Even a general-purpose computing device can be sold in a configuration that by default "just plugs in and works."
We (the techies) are not incompetent to be unable to switch to a more productive environment - just that environment does not need to be in everyone's face all the time. Rather than think of this as the PC being "dumbed down," think of it as a call to action to make all the other "appliance" computers be more full-features, but without the historical complexity of PCs, before we knew how to make them easy to use.
Er... not quite. Yes, clustered distributed systems exist, and are growing much faster than mainframes, but there is still a lot of stuff that is done on mainframes, if only because it is a lot more convenient to have a really beefy box for that large, mission-critical multi-user database/application, without having to figure out how to partition it and without being subject to CAP.
Distributed clusters are generally better for non-real-time processing. Real-time HPC stuff is still the realm of supercomputers (not to be confused with clusters, even though both generally tend to run Linux or some other embedded POSIX OS)
While cloud offers benefits, it also has the potential to introduce a non-trivial amount of complexity into a network administrator's job. In fact, Cisco's study found that 39 percent of respondents would rather get a root canal, dig a ditch, or do their own taxes, than deal with the challenges of public/private cloud deployment. One out of four reported they are more likely to see a UFO or Unicorn before starting and finishing an entire cloud migration in the next six months.
And they will still pay Microsoft royalties for Android. From the B&N press release (link from TFA):
Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have settled their patent litigation, and moving forward, Barnes & Noble and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft’s patents for its NOOK eReader and Tablet products
Above emphasis mine.
Pick any cryptosystem (symmetric or asymmetric, except one-time pad of course). If you have a key, is it "easy" (=possible within polynomial time) to check if the key will decrypt a cipher text? Well, almost certainly, otherwise it would be a pretty impractical cryptosystem.
Disagree. It is possible to construct a CryptoFunction C(t, k) such that exists k_0 != k where D(t, k_0) = t_0 != t, with t_0 "plaintext" that appears correct but is, in fact, wrong, by inserting specifically tailored "trash" data.
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.