I somehow find it hard to believe that Skynet will run in a single process, especially given its spread out geographical locations. I bet it will be written in Erlang though.

At my company, we use something similar called Direct Web Remoting for creating Javscript client code that communicates seamlessly with a Java server.

I just did a small test on all three for the fun of it and you're right about the startup time. For a simple hello world on my machine, Ruby 1.9.2 takes on average ca 50 ms to execute, python 3.2 70 ms and Java 6 100 ms. That startup time difference is too small for user-detection and once the program starts doing anything the difference will be in the other direction.

Other things you talked about don't have anything to do with performance, so you haven't talked about use-cases in plural but only about the small amount of startup time difference.

[Citation Needed]

True, if you hardcode C:\something or /somethingelse in your app. I've never had cross-platform problems, either on big server side applications or trivial desktop ones. So I guess 'utterly failes to work in reality' is somewhat dependent on the developer.

9/11 was also reported on Slashdot. Were you unhappy about that too?

I must admit that you do have the right to not sense when others are not serious.

So you do have the right to debate the declaration?

I declare your worldview incorrect, and you have no esoteric right to debate that.

Joke's on you, OP gets $50 now and pays back (then worthless) $100 when he's long dead.

If you'd have bothered to read what you are replying to, you'd have seen that the poster specifically mentions having to work against Sharepoint and Exchange.

Not everything Google does is open source. And even if this would be open source, yes some people would use an alternative player but most would use what's handed to them by Google. Anyway, if it's streaming we're talking about, it could be browser-based, similar to youtube.

"you can't store electricity"
All the batteries in the world suddenly stopped working at the exact moment this information was revealed.

Google could make a music player that streams targeted ads along with music. The incentive for the user would be that it would be cheaper or even free with ads attached, but more expensive without it.

Except that the tax man in civilized countries gives back the money for your health care, education, law and order, roads and multiple other things.