets will be able to run Windows software (from my understanding). It'll be more expensive, but business users will pay the premium.

Samsung will go where the demand is. They couldn't care less about open source or closed source - they only care about selling their products and if Microsoft produce a system that people want, Samsung will build devices to run it. End of story.

If what you are saying was true, Windows would have died 15 years ago and the world would be running on Linux.

If that was the case, Android would have a monopoly in the tablet and smartphone space. They don't.

Choice breeds complexity. What Microsoft will have with the Surface is a device capable of demonstrating what Windows 8 is capable of when it is run on good hardware without a load of preloaded crap. The OEMs will then have a benchmark they will have to live up to. the competition will still be there, Microsoft are just raising the level.

Absolutely!

This could blow up in Microsoft's face, but I doubt it will, Windows 8 should, in theory be the perfect cross device OS. Being able to run the same apps on your phone, tablet and PC is an awesome feature. For anyone owning a PC running Windows 8, it will make sense to pick mobile devices that also run Windows 8.

I'm not sure even Microsoft could screw this up.

Microsoft wont throw the OEMs under the bus, it just wont happen.

The Surface is Microsoft's attempt to quickly capture a chunk of the tablet market by producing a top end tablet running Windows 8 - I expect the price to be highly competitive in order to drive high sales, the end goal being to encourage OEMs like Samsung to move their investment from Android to Windows 8.

If they launched Windows 8 cold, the OEMs will probably be hesitant to make a major investment when there is no proof of the demand for a Win8 tablet - Microsoft are manufacturing that proof in the form of the Surface.

Fine if you're doing Mickey Mouse projects, but if you have to maintain a code base with a few hundred thousand LoC, you'll be glad to see code structures you recognise.

...is a book that assumes you know all of the GoF patterns and gives a list of times when you shouldn't use each one.

Most people's beef with design patterns is that inexperienced coders sit down and think 'what pattern could I apply to this problem?' or 'how can I change my problem to fit a pattern?' instead of 'what pattern, if any would make this code easier to understand and maintain in the long term?'.

I bet all 64 complaints were made by web developers against the .gov.uk sites that are non compliant.

"you don't have to warn if the cookie is necessary for the functionality of the website."

Not necessarily true, at least in the UK interpretation of the directive. There are some very thin exemptions. That said, logins and stuff are easy - just add boilerplate that says 'By logging in you are blah blah, cookies, blah blah, first born child, blah'

This is another example of what happens when you let computer illiterate politicians have a say in technology regulations

To be fair, the ICO has proven itself utterly inept when it comes to enforcing its own regulations - I can't see them doing any better with this idiocy.

That would bring the total number of specialist Computer Science teachers in the UK to...100.

Totally, just saying the problem out loud leads you to view the problem from a different perspective. 50% of the time you've got the answer before you're halfway through explaining the problem.

Mindfulness doesn't mean you can never let your mind wander so long as letting your mind wander is what you are trying to do.