I wonder how much of this was a planned marketing stunt.

"Take the phone for free. It has a minor glitch but we guarantee it will be fixed in a few days and be as good as new."

How many people I wonder will just see that it is FREE and rush to buy it accordingly. Artificially inflating WP sales figures and making it look like it's gaining traction.

Yahoo threatened war. I hope they counter counter sue and this blows up into something huge. Anything that puts more attention on just how silly these patents are becoming has to be a good thing. If FB loses on any of this and has to change their interface then it's millions of users will start to take notice.

Would have been absolute gold if the message that came up was something along the lines of:

"We're sorry but Google.com has been identified as a threat to Microsoft *cough* *cough*, I mean your computer. We suggest you fix this by going to Bing.com. Would you like us to make Bing your homepage and redirect all future request for Google to Bing instead?"
[Yes] [OK]

MS realises they can't compete in the Smartphone market so they have devised a cunning plan to create a whole new market, the superphone market.
Sure a superphone looks and acts kinda like a smartphone but that' doesn't change the fact that a smartphone is just not a superphone (It doesn't have an MS logo on it for starters).
And when the stats come rolling in, MS will be the only player in this new market so they will naturally have 100% market share.

But it doesn't end there. MS will trademark the Superphone name, effectively meaning nobody else can enter the superphone market. They'll also patent the act of making a phone super just to bolster their position.

The week after, Samsung will trump them by releasing a Megaphone. Their marketing will be so loud it will drown out MS's and pretty soon nobody will remember the superphone.

And not just one at the front for the teacher to use. Several of them, on all walls, for the students to use.
Whatever it is they are doing on the computers they can benefit from some planning and collaboration first and whiteboards are great for facilitating this.
Don't go with smartboards either. A plain low-tech whiteboard will work much better.

Why hasn't an Occupy style movement been started over this? If it was coordinated better they could get their message out clearer with a lot of Media coverage.

How long until the rest of the world says FU USA and starts working on ways to remove their dependence on USA for the functioning of the internet?

I can see it now. MPAA gets a hold of this, attributes the decline to piracy and gets to work.

In a few weeks time we see a new law being pushed stating that any household without a TV must be a household that's involved in piracy and needs to be taxed more accordingly.

Then after the law is passed, someone points out that people with a TV can be involved in piracy too. Law is shortly amended to include households with a TV as well.

So what happens to the companies that have already entered into an agreement with MS?

Now that we know what the patents are, they must feel a bit embarrassed about this?

And if B&N win on this will those other companies be able to get out of their agreements with MS?

Or maybe it's just that racing and FPS games sell better. Todays younger generation tend to be an instant gratification one. Pressing a button and watching an enemy blow up is more fun for them than having to think.
(not all, I'm generalising obviously but this observation comes from my experience working in a school)

Indeed, but with 5 cells and a timer it becomes a little more interesting.
(Assuming your playing yourself and not writing a program to do it.)

I always like the game Mastermind as a quick game to play when I have a few spare minutes.

Every major civilisation before ours eventually fell. Maybe this will be the downfall of ours.

I'm reading this on the park bench next to my gavel.

Park Benching

I'm reading this on the park bench next to my top hat.

This is not planking