Telstra started migrating Bigpuddle customers to Live late last year.

I think you meant to write Ewebuntu.

And no - most of their fanbois already own iPhones

Considering that most of the world's population don't own smart phones I'd say Firefox - maybe... it's too early to say. No reason I can think of that Android will fuck up - and it's trivial for Chinese and Korean manufacturers to create lighter versions of it... so the real question is, as the "world" less and less means "Western", is there any real future for iPhones?

Microsoft? Even if Steve "Kiss of Death" Ballmer got a brain transplant from Martians, Microsoft still couldn't produce a phone that a statistically relevant number of people would use if it was given away. Seriously - have you seen the Windows 8 promotions? - The ones they keep emailing me feature a hipster with with a face like a cat's arse and the rest of those idiots with their dumb sunglasses and stupid stripey clothes is the cleverest thing about 8. Even if I repeatedly hadn't try to make myself like the piece of shit laptop, with the steaming pile of wet shit of an OS I got as an "incentive" to sell the crap to clients "at a price you can't beat" - just seeing the promotions would turn me off it.

I'd be surprised if by the end of next year half the phones (mobile or landline) on the planet weren't be running Android?

A couple of factors not included (and I appreciate you didn't spend weeks on your figures)

• How much petroleum based fuels are used just transporting and refining petroleum based fuels
• How much petroleum based fuels are used liberating petroleum rich countries
• How much new technology will increase or decrease our liquid fuel usage - including the expected increasing power demands for the "developing" nations
• How much decentralised vegetable based fuel production would affect the amount of oil products used for road works
• How much of the by-product of petroleum refining is used for fertiliser, chemicals, packaging and how that would compare with by-products of vegetable fuel refining

Oh really Einstein? Guess you've already installed Linux on Surface? - that and made the sun rise this morning.

Not, as the misleading title suggests, the hottest place, just the hottest properly recorded single temperature reading
big emphasis on single temperature reading - one reading a day/week/year does not make.

Properly recording temperature isn't simple or intuitive - it's also kind of hard to do in some parts of the world because it's so damn hot.

The hottest place on the planet most years is in the Danakil Desert, which not surprisingly is a bit of a ghost town. Death Valley is about 86 metres below sea level, Danakil is a little lower (about 100m below). Nearby Dallol is the hottest average inhabited place on earth with an average mean of 34.4C and an average max of 41.1C.

Danakil can also be a bit warmer when the volcanoes are active... like some places get warmer when bushfires are raging (51C in parts of Victoria the other year, similar temperatures in some of the Californian fires).

Little of the planets temperatures are measured to the standards quoted in the parent article - so I'd take them with a big pinch of Danakil salt. And "apparent" (to humans) temperatures are a whole 'nuther thing. Shade temperatures don't allow for reflected heat from salt and white sand.

Biggest temperature variations - without a doubt it'd be the Black Hills (USA). Especially considering the extremely short time period involved. Only other place I can think of that comes close to those fast, extreme variations is Charlotte Pass (Australia).

How about "wrong and recalcitrant" "dissembler", "loose with the truth", "teller of tall tales", "fantasist". You've got the wrong end of offended.

No paywall - ever. Weasel much (apologies to the furry kind).

The assertion of a paywall was made - I tested it and found it untrue. I checked that it had never been true.
Eat your own dog food

Deliberately distorting the truth is what you call "constructive"? What sort of "thing" are you constructing?
paywall
Would you like me to spoon feed you and show you how Google cache works? Or would you prefer to weasel around with "but that doesn't mean there wasn't one earlier"?

Words to live by. Now would be a good time to start.
and - that's not me you're describing - but it speaks volumes of you.
Hint: not a paywall, never was a paywall.

The greatest derangement is to believe something simply because you wish it to be true.

A paywall is when you can't proceed beyond it without paying. There is no paywall. Never was a paywall. Period.

Democracy? Either you're not Australian or you're not very well informed (the head of state is the Queen of England and government ministers briefing Americans is not considered traitorous). Seriously - the only "right" enshrined in the Consitution is "free trade between states" and even that has never been the case. Try posting Penthouse magazines to parts of the NT and see what happens. Or cigarettes from one state to another.

The decision making process is "commercial in confidence" - that is, the resale of NBN.

until everyone is signed up for the National Broadband Network - then we'll tell you what we've done.

Can't get decent software to scan job applications but software to scan internet use will work perfectly.

Who rated this interesting? Did they miss the button for "sack of lying shit"?

Funny how only three people seem to have checked and noticed there is no paywall - not even in Google's cache.

And they forgot to remove Mondrian's copyright from the EXIF data.

100+ hours of Need For Speed and 2 points of speed?

Absolutely. But not for the reasons you suggest.

Removing the human factor means ducks will be writing and testing the software, and hedgehogs will be designing and testing the hardware. Which will lead to such problems as failing to give way to dogs or stupidly using the horn to "warn" kangaroos to stay off the road.

Huh? You must live near by - the showbags aren't that valuable.

I'd like to go, but don't have the time - I'm not sure how the system works as I got my invite despite not personally attending last year.