32 chords would work for most of the things you do on a smartphone or tablet -- writing text messages, typing in search keywords in youtube or search engines, writing messages on facebook, typing in names of apps you want to run rather than scrolling through pages. You could compose emails and rely on the system to auto-capitalize for you, and it'd work fine most of the time.

Don't think of it as replacing a 101-key keyboard. Think of it as replacing the tiny, awkward, hard-to-use keyboard on smartphones and tablets.

I think the default assumption would be that anything we do would DECREASE the intensity of earthquakes.

(explanation: earthquakes are the huge release of energy when pent-up forces are released; anything that lets it be released earlier in smaller amounts would decrease that).

On purely technological grounds, I'd want to make the decision based on battery life -- if it takes less battery power to upload the audio and download a response, then do it online; if it takes less battery life to do the voice-recognition and database lookup on the phone, then do it on the phone.

Are you saying that it fails on the measure of "how much insight and capability was produced"? What kind of measure is that, and how is it collected? Would you even call it a "metric" ?

I don't think it's an unsavory or wasteful business environment when a company stock price "fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing."

Think of a university research group which discovers a new drug candidate, and forms a company to pursue its further clinical trials and licensing. The financial health of this company will be wholly determined by its ability to patent and license.

Think of a pharma company which spends $200mil research on each drug candidate, and every four years it gets one $10bil success for 50 failures. The financial health of this company will rest solely on its ability to protect (through patent litigation and licensing) the $10bil revenue that makes up for the $10bil expenses.

These both seem like cases where the market is operating as intended.

What annoys me is when I search for a particular word or phrase, and Google takes me to a page which lacks that word.

I used to be able to type "+blankie" and google would show only those pages that had the word blankie in them. No longer. It just says that + is no longer supported, and takes me to a load of pages without that word.

The SOPA was written to address "US-based interests", i.e. it specifically claims to go after only US-directed foreign websites, to prevent US-based people from seeing those foreign websites.

(Defn: "US-directed" means that the site hasn't taken steps to prevent US people from seeing the website, or other nonspecified reasons. "Foreign website" means a domain name which is registered by a non-US registrar, or an IP address which comes from a non-US block).

But the US doesn't have jurisdiction over foreign domains/websites. So, in that absence, it's US-based companies who have to act:

* US-based ISPs have to take measures to prevent their customers from "accessing" those websites 5 days. It's not clear what measures must be taken, but they include at a minimum blocking DNS lookups.

* US-based search engines have to remove hyperlinks to those foreign domains/websites within 5 days

* US-based ad brokers have to cease serving ads to those foreign domains/websites within 5 days

* US-based payment companies have to cease processing payments for those foreign domains/websites with 5 days

Moreover, any US-based service which bypasses this censorship -- TOR, Mafiaafire, free and open DNS servers -- will be shut down by the courts.

The "iTunes Match" option NEVER disappears from the menu bar at the left.

Even after you've disabled the iTunes store under "parental controls", it's still there. Even after you click "No Thanks" it's still there, asking you to subscribe for $25/year. (this is itunes 10.5.1.42 on windows).

Either shoddy programming, or an insidious attempt to get more money out of you despite the parental controls.

Of course it was never actually free; merely "free at point of delivery". The soap manufacturers paid for those ads, and they passed the cost onto consumers in the form of higher prices.

US annual expenditure on advertising: $300 billion
US population: 300 million

Advertising tax: $1000 per person per year. We're paying this money to line the pockets of the advertising middle-men so that we get ads that we don't want thrust in our faces.

US annual expenditure on advertising: $300 billion
US population: 300 million

Each of us is paying $1000 per year to have irritating ads thrust in our faces. The money ends up in the pockets of the advertising middle-men like facebook and google and ad agencies. The companies pay it to promote their products. They pass the cost onto us the consumers who buy their products.

I'm unhappy as heck paying $1000 per year for the "joy" of having ads stuffed in my face. I think the figure should be much lower. This is a business that has gotten out of control through a people brainwashed (by advertising!) to think that this level of advertising is normal.