Could the explanation be that Windows RT users prefer to pay for apps rather than to be served -- and to click -- ads? That's certainly the case for me. I own a Windows RT tablet and spent about $10 on apps thus far, including on Book Bazaar Reader, GVoice, and IM+. When there's a way to get rid of ads by paying for an ad-free experience in apps I value, I do.

Microsoft is also encouraging more significant apps by setting the minimum price in its app store to $1.50. I can easily imagine that more significant apps are more tempting to buy outright rather than to live with ads.

One way is to just make a guest account.

But if someone wants admin rights to install a game or something, you can use Faronics Deep Freeze or Fortres Grand Clean Slate to ensure that no changes to the Windows filesystem survive reboots or even log-offs.

You're still not thinking. Open protocols still exist; Skype didn't erase them or ban them. They just don't work. Again—it doesn't matter if open protocols exist if the normal person in normal circumstances cannot get a simple phone call to work.

If you resent vendor lock-in so much, why don't you simply make the existing open protocols work? Or create your own open protocol that works?

Think about that a little more. Did anyone hold a gun to the world to force them to switch? No. Clearly the open standards failed the world somehow.

In my personal experience, Ekiga (an implementation of the open standards you speak of) simply doesn't work in a NAT environment. I've tried multiple versions with multiple people, and either the phone doesn't ring, or the person doesn't even appear online. Skype worked. I even ended up giving Skype money.

It's much more productive to figure out why millions can be made switching away from open standards than to hate those who solve the world's problems.

I don't understand. When you say "your phone," are you referring to my desk phone or my cell phone? If I ever lose access to the desk phone, I just unlink it from my Google Voice account, and it'll never receive any of my calls again.

The desk phone provides higher quality voice and better ergonomics. That said, I never gave out my work number because I don't want people to call multiple places, or to chain me to the desk when I'd rather answer their call on my cell.

But I started using my desk phone just this week. I ported my cell phone number to Google Voice, associated both my new cell phone number and my work number with it. Now when anyone calls my cell phone, it rings both phones, and I choose how to answer. I can also make outgoing calls through my work phone, appearing to others that I am calling from my original cell phone number. It's a beautiful system.

Only a liberal arts major would suggest that "anyone" can make a good, usable Linux distribution. Time is not free, you know.

Your grandparent was talking about a specific bock: Shiner Bock. That one is made only in bottles.

That's exactly what the parent was saying.

I'd love it if the project's web site had a howto for installing the necessary components on my existing Linux distribution.

Why would I want to boot a LiveCD/LiveUSB if I already have a perfectly working Linux laptop with all my files and settings? Presumably once you're connected to the mesh network you'll want to be productive, whether it involves instant messaging, email, or whatever else you have set up and configured on your laptop.

Did you check IDv1 and IDv2 metadata? I don't have any Amazon MP3s handy, but as I recall Amazon puts a unique number into the Comment field. That's easy to change or erase. I'd be interested in comparing actual audio data between two purchasers of the same MP3.

Cue rising sales of chemicals that remove ink...

Effective tax rates are much lower than the top tax bracket for a given income. A large fraction of the population pays no income tax, instead paying only FICA at 7.7%. Federal income tax starts only after the standard deduction, which is almost $6k, so you end up paying federal income tax only on $7.4k with a minimum wage job where you work 51 weeks a year for 35 hours a week. That's $738, or an effective tax rate of 5.5%. In all, in a state without income tax this person would pay about 13.2% in total tax -- assuming there are no additional deductions or credits. That's $11,233 per year in take-home pay.

I run my desktop monitors at work in portrait orientation, like God intended.