I love it when I can reclaim some screen space (stuff the menus away where ever!). I don't love it when it comes at the expense of functionality.

Like status popups covering up part of a web page I'm trying to read. Which happens ALL THE %^@^% TIME.

Yeah, that's just wonderful until it displays while there is a viewable page, covering up elements at the bottom.

I would love Chrome if it had a status bar instead of a status popup that covers page elements and a URL bar that either shows the http or doesn't include it when you copy and paste the URL (what kind of moronic...).

So, basically a browser that doesn't go out of its way to annoy me. Is there a version of Chrome like THAT?

There is a saying, "You have to know the rules to break them."

It was always clear to me that Tolkein did both.

The community at large had little reason to care about Symbian. webOS has many things that are quite attractive about it for people that are not already committed to Symbian.

Today's giant scree designs make clamshell a bit difficult. You could have the hinge on the other side, but that makes vertical operation awkward. You could keep the traditional clamshell orientation, but then it becomes a very long, weird device... unless you make the screen smaller, which just isn't what makes a desirable smartphone for the vast majority of people.

They do make cases for people such as yourself, though: http://www.oriongadgets.com/Apple-iPhone-3GS-Leather-Flip-Type-Case-Crocodile-Pattern-Red-pid-5305.html

Not only are they powerful enough, they're getting even more powerful (well, as I'm sure you guessed...).

The iPhone 4 and higher end Android phones are capable of 3D graphics performance that can look like a current-generation console (concessions are made, but clever design can make that non-obvious), and they do it at nigh-HD resolutions. In just a short couple of years, we're going to have phones that meet or beat the consoles currently attached to TVs. Certainly, more powerful consoles will be out by that time, but we're getting to the point where not as important--and it'll probably be even less important when a person can have a game on their phone and TV. There are a lot of other issues there (controls, conveniently attaching a phone to a TV, what to do with calls), but there are the beginnings for answers to those right now, and it'll be answered fairly well when it becomes a more practical possibility.

We can argue about how much Apple needed saving from Jobs, but pushing to replace the crap OS was just the kind of thing that got Steve Jobs ousted from Apple.

Of course, it was the same OS he'd been pushing for that they eventually bought back along with Jobs himself when they acquired NeXT.

There difference is that there are still numerous professionals who will stand by the old definition of the word "hacker" because it is a common term for them.

The general public calls plasma "blood". Should we tell the doctors to give up correcting people on this because hey, words change meaning?

A little late, but your overblown condescension drove me to reply.

I don't know how many rural third-world self-built houses *you've* seen, but I've seen my fair share. Apparently in different areas than you have. Of course, most looked nothing like you described because not everything is done the same way as it is in whatever (likely singular) culture you've observed it in.

You can't simply reject efforts out of hand because they wouldn't immediately work in the situation you are familiar with. Other situations exist, and situations can drastically once that change is enabled. Of course, I don't see what your descriptions have to do with refuting my points. Not every poor society chooses to build illegally in the middle of town. Cheaper building methods benefit the poor who are trying to build shelter, regardless of how or where they do it.

The price WILL come down, regardless of what petty dismal you make. Even a rudimentary understanding of economics or the history of prices of nearly any manufactured item or manufacturing method is a pretty good clue for this. They spent a larger amount of money than they wanted to build a cheap house. That amount is still smaller than what many impoverished people build houses for. That amount will come down in time as the processes become refined and they are made cheaper by economies of scale.

The Bible is very frank about the actions of many people with the expectation that people will not automatically assume them to have been correct, but will be able to use their own judgement to determine whether the actions were right or wrong.

In the time of Abraham, child sacrifice was not uncommon. Part of the point is that Abraham was from this society. God tests Abraham's loyalty this way because this is in Abraham's system of understanding, but in the end essentially says "I appreciate your loyalty, but I don't work that way." This story was not only about Abraham's loyalty, but also marking the difference between the people who saw this kind of thing as OK and the those who held themselves to a higher morality (ie, descendants of Abraham).

The equivalent of a $60,000 new house is still fantastic. There are things called loans, and even people who don't make much can get them. Moreover, the cheaper the housing is the more of them we can get built with subsidization and charity given from regions making much more money. Plus, the price will come down. One has to start somewhere.

As far as building upward... people in rural areas don't have to worry about that. They have lots of land. Seeing a handful of people cram into tall, dense structures when there are thousands and thousands of square kilometers stretching out around is fairly ridiculous. They can rebuild upward when their economy and population density call for it.

Still entirely possible.

Are you implying that challenge requires grinding, sudden spikes in difficulty, or feeling that something is outright impossible instead of simply requiring skill/attention/effort?

Valve is the game company that also owns and runs the Steam platform.