A couple of options. One, you could probably bundle the files up into an app like one created using PhoneGap, which would make everything local. Two, you could set the proxy setting to point to a server that you control, that will direct you only to an internal web server that you control. Regardless of how you do it, you will need to physically block the power and home buttons, and for non-iPad tablets, any other button that might take you home like the back button with something like a lockable case. Seems silly to block the internet, though, considering how many people in that waiting room are going to be browsing with their iPhones anyways.

Or you could say that with the sensor smaller than the projected image you get the benefit of some extra optical zoom. You're not going to see significant degradation just because some of the light coming in is not used, there are plenty of photons coming in to get a nice sharp image from a 1:1.6 sensor. Such a sensor is still large enough that it doesn't suffer from the signal to noise issues in the very small and very high density sensors that are in many point and shoot cameras, so you are probably going to get a less noisy image in a partial frame sensor in a DSLR than you might get in a 15MP point and shoot.

Flash/Flex can handle complex applications just fine. Here are some examples of applications done with Flex: http://flex.org/showcase.php

In there is a timeline-based video editor, a calendaring/email/finance app, a task manager, and a photo editor. I've also seen a PowerPoint type presentation app, a Visio-type tool for creating object relationship charts, plus I've used it myself for creating a medical reporting application for diagnostic sensor data analysis. Flex can hold it's own very nicely against Java's capabilities, and I think it's easier to develop for and has a better experience installing and running on the client.

That said, we are currently trending away from using plugins at all, due to the mobile platform. More and more will be done with HTML/JavaScript/CSS, leaving plugin-based tools as more niche products for Web development. Flex however now compiles mobile applications, so I think we will see more life in that space.

"Java is a much nicer development system than say Flash."

That's a pretty subjective statement. I would take doing development in Flash-based Flex development over Java any day. Flash Builder is a very nice development environment, and I would say that laying out a screen using Flex is a heck of a lot easier than using Spring layouts.

Those giant TVs had been working very well, and were a big part of the success of the Olympics as well in that it contributed in a big way to the atmosphere of celebration, but in a safe way. No alcohol was allowed in, beer and wine stores were closed down, and it was designed as a family friendly atmosphere. The same rules were in place for every game shown during these playoffs. The night of the riot, I saw a clip at the end of the game of a whole bunch of beer bottles being thrown towards one of the TVs. Evidently the checking for alcohol got lax, and that became part of the flashpoint.

"A "Brand" is something that requires a large scale organization to be effective."

Nonsense. A business with one single person still has a brand. Even if you have no logo, your name, your reputation, how you present yourself to customers, how you communicate, all form part of your brand identity. A brand does not equal a logo, the logo is simply a symbol that helps communicate elements of your brand identity. Many individual business people use Facebook, twitter, and blogging as a way to market themselves and contribute to that identity, sometimes very effectively.

You are better off with a better quality picture to start with, not more pixels. More pixels of a bad quality image downsampled still gives a bad quality image. In fact, increasing the density of a sensor reduces the size of the receptors, reducing the number of photons reaching the receptor and leading to noise and quality issues. It's especially apparent in the small sensors used in point and shoot cameras and in cell phone cameras. It is possible to actually make an image worse through nothing more than increasing the sensor density.