OT

lt cap,

Yes, I agree Nadella, from the start, saw the magnitude of corporate problems that needed change and solution - and has done well, including doubling the stock, which is astounding in a company that large. So it doesn't really matter that Ballmer was a Harvey Bumblef*ck clown, doing an embarrassing imitation of Jobs raising interest and wonder at the next product features are, as Microsoft's offerings were always 3 steps behind in trying to copy Apple's innovation.

Speaking of which, MSFT never has gotten it right the first time - seems it takes them about 3 attempts to refine products into something that sells. And I think this is the 3rd (?) iteration of the surface - altho I think you're right - it took several failed products to create it, but they've got something people just might get attached to.

And.....Intel. Competative challenges on every front. But the rabbit they've pulled out of the hat with their new, lightning fast memory is showing up at retail, in NvMe and more traditional SSD drives. (I'm aware that no matter how fast the memory is, there are bottlenecks because of the 6gig/second SATA interface it has to go through in most cases, IIRC.) Still, the reviews are pretty Stellas. Tom's Hardware starts their review with:

Intel has a slew of new products planned that demonstrate the power of new memory technologies. The 545s is the first consumer model with new 64-layer NAND. The 545s targets the mainstream category where SATA still dominates the landscape. Intel's new second-generation 64-layer 3D NAND should be faster than the previous 32-layer NAND. That gives Intel a fighting chance to take down the Samsung 850 EVO that has dominated the mainstream category for several years.

And I own 3 Samsung 850 EVOs. Oh well.