Virtual +1. Even more specifically, look at the trend of healthcare costs in areas where government *isn't* heavily involved, such as cosmetic surgery and LASIK.

The 'big' companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and such even lean towards PhD as a minimum bar for entry. That's even more stupid, and you'll find you have trouble even getting a phone interview without a PhD even if you have, say, 10+ years experience in exactly the field they want.

I know that's not the case for Apple, and I have a hard time believing Google would be that stupid. Maybe it's true for very senior positions, but for typical software development positions, no way.

it took Barack Obama 48 years to win a prize for being born

Oh come on, it's more than that. He also had to not be George W. Bush, which only a single US President has managed to accomplish in this millenium.

I actually kind of like that Verizon and Motorola are managing the OS on my phone because I want it to just work.

The ability to unlock your bootloader would in no way prevent it from "just working". As to why you should care even if you don't want to use custom ROMs: by now it should be clear that cell phones and their descendants are going to replace PCs for most of the population. If carriers and manufacturers are able to get away with using this transition as an excuse to take control over the hardware that we pay for, it will be very bad for future innovation and freedom.

Under the FSF interpretation, yes

Which is ridiculous. I have source code that compiles and runs under both Mac OS X and GNUstep. It is a derivative work of both of them?

I bought the Nexus One because it was more "open" ... and then discovered that it really wasn't

How is it not? You can develop and distribute apps without begging for permission, and Google specifically makes it easy to unlock the N1's bootloader (and void your warranty, yes), while Apple considers you to be a criminal if you jailbreak.

Yes, the carriers are being as obnoxious and user-hostile as always. Which means if you want a phone that's actually open you have to do a bit of research beforehand. But at least you have that choice, unlike with the iPhone.

You save 10 dollars a month on your contract. That's 240 dollars over the course of a 2 year contract.

With data, you save $20 per month and $480 over 2 years: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?catgroup=Individual&WT.z_unav=mst_shop_plans_individual

kids that don't get vaccines prove with 100% accuracy that their parents are fucking retarded

This is true. And autism is more common among children of parents with high IQs. Correlation!

As you make something much easier or accessible the quality goes down

Which is why Real Programmers write everything in assembly.

look at all the SLR photographers churning out rubbish images

Rubbish images are a huge improvement over no images.

Very well said.

What needs to happen is the venues need to sell their tickets at auction

Yes, that would be the most efficient process. But then when tickets for popular shows get bid up to high levels, there would be howls of outrage over "gouging". Bands would prefer that you're angry at TicketMaster and scalpers rather than at them.

Scalpers sell *unused* tickets that would otherwise be perfectly available to me

No, they wouldn't. If scalpers can successfully sell their tickets for more than face value, then it means there's lots of demand and they'd sell out quickly at the original price.

In other words, scalpers provide a functioning price system and accurately match supply to demand. And you want to throw them in jail for that?

This is so bad I wonder if the Obama administration is even proposing it, and not a right wing smear job.

It's entirely consistent for the party that brought us (or tried to) the Clipper Chip and encryption bans and the CDA and DMCA. Those with power always seek to increase their power, regardless of party; and those out of power will pretend to care about civil liberties. One of the leading voices against the Clipper Chip was John Ashcroft, who spoke eloquently about the necessity of privacy and anonymity, until his side won an election. Sound familiar?

Pichai is addressing the question of won't a new operating system need to have all it's application rewritten. The answer is that unlike something like the iPhone OS or Android, you don't need to write all new software.

Which still makes very little sense, because by that standard any OS with a decent browser qualifies. You don't "need" to write custom iPhone or Android apps because they also support web apps just fine. You have the option of writing native apps, which Chrome OS removes and calls a feature. Well, except for Native Client apps which are better than regular native apps because, um, the underpants gnomes told me so.