Not that I really care if you believe me, but I spent a long time at one of the most profitable companies in the world (Microsoft), and despite Tim's repeated jokes about being in "middle management," I was Director level (though Tim is welcome to make any jokes he likes).

Regarding your points about software development...I am working on a contract for Microsoft right now programming a monitor for their Zune back-end monitoring servers.

Mike,I think MICROSOFT stock will hit $50 per share in a couple months.

Last week I actually decided to take a job building drones for a local firm along with my contract Microsoft work.

Generally, put options and call options are financial instruments affiliated with or derived from other financial instruments (stock or bonds).Call options allow the owner of the call to buy a stock at a predetermined price within a certain period.Put options allow the owner of the call to sell a stock at a predetermined price within a certain period.I buy a call on Microsoft which is currently trading at $25 per share.

Yes I did.An employee of mine at Microsoft went back to law school at Harvard after getting a 3.35 at Stanford (Engineering).Unless you consider my recommendation to be a "political or social connection," it's clear that someone can get in with those grades.

The value is in the company assets.If you mean a software company, like Microsoft or Google, the "value" of the company is driven by its income (much like the value of the rental properties) AND its potential for growth.

Microsoft Word and Excel have a mail merge function that you can use.

By following that advice, only a computer crash or reboot (Microsoft automatic update perhaps) can cause you to lose the text you were composing.

As for your argument, what would you do if you found out that Osama Bin Laden owned 100 shares of Microsoft and 100 shares of Apple?