Japan is doing fine with the iPhone - not a runaway success but the articles claiming that it was failing there were exposed as wrong. The Japanese love things Apple.
Regarding Thailand, there's a good reason the iPhone isn't popular there - I don't believe it has Thai language support.
I don't believe a word of it. Generally speaking the only way that WinMo could be calculated as second largest worldwide is on some perversion of "shipping devices" - just because there are 50 devices available which run WM doesn't mean anyone is buying them. RIM is the second largest smartphone platform and if Apple isn't now third (ahead of Windows Mobile) I'll eat my hat.
This may have been true some time early in 2008 but I call bollocks on this.
You really should get your hands on the American Beauty soundtrack! Great for coding to and very soothing. Other posters mention the Riven soundtrack which is also brilliant.
Many years ago I worked at the Harvey Norman computer chain in Australia and the games guys often took games home at the weekend to check out. The reasoning was simple - if you've played a game and a customer wants advice on which game to buy you're in a position where you actually know what you're talking about rather than just staring at them blankly.
This was before the days of the internet being widely available, but I think the policy still holds true. If you're buying a game at a marked up price from your local software mart then the staff there better know what they're selling - otherwise how can you justify the retail space and the markup?
So far from being a scandal, I call this sensible business practice.
"Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department"
The optimum committee has no members. -- Norman Augustine