I believe that there are severe differences from them... Take these two:

• Scientology is a scam, clearly designed by a science fiction author to part fools and their money
• Islam was established as a way to control and motivate followers and gain power by a local chief... it just spread a bit much afterward

In contrast, some of the other religions (Judaism, Christendom, Hinduim, Buddhism) seem to have started out as attempts to understand the world and fill out holes of their knowledge... and then it grew from there. Sure, many sects and leaders have used these to the same ends as the two religions listed above, but at least they don't seem to be started by someone with a clear motive to gain from it.

That said, that the core of the religions is imagination doesn't prevent many of them from being rich treasure troves of culture and knowledge of what it is, and has been, to be human - created by humans.

Walled gardens can work - just look at Apple's app store for iOS. And I have no doubt that an app store for Apple TV would be a large success.

Don't confuse the drawbacks with "can't work". Some (not all) examples of drawbacks

• The "gardener" gets to enforce policies that might be in conflict what customers wants. E.g. crazy American moral standards: Nipples are really, really, really bad, violence is for everyone
• Open source is harder
• The lead time for software to reach the user is increased

Even so, there are advantages to users as well. A single location to find, buy and update apps is easy - far easier than the mess that I had e.g. on my Nokia N95 in the pre-iPhone days. Finding apps was hard, and there was no update mechanism. You also decrease the chance of malware significantly, and at least in theory apps shouldn't misbehave as much.

Vector monitors to the rescue!

Uhh.... what?? That claim doesn't exactly seem to match reality. Just below 4% get some attention, and most of them get assistance in the family.

The GOG version works well in Crossover, and probably other versions of Wine as well.

Both are really good games. As a standalone experience, I'd recommend Planescape. However, nothing beats starting a character in Candlekeep in BG1 and following the character throughout BG1 (w/expansion), BG2 and finally BG2:Throne of Bhaal.

It should be noted that BG1 (w/expansion) has just been released in an enhanced version available on the iPad(!), Windows and soon Mac.

The Macbook Pro is priced based on the value Apple believes it provides, not on the production value. A really nice position to be in, and one which requires a way to differentiate you from other potential competitors. If the production price goes down $50, all other things equal, Apple pockets the difference. Same thing if the production cost increases $50, without Apple believing the reason is something that increases the relative value of the product (if the cost increase is $50 for everyone, e.g. from Intel, they'd increase the price of course).

Bluescreens still happen... My work HP laptop running Windows 7 could be relied upon to provide a couple each hour it was running a skype conference. Sound driver, I believe.

I loved the Harmony One, and I've got a Harmony Touch now - but they did not work at all with the Nintendo Wii. To work with the PS3, you need an extra device for converting IR to bluetooth.

The Harmony is great at setting up the other devices that are part of the activity, though - typically a TV and a receiver.

I mostly agree there... software patents should go the way of the dodo bird, and other patents are in big need of a reform as well. In my opinion (which is just that), Samsung deserves a big slap on the wrist for trying so hard to make their initial Android phones look like the iPhone - the physical device, the OS (Android modified to look more like the iPhone), the icons etc. And then everybody should just move on, they don't look identical anymore.

Actually, I think extortion on standard essential FRAND patents are far worse than trying to prevent someone from almost xeroxing the device. There are many ways to create devices (cell phones and tablets looked really different before the iPhone), but a standard is just that... a standard. And to get your patent included in a standard, you make promises that should be upheld.

Apple shipped 26.9 million iPhones last quarter, an increase of 58% since the same quarter last year. That's hardly decreasing shipments.

I believe you are talking of OLED, not just LED. In particular, Samsung's AMOLED. LED is frequently used in conjunction with LCD, e.g. on most TVs today.

That said, IPS can indeed be superior to OLEDs for the time being. E.g., the best screen on any cellphone today is on Apple's iPhone 5 - and it is IPS.

While I agree on your point - that the 10.x releases are in general comparable to a Windows release - I would like to point out that due to an architecture change (impressively handled) and OS architecture change (Carbon -> Cocoa), no apps from 2005 or earlier will run on a new system. Many won't even recompile. So there have been massive changes even while just bumping the .x.

That one is much smaller than the iPad. Google hasn't released a normal size tablet yet, just the mini version.