The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of conservation groups, calls on the state of Florida, the US department of the interior and the US army corps of engineers to fulfil the requirements of laws designed to protect the manatee.

BBC: Manatee

Mr. Shippy says that he felt "contaminated" as he sat down with the Microsoft engineers, helping them to sketch out their architectural requirements with lessons learned from his earlier work on Playstation.

WSJ: Playing the Fool

Shell standards often exceed regulatory requirements, including a rigorous training program for well engineers.

FORBES: Deepwater Ban Lifted; Big Oil Lesson Learned

With the sets of basic specifications and features set in stone, HTC's engineers can then offer the right phone sizes that meet the carriers' requirements, as well as showing a relatively bland rectangular ABS block as an indication on how much space is needed to pack all the components.

ENGADGET: HTC talks smartphone design: from inception to final product

And its engineers revealed a host of ideas including desks that recognise users and match their ergonomic requirements, widespread gesture control and online content that queries itself.

BBC: Inside Microsoft's house of the future