They may have known they were dealing with Ebola, but they didn't have the equipment or facilities to take all the steps necessary to prevent transmission.
> It appears the overwhelming (?) majority of young American internet users, who have come of age in the post 9/11 USA are disturbingly willing to relinquish as many freedoms and rights, as is demanded of them.
I see Google's censorship as an attack on "freedoms and rights".
> HNers to fall into knee-jerk behavioral patterns of vociferously defending all that is Google
I personally hate Google, and avoid their products whenever possible. I've used Bing for a number of years, and recently switched most of my searching to DuckDuckGo.
> European little guy has scored an important victory that gives them the tools to improve their quality of life
I don't think this is an "important victory", but rather an attack on the freedom of information.
"the Nokia X smartphone achieving top-selling status in Pakistan , Russia , Kenya and Nigeria,3 while earning the third-best-selling smartphone spot in India ," said Timo Toikkanen , head of Mobile Phones, Microsoft Devices Group.
This phone is not aimed at people who a power users. This phone is aimed at emerging economies where people are buying their first smartphones. Nokia X has all the basics (music, free messaging, email, Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp), all running on some reasonable hardware.
I recently moved from Christchurch, New Zealand to Melbourne Australia. Christchurch has a population of about 350,000 and the only form of public transport is busses (which I have almost never needed to take). Melbourne has a population of about 4,500,000 with trams, busses and trains.
On week days my commute involves a half hour train ride and a 5 minute bus trip either way. While most people are glued to their phones, I purposely avoid using mine as much as possible. I just try to be as friendly as possible.
> Given the MS culture, are things going to get slow and bureaucratic?
This is my worry. Nokia moves so quick on everything, and delivers great products. While Microsoft is always slow, and the the products are always missing features.
Hopefully all those Nokia employees will have an effect on Microsoft's culture.
Microsoft makes products I like. Nokia make products I love.