Well I have a theory. I has help up in all circumstances I have observed over the few decades I have spent as a tax paying citizen.

When things are free, expected outcomes, which would generally benefit subject populations never materialize..."

I have a few examples:

1: Collapse of the Canadian cod fishery industry

2: The extreme stress experienced by the so called "socialist" medical care system wherever it can be found. Result will be failure inevitably.

3: The obvious poor quality elementary and post elementary pupils western countries produce compared to kids from the Asian subcontinent where monies paid by hard-working parents, or even students themselves.

4: Hunger in some so called underdeveloped countries where starvation is obvious in the midst of lush green vegetation.

Then we blame the so called "third world" when they "learn" this kind of behavior from us. Remember, we always have the "moral high ground."

No! Communication *can* be two or one way. It is two way in this case.

Right?

Google can argue that they've met the requirements of the law by providing a means for customers to communicate. No where in the law does it require Google to respond.

Since Germany is a democracy, they should change the law to achieve what the state really wants from entities like Google.

I wonder why all apps aren't available at once. I understand this App Runtime for Chrome akin to the Java RunTime, which when installed, would have all Java applications available. What am I [mis]understanding?

...with military characteristics...[or at least relevance].

Well, strictly speaking, I am talking about is its integrated programmable GUI script-able via Visual Basic.

Look, I am not saying that MS Access is all that great. All I am saying is that it does its job well; if an appropriate job is thrown at it. I will give you an example: My current project is to develop something that simply matches what vial type to use for a specific test plus costs involved depending on urgency/volume/customer type etc. There are thousands of metrics to be tested and some of them share vials. Basically, it is just a front end to read data off a union query.

Guess what: All logic was programmed on the form. From what entries to accept, what format of data e.g. SSN and zip codes, what options/buttons to enable/disable and when, error messages to throw at the user, billing and all sorts of conversions (read Celcius or Fahrenheit and figures to words). It's all beautiful in Access.

I will admit that one has to compact the DB from time to time for optimal operation, but this is something that can be automated.

People like you ignore a very important market, a market that you could later introduce what you think works better! Imagine such an approach.

In some of my work, I have created functions where I simply supply variable entries like customer names etc. At the end of it all, I would have a DB schema. One that I'd simply modify to meet my needs.

Open Source doesn't have anything close! Sad!!

Whereas I appreciate the beauty of OpenSource, I am yet to find a compelling MS Access equivalent in the Linux world. Yes, I know about Kexi, MariaDB, OpenOffice Base and the like.

But let's face it: There's nothing in the Linux world that can compare to MS Access. Nothing! I am not just trolling. I have developed hundreds small scale MS Access implementations for many clients.

VB, even with its quirks, does well. I would like a front-end, in which business logic can be programmed. Logic placed right there on the form...Logic and parameters that can be passed to the DB engine. Nothing friendly exists in Lunix, or should I say, "I haven't found one yet." Am I wrong?

Hundreds of millions of potential customers will have this technology on Apple's [single] platform. Keyword: "Single."

Now don't talk of Android because we know it's all fragmented.

Blackberry? Well, this is of no consequence.

Microsoft? It still doesn't matter.

Who else? Got your answer: Anyone cares about this? I doubt.

Yes, but Apple's gonna finally do it "right."

I am not surprised at all. Windows XP support ended long ago but still extensively used in the US government?

But guess what; we still take ourselves as the epitome of what/how technology should look like.

This help explain why a good 35% of adult Americans' debt is in collections.

But then, we go ahead and brag about how good a standard of living we enjoy as compared to those other world citizens, conveniently refusing to mention that most of that standard of living is financed by borrowed cash!

What troubles me is the fact that even while all this is going on, the US government preaches to the world about capitalism and free enterprise. What hypocrisy!

One definition of free enterprise that the US government conveniently chooses to ignore:

Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy, also called free market.

I will have to agree with you, 100%. To make matters even worse, when one compares [recent] Asian/African immigrant kids who enroll in the school system, kids who usually experience high-tech for the very first time in school; these kids perform way better than any of our own "technology exposed" pupils!

They learn to handle this tech pretty fast too. This has left me with one conclusion: The old fashioned blackboard and a degree of discipline plus drive are what our kids need. Not fancy gadgets whose purchase makes corporations financially richer while giving those who donate free advertising.

May some more informed Slashdoter advise me on why exactly, Google's selling of a bunch of shipping containers is news worth Slashdot's attention?

I will be most grateful.