Roundabout = traffic circle, fair enough. But roundabout != rotary. In Halifax, there was a huge rotary, conveniently called The Rotary. They turned it from a rotary into a roundabout. Completely different animal. The key component of a roundabout is that once you're in the circle, you don't yield to anyone. Whereas the key component of a rotary is that it infuriate everyone who comes within 5 city blocks of the wretched thing. Even given the headaches caused by lifelong rotary users, it was still a good thing to change the Halifax Rotary from a rotary to a roundabout. I sometimes fear that 50% of the reason there's pushback against roundabouts, which are frequently wonderful, is that people think they're pushing back against rotaries, which are invariably a tool of the devil.

I realize that this is just a single data point, but I'm far more concerned that the App Store wouldn't instal Opera. I asked that it install, confirmed that I was over 17, and watched as the App Store drew the Opera icon in my Dock with a loading thermometer across it. Then the Opera icon disappeared from the Dock, and I was miffed that Apple decided I didn't want the icon all that much. But it turned out that I didn't get to keep the icon because the App Store didn't install Opera. So I went to the purchases page, and saw that Opera was listed, but that the Install button was active. (Which I see for other applications; those I have downloaded but since deleted.) I clicked the Install button, and tried to install Opera a second time. After a few moments, the App Store happily changed the Install button into an Installed icon. Except that it's still not installed. Spotlight has no idea what the heck I'm talking about. So I downloaded it from Opera's own website, and when I copied Opera.app to my Applications folder, it did so. It did not warn me about overwriting an existing application, which is hardly surprising, since the App Store clearly didn't actually do anything even after I asked it twice to install it.

Quite apart from the fallout to Google's reputation, there are still the complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center with the American FCC, and the preliminary investigation begun by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner. (To say nothing of Google Canada's snotty response to the latter.) Do these somehow fall outside a "business perspective," or have I misunderstood what you meant by that term?

Sure, if by "done something similar," you mean "the exact opposite." Poland 'shopped a black guy out of the picture. Toronto 'shopped a black guy INTO the picture.

It doesn't work like that ANYWHERE else? Dude, have you even heard of Canada? I have a sneaking suspicion people from other countries are thinking the same thing, but I haven't lived in them my whole life, so I'll let those people speak for themselves.

Others have already pointed out that this is just spreading FUD. I haven't had the "Automatically restart" check box selected for 11 months. I haven't had a single BSOD. Yes, I used to have scads of them. XP has in fact gotten better. I'm no Microsoft apologist. I use XP when my employers make me, and so far, those decisions have made complete sense. At home, I don't use Windows (except in emulation, sometimes).