I think .NET is a good compromise (meaning that it is not the best but it is often good enough) on:
- learning curve (easy by design)
- functionalities (reflection, anonymous methods, attributes...)
- portability to different "Windows" (Mobile, Server...) and to other OS' (Mono)
- execution speed

I also agree that if Microsoft had distributed more software written in .NET (up to a complete OS) maybe the framework would have become more mature and more adopted.

It goes on like this:
-Berlusconi was attacked by Mr.Tartaglia because he hated him.
-The attack was caused by the hateful mood (http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/politica/2009/12/15/visualizza_new.html_1646244271.html/)
-Facebook is full of political hatred (http://www.ilgiornale.it/interni/su_facebook_tartaglia_eroe_chi_odia/tartaglia-facebook-berlusconi/13-12-2009/articolo-id=406674-page=0-comments=1/)
-Facebook is on the Internet
-The solution is to control Facebook, and also the whole Internet to avoid mistakes (http://www.repubblica.it/2009/12/sezioni/politica/giustizia-22/rodota/rodota.html/)

If the goal is to filter out noise, then the simples solution is to put on your headphones or ear buds and listen to white noise. Your body is programmed to give "attention" to the white noise, and you won't add possible distractions in the form of lyrics, solos... That said, regarding to music everyone is different. If you see a programmer with headphones furiously typing on a code file, it's ok. If you see a programmer with headphones furiously playing an air guitar, on the other hand...

The choice here is not really "level vs skill" but "stone games vs clay games":
Stone Games: Your character's abilities are set in stone when you choose a class, and you level up to grow those abilities and you can equip the items of your class.
Clay Games: You choose your character's abilities and grow them with time independently, sculpting your creation like clay, and choose the items that fits your own style and planning.

I'll never go with a Stone game when there's a Clay game available.

This hybrid approach is destined to fail when someone will realize that a laptop with just the ARM-half of the hybrid will consume half the power sacrificing 10% of functionality (a problem that can be solved with software development -> not impossible). Not to mention that the interconnection between shared peripherals and the two processors generates a lot of product cost overhead. A lion with eagle wings can't fly, it can just glide. I want a sub-notebook running Cortex-A9. Don't make me wait too long.

Does this mean that Norton will scan my drive in 3D?

Seriously, manymanycores architectures are nice for public servers that are coded very well. Potentially able to serve N clients at once, the machines running Larrabees will usually bottleneck somewhere else.

For the desktop user, manymanycores mean that the main window will move smoothly in the foreground while anti-blackware, indexes and updates consume the background.

For the power gamer, even manymanycores won't be enough. There's no such thing as "enough".