The first iPod was released in 2001. I don't think it was the reason. I owned a MD player in the mid-90s and - as said gmhowell above - the system lacks flexibility when it comes to copying. Besides that, the MD player was great!

To reach the same price the % should be higher, though...

It's the classic win-win situation. Thanks to radios etc... some otherwise average singers get enough publicity to get a fair number of people to purchase their music, and radios have also to pay royalties for the same music. Thanks to Google news some otherwise ignored news sites (i.e. besides Le Monde, Figaro and Libé) get enough publicity to get a fair number of people to read/know the news and, now, Google has also to pay fees to broadcast the news.

Another solution is to add the abbreviated department john.doe.ft@company.com or and reduce even more the collision risk, add the birthdate (only month day), john.doe.0229@company.com. And nobody will forget your birthday anymore!

Kim Jong Il is dead. Kim Jong Un studied in Europe. Schmidt and daughter go to NK... That nuclear buzz is all a front, he still has to show the Establishment he behaves . But give him more time, and KJU will become the new South-East Gorbachev. Two years maybe.

To be precise, Google gave 15,708 Raspberry Pi. That's ten thousands pi / 2. Yes Google likes pi!.

It would be interesting to know why Boeing didn't choose Tesla in the first place, and selected a Japanese company instead. Maybe because of a "you take our batteries, we buy your planes" deal?

It's idle when it's not syncing - i.e. at least 90% of the time (depends on settings).

Talking about Ars, there is an interesting article about Mega encryption

A bad day?

Rules are country related, besides taxes, UK makes sense for the Google-in-Europe strategists: English speaking, 3 hours from Paris, and as they say We’re one of Google’s largest engineering operations in Europe.

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If you consider an idiot someone who ignores ACs for some reason, you're an idiot.

First, grow a large beard, then put a sticker on your luggage: "there is a bomb inside". No steal, granted.

Europe had an express need to see what's going on over there from orbit. Hopefully, the Americans will show some curiosity and go check on site.

Not funny, sorry. But having a very serious post flagged +5 Funny is one of the worst that can happen here :-)