I'm pretty sure I've seen this analysis (actually "fighting" a disease vs not, but it's close) and the correlation was nil.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lintilla_(clone)#Lintilla

Race conditions, temperature variations causing differences in io block times? If you can create two actually identical machines, you're a better engineer than... anyone.

I'm afraid you're mistaken.
Just (Winchester, UK).

...someone with skillz makes a freely installable CIQ clone that sends them back fake, randomly generated results.

qv the Bill Hicks routine where the waitress asked him "Whut yew readin' for?". Took him a moment to realise she hadn't asked what was he reading, but what was he reading for...

I don't think you've understood the principle of a rom-based rootkit.

According to the back of this envelope:
660000 oil barrels spilt = 104931615 litres
At 17500 l/m = 5996 minutes.
At 24 * 60 min/day = 4.16 days.

So just one of these collectors could have hoovered up the entire spill in well under a week in perfect conditions. Even 10% of efficiency is still only six weeks. Even 10% efficiency and only working in daylight is still only three months.

That sounds suspiciously like a common or garden pressure cooker. Turn the heat off, and steam still keeps coming out for ages and ages.

Me too - a proper cryptographically signed trust api between any two social networks (for a common set of tasks) is the holy grail.