Let me emphasize: '...they're not all completely retarded...'
What's the chance that one lone engineer is pedantic in math and stats?
Not 100%, sure. Not every engineer has that background, especially in computer related fields (is stats even taught in college for CS these days?).
...but that none of the people involved either 1) is pedantic and has a strong math/stats background, or 2) bothered to do some learning and read books (like that one) when working on either this, or some other stats related project?
Really?
Come on~
It beggars belief.
I'm willing to wager that a random sample of 10 Microsoft engineers will include at least one person who understands stats. Otherwise, that company is completely broken.
I am reading this right now:
http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Done-Wrong-Woefully-Complet...
You would be surprised how many talented people (even in engineering) make wrong conclusions in statistics.