I'm not a super big fan of Apple's policies, but honestly, how does this shit get modded insightful? Don't like thunderbolt, use USB, those cables cost $2. Don't like the apps in the Appstore? Then install from the developer's website. Like hacking? Then install homebrew and have at it. I mean seriously, vim comes standard on OS X, and you can easily install clang or gcc to build whatever you want. XCode is free!!!! You need to pay absolutely nothing, beyond the cost of hardware, to build and distribute software for OS X.

It is fine for Apple to charge to put it on the store, but it should not cost you money to load your own app on your own tablet.

Also, look what happened with Gaddafi. He voluntarily suspended his pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for aid, then was promptly removed. Would he have been removed so quickly if Libya was a viable nuclear power? What kind of lesson does this send Iran and NK?

Absolutely right. It is important to recognize that both Matlab and R are much more than just languages. I would also throw Mathematica into the mix too, while it is a bit slower than Matlab, its numerical capabilities have continued to grow and it incorporates a fine statistics package alongside a quality plotting and graphics package (not to mention its symbolic roots and recent introduction of dynamic gui manipulation).

For julia to be successful it needs robust integration with quality addon packages, starting with graphics and plotting. It also needs good documentation. One thing that annoys me to no end with Python (and numpy, scipy, pylab, matplotlib) is that you have to look at 3 or 4 different websites to look up API and examples. In my mind Mathematica does this right: a single documentation library which incorporates API reference, tutorials, and common functions grouped together. At the bottom of every page it lists related functions and tutorials so it is easy to discover new API calls in the language.

Almost all Autodesk Software is free for students, staff, and faculty. This includes the big guns like AutoCad, Inventor, Maya, etc. This cannot be said for nearly any other company. Also, they do have reasonably priced "hobby" versions of some of their software. Autodesk 123D is a surprisingly useful tool to model in 3D and is free.

Deflation is a bad thing because it is a disincentive for people to invest their capital. The investment of capital is what will create wealth in the future by founding new businesses and technology.

Also, nearly all GDP numbers account for inflation.

Do the companies own this data? If I buy a computer, create data on it, does the device manufacturer own that data? How could it be legal for a company to transmit data from a device no longer under their ownership?

Those five states also happen to be the top 5 states by population. Perhaps it would be more prudent to look into violent crime statistics per capita....

This is not a case of wikileaks not being able to afford services, this is a case of wikileaks being denied services from private companies due to political pressure on those companies.

The issue we have now is that we cannot trust the government to properly classify reports and cables. Many things are left unlawfully classified in order to cover up embarrassing events. In general I agree that there are instances when sensitive information needs to remain secret, but it is clear in my mind that our government has not applied the necessary level of discretion in their classifications to warrant unquestioned trust. Wikileaks provides that questioning, which one would hope would guide the government's actions in the future.

Long story short: People act to a higher ethical standard when being watched.

Not only that, but the average inflation adjusted price of a paperback has gone up significantly as well. Books in general are too expensive, and ebooks are even worse.