Just because a company has a foreign office and accounts doesn't make them exempt from US tax - all they are doing is trying to shelter the income from OUTSIDE the US using EXISTING and LEGAL means. Don't hold the companies responsible for what obviously amounts to the political issue at hand. Obama can go ahead and change the law, and see how positive the economy reacts (that last bit was tongue and cheek BTW).

Actually my career involves providing people (plenty of programmers) with the tools, experience and resources necessary to build a legally and finacially sound business. I give them access to a world class board, capital, knowledge, experience and guidance to build their own business idea. I am very hands on and can setup, manage, admin, and develop infrastructure by myself if necessary. But I am wise enough to know that I can do more with help. Its the principle of independance vs. interdependance. The issue I identified relates to a general attitude of entitlement and arrogance that goes with a certain personality. It just happens that I notice this personality has been more prevelant in a certain group of professional. I have trashed many deals because the expectations of the person were not reasonable. They just knew better. PS> Doctors are much worse.

FYI: This process is called Due Dillegence. Something everyone should do on any company or person they plan on doing business with.

I think you misunderstood the parent. Programmers generally have a personality that is characterized by their belief that because they can write code and others can't (e.g. a securities lawyer) they can do any other job function as well or better than that person. This is just an observation after dealing with programmers for most of my career. There are always acceptions, but most often than not, they fit in a spectrum of this personality.

Have you been in an Apple store recently? They are 100% consumer experience orientated, and it shows. They offer free wifi internet, all their equipment is fully accessible and online. You get a greeter at the door, and then left alone if you don't want to be bothered. I am hard pressed to walk into a store and not find it packed with people checking email and fiddling with their toys. I own a Mac Mini and when one of their updates cooked the network stack, I set an appointment, brought the unit in (no power cable or anything), and they had me up and running in under an hour, one on one, and even showed me a bunch of uber geek tricks with OSX. This is proof that the customer/consumer experience means a lot, and can even trump price if done right.

Hell, all the Fry's and Best Buys in my area don't even have their demo's hooked onto the internet. Hense, no body hangs out in that department. They walk through look, and leave.

Yeah, try running your own company, then you are always between 24/7 or 0/7...good and bad. Better money, but procrastination really is like masterbation: fucking yourself.

There are really two types of genetic testing: Informational and Medical. Medical testing is based on large groups of people and controlled study, whereas Informational is just throwing around 'what we think is going on' and is fun to see. I found this site useful to learn more about these differences, and they can even differentiate which tests are right with price comparison: www.AccessDNA.com

Actually I think the 'sex' option is actually more related to the genetics answer. It is amazing how small our understanding of the genome actually is, but we still have traced a lot of disorders and diseases back to it. Check out this link for more: www.AccessDNA.com