I think the concern is that it would benefit the big guys at the expense of the little guys. Will the huge entertainment businesses of the UK overwhelm the many, much smaller, businesses in other countries? Maybe.

I say eliminate the barriers and see what happens. You can always put them back up again if your citizens want them back up.

I cant tell you how many job postings I read that said things like you need 5 years experience with X,Y, and Z.... only problem is Y and Z have only been out for 2 years and 4 years respectively.

And guess what? Somebody still applied for and got that job. You have to understand how the hiring process works at a lot of companies. The process of applying for jobs is essentially a sales job - you are selling yourself. A clueless job posting like that might make you think "I'm not going to work for these idiots" or you might see the opportunity it presents. It's really a job posting that is going to have fewer applicants.

The company I work for has a really hard time hiring developers. You would be shocked at the number of people who have a degree in computer science who don't know how to program. After reading about it on Jeff Atwood's blog, I've given a few applicants the fizz-buzz problem and the results were very depressing. Probably 25% couldn't code the answer or write out pseudo code on a whiteboard.

I suspect the laser light scattered by the hood would just blind the driver anyway. One way or another, the chase would end.

I agree with you that it's all about the apps. Unfortunately, Microsoft has a problem. Nobody is making apps for the phone because nobody uses Windows Phone because there are no apps for it. Universal apps aren't going to help, except for certain verticals, maybe. It's not like Windows desktop is a hotbed of development anymore (except for games). Excluding games, what's the last Windows title that was mildly interesting to the general public?

iOS and Android are all that matter and I can't see that changing in the next 3 years.

> IF he really had good and legal reasons to do what he did, take it to court and face the music.

What if he did the right thing but that happened to be illegal? Then I think running is a reasonable thing to do.

You are overestimating the "value" of the bloatware by an order of magnitude. That $350 computer will now be $385, not $700.

I use Enigmail daily and hate it because it makes my mail unsearchable. They've made the decision that all mail at-rest should remain encrypted. That's a great default because it's secure but I think there should be an option to store mail locally in plain text.

How much does a radio station with, say, a million listeners pay when they broadcast a song? Pandora seems to sit somewhere between radio and Spotify as a service and so I would expect the royalty rate to be somewhat more than radio and less than Spotify.

IMHO, Apple got ApplePay exactly right. Since it's built on existing systems and protocols, Samsung would do well to just copy it.

I think you would have to be nuts to build something on a Google technology. I thought about it because GWT is very cool, but with my luck I would roll out version 1.0 and Google would cancel that project and donate the code to the Apache orphanage.

I think the idea is to not get hung up on the actual number it presents you, rather look for trends. I have a FitBit and my numbers each day are more or less consistent. Yes, it might be measuring me picking up my phone as a step, but I'll probably do the same thing tomorrow. For me what matters is if I try to be more active I can see my numbers go up 10%. The actual digits don't matter, just the relative change.

Probability that I have no equity after 25 years of renting a property: 100%
Probability that some great disaster means I have no equity after owning a property for 25 years: less than 1%

I think the conventional wisdom is that renting is less expensive than buying, so you take the difference and invest it in something less risky than real estate. So, after 25 years you will have no equity in your home, but you should have other investments.

Radio Shack has tried to serve makers. It turns out, makers are among the people most comfortable shopping online.

I was in a RS recently and they had a 3D printer display, had a rack of Arduino kits, robotics stuff, and lots of little circuit toys for kids on display.

http://www.radioshack.com/diy-...

I have a tablet and use it all the time, but have no plans to buy a new one. I suppose if there are enough people like me, the tablet market is doomed.

Lesson learned: don't build a good product that is going to work well for a long time.

The person who called me didn't get far because I told him right away that I know it's a scam.

Then he threatened to kill me and my family. That was a little unsettling.