I prototype things all the time and blog it on my website, marginallyclever.com. Arduino is your best first choice. Go with a MEGA so you have room to grow. Next up I'd suggest an adafruit motor shield so you can drive steppers or DC motors with ease. those two items have allowed me to make many different robots.

For a conservative country, they're very keen to break new ground in high tech surveillance and invasion of privacy. I mean, it's all so... modern, you know? Is this horse dead yet?

I've built the BlackToe 8'x4' router and the WhiteAnt 3D printer. Don't fund this.

In both cases the shipments arrived with multiple mistakes and require two or more reshipments. Instructions were out of date, assumed you knew things, and didn't cover any safety issues. When I would write for help I'd frequently get an automated out-of-office message, followed by his response a few minutes later. Everything about the way this guy does business says "this is going to lead to disaster".

He would have been better off running a kickstarter on his RedFrog pick & place machine.

If this case goes through, then what's to stop John Carmack from suing anyone who's ever made an FPS?

Netflix is investing heavily to expand into international markets. That's where the lion's share of their revenue has gone. I feel they have a stronger brand in movies-on-demand than anyone else, and the single price point is easier to grok than other companies - which is a lot friendlier to the customers. Being an internet company, their brand preceeds them overseas by word of mouth, so I'm betting their revenues will be up in the coming quarters.

I imagine other teachers thinking the following: "I work just as hard as that teacher, why should he get a 20k bump in his salary? Besides, he isn't going to teach me enough to be better than him, it would cost him $20k!" I suspect it would be easier to up the standards for teachers and follow the model used in Finland.

Why the hell would I want to produce software for a piece of hardware that can be hacked? I have to provide exceptions for device abilities that make my debugging and after market support balloon, costing me money. How, then, could I afford to sell form $0.99/copy?

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

We're probably in phase 3... so what's the ETA on winning? Is there a pool going?

Hardware is replaceable, data is not. So:
All the workstations would be thin clients - no data loss if someone forgot a workstation.
I'd mount the servers onto racks on wheels that I know will fit into the truck. They are also chained to the floor to prevent theft. In the event of an emergency the servers are unchained and turned off, then rolled out the door and into the vehicle. I would test this evacuation once a year. Possible bonus: You can now rearrange the server room with greater ease.

Ah, did you assume I was calling YOU an asshole? Did I break your bones with my sticks and stones? Would you scribble a mustache on a gallery portrait? Odds are your changes will NOT improve the product. If it did, you could sell it to Apple.

Of course you can wander outside the garden! Just don't expect Apple to help you if you fuck up. You knew the risks and now you're crying like a baby for help. Welcome to the real world.

I'm not protecting anybody. I'm explaining their point of view and why I agree with it. Your argument seems to be "I'm the customer and I'm always right! A company that's become successful should abandon it's successful methods to please me!". The first part's a tautology. The second is naive bordering on stupid.

I'll learn to quote when I want to spend all day arguing on the internet. Good day, sir.

How is hardware variability not a design decision? They limited the choices to improve the design. Windows never did and thus we have a boatload of APIs and driver issues and configuration options... just look at the sound cards, every company comes out with something different for setting up positional audio and adjusting your audio style and who knows what else. It's a design disaster. Giving third parties the right to do the same would result is the exact same mess. Oh well the specs called for this, but we added extra features to be more competitive. So users could REALLY take advantage of it we'd need a new config panel branded in our unique style and OMG we're back to MS.

Microsoft breaking up is a stupid idea on the face of it. If the fiefdoms are bad, how does making each department into a separate company make it any better? Who at MS is in charge of overall design? No one. There's your real problem. The biggest concern I have about Apple now is they've lost their head designer and no one has really stepped in to replace him. I worry the design teams will argue, fracture, and turn into MS.

Making assumptions about my ideologies and putting words in my mouth is a form of censorship. For the record I'm not in favor of censorship and I'll consume any content, regardless of medium.
How many cases of Apple censorship have there been, in total? "That's not the point! We need to open Apple up because they could censor us!" Fine. Stop the online circlejerk, go buy some Apple stock, and submit a motion at the shareholder's meeting.

What you call hardware lock-in I call "really guys, I wouldn't have to do this if you stopped trying to jimmy with these things. If you take it to some discount fixit guy who does a number on it and then try to bring it back I'm going to tell you your warranty is void. Since you don't seem to be listening, I'm going to make everyone's life more difficult just to get you to cut that out."

What you call software lock-in I call DRM. Your "correct" solution is a low-hanging fruit of the poisoned apple variety - for every developer that can now successfully alter the system there's a thousand tech support calls from mr. clueless who read something on a forum, tried to circumvent the DRM, and has now bricked their device. No no no no no. If you're such a good developer then Apple's little tricks won't stand in your way.

Telling me what I think is rude, stupid, or both.

I design products. I'm very familiar with carefully limiting user choice to increase product quality and overall user satisfaction. I would love to give you everything under the sun but I'd reach a point of diminishing returns and quality as a whole would go down. Want more choice? Buy from someone else. Control = Quality = Sales.

Put your money where your mouth is and design something better than an Apple product that has less censorship. Then we can continue this conversation. Until then Good day, sir.