Where is your point? If you know the underlieing technology you perfectly understand the code on first glance and it is easy to write..
Its like saying .. yeah, you need to understand the GC and parts of the jvm to know what the impact of my 5 lines of java have - so i write my own JVM.. i guess you suffer from NIH syndrome..

well.. it would be really great if that 1% could access it.. i have android 4.0.3, but i live in austria, so i'm still out of luck.. https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2393487&p=market_countries

why would google need to do that? simply use the amazon app store or (if you use a samsung phone) the samsung apps market.. both of which review all apps which are submitted before they can be downloaded or bought. the android market is just one (very popular) choice, but you have the option to choose a reviewed market, so go for it.. if they turn out to be much more popular, maybe google will come to the conclusion that it's worth investing into a review process..

what exactly is the problem with 16GB of RAM? it's about the same as subscribing in the apple developer program for a year..
(sure i never cared about building android, so no idea which parts require 16 GB of ram to compile, or why i can't use swap space.. but anyway .. i guess when i'm investing tons of time playing around with a platform, i could afford the 100 USD upgrade.. i guess gamers spend more so they can buy yet another game - i know i did)

I have used the original iphone and iphone 3gs for years and then switched to nexus one and finally nexus s - i love android and develop for it, but there is still definitively some touch lag - you experience it most when scrolling or panning/zooming images - i'm not sure if this lag is a hardware (touch pannel) or software issue - but there is a lag - maybe just 50ms, it's noticable, that it's not there on the iphone- since the first version - it has always been there on the google devices i've played with - it's just very subtle, and it gets better .. and its "good enough" but it's not just imagination :-)

well, somehow google thinks javascript IS bytecode :) they compile java to javascript (GWT) and (until it's supported in any browser) their own language http://www.dartlang.org/ (dartc) .. so the missing part is not the browser-bytecode.. simply write your compiler to output javascript instead of bytecode ;)

If you want to remind your friends try out http://tabsplit.net/ :-P sorry for this spam, but i couldn't resist, sorry ;-) i will never do it again, it just came over me
(Just to give a bit more than self advertisement you could certainly also use other tools like billmonk, ioweyou, or hundred others)

Well.. i can't pay my utility bills with USD, i can't pay my mortgage with USD, i can't pay my taxes in USD.... sure.. i would be happy to receive a million USD, but just because i know that someone will probably trade them for EUR.. so this is the only thing which counts to me.. although i doubt the bitcoin market is big enough for a million bitcoin exchange right now

i just don't get it .. he should just choose one package management and do a sudo port install emacs .. i'm using emacs all the time on snow leopard..
and about package management.. i mean.. there are enough different non-compatible package managements available for linux (apt, emerge, yum, ...) - and he was able to choose between those.. (he even chose a distribution going with it).. he is just complaining that he has not that much clue about a system he just started working with than a system he used to work with for years.. wtf