I hope this shames Dropbox into implementing proper client side encryption.

I like many others have become dependent on Dropbox for my work because it is so darn convenient but I know in the back of my mind that it poses a security risk. I would feel much more comfortable if everything was encrypted on my PC (and under my control) before it was transmitted.

You say that the information didn't come out to every one but nevertheless there was plenty written over the last few weeks saying that Facebook was overvalued. There was no shortage of warning signs so it is hard to feel sympathy for those who lost money on this. Caveat Emptor and all that.

This seems relevant to me even if it dates from the dawn of computer time:
http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

I am surprised it hasn't been linked to yet.

I am pretty sure you mean Jonathan Swift's modest proposal. I know this only because I work right beside the cathedral where he was Dean.

Pretty cool idea to put passengers to sleep by the way. Apart from security concerns it would finally allow me to get some sleep on long haul flights.

to see if they can they release version 1.0 of ReactOS before the X86 architecture becomes obsolete.

Just to clarify the situation I guess we have to assume that the encrypted files are are in the cloud or already in the hands of the authorities so you cannot just destroy them.

Vegemeisters suggestion of a key-file on a Flash disk seems like the best idea so far but flash disks are pretty robust little devices how could you be sure of destroying it in time? You are hardly likely to carry a hammer or other heavy tool around with you everywhere and crushing it underfoot probably won't do enough damage. I guess you could have the keyfile on a phone along with an app that instantly garbles it beyond use but I amn't knowledgeable enough about such things to know how easy it is to permanently delete info on a phone.

If all else fails we could go back to the edible paper approach with a QR code password on it.

In the olden days folks had to eat their notebook pages or hastily burn them as the secret police were knocking on the door. Nowadays that information is likely to be stored in encrypted files and event the best passwords are susceptible to the judicious application of baseball bats. Is it possible to come up with a genuinely destructible password that can be quickly and discretely destroyed forever. My best guess is some kind of keyfile but how could you be sure to delete it in a manner that couldn't be reconstructed?

As long as you run dropbox on at least one desktop computer you have a local copy of your files. If you use more than one computer chances are you have multiple copies of those files. Of course you lose the ability to share those files when dropbox shuts down but at least you have the files in an easy to find place which should make it easier to move them to another cloud service. This seems like a fairly robust model to me.

It is true that gaming companies have refined the premium model to a fine art AND many of them are making good money out of it. They use all kinds of hooks to entice you into paying and to keep paying once you have made that first purchase. Even so, from what I have read it is generally accepted that 90% of your customers won't pay a dime so you just have to get enough revenue from the 10% who will. Personally I am quite uneasy about this aspect of freemium because by design the few paying customers have to subsidise the many and therefore they must pay way over the odds. In the gaming world you hear of committed players customers spending $100's every month on a fairly rudimentary games as opposed to the $15/month charged by the few remaining subscription games.

The game companies also have the support issue nailed. Free customers get no direct support. If lucky thy have access to a single forum.

There are already a few unofficial ports in advanced beta and threads on XDA developers indicate that everything works just fine. .

While I am somewhat disappointed by Samsung's lack of commitment to provide ongoing support such a successful product I am not sure this makes any difference really. Users who are not hacking their phones probably don't want such a radical upgrade. Users who are into hacking will get it unofficially.

Gosh how I loved that SSCSSHHHHHHH when it eventually did connect. In my mind I can still hear those bits pouring down the telephone line into my computer. Some modems (might have been pre 56k days) even let you keep the modem speaker on constantly so you could listen to your data all day long. The sheer nerdy joy of it.

As a parent who's eldest has just started secondary (high) school I say the sooner they move to e-books the better. Its not just about money. I am concerned about the weight of textbooks my 12 year old daughter has to lug around. They have lockers but regularly brings home 10kg or more of books for homework or study. The problem has gotten much worse than when I was a school kid because
a. Schoolbooks are bigger, glossier and consequently heavier and
b. Every subject now has a separate workbook which doubles up the number of books.

So I would welcome the transition to ebooks with open arms but I wonder if the technology is ready yet. On the hardware side battery life is critical. Between school time and homework the kids could be using the tablet for 8 hours a day. With even the best of current tablets that means forgetting to plug in overnight could lose you a whole schoolday. On the software side I am also concerned that the whole e-book industry is still a mess with conflicting standards and restrictive drm: "I am sorry but we won't be covering Lord of the Flies this year because you cannot get it in XYZ format".

"The publisher also provides the marketing, editing, proofreading, typesetting, illustrations and quite a few other services that the author cannot provide themselves."

This is an important point. Traditional publishers provided a lot of valuable services to authors not least of which were marketing and publicity. However in return for these services publishers asked a very high price - up to and sometimes even including all ownership of the creative work. They got away with this because of the monoploy power they held due to the huge barrier to entry caused by high printing and distribution costs. Ebooks have effectively eliminated printing and distribution costs and have undermined that entire business model. I don't think traditional publishers can continue as they are now that their main source of power is vanishing. The question as to who will take over from publishers as the dominant power in the market is as yet unresolved:

In my favourite scenario it will be the authors themselves. A small number of successful self published authors are showing this is possible and when a superstar like J K Rowling opts to self publish you have to take it seriously. Unfortunately the much larger number of poor quality self published works makes me suspect that most authors lack the knowledge and skills to critically evaluate, edit and market their own works.

In my least favourite (bud sadly more likely) scenario it will be a small number of (possibly only one) mega online retailers who will own the market.

As for the publishers, well everything they used to do will probably become just a service for hire.