I agree with a lot of what you say, but in the interest of correcting a misconception for those with short memories, Google created AdSense LOOONG before they bought DoubleClick (apparently 2003 vs. 2007). In fact, the US and EU governments had to analyze and approve the deal for fear of a monopoly, since Google was already an advertising behemoth (IIRC, the number one internet advertising company) by the time they became interested in DoubleClick. In other words, DoubleClick would just serve as icing on their AdSense advertising cake.

They have a "free enterprise and antitrust act" in their state's laws that appears to me to cover exactly this kind of situation:

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/BC/htm/BC.15.htm

CHAPTER 15. MONOPOLIES, TRUSTS AND CONSPIRACIES IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE [emphasis mine]
[...]
SUBCHAPTER A. GENERAL PROVISIONS AND PROHIBITED RESTRAINTS
[...]
Sec. 15.04. PURPOSE AND CONSTRUCTION. The purpose of this Act is to maintain and promote economic competition in trade and commerce occurring wholly or partly within the State of Texas and to provide the benefits of that competition to consumers in the state. The provisions of this Act shall be construed to accomplish this purpose and shall be construed in harmony with federal judicial interpretations of comparable federal antitrust statutes to the extent consistent with this purpose.

Learning about business is probably a good idea for anyone who works for a living, and possibly others.

I decided to this recently and went back and forth with the idea of going for an MBA, but realized that the return on my investment of money and time to get it would not be worth it, so I decided to learn on my own.

The first book that I'm reading for that purpose, and I'm glad that it is, is "The Personal MBA: Master The Art of Business" by Josh Kaufman. This has been excellent so far, giving a concise introduction from scratch to what seems to me like a complete A to Z of business topics, and providing pointers to where to learn more. The writing is clear, and I have actually been enjoying reading it.

After reading that, you can branch out into more specialized books on topics about which you would like to learn more. The author of the book above has read thousands of books on business and other related topics and points you to the ones that he believes are worth your time.

Good luck!

Hmmm... this once in a lifetime journalistic opportunity wouldn't happen to require him to take a quick little trip to the US or to some other US-associated (most of the developed world) country, would it? I'm thinking of the "you've won a prize!" traps that the police sets up once in a while to trap people that have arrest warrants.

Exactly, I came on here to say basically the same thing. The new Kindle Fire HDX 7" is the same price as a Nexus 7 of the same configuration (16GB, WiFi): $229. Why on earth would anyone buy a hobbled, locked down thing that does nothing beyond what the more open option does (in fact, it does a lot less)? In fact, that price on the HDX is for the "special offers" version, which forces you to have ads. If Amazon was subsidizing it to be under $100 to compensate for all the shortcomings it would be a different story, but at the same price? I just don't get it.

Ok, so I just did a search for a comparison between the two, and apparently the HDX has an upgraded CPU and GPU vs. the Nexus. Big flipping deal. They should still make it $100 or less if they want us to put up with major lockdown and ads. Talk about one being born every day.

In case some of you didn't read them, I have to quote two great comments on that Guardian page:

Aside from being hilarious, it's a very insightful commentary on the original. It illustrates that many in the defense/intelligence industry, especially more so the higher up in the leadership chain, are basically the bullies from their school days. This guy is basically Biff from Back to the Future, 50 years later.

Then, there's this:

Hehe...

That heritage foundation index that you linked is a poor source to quote as evidence in this discussion, as they clearly are only measuring economic freedom (it's clearly mentioned in every page of that index), or, in other words, how free you are to rake in the money, and how much the country's economic system facilitates that.

The index does not measure, and has nothing to say, about the main topics at hand - civil liberties and human rights - so it doesn't refute the binary guy's claims even one bit. In fact, it's almost completely unrelated to his claims.

There will be. Tomorrow (4th of July): http://www.restorethefourth.net/
Join a demonstration near you if you care about this stuff.

Yeah, from what I've heard, Ultrabook spec does mandate integrated batteries. I don't know about the rest. Anyway, the answer is that they should never have labelled an Ultrabook as a Thinkpad, because it goes against the idea and spirit of Thinkpads.

I have an old X30 that I bought for about $150 on ebay a few years ago and is still going strong. It's great for travel because it's very small but has full-sized keyboard keys, and I don't have to stress out if it gets stolen or broken.

They're usually great laptops to buy used because they're so tough and they have traditionally only been used by businesses, usually on relatively short leases, and not subject to the same kinds of punishment that personal laptops suffer from mostly home use. I also supported thinkpads in business use a few years ago.

Although I thought it was BS when I first saw it on TV, I eventually came to realize that the old ad where they promoted Thinkpads as being the best and most desirable business laptops was really true.

Anyway, I recently saw a new thinkpad in person and the first thing that struck me was the chiclet keyboard. They had probably the best keyboards in the business and instead chose to kind of imitate Apple, who probably have the worst keyboards. Even though they at least gave the keys some natural curvature (unlike Apple), it still didn't feel right. That right there would probably prevent me from buying a new one.

Another thing that they are apparently imitating Apple on is the integrated battery business. Unforgivable and unacceptable, and again, no sale.

What's next? No ethernet port? Mini display port? Glossy screen? No user replaceable or upgradable parts? Whatever other usability-disabling "feature" Apple decides to push on their willing users?

Hi, do you mind telling us what you're looking for on the first page? It could be useful for everyone (managers and applicants) to spread this information as widely as possible. Thanks.

The way I read their FAQ is that you must have SOME free element to the game that the buyer can try first, not that you have to provide the whole game that can then be unlocked after purchase. But I will defer to you since you seem to have read the actual developer docs.

Anyway, as a consumer I love the fact that I will be able to try any of the games before I buy one. I understand that that hasn't worked well for you in the past, but what if the fact that everyone is required to do the same actually ends up counteracting the kinds losses that you've experienced providing demos? If everyone has to put their cards on the table, it could actually even things out, as opposed to an environment where only some developers make demos available while others don't.

I have to say that I'm kind of amazed by the lack of vision on the part of so many posters here so far. Most of the complaints that I've read so far are either petty or short-sighted. I think this thing will take off pretty well.

What is there not to like about it?

Price: one third the price of other consoles. About the price of a top Roku model or Apple TV. If this thing takes off I can actually see it eclipsing Google TV in the media apps arena too. If the games are in the $1-$10 like some people predict, that will also be a bonus.

Openness: more open than any other consoles.

Ease of developing and releasing for it: great - Android, no expensive licenses or development platforms, etc.

Ease of use and buying games: great - looks like it will be well-designed. All games have some free element to them so you can try them first. All games are downloaded. Not having to go to a store or wait for shipping, combined with the anticipated price of the games should make for lots of game sales.

Power: fine. It will do 1080p. Sure, you won't be playing the latest Crysis or whatever on it, but look at where the money is going in gaming nowadays - casual games and mobile games. Imagine some of the better casual and mobile games running in 1080p and this thing will kill, especially if the price of the games is in the $1-$10 range.

Internet buzz: pretty strong. I keep reading about this thing constantly. If you're into games, you've heard about this.

The only ways I can think of this thing failing is if there's some major flaw with the hardware or software, or if patent trolls gang up on it and kill it, or if the game prices get inflated to significantly over $20.

Really, I have not yet read one single legitimate concern out of the other (early) posts so far. Sure, you can complain about the low hardware power, but for the price and the category of games they're going for, that shouldn't be an issue. It would only be an issue if they tried to run AAA FPS games, etc.

Ouya so far seems to be doing fairly well with the opportunity to coalesce the whole indie, casual, and mobile gaming markets on to one affordable device, and could build a significant library of games pretty quickly.

So again, what is there not to like about it?

You forgot the main, traditional advantage of consoles over PCs: that they're generally much less of a hassle to configure, use, and maintain.

Looks like they're snagging some pretty heavyweight retailers. I will probably buy this pretty early on, as I really like the concept, or perhaps even pre-order. I just need to learn some more details about it. Good luck to the platform and to the game developers!