Just so no one gets surprised in a couple years, I have one thing to say:
Microsoft is doomed. Their gig is up. Instead of innovating, they are just trying to take what everyone else is doing and make it better. But, in typical MS fashion, they are messing it up bad. There are several examples, which I will discuss in brief. Read more

The s-word in queston here is ’software patents’. Most people don’t care about them, but they should. Many have taken a black or white approach to the issue. I think there’s a middle ground. Currently, the US patent system allows for patenting anything from a scrollbar, to a mechanism for delivering habit-based shopping referrals. On one hand, you have a lot of good, concrete solutions, and the people who invent them should reap the benefits. On the other hand, you have someone who thinks up something that might happen in the future, and then applies for the patent to their whimsical idea. When someone else has the same idea and actually implements it, the patent-holder hits up the one who did all the work for a bunch of money.
My stance is this. You should be able to patent an actual tool for getting something done. A piece of software, a search algorithm, or even a million-dollar homepage. You shouldn’t be able to patent an idea, especially one that is not likely to be unique: a method for viewing off-screen content (scrollbar), a layout for placing data in boxes (a spreadsheet), or a method for distributing ads to consumers. When patents are allowed to be so broad and vague, anyone can make money simply by having an active imagination without any actual skills. I’m done.

God is amazing. Let me tell you why. Before Christmas, money was tight. We were planning on going home for Christmas, and I knew we didn’t have the money to do it. I said ‘God, you gotta do something.’ By the time we came home, we had received over $300 from different family members.
The other day, I was trying to figure out what to talk about for Sunday School. God gave me a theme, and then our pastor confirmed it with both messages on Sunday.
My wife and I have been trying to figure out if we should stay here for a few years, or if we should find a church elsewhere. For a while we prayed and sought God. He answered us both within minutes of each other. We made the decision, and now all the right doors are opening up.

Greed never gets you anywhere good (except rich, which I wouldn’t want for nothing). Sony put Copy-protection on a bunch of their albums a while back. Guess what happened? Someone found out it contained a security hole known as a rootkit. It was exploited, and after a huge series of blunders on the part of Sony, what did they end up with? Several class-action lawsuits, and a whole lot of angry customers (and bands). Tell me that isn’t justice.