No, this is a dumbed down version of civilization. CivRev was just a multiplayer game that could potentially finish in under a lifetime.

You would have a point had it been done for technical reasons. And had you known what you were going on about. Maemo was never based on clutter, it predated clutter by several years and the hardware it ships on lacks 3d acceleration.

Sadly, it seems you're also out of date. Maemo5 features 3d effects, to great use. I'm not sure whether clutter was in the final design, though.

SSL/TLS at it's core generates "session keys" for communication; a string of random characters. It's possible they're trying to deplete the SSL servers of true entropy for some undisclosed attack; PRNG, for example.

It is a bit thicker. But I kinda doubt that it matters much.

Maemo5 has Ovi Maps for Maemo 1.0. No turn-by-turn, etc. No bookmarks or voice announcements. In my experience it's pretty poor for on the go navigation.

N900 is substantially smaller than the N810.

Many newer cell phones actually include a GPS antenna / chip. It's actually not that hard or expensive; you can source them for somewhere between 20 and 40 dollars each from what I recall.

As for battery, the problem is not that the GPS is such a large burden on the battery, but that smartphones are battery hungry on the best of days. So you really can't rely on them for a week at a time without something clever like a USB solar panel. But if you have one, then it's probably lighter and cheaper carrying that than carrying separate phone and GPS gadgets.

The point of that clause isn't about papal infalliability so much as laying out expectations. There is no inquisition called upon you for calling out SABDFL on technical or moral grounds. Instead we expect leadership to set a higher example, and hold them accountable to it. The key phrase you failed to quote is "expected to be perfect".

I admit though, that the ways in which you can hold leadership accountable is limited. All members vote on the Community Council, and all developers vote on the Technical Board, but SABDFL has a permanent seat on both. This is one of many ways in which Canonical ultimately owns Ubuntu. They run the servers, they own the trademarks and they dominate the committees. However, Shuttleworth has stated multiple times that he recognizes that the use of veto power is a gamble with volunteers: the vote-with-feet can't be removed after all. Nobody's calling for you to be a slave!

The other benefit of going contractless is that you can cut and cut deep without a huge penalty. Just pick the cheapest plan you want, and put the phone on the credit card if you can't afford it. Or don't buy it. Seems simple to me.

Of course, wireless via wifi and cellphones breaks this assumption. Seems every bank and credit card is jumping to offer a mobile version of their website. Non-broadcast isn't much of a defense anymore.

Firstly, unlocked phones running on AT&T at EDGE is better that nothing. It's one of the reasons I favor GSM; even though there's only a few carriers/MVNOs, there's at least some alternatives. R-UIM theoretically could do the same thing, but I gather US CDMA carriers don't want it. No matter how you look at it though, there's a slightly broader market for used unlocked phones.

Secondly, the take a look at T-Mobile's Even More+ and Even More plans. One is month-to-month, the other comes with a phone and a 2 year contract. Here's the important part: put an unlocked phone on the month-to-month plan and it's ten dollars cheaper per month. Generally the equation works out to a 200 dollar discount in exchange for that bump in pricing. So basically over two years, you pay 40 dollars beyond the discount. If you take that as a 'finance charge', then if I did my math right, it works out to about an interest rate of 18 percent. If you have a better rate, say on your credit card, grab an unlocked phone. Plus, there's more retail competition for unlocked phones, which can make the locked phone an even worse deal.

Finally, without a contracted plan, you're free to choose what's most cost effective for you; I use a prepaid plan that costs me perhaps 10 dollars a month, and NO data. Wifi gets me far enough currently. Just having the flexibility to change the contract without penalty can help consumers save money.

Nobless Oblige. I mean can your iPhone order missile strikes?

And you don't think their clients suffer from Christmas peak loads? Even if you don't sell things, it's a time of year with a lot of vacation time.

The difference is that these blocks have gradients, so there's a computational optimization aspect to it. Given a set of similar but gradient, how do you arrange and orient them to best reproduce an image? The gradient aspect leads to a better quality image than a simple grid of pixels.