The six has a flat back, Mr. Always Corrected.

By MILF, I assume you are referring to the Media Input Lense Feature.

We are still talking about Apple, right?

Anything done with our tax money should be done with the consent of the governed.

I do not consent.

This is a classic example of "Paralysis by Analysis"

Also, the programmer was an idiot. Either use a priority queue or at the very least a timer to force a decision.

while( 1 ) {
    if( people_in_danger ) {
        queryWhoToSave( people_in_danger );
        if( time_to_make_choice++ > CANT_DECIDE_WHO_TO_SAVE )
            savePerson( rand() );
    }
    else
        people_in_danger = ScanEnvironment();
}

No, there's been an open source implementation of OpenStep (the real name of Cocoa) for decades. Some of the platform stuff is Apple specific, but that is true of Linux and OpenBSD as well. You can handle it the same way you handle any other platform incompatibility: encapsulate the incompatibility into as small a piece as possible.

Believe it or not, you can actually compile Objective-C code for Android and run it. Of course, you will have to recompile it, but that's not an issue when you have the source code.

So, any serious multinational can have the stock distributed enough to get past your first law....

As to your second, at least in the USA, you're going to be blocked by the First Amendment to some extent. After all, "lobbying" is done by people no matter where the money comes from. As is "political activity".

IN other words, you need to think the problem through a little more carefully...

By the by, are you aware that if Google (for example) were paying ZERO taxes in the USA now, and the laws were changed so that they were taxed at 50% on worldwide revenues, their tax obligation would pay to run the Federal government for a bit less than 16 hours.

Do note that Google is paying some taxes in the USA, and corporate tax rates are rather under 50%. Which means the actual benefit from taxing Google's worldwide income would not be nearly so significant as you might think....

This is exactly right. The US government could close this loophole, "crack down" on corporate tax avoidance, without any global cooperation. All they need to do is pass the law, and Obama can sign it.

The OECD has no power to change anything here, so instead they did something they have power to accomplish: they wrote a report. Bravo.

So instead of a crusty old veteran "maverick" and a cheerleader of debatable intelligence, we got a miserly career politician with impossibly white teeth (polished by repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth, no doubt) and a community organizer who demanded 10 years of tax returns from his opponent but deemed producing his own birth certificate a challenge.

Sounds like a WIN

Although I agree and would rather have the additional battery, most people put their phones in a case, which adds some thickness... The lens will protrude into the case cross-sectional region, allowing the overall phone+protruding-lens+case to be thinner than a thicker-phone+flat-lens+case.

Really? Doesn't seem that that far out of line. Now taxation per capita, adjusted for inflation, is way up. And spending is even growing faster...

Maybe. Background? Absolutely. Tim Bray often attributes this

to Phil Karlton. But he does it so often that it is usually attributed to Tim Bray. Naming things is where the code monkeys usually fail. Engineers who think they are programmers usually fail at it hard. It takes a certain fluidity and realization of how actual human beings interact with the world to give content meaningful context (by naming it right) and to understand problem domains well-enough to pick the right cache invalidation schemes. And, of course, understanding how human beings interact with the world is what one gets out of a liberal arts degree. As I said, it doesn't have to be a degree, but the background has to be there.

Say what? It's in your library whether you want it or not. That's why Apple had to create a special web page to remove it.

Yes, you can disable auto-download to specific devices, but that's BS. I shouldn't have to opt to manually manage the songs on my devices just because Apple decided upon themselves to throw unwanted crap in my music library.

That's like saying telemarketing calls are fine. If you don't want to talk to anyone, don't answer your phone.

Nobody expects the "operational capabilities" of the Australian Inquisition!

Strat