Call me naive or just stupid, but I don't understand why Skype is seen as such a "lame" duck business.

Skype is immeasurably useful to me and I rarely use it for Skype to Skype free calls. The majority of calls that are made to me are to my SkypeIn number in the UK, which I pay for, or calls out to China and the UK, which I pay for.

Are us paying customers for Skype really so few? I love Skype, I really want to see it survive.

Whilst I never held Bill Gates in high regard whilst he was actually in power at Microsoft, it would seem that their leadership is fast approaching a Chinese way of doing things in that the outgoing man never really gives up the reins and the new guy has tread very carefully to make sure he doesn't up set the grand daddy.

But this is a moot point. What I really want to say is I find it disturbing that whilst Bill has taken to be a philanthropist in his later years he seems to be using his new found reputation do gooder love to push through some pretty heinous ideas.

A. Using ID cards at all, in any country.

B. Getting India to involve MS in the scheme.

I can see the conversation going somewhat (between privacy concerned but easily swayed PM, slick as oil spin doctor, also in MS's pocket and Bill Gates wearing a bunny costume feeding the hungry):

PM: "We've been considering ways to combat the threats of terrorism for sometime now. My instinct tells me that we really shouldn't go down this ID card route but my advisors, hundreds of them, tell me differently. So I'm obliged to listen. What can MS do for us?"

Bill: "Well, lets skip the tech specs and all the details, it's in the report in your hands. As you know, we have a reputation for everything being as tight as a clam at Microsoft. Software never leaks, when it's shipped it's secure as the Titanic's hull and if there's a competitor that's doing it cheaper, it's ok, we will have bought them before you noticed" bill as he cradles another starving child, sweating in the heat through his bunny costume, my isn't he just so dedicated!

PM: "Oh, umm, yes. That's right. So, this report. I have read it and a few things concern me. Your projected costs for this scheme run at 30% of the governments actual budget for anything next year, do you forget, sir, that we our GDP is somewhat dwarfed but that of your homeland?"

Bill: "Well..."

PM:" Also, you go on to suggest that we should store everything on Azure, Microsoft's cloud technology, our entire populations, 1/6 of the world's personal information on Microsoft's servers outside of it's home country?"

Bill: "I can explain that..."

PM: " Last but not least, you seem to be somewhat of evangelist for this ID scheme. Are you really interested in this from an ethical point of view from beneath your guise of a born again philathro?"

Bill:"...."

at this the spind doctor grabs the president aside, barely containing his embarrassment at the candour of the PM.

SD"Sir I cannot believe you have just rebuffed Mr Gates so. That report was factually accurate as were Mr Gates words. He can really help us move forward in the fight against terrorism. Yes, we will be bled dry, but he is a visionary. He didn't say that the internet would amount to nothing and there was no future in it, that was those bunch of polo neck wearing chumps over in Cupertino."

PM: "This is very bad, I think we need to look internally, to the talent we have at home, create jobs, learn and grow our own way. We have sooooo much computing talent here it is unreal. Let's really innovate with this one. Who knows we might create a system that doesn't invade privacy, doesn't require a central database and doesn't evoke vision of a future from 1984. I mean, I wouldn't want my future, run by a government, would you?"

SD: " Sir, he's wearing a bunny costume "

PM:" Awwww ". The PM is jolted out of his reverie; " No, I won't allow us to waste billions on something we could make history of doing ourselves"

SD" Siiiirrrr. he's donated millions, if not billions to charities to help feed some of the world's hungriest people. A large amount of those in desperate poverty which are here, in our own country!"

PM:" It tears me, but that is a seperate problem, something we have to try and sort out in a more efficient way, with reform and not handouts"

SD: "Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir, his company outsources every single one of his technical support staff to this country. If they decided to pull back their borders and relocate, we would be left with catastrophic unemployment and a huge part of the economy would be lost, god forbid, he might move them all to Bangladesh!"

PM: " It would seem then my hands are tired. Like me with my advisers," turns to Bill Gates

"Well Mr Gates, it would seem I am in a position to accept your proposal. We will of course need to go through a formal tender process with other companies but we'll provide you with the right information so the tender becomes yours for the highest possible funding. Here are the bank details to the government coffers, take what you need, we'll adjust our budget accordingly. There's some KY over there if you wanted to get the deed over and done with now."

The point is, it's in situations like this where ethics and morals can so easily be subverted. A man as economically evil and aggressive as Bill Gates can never be overlooked just because he has sudden turned a new leaf, been dunked in the pool of houlier than thou juice or potentially donate to you some of the coffers from his first national bank of "Richer than God".

But it will happen, people will be swayed and old ways forgotten. Even if he is still actively seeking business for his bastard child.

* A light, solid case that doesn't bend and cause damage to your components, nor crack after being 'lived with' for some time.

***** My friend has a Mac Book pro and the case has already cracked at the front and the DVD was faulty out of the box

* Well designed and implemented cooling, so your fan doesn't come on so often, at such a high speed, or sound so annoying.

***** laughable. He cannot rest his mac book pro on his lap when using it because it gets so hot. having a battery that is completely internal and dispersing all heat through it's aluminium shell means that it's heating solution is anywhere but efficient.

* A keyboard that's a joy to use. Unless you're on a MacBook, 'business' HP or ThinkPad, you're probably getting a pretty nasty keyboard, with spongy keys, lots of flex, and poor reliability.

****** the mac book laptop keys are shocking bad and the mac's keyboard doesn't have any tactile feedback at all. Not to mention that you can buy one of many wonderfully designed keyboards to replace it. The difference is the replacement keyboard for the mac probably costs as much as the specialised das keyboard for the PC.

* An incredible touchpad. Touchpads are rubbish in general. I have to use an external mouse to be at all productive - except on ThinkPads (trackpoint) or MacBooks.

**** so you pay extra for a mouse pad where you have to learn a whole bunch of gestures that don't always respond correctly when you could just as so easily right click? you're getting desperate now.

* A very nice LED backlit display. Beats most laptop displays I've seen.

***** you have this one. Colours and brightness of the mac book pro are amazing

* Very good battery life.

**** already mentioned in the previous comment

* Magsafe power connector. Yes there are stories of people breaking these, but they seem to be idiots who yank the thing around by its cord. IME it's brilliant.

***** I don't understand the big bag about this thing? Were people always prone walking off without unplugging their laptops first or were Mac Book owners too busy enjoying the smell of their own farts that they used to intentionally leaving their power leads as trip hazards for everyone else, thus necessitating the need for this gimmick?

* Last but definitely not least: A copy of, and a guarantee of compatibility with, OS X. If you don't like it or need it, fair enough, but lots of people swear by it.

**** As much as I dislike them, M$ have done an amazing job making windows work with even 50% of the almost infinite combination of hardware that you can buy in a PC. Plus, and I can't help but take issue with this, I keep hearing mac tards going on about how great it is they bundle so much software with their OS. Isn't this what microsoft got done for on their anti-competitive suit?

Of course, how much you care about your OS depends on what you do with it, but some things are likely common to Windows and OS X users. Here are a few of the obvious differences, off the top of my head:

* When you resume Windows by opening the laptop lid, it takes ages for it to be usable again. This is getting better, but it's still not like in OS X where the thing is ready instantly.

* When you resume WIndows, it takes ages for the thing to be connected to a wireless network again. In OS X, it's ready to use by the time you try to use it.

**** qualitative not quantitative evidence, not even anecdotal.

* You don't need 'malware' protection. This may change in the future, but for now, it's nice to not have to bother with such crap.

***** security through obscurity. any malware that is for a mac is infinitely more damaging because it gains root acess.

* Built in search works, is incredibly fast, and you don't notice it slowing your machine down, unlike Windows Search.

***** the last time I made a search on my vista ultimate machine, it "just worked" TM

Not against you, just thought I'd add that in case some fan bois read on and needed correcting.

Of course people don't plan to change their disc collection. People were forced / coerced into moving their movie collections to DVD and now that's only just about finished.

What they should see is the fact that the jump from VHS to DVD was HUGE. The benefits were tangible and made buying DVDs actually worth watching. No degradation of quality over time, instant rewind or play from a point and a smaller format. Life watching movies became so much more convenient. The only benefit I can see for Blu-ray is a miniscule jump in quality, a brand new TV set and hella expensive cables to play them through and some of the boxes so desperately worried I'm a pirate only playing through approved TVs and cable sets because I AM A PIRATE and I WILL EXPLOIT the analogue hole.

Maybe it really has hit a point where people will not take being marketed a small improvement for a massive price hike. It's like when DVDs first came out, VHS were at £10 price point and had been for ages. The manufacturing price of DVDs is infinitely lower, and the profit margins for the distributors / publishers grows massively - but I'm still a pirate damaging their sales. Until DVDs come down to a £10 price point and blu-ray costs the same as DVDs now, then I sure as hell will not go anywhere near that Sony endorsed piece of crap.

Whilst I agree that healthy competition in ANY market place means that innovation is driven to it's highest levels and generally prices come down for consumers this really smacks of two things:

- Google made a deal with the Authors and not the publishers? And the publishers are for lack of a better word f****d because as digitisation of books gets a head of steam they will not be able exploit Authors and make sure their already fat profit margins grow fatter anymore? Sounds like a case of film / music where the makers and producers of the art that drives the market for these publishers try and find ways of getting their work directly to consumers, or find themselves a better deal and the publishers get all uppity and act like a jilted lover. More liked a bonded marriage where even though the artist is the poor bride, they're the ones who always ended up paying the dowry!

- It would seem that for once the company with a potential monopoly here deserve it! They have taken to the time to innovate, create a new, un-dstructive way of turning tomes of knowledge into bits of magnetism and electrons and duly patented it so they can get a reward for their endeavour. I by no means think that google are saints and that they are anything less than a mega-coporation in it for one thing, the money. But for this I applaud them for their ingenuity and doing it way ahead of anyone.

In fact, the point boils down to one thing Publishers and the rest say "Hey, I wish I'd thought of that first dagnammit. Oh well, I'll take them to court for being smarter, faster and fitter than I am. They MUST owe me some of the enourmous profits they are going to make". Google should say f-you, we will not carry you beggars and scroungers anymore. Start thinking for yourself. That if you didn't know, was the Atlas Shrugged angle.

Thanks.