It seems to me as if our country has all but abandoned research compared to what we were doing back when Kennedy threw down his challenge about space. Part of that may be due to things like greed. Some companies just don't want to spend money to learn about new technologies. Most of the time they prefer to simply purchase smaller companies, stifling that innovation.

Those that are doing research are attacked and sued over their success - "you didn't build that" was not the first such attack on successful business. Drug companies and durable health care producers are demonized every day. Microsoft may be the first company to survive these attacks and still flourish. IBM never recovered fully. Apple is starting to see that, but as of yet is too popular for it take take root.

I agree that there is a lot of corporate greed, and that a lot of workers are taken advantage of. I also understand that it takes a LOT of money to conduct pure research. Giving a group of people money and telling them to go learn something, anything, is a thing of the past. Yet it was the most productive way to conduct research. Today, most research seems to be targeted at specific issues, and unfortunately sometimes the "research" isn't about discovering the truth, only about furthering the goals of the funding group.

I am not surprised that Microsoft is leading the charge. I am disappointed that so many other companies have given up. I have respect for Microsoft, but it sure would be better if the effort were spread around.