There are basically two phones with ICS support (the Nexus and Nexus S) and combined they make up maybe 1 or 2% of all active Android phones (actually, I'm being generous here, the Android platform version graph shows 0.6%). So for all intents and purposes Android "still" doesn't have proper IPSec support. Or, put another way, more than 98% of Android phones don't have IPSec support. And it will take a good year or two before a simple majority of Android phones are running 4.0 or later.

Uh yeah, I agree. You abstract away as much hardware as possible. The point is, if Android has a standardized HAL, i.e. standard interfaces for various pieces of hardware like the CPU, GPU, camera, sound, etc. why does Sony feel like they need to replace the HAL *itself* rather than just plug their drivers into the existing HAL?

In the first Ice Cream Sandwich source code that was released, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) – the software layer giving applications direct access to the hardware components – was to some extent adapted for a Texas Instruments hardware platform. However, for all 2011 Xperia phones, we used a Qualcomm hardware platform. This means we have to replace the default HAL coming with first source code released for Ice Cream Sandwich, with our own HAL.

The HAL changes have impact on several features on a phone, including the camera, different sensors (such as proximity, light, accelerometer and compass), audio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, as well as multimedia and graphics components. Thus, we do not only have to modify and configure the HAL according to the Qualcomm hardware platform, but also all the other hardware components used in a phone.

Wow, I sure hope they're just mixing up terminology here. The entire point of a HAL is that you just plug in your drivers. If you have to modify the HAL because you're using different hardware than the reference device, you're doing it wrong.

Everyone's going to have their own idea of what something is "worth" but when it comes right down to it, you can't eat artwork and you can't cure diseases with poetry. So I'm not sure why you think artists and the like are the most valuable members of society. I would argue it's the people who put food on your plate, treat you when you're sick, build bridges, etc. that are far more valuable in the sense of giving you a comfortable standard of living.

Most reasonable people understand that "get a degree" implicitly means "get a practical degree". No, majoring in art history will not get you much of a job. Sorry if it wasn't clear that all university degrees are not equal in the eyes of the job market.

Hate to say it, but yeah, they're desperate for games. The Linux guys buying the bundle are trying to make a statement with their purchase prices, whereas the Windows and Mac guys are really just paying what they think the games are worth, which is honestly just a couple bucks.

Well, that's a good explanation and all, but there's the little problem that this isn't some basic, utilitarian school that cost a lot of money simply because of raw material costs. From the same article you quoted:

At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex's namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

Oh, and in reference to another LA school that cost "only" $377 million:

Over 20 years, the project grew to encompass a dance studio with cushioned maple floors, a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven, a 10-acre park and teacher planning rooms between classrooms.

That all seems a little excessive for a public school that -- let's face it -- is going to be housing lots of illegal immigrants. And who in the hell spends 20 years going from design to reality for a public school? That's what you get with union labor and politicians that have their hands out every step of the way.

No, I'm referring to the expanded section for board games (they actually started selling popular Euro board games, very cool of them) and the GREATLY expanded kids area. Plus they seem to have added a bunch of other random shit I've never seen them selling before, like $90 Lego sets. This is all based on my local store, but still. They definitely have branched out from books substantially, and when a business starts moving away from their core that much, things aren't looking good.

I remember seeing B&N devote a rather substantial amount of space to toys, games, etc. around a year or so ago, figured the writing was on the wall.

More like, they have no choice (for the most part -- piracy is significantly more difficult to engage in on the iPhone). This is the reason why so many developers like locked down, restrictive DRM and closed platforms -- because given the choice between free and even $0.99, free wins almost all of the time. When users essentially have no choice they actually pay for those apps that "they wouldn't have bought anyway".