Two months ago I was sure it was a scam, I'm not so sure now, this might be it.

I agree with much of what you say, but diversified is not something I would label Google, they sell ads, and it accounts for +90% of their revenue, then they have a small cloud operation going, but if anyone would eat into their ad business they would be toast.

I do not move them of my computer, I use a backup service called backblaze (www.backblaze.com) that gives you unlimited storage and continuously backup for 5$ / month, hassle free and cheap.

x-43 is a hypersonic plane , x-34 is a test bed. Both programs are terminated. Do you refer to x-37 ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-43

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-34

"What have we gotten from the moon?"

Million of kids in a whole generation interested in Sciences ? ROI comes in many flavors.....

Since we seems to be talking about Windows development, its probably cheaper to pay for Visual Studio then to supply your developers with an open source tool chain, man hours = expensive...

If you do not have $200 after two years your company have probably failed.

Don't give them any ideas ....

I doubt that Apples strategy works well in an "open" environment, everything is built on tight integration and vendor lock-in, just like in the 80's. I think if they change that formula, they will be "just another company" pretty soon.