That's a bit of an exaggeration. Net neutrality doesn't protect them from that because net neutrality doesn't currently exist. If net neutrality really was the only thing that prevented that situation from arising, we'd already have those tiered plans now.

We have bankruptcy laws for a reason. Companies go bankrupt all the time. It doesn't mean we have to immediately fire all their workers, cancel all their contracts, and burn down their facilities.

They they should make some explicit, legally binding agreement like the agreement between KDE and Trolltech that guaranteed Qt would be released under a BSD-type license if Trolltech (or someone who bought Trolltech) ever turned Qt proprietary. This protects against situations like bankruptcy, which might now allow Gabe to do whatever he wants.

"Academics" is a broad category. And "academics" is far removed from "most people". FWIW, in my academic experience (computational biology), none of my labmates use any Microsoft programming languages. Various people at various times have used C, C++, Perl, Python, PHP, and MATLAB. No ruby.

I can understand that poor people might be less likely to use Google, thus skewing the results. But I doubt there are large socioeconomic differences between users of various distros like there are between citizens of different countries and members of different religions. The problem is that more people use Ubuntu, so more people have problems with Ubuntu.

it has a linux version. i've been using it for years. http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html

also, some linux media players are integrating the amazon mp3 store directly: http://abock.org/2010/07/13/amazon-mp3-store-in-banshee

Malware authors are not the first dishonest people to make money off of children and old people. I doubt they care if you think they are "pathetic losers". I doubt they take pride in what they do. I doubt they're doing it for sport. They just want some money.

Look at home many people let google read their emails rather than paying Apple $100 a year.

Or... Look at home many people let google read their emails rather than paying Apple $100 a year to let Apple read their emails. Seems like an easy decision.

For example: Assange claimed for years, Wikileaks contributors are protected by the Swedish law, he even threatened to sue anyone who tried to expose a Wikileaks source.

Source? I don't remember that, and it's hard to Google for his past opinions on the matter due to recent developments.

It is possible that On2 didn't join MPEG-LA so they could be patent trolls later. If so, it would be ironic that their patents would then be used for good by Google.

Similarly, it is also possible that On2 didn't join MPEG-LA so that they would be more attractive to being bought be another company who wanted to acquire patents on some part of H.264.

I have no idea how likely either scenario is, but they don't seem totally implausible.

so you make the same salary as her, you you call her pay "crap"? or are you expecting a 55 year old programmer to keep getting guaranteed raises with guaranteed job security just like a 55 year old teacher?

what percentage of the country, given a number in MPG, can convert it to GP100M? even if you give them a calculator, i'd still bet it's pretty damn low. and even if they can convert it, most would never realize that it would be important to consider GP100M rather than MPG. so how is it a red herring?

And what if you correct for some obvious confounding variables, such as IQ or parents' socioeconomic status? I don't have the data, I'm honestly asking... because I would expect that to cover most of the difference.

you're citing a fiction book as evidence?

That's kind of already how it's done (not explicitly of course)... And that still doesn't get rid of the incentive to keep your data to yourself. Because then you can publish about the data and the analysis, and get citations for both.