If this is the case, the software is completely broken and need to be redesigned or scraped.

Besides from a user point of view Microsoft does not provide any services where where storing of privacy data are needed at all(Apply to Google too). Obviously this does not include a regular customer database, as this is not what the FCC discuss in this case and such databases have already some regulation in place. What FCC discuss in this case is user profiling/spying.

Scrounging for loose change indeed. Seems like Canonical is feeling the effect of a failed and lacing business plan, and start to get desperate. Hype does not generate revenue after all.

Uhm, no. That is not correct RTFA. As it is, the Banshee developers elected to disable the store by default, preferring it to Canonicals split deal. The Banshee developers decided that requiring the users to manually activate the store, but giving GNOME a 100% cut was preferable. Canonical asked the developers to choose from 2 options, but when their choice was not what Canonical wanted they simply did the opposite anyway.

Lots of interesting stuff out there in the world of micro-controllers, and now lot of it get available at reasonable prices. Not only as those dreaded $999 development kits.

If you look for something more powerful the STM32VLDISCOVERY http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/250863.jsp, is a nice alternative at about $10. You get a modern and powerful ARM Coretex M3 with 128 KB Flash and 8 KB RAM. With lots of nice peripherals included.

That is exactly what they just did! The way Qt extends C++ gives you a fast and powerful development environment, surpassing plain C++ big time.

The owner then has 90 days to claim the property. Id. 2080.2. If the true owner fails to do so and the property is worth more than $250, then the police publish a notice, and 7 days after that ownership of the property vests in the person who found it,

Funny thing is, that if he had done that and delivered the phone to a local police station. It would more likely than not have been tossed into a lost and found bin, and become legally his after those 90 days. The phone was already disabled and contained no owner name, and barring the police officer receiving it being a hardcore Apple fan identifying it as a prototype, there was no obvious way to identify the owner. It would be handled like any other found phone, the police registering it and logging the name of the person turning it in. They would not care or bother with any further investigation as they have much more important task to handle. Combined with Apples taste for secrecy, it's not likely they would send people to surrounding police stations asking for the phone.

Seriously, how does this further harm the guy who lost it

Depend on Apples reaction on him loosing the device in the first place, but it's fairly likely he does not work there anymore. Then it's rather harmful.

Not too cool trying to get a new job known as the guy who lost a secret prototype of his former employers in a bar. Not exactly something to highlight on your resume.

You don't have to interact with Plasma all the time. You can have a old fashioned desktop and a taskbar/panel, and not be bothered with widgets and Plasma stuff.(Technically both the desktop and taskbar/panel are Plasma widgets, but that's really only a implementation detail you don't have to bother with).

First set your desktop containment(activity) to be a FolderView rather than Desktop(Desktop Settings->Appearance). Then select lock widgets.

You now have a plain regular desktop where you can put documents, no decoration pop up around widgets and the configuration button in the lower right corner is gone laving the space free for you and fits law.

Or open System Settings and select Default Applications. Choose file manager and select Konqueror, then press Apply.