I bought a game from them last week, and was concerned that it would no longer be supported. This is especially scary when they don't sell you physical media.

Yeah... that was my last purchase from them.

That's not how prediction competitions work, obviously.

Everyone is given a "training" dataset, which contains the results. The contestants mine this dataset to determine their algorithm, which is then applied to a "test" dataset that has hidden results (i.e. who won the game). The contestants are judged by how well they do on the test set.

This reddit thread contains more links that indicate GOG is not actually dead: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dfzhe/rip_gogcom/c0zxgih

Personally I think they are going to change their service in some way, perhaps add a devoted client (like Steam) and perhaps introduce DRM. If so, I will be angry at the lack of transparency; the whole thing smells like a publicity stunt. If this is the case, the game I bought from them last week will be the last.

"However, absolute random noise on a disk isn't all that usual"

Doesn't compressed data look random?

There are notable counterexamples. For example, CPU clock speeds have been approaching a limit for years now. The only reason computers get "faster" over time is Moore's Law, which allows the CPU to do more per clock.
http://www.gotw.ca/publications/concurrency-ddj.htm

Chromium is a gift from Google: it is open source under a permissive license. The security of the product, and the prizes Google uses to maintain that security, are the icing on the free cake. We shouldn't complain about it.

Also, the fact that they are finding bugs means people are looking for them, so it seems they found a good price point. Perhaps the prestige of finding a bug in a major piece of software is worth more than 400 dollars.

Touch screens are actually pretty cheap. The iphone's is 10 dollars, but I would imagine you could get a larger, less precise one for the same price or cheaper. Even the 35 dollar Indian tablet has a touch screen.

Actually, almost any bank would hassle you about withdrawing 750,000 dollars unless they know who you are. Most people who deal with these sums of money have already proven to their bank that they are not scamming anyone, so this situation is somewhat unique. Once the developer sends them proof, he will never have to again.

Deposit fraud is a huge problem, and costs banks millions of dollars a year. It can also be used to launder money, which is often attached with more serious organized crime. In the case of Paypal, it can be used to steal money (which has happened to me before)

All banks do what Paypal is doing here. They usually just do it when you are opening an account.

http://www.techeye.net.nyud.net/business/how-and-why-telephones-are-going-to-get-a-whole-lot-better

Not really, but it is still copyright infringement and hence you can be sued for it.

IANAL, but Wikipedia, the most reliable legal source known to man, says that plagiarism is not a legal concept, is not the same thing as copyright infringement, and is "concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's reputation that is achieved through false claims of authorship".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#Legal_aspects

Not really, identifying a user is not the same thing as tracking, it is just the first step. Tracking also involves recording some information in a table that utilizes the user as a key. Big practical difference.

For example, when you are logged into Google they have already identified you, and can avoid logging you by not writing to any of your records.

I'm confused, you say "sure you can take the evidence and make it fit your preconceived notions", but you also say "the fucker was guilty but the state did not prove their case". So, aren't you somehow applying your notions instead of the evidence? How are you so sure the guy was guilty?

What you are proposing would be breaking the law. Like any law, people will follow it if they think they may be punished for breaking it. It would be up to China to enforce this if they think it is important.

In the case of India, when someone registers a SIM card he can expect a government official to visit his home and verify his identity shortly after the purchase (India is super paranoid after the Mumbai terrorists used cell phones to coordinate their attacks). I believe officials can visit your registered address anytime after that to make sure you haven't sold the card. If India can enforce a law like this, I'm sure China can.

They still use more power and cost more than ARM-based competitors like Infineon's chips and Apple's A4.

I actually think the way h264 was handled has been great. The group have tons of useful patents (most developed with private money and resources), and have come together to make a useful, organized format that will be ubiquitous for years to come. It is in the interest of many parties that the prices are fair to maximize the usage of the format. Contrast this situation with the way the current generation of disc formats played out, where 100s of millions of dollars were wasted bringing a closed format controlled by a single company.

The fact is, not everything will be free. This is a perfect example of how commercial entities and open source developers (like x264) can come together to maximize utility and profit.