Personally, I've always thought of these plagiarism detection systems as ticking time bombs. The more data they acquire, the less unique each individual work entered into the system becomes. Eventually, a point will come where there will be a near 100% false-positive rate on submitted works that are original, but fail because they are worded too similarly to works already stored in the database.

For example:

"With a program called Pl@giarism, Vickers detected 200 strings of three or more words in 'Edward III' that matched phrases in Shakespeare's other works. Usually, works by two different authors will only have about 20 matching strings."

Okay... so, is the system keeping track of the time periods in which these works are written? There's a good chance that those numbers can vary greatly based on how literate a person is and their degree of formal education. A small number of matched strings between authors might be likely if they're each familiar with writing enough to utilize things like synonyms in their writing patterns.

But what about authors that aren't as educated and utilize speech and writing patterns that are more normalized among their peers? You could have significantly higher matched string counts between them.

It gets even worse when you introduce the internet savvy into the equation, where most of their contact with the outside world is specifically done through the internet. People of similar interests and trends who spend hours talking with each other in public chat channels are likely to pick up huge similarities in their writing patterns, much like how close knit communities tend to speak with similar accents and phrases over time. Our social networks directly influence how we communicate with one another.

Considering the fact that this is now a global phenomenon, it is inevitable that our individual written works will become so normalized that it will be almost impossible to distinguish who has written what with any real certainty by automated means. Especially in the generations to come!

Ok, so it's not that cool looking, but the potential here is great... especially once the things can be self-contained.

The main reason this thing seems kind of lame right now, is likely due to the fact that the support lattice is only a simple sphere. Give these guys a couple more years, and I bet they'll be able to support far more complex structures, perhaps even to the point of reshaping its own support lattice at varying resolutions.

Once they can manage that much, it should be possible for them to start working on complex IK chains to create virtual joints on the fly. Think of it being able to morph from a sphere to an insect like body with legs and back again, based on the environmental conditions it's deployed into.

Another potential use, moving large objects on top of it as it maintains a solid, level surface, while below, it moves in a manner similar to snakes. This could be done both as a serpentine pattern and as a method some snakes use by gripping the ground with their scales and then contract and expand their body to slide forward.

The potential here should not be underestimated.

So lets see... we now have:

- App name squatting
- List jockeying (continuous updates to apps with no description of what was actually changed)
- List flooding (releasing dozens of variations of the same app with only minor differences... like a picture of a kitty!)
- Born-again apps (repeated removal and relaunching of the same app over and over)

Did I miss anything else?

Apple Inc. != Apple Computer Inc.

Apple Computer was the "cool" Apple that made you want to root for the underdog and wait for the "next big thing" like a kid on christmas morning.

The current Apple, however, is just plain evil and needs to be put down before it hurts us all. I love the mac, but I can't help but be unnerved by what the platform will become under this new "lock it all down" attitude Apple has.

I know a few years ago, I had some adobe software I wanted to sell through ebay. Basically, there was no problem in doing this so long as I filled out their Transfer of Ownership documents and sent a copy to the new owner to sign and then mail to adobe.

If these guys have a similar program available, then there's really no excuse for jumping the gun on the seller.

On the other hand, they may be well within their rights to do this if they specifically deny you the ability to transfer your license to a new owner right off the bat. (Though, it would make doing business with them far less attractive, especially at the prices they charge for the software.)

Just a thought, but could such a system create an environment that discourages cholesterol buildup and the formation of blood clots in the arteries/veins?

Now they just need to merge this with a federally required RFID marker to identify you and the system can simply flag you as a threat automatically whenever you act outside of set threshold determined by a collectively gathered log of your previous day to day activities.

An angel investor, that is! ("venture capitalist" for the uninitiated....)

It may be a bit more competitive now, due to the struggling economy, but for a long time, there have been groups and individuals out there just looking for innovative ideas to invest in. (Kind of similar to ABC's recent "Shark Tank" show, but without all the reality TV nonsense...)

You can find several of these investors on the internet via a web search. Most of them have actual business websites. (And not just some ad posted on craigslist...)

Just be sure to check references before making any deals to ensure their legitimacy.

Have these wind turbines registered with the National Weather Service and mark the locations in the system. Also, place transponders on the turbines to verify their operational status. If a tornado is detected near a known turbine location and the turbine fails to report its status, there probably is "something" in the area bad enough to damage a turbine.

Simply make the device itself expendable to the owner. Create a setup where any storage media on the device can be quickly removed when not in use and implement it in a way that forces the user to practice it regularly. For example, make removing the storage itself the "on/off" switch for the device.

Some other tactics I've noticed lately:

Release a undisclosed "bug fix" every few days to keep an app higher up in the listings. I've noticed a few developers who, like clockwork, release a new bug fix every week on the same app, with no info on what exactly was broken in the previous version.

Remove and relaunch the same app every couple of months. Not even a bad review can harm a clean slate.

"Theme" your apps and release dozens of variants into the same category. You might just get lucky and find a few idiots biting because one version of your app has a picture of a kitty in it!

This almost sounds like an induced form of synesthesia, a condition where someone's senses operate involuntarily as a merged experience. For example, sounds that generate visual feedback or brief changes in taste.

Most likely, there won't be "satellite" devices like smart phones in the future. Instead, your data will simply "follow" you around automatically and independently, allowing you to access it at any time from anywhere that's connected to whatever the internet has become by then. (Probably some elaborate cloud configuration that's built into literally everything at the nanoscopic level via a "smart dust" that acts as both a diagnostic sensory tool for whatever it's applied to and as an always-on communication terminal accessible to anyone.

In short, the world will adapt to you as needed, making the act of owning personal information/communication devices obsolete.

From my point of view, large-footprint downloadable content for console-based games is both lazy and deceptive on the part of game publishers. Game consoles aren't generally designed for long-term storage of files in excess of a few megabytes per game. In the past, such content would have been packaged and sold as sequels. Nowadays, the publishers are foregoing the work and expense involved in manufacturing physical copies in favor of downloads tied to a single system.

Don't be fooled by the arguments that this is done solely to get the game out the door sooner and into eager players hands. Instead, DLC is merely the first stage in bringing modern game consoles in line with the phantom's locked-down digital only approach to game distribution. Next, we got smaller download-only games (Virtual Console, PSN, XBLA) to test the waters with content tied to the user. That was followed by publishers working in "exclusive" content included on the disc of new games but accessible only once by the original buyer via codes obtained from the retailers... again, tied to the user. Now, we're entering the fourth stage... full retail games repackaged as downloads at a "budget discount"... but still tied to the user.

There's only two stages left until we're fully in line with the phantom... simultaneous release of new retail games as downloads, followed by download only releases of new, big-budget titles.

This is all an elaborate effort to stamp out the used game market by making the only "used" games valueless "digital" copies tied directly to the user with no option to transfer ownership later on... all done under the guise of "added value" and "convenience".

Enjoy it now if you want, but just remember where that money all disappeared to a few years down the road, where having physical copies of those titles could be saving your ass from a night in a cardboard box.

Between the "crutch of knowledge" position the internet has taken up in our brains combined with the constant barrage of messages from various sources that science is "evil" (ie, the scientific community agenda to kill religion, science geeks are potential terrorists, etc...), we're getting dumber by the minute. God forbid we ever get hit by some event that takes electricity away from us... we'll be lucky if we can figure out how to feed ourselves.