A bigger element than the planes not being blown up is the nothing else being blown up. If the terrorists were as determined as we are beig told, then why havent they been thwarted by our awesome new security doodads and moved on to other things. I am sure that in a few minutes I can think of at least 15 places where people can be successfully killed in large numbers that could have ripples through the economy. As these havent been blown up, then the terrorists as presented arent out there.
Unfortunately the TSA knows all this and is working to protect those other places so that the lack of successful terrorist plots remains at the hands of our saviors in the TSA, and no one will discover that the narrrative is bullshit.
The most dangerous place ripe for attacks is now is the security gate (single point of failure for an entire airport corridor)... a bomb going off there would be mass carnage. Thanks, TSA and terror-paranoia.
I forget the name of the place...but there was someone trying to sell game streaming like this. Their hardware would run the games and the results were piped to you. But that company went out of business from lack of demand, with many user complaints centered on lag.
So...color me skeptical.
Maybe this will have a niche with people like my dad? He definitely needs a familiar interface and doesn't care about gaming...
Onlive. I knew someone who interviewed there - he said it seemed like they were trying to rapidly branch into other markets.
Since when do 5 year olds nap? Mine (apparently) runs on a fission generator in overdrive from 7:00 a.m. to about 10:00 p.m.
My 6yo still naps. I think everyone should nap if at all possible - it's quite healthy to take a siesta [1]. The problem is that the modern world makes you feel like you're not worth as much if you're not "aware and contributing" 16+ hours of the day. The question is, if you took 30-45m "off", would the remaining time be more productive?
You don't have to speak an asian language to be valuable. If you are interested in it, you can make a good living in Hong Kong or China or India. There are a lot of opportunities for people who understand technology and are native English speakers. You can bridge the gap between customers and engineers who speak limited English. You may not make good bay area wages depending on where you go, but you'll make excellent for local cost of living wages.
Your advice is great for the 20-30 somethings.
If you're pushing 50, likely you're not going to have that many options to move - you are probably married w/ kids, have too many friends you'd lose, or are to set in your ways to learn a new language and culture without a lot of frustration/loneliness.
I actually took my hardware with me and gave a demo of it if I was allowed. it never went well, for some reason. I think it put some employers off! they thought 'he's too hardware focused and this is a pure software job'. not realizing that there is over 10k lines of c/c++ code in my embedded project, not to mention the linux host side of things (the ip stack).
I've worked at firms where you can't bring any outside tech/inventions in - doing so puts the company at too much risk. So even in the interview, if you're not focused on solving their problems, hiring managers are not comfortable - they've been schooled by Legal to avoid these situations as bringing you onboard may be a career-limiting move.
But there is demographic that likes to conform, do what the popular kids are doing, even though, or because, they themselves are not popular. The greatest risk in these people lives is to go an unpopular movie or have the wrong clothes. Ever since Facebook left the college culture, this has been the demographic that kept it going.
One demographic. I see other demos that have a strong presence on FB whenever I log back in (once every few months or so): The exhibitionist (posts lots of artistic pictures and comments about herself and occasionally her kids - very amusing). The entertainer (local musician/dancer who uses FB as a marketing channel). The family fulcrum (an amiable extended family member who just likes to pull people together and is super nice). Smaller players in my feed: the emo grownup, the political activist, the hobbyist, the small-kid parent.
Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player." [snip] They may have had iPads there for development work, but you can bet many of those developers also had Surface tablets because they have to develop for those as well.
This is bullshit. Many folks I know personally at Microsoft sport Macbook Pros (running Windows mostly). Not sure about the phone thing, but if it runs Windows, it's definitely kosher.
Microsoft has done this before successfully. Apple has done emulators and "OS within an OS" numerous times (68000->PPC, OS9->OSX, PPC->Intel) successfully.
I'm assuming there will be some sort of bulk discount for businesses.
Perhaps, but I'm guessing that researching who gets your $1/message ad campaign would permit those businesses to "query" the market and so they only pay for results of that filter (ie, market of 1Billion accounts, filter by age/gender/marital-status/income/location to get a good 1M), then pay $1M to send a non-opt-out-able advertisement to those highly targeted individuals. The ability to query that data may also be available at a cost to businesses.
If Facebook allows advertisers to abuse this, then it's utility (and Facebook's overall value proposition to their users) will be diminished. Up to a certain point, it will be completely tolerated by their userbase (what are they going to do - go to another social network?!) and eventually it will become "the way things work"... people might reminisce about the ad-free FB days, etc.
It's this for-pay shovelware that's driving people to Android. Android tablets and phones, iPhones and iPads for the most part don't have it. You don't have to spend three hours disabling shovelware to get to what you want to do on an Android tablet. You turn it on, log in, and go.
Some carriers pre-install apps you can't remove on Android handsets. Luckily crap like v-cast store is no longer, but the intent exists, just like with the Dell Windows boxes you buy today. All it will take is for Google to fold - sure you can re-install a pristine image, but the threat is there.
Apple has done overtures to this by building in Twitter/Facebook integration, but it's against Apple's values and would risk their vaunted brand image.
The White House knows that leveraging the death of elementary school children for political purpose, even one they believe strongly in, on the day of their tragic death is a tactic which is likely to backfire. This is not a reactionary group at 1600 Penna. Ave., and they know the dangers.
The NRA can't say much because (1) guns were used in this massacre and unlike most public shootings (2) it's unreasonable even to them that 5-10 year olds (and elementary school teachers) should be packing heat during class.
They could show tolerance for the desire to remove gun from would-be killers. Even if they don't support it, to recognize the tragedy as a result of gun violence and that the solution isn't "more guns" would be a start.
When every opportunity is either downplayed or used as a vehicle to push an agenda, the organization is not balanced. They have an agenda, and that agenda doesn't support their constituency.
Apparently the White House [1], let alone the NRA, doesn't think it's time to discuss the culture that causes these kinds of shootings
You couldn't be more wrong. It's time to discuss the culture, not to start reactively banning things....
Where did I say anything about banning? People who are imbalanced should not have access to weaponry to kill others. I think that's the law in many states - it's just impossible to enforce due to a culture where "untraceable guns = freedom". Tell you what, I support the 2nd amendment, I do NOT support freely available untraceable guns, nor a culture that things that's a sign of freedom.
At some point, a would-be murderer (proven by clinical state or previous record) should have less or no rights to get ahold of weaponry. If you think this is "banning" there is no discussion to be had.
Apparently the White House [1], let alone the NRA, doesn't think it's time to discuss the culture that causes these kinds of shootings - a culture where guns are not only freely available, but generally untraceable and too often get into the hands of folks who should not have them (ie, mentally imbalanced, felons, and domestic terrorists).
If the unquestioning defense of the 2nd amendment means we can't even discuss why disturbed or evil individuals who shouldn't have access to these kind of armaments have the "right to bear arms", then we're fucked as a country.
Let's not even get into the fact that the NRA and gun-lobby have effectively made the process of tracing how these weapons get distributed to the wrong hands is never questioned and the illicit channels aren't closed.
b) Providing a view for backwards compatibility with older applications when a table schema is updated, to avoid breaking queries in the older application until it is updated.
This doesn't seem interesting to me - why would my "select fld1 from tblA" break when I add fld2 to tblA schema? Or are you talking about poorly written code that does select * syntax?
A properly coded app will be fixing it's select syntax to future-proof it's queries anyway. Updateable views may make this easier, but select * should be avoided for all the other reasons (security, performance, scalability, etc) anyway.
Has there been any efficacy studies with respect to the workplace gamification of employee training? Not just efficacy in the employee being "trained" with the content, but actual outcomes based on the employee absorption of the training? I know that in some workplaces where I've been, being given time for training is considered a "perk" and the lower-performing (and perversely the ultra-effective) folks don't to go.
The real issue is that unlike a game, your status is a pale reflection of reality - many people in real life are very "stats oriented" while others view measurement of stats about their progress as limiting and depressing, and not reflective of their true worth (to the organization, as a person, etc). At one point, I vacillate between one extreme and another.
"I am not a number... I am a free man" sayeth the Prisoner.
Perhaps we should integrate this training into project and management methodologies such that training really reflects what you've actually done, and then try to "improve" absorption of the training by gamification.
Does no-one else find it odd he's being deported to Belize? He's a U.S. citizen, he should be deported here. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Everyone on Slashdot in the story where he was captured assumed he would be exported to the U.S...
I'm not sure he's all there mentally but I am sure he's being screwed over by Belize and will be killed if he gets back there. Or possibly now and they'll just frame it as a heart attack.
Where did he commit the alleged crime? If I am accused of murder in France, and am on the lam in England should I get deported to my country of origin (let's say for example it's the USA)? No, I should get extradited to France where I (await in prison) and stand trial.
To be “actionable,” the statement must be a false statement of fact.
A review score is an opinion. Her unhappyness is also an opinion. He would have to show the fact statements in the review were lies. Specifically he would have to prove that Jewelry was not stolen.
The score is opinion and even if the contractor was the best in the world, she could review with a 1 star and it's all completely subjective and not debatable.
Her assertion that the contractor stole her jewelry is definitely objective and should be falsifiable. If it's false, and she did his with intent to harm, she's committed slander/libel.
That is what an external USB2 DVD/BlueRay drive is for. I own one. I have not used it ever since I bought it in 2009 so I could have a support device *just in case* my netbooks and MB Airs needed one.
Your post mostly makes sense (especially the frustration of being in an ecosystem where the tablet purchaser is merely a commodity whose eyeballs will be sold to the highest bidder)... what the fuck is a DVD drive? I remember old, slow, failure prone round plasticky things but the last time i had a need for one in ANY computing related task was probably more than 5 years ago... Are you talking about that?
I have a DVD drive in my year-old Lenovo. I hate it everytime I startup the computer and am reminded of a device I have yet to use, and will probably never use (this is a work laptop - everything is pre-installed or downloaded - My home macbook has AppStore or downloaded everything as well). I hate it every time I accidentally push the "eject" button while putting it in my backpack. I just hate it taking up space and reminding me of 90's technology that no longer serves a useful purpose (DVDs? If you're watching recent movies, they're BluRays anyway).
I could have written this same comment 3 years ago as well.
Does anyone remember this from their MRE-eating days? I wonder if what kind of stabilizers were used in the average military field meal. (we always used to joke that it was shelf-stable, but atomically unstable)
This is the wrong solution to a very real problem - how can a machine get used for personal as well as private access? The answer is, if I have to boot (or even switch to) a separate account to do my personal activities, either they will get done on the work account (compiling - might as well check./.) or they won't get done at all. I see no use in the "personal" device usage - if I need that, I'm going to use a tablet or my home device.
The solution is to provide proper incentive, security and usage guidance, and a strong security stance so your employees use the work devices for appropriate personal activity.
Now, get back to work, DIY - I want to see your TPS reports on my desk by tomorrow morning!
1) PDFs are the only fair way to share written and graphic records, yet people continually share word processing documents as records. A record is different than a document. A record might be commented on, but the base information should not be changed because it is a record of an informational transaction. A document is used more for a data gathering or information organizing process. A document will become a record when it is completed. For example, I might write a letter in a word processor and share the drafts with a co-worker, but when it is ready for printing/emailing I turn it into a PDF and save the PDF as the record in a folder of, for instance, the client. I would then delete the word processor document unless I want a template for further work (in which case the template is not stored in the same place as the record).
PDFs have their own issues. While you can annotate and markup on a PDF, editing a printed PDF is very difficult and thus, it's not good for those situations in which you want a record but may need it to be modifiable easily (e.g.: standard operating procedures document). Of course, the best bet in those cases is to CMS software (ie, wiki) to manage the living items, but like gasoline vs. electric, there is a portability aspect to a.doc file that neither a CMS/wiki nor a PDF provide by themselves.
Furhtermore there are version issues with PDFs - you can create PDFs that don't render well in alternate readers from Adobe Pro, for example, because of variations in the implementation of later versions of the PDF spec (ie, 1.6 and higher). OSX Preview (at least as of 10.6) was notorious for not being able to handle "pdf packages" (available in PDF v1.7) for example (not sure if that's ameliorated by later OSX releases).
More likely, the Microsoft-indoctrinated employees don't want to learn a new interface, and have spent the last few years whining about it. This happened to even the M$ lock-ins when Office transitioned to the "ribbon" -- I was having to cover for desktop support during that time, and fielded at least twenty calls a day from people who wanted to roll back to the previous version.
Never underestimate the power of concentrated whine.
The sad part is that in the case of the Ribbon (from hell), it killed your productivity by destroying all the built-up muscle-memory and use of keyboard shortcuts. Without understanding the "new layout" you had to hunt and peck. Maybe Microsoft focus-group-tested the Ribbon interface, but did they actually pick people who used the current product?
Microsoft research notwithstanding, I have no idea how they could foist such an abomination on their users - I still to this day do not know anyone who prefers the Ribbon over the previous interface -- however, there are folks who don't know the old interface (ie, they're new in the workforce) and accept the shitty Ribbon and live with it less unhappily.
Slashdot Mirror
A bigger element than the planes not being blown up is the nothing else being blown up. If the terrorists were as determined as we are beig told, then why havent they been thwarted by our awesome new security doodads and moved on to other things. I am sure that in a few minutes I can think of at least 15 places where people can be successfully killed in large numbers that could have ripples through the economy. As these havent been blown up, then the terrorists as presented arent out there.
Unfortunately the TSA knows all this and is working to protect those other places so that the lack of successful terrorist plots remains at the hands of our saviors in the TSA, and no one will discover that the narrrative is bullshit.
The most dangerous place ripe for attacks is now is the security gate (single point of failure for an entire airport corridor)... a bomb going off there would be mass carnage. Thanks, TSA and terror-paranoia.
I forget the name of the place...but there was someone trying to sell game streaming like this. Their hardware would run the games and the results were piped to you. But that company went out of business from lack of demand, with many user complaints centered on lag.
So...color me skeptical.
Maybe this will have a niche with people like my dad? He definitely needs a familiar interface and doesn't care about gaming...
Onlive. I knew someone who interviewed there - he said it seemed like they were trying to rapidly branch into other markets.
Since when do 5 year olds nap? Mine (apparently) runs on a fission generator in overdrive from 7:00 a.m. to about 10:00 p.m.
My 6yo still naps. I think everyone should nap if at all possible - it's quite healthy to take a siesta [1]. The problem is that the modern world makes you feel like you're not worth as much if you're not "aware and contributing" 16+ hours of the day. The question is, if you took 30-45m "off", would the remaining time be more productive?
[1] http://www.siestaawareness.org/pages/siesta-facts.php
You don't have to speak an asian language to be valuable. If you are interested in it, you can make a good living in Hong Kong or China or India. There are a lot of opportunities for people who understand technology and are native English speakers. You can bridge the gap between customers and engineers who speak limited English. You may not make good bay area wages depending on where you go, but you'll make excellent for local cost of living wages.
Your advice is great for the 20-30 somethings.
If you're pushing 50, likely you're not going to have that many options to move - you are probably married w/ kids, have too many friends you'd lose, or are to set in your ways to learn a new language and culture without a lot of frustration/loneliness.
I actually took my hardware with me and gave a demo of it if I was allowed. it never went well, for some reason. I think it put some employers off! they thought 'he's too hardware focused and this is a pure software job'. not realizing that there is over 10k lines of c/c++ code in my embedded project, not to mention the linux host side of things (the ip stack).
I've worked at firms where you can't bring any outside tech/inventions in - doing so puts the company at too much risk. So even in the interview, if you're not focused on solving their problems, hiring managers are not comfortable - they've been schooled by Legal to avoid these situations as bringing you onboard may be a career-limiting move.
But there is demographic that likes to conform, do what the popular kids are doing, even though, or because, they themselves are not popular. The greatest risk in these people lives is to go an unpopular movie or have the wrong clothes. Ever since Facebook left the college culture, this has been the demographic that kept it going.
One demographic. I see other demos that have a strong presence on FB whenever I log back in (once every few months or so): The exhibitionist (posts lots of artistic pictures and comments about herself and occasionally her kids - very amusing). The entertainer (local musician/dancer who uses FB as a marketing channel). The family fulcrum (an amiable extended family member who just likes to pull people together and is super nice). Smaller players in my feed: the emo grownup, the political activist, the hobbyist, the small-kid parent.
Unlikely. Microsoft sports a very aggressive corporate culture where if you don't use Microsoft for everything, you're "not a team player." [snip] They may have had iPads there for development work, but you can bet many of those developers also had Surface tablets because they have to develop for those as well.
This is bullshit. Many folks I know personally at Microsoft sport Macbook Pros (running Windows mostly). Not sure about the phone thing, but if it runs Windows, it's definitely kosher.
The only problem is that "Win32 and all that" is exactly what keeps people at using Ms Windows
Five letters for ya: NTVDM.
Microsoft has done this before successfully. Apple has done emulators and "OS within an OS" numerous times (68000->PPC, OS9->OSX, PPC->Intel) successfully.
I'm assuming there will be some sort of bulk discount for businesses.
Perhaps, but I'm guessing that researching who gets your $1/message ad campaign would permit those businesses to "query" the market and so they only pay for results of that filter (ie, market of 1Billion accounts, filter by age/gender/marital-status/income/location to get a good 1M), then pay $1M to send a non-opt-out-able advertisement to those highly targeted individuals. The ability to query that data may also be available at a cost to businesses.
If Facebook allows advertisers to abuse this, then it's utility (and Facebook's overall value proposition to their users) will be diminished. Up to a certain point, it will be completely tolerated by their userbase (what are they going to do - go to another social network?!) and eventually it will become "the way things work"... people might reminisce about the ad-free FB days, etc.
It's this for-pay shovelware that's driving people to Android. Android tablets and phones, iPhones and iPads for the most part don't have it. You don't have to spend three hours disabling shovelware to get to what you want to do on an Android tablet. You turn it on, log in, and go.
Some carriers pre-install apps you can't remove on Android handsets. Luckily crap like v-cast store is no longer, but the intent exists, just like with the Dell Windows boxes you buy today. All it will take is for Google to fold - sure you can re-install a pristine image, but the threat is there.
Apple has done overtures to this by building in Twitter/Facebook integration, but it's against Apple's values and would risk their vaunted brand image.
The White House knows that leveraging the death of elementary school children for political purpose, even one they believe strongly in, on the day of their tragic death is a tactic which is likely to backfire. This is not a reactionary group at 1600 Penna. Ave., and they know the dangers.
The NRA can't say much because (1) guns were used in this massacre and unlike most public shootings (2) it's unreasonable even to them that 5-10 year olds (and elementary school teachers) should be packing heat during class.
They could show tolerance for the desire to remove gun from would-be killers. Even if they don't support it, to recognize the tragedy as a result of gun violence and that the solution isn't "more guns" would be a start.
When every opportunity is either downplayed or used as a vehicle to push an agenda, the organization is not balanced. They have an agenda, and that agenda doesn't support their constituency.
Apparently the White House [1], let alone the NRA, doesn't think it's time to discuss the culture that causes these kinds of shootings
You couldn't be more wrong. It's time to discuss the culture, not to start reactively banning things....
Where did I say anything about banning? People who are imbalanced should not have access to weaponry to kill others. I think that's the law in many states - it's just impossible to enforce due to a culture where "untraceable guns = freedom". Tell you what, I support the 2nd amendment, I do NOT support freely available untraceable guns, nor a culture that things that's a sign of freedom.
At some point, a would-be murderer (proven by clinical state or previous record) should have less or no rights to get ahold of weaponry. If you think this is "banning" there is no discussion to be had.
Apparently the White House [1], let alone the NRA, doesn't think it's time to discuss the culture that causes these kinds of shootings - a culture where guns are not only freely available, but generally untraceable and too often get into the hands of folks who should not have them (ie, mentally imbalanced, felons, and domestic terrorists).
If the unquestioning defense of the 2nd amendment means we can't even discuss why disturbed or evil individuals who shouldn't have access to these kind of armaments have the "right to bear arms", then we're fucked as a country.
Let's not even get into the fact that the NRA and gun-lobby have effectively made the process of tracing how these weapons get distributed to the wrong hands is never questioned and the illicit channels aren't closed.
b) Providing a view for backwards compatibility with older applications when a table schema is updated, to avoid breaking queries in the older application until it is updated.
This doesn't seem interesting to me - why would my "select fld1 from tblA" break when I add fld2 to tblA schema? Or are you talking about poorly written code that does select * syntax?
A properly coded app will be fixing it's select syntax to future-proof it's queries anyway. Updateable views may make this easier, but select * should be avoided for all the other reasons (security, performance, scalability, etc) anyway.
Has there been any efficacy studies with respect to the workplace gamification of employee training? Not just efficacy in the employee being "trained" with the content, but actual outcomes based on the employee absorption of the training? I know that in some workplaces where I've been, being given time for training is considered a "perk" and the lower-performing (and perversely the ultra-effective) folks don't to go.
The real issue is that unlike a game, your status is a pale reflection of reality - many people in real life are very "stats oriented" while others view measurement of stats about their progress as limiting and depressing, and not reflective of their true worth (to the organization, as a person, etc). At one point, I vacillate between one extreme and another.
"I am not a number... I am a free man" sayeth the Prisoner.
Perhaps we should integrate this training into project and management methodologies such that training really reflects what you've actually done, and then try to "improve" absorption of the training by gamification.
Does no-one else find it odd he's being deported to Belize? He's a U.S. citizen, he should be deported here. There is no extradition treaty between the two countries. Everyone on Slashdot in the story where he was captured assumed he would be exported to the U.S...
I'm not sure he's all there mentally but I am sure he's being screwed over by Belize and will be killed if he gets back there. Or possibly now and they'll just frame it as a heart attack.
Where did he commit the alleged crime? If I am accused of murder in France, and am on the lam in England should I get deported to my country of origin (let's say for example it's the USA)? No, I should get extradited to France where I (await in prison) and stand trial.
From the link you provided
To be “actionable,” the statement must be a false statement of fact.
A review score is an opinion. Her unhappyness is also an opinion. He would have to show the fact statements in the review were lies. Specifically he would have to prove that Jewelry was not stolen.
The score is opinion and even if the contractor was the best in the world, she could review with a 1 star and it's all completely subjective and not debatable.
Her assertion that the contractor stole her jewelry is definitely objective and should be falsifiable. If it's false, and she did his with intent to harm, she's committed slander/libel.
I'm guessing it was a virus.
But weren't his signatures up to date? Oh, perhaps his license ran out?
How about watching or ripping a DVD or Bluray?
That is what an external USB2 DVD/BlueRay drive is for. I own one. I have not used it ever since I bought it in 2009 so I could have a support device *just in case* my netbooks and MB Airs needed one.
Your post mostly makes sense (especially the frustration of being in an ecosystem where the tablet purchaser is merely a commodity whose eyeballs will be sold to the highest bidder)... what the fuck is a DVD drive? I remember old, slow, failure prone round plasticky things but the last time i had a need for one in ANY computing related task was probably more than 5 years ago... Are you talking about that?
I have a DVD drive in my year-old Lenovo. I hate it everytime I startup the computer and am reminded of a device I have yet to use, and will probably never use (this is a work laptop - everything is pre-installed or downloaded - My home macbook has AppStore or downloaded everything as well). I hate it every time I accidentally push the "eject" button while putting it in my backpack. I just hate it taking up space and reminding me of 90's technology that no longer serves a useful purpose (DVDs? If you're watching recent movies, they're BluRays anyway).
I could have written this same comment 3 years ago as well.
Does anyone remember this from their MRE-eating days? I wonder if what kind of stabilizers were used in the average military field meal.
(we always used to joke that it was shelf-stable, but atomically unstable)
This is the wrong solution to a very real problem - how can a machine get used for personal as well as private access? The answer is, if I have to boot (or even switch to) a separate account to do my personal activities, either they will get done on the work account (compiling - might as well check ./.) or they won't get done at all. I see no use in the "personal" device usage - if I need that, I'm going to use a tablet or my home device.
The solution is to provide proper incentive, security and usage guidance, and a strong security stance so your employees use the work devices for appropriate personal activity.
Now, get back to work, DIY - I want to see your TPS reports on my desk by tomorrow morning!
They should have called it the Wee Wii.
Or the Wii Oui.
1) PDFs are the only fair way to share written and graphic records, yet people continually share word processing documents as records. A record is different than a document. A record might be commented on, but the base information should not be changed because it is a record of an informational transaction. A document is used more for a data gathering or information organizing process. A document will become a record when it is completed. For example, I might write a letter in a word processor and share the drafts with a co-worker, but when it is ready for printing/emailing I turn it into a PDF and save the PDF as the record in a folder of, for instance, the client. I would then delete the word processor document unless I want a template for further work (in which case the template is not stored in the same place as the record).
PDFs have their own issues. While you can annotate and markup on a PDF, editing a printed PDF is very difficult and thus, it's not good for those situations in which you want a record but may need it to be modifiable easily (e.g.: standard operating procedures document). Of course, the best bet in those cases is to CMS software (ie, wiki) to manage the living items, but like gasoline vs. electric, there is a portability aspect to a .doc file that neither a CMS/wiki nor a PDF provide by themselves.
Furhtermore there are version issues with PDFs - you can create PDFs that don't render well in alternate readers from Adobe Pro, for example, because of variations in the implementation of later versions of the PDF spec (ie, 1.6 and higher). OSX Preview (at least as of 10.6) was notorious for not being able to handle "pdf packages" (available in PDF v1.7) for example (not sure if that's ameliorated by later OSX releases).
More likely, the Microsoft-indoctrinated employees don't want to learn a new interface, and have spent the last few years whining about it. This happened to even the M$ lock-ins when Office transitioned to the "ribbon" -- I was having to cover for desktop support during that time, and fielded at least twenty calls a day from people who wanted to roll back to the previous version.
Never underestimate the power of concentrated whine.
The sad part is that in the case of the Ribbon (from hell), it killed your productivity by destroying all the built-up muscle-memory and use of keyboard shortcuts. Without understanding the "new layout" you had to hunt and peck. Maybe Microsoft focus-group-tested the Ribbon interface, but did they actually pick people who used the current product?
Microsoft research notwithstanding, I have no idea how they could foist such an abomination on their users - I still to this day do not know anyone who prefers the Ribbon over the previous interface -- however, there are folks who don't know the old interface (ie, they're new in the workforce) and accept the shitty Ribbon and live with it less unhappily.