This is the first thing I've read in this thread that explains the VC involvement in a way that makes sense.

A friend of mine works in a trading company. He said all the traders want to become devs, because it is the only skill that they've seen up close that translates outside of the mad-house of trading, and they (the traders) all know eventually their number will be up.

Perhaps, lack of understanding on my side, but what does "their number will be up" mean? From what I've heard, it's most often the case that developers want to move into trading.

I think he means that they're worried about employment after their stint as traders.

Why would they want to work as relatively tiny salaried devs after getting million dollar bonuses, rather than just retire?

You mean "Mad house of trading" = Millions of dollars in bonuses.

And also the ability to run on Windows XP, where DirectWrite doesn't exist.

Yeah, it looks just like a nabaztag without ears.

I thought exactly the same thing. Those books are very educational, as well as entertaining. The main/only problem is it is sometimes hard to know where the fantasy starts and the facts stop. I suspect the non-titular/non-noble characters (Shaftoes, the slave galley crew that become Jack's boon companions). Plus there is the whole island of Qwghlm. Also fortunately it has its own Wiki http://baroquecycle.wikia.com/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle_Wiki.

Because if there's one thing the MS ecosystem needs, it's more dev fragmentation....

I heard a choir of discordant voices, and pictured something smooth, rectangular and black.

Depends on your demographic. 20% of our site visitors use IE8 :-(.

So if I bought an extra 2 years of applecare for my MBP do I get half that credited back, since it is only one 'extra' year?

At least in the UK, AppleCare exceeds the service requirements of the warranty. If a component fails through normal use, the warranty has you covered. If your case is cracked because you dropped your laptop, warranty might not cover it but AppleCare will.

Or your house insurance will cover accidental damage (as well as theft of your bag on a train/in a cafe, etc).

I was delighted when my house insurance bill went down considerably, because my newer Macbook was worth just less than £1000, where the previous one had been just over - meaning it became covered by the policy without a separate declaration, and an additional fee.

I suppose 1 benefit AppleCare provides is no excess fees; the whole cost of repair is covered.

Have you ever developed mobile UI? Sometimes there just isn't enough pixels.

There is alwaysenough pixels.

I heard that argument before for dozen of platforms.

Your shiny app does not have new problems. And it won't flop if you use scrolling. It will flop if don't know what to type where.