Wow. For the vast majority of people who are affected by the difference in these platforms, this means exactly squat.

Glad you're impressed. Now you see why Steve Jobs is CEO of the second-largest company in the US, and Andy Rubin is a geek at Google.

I certainly don't hold material gain above all else, but Rubin's reply shows exactly the kind of hubris that Google is getting a bad reputation for here in the valley; it's a bunch of geeks on a power trip in many cases, hence the arcane and off-topic interview question highlighted in today's Mercury News. Google makes engineers feel special, Apple engineers look at the numbers and balance sheets and say: "Our products rock". They don't need to be told how special they are simply because they can decipher a piece of code. They can see it in customers' faces.

The vette also has a ridiculously tall top gear, which at 60 mph is ticking the engine over just a few hundred rpm over idle.

Helps fuel efficiency at highway speeds immensely, given the low cD of the vette.

You'll never be able to build and support hardware while maintaining your current net profits.

Penny wise, pound foolish.

Fucking gasoline explosions, how do they work?

Lion is plausible, but I suspect it will be called Leo.

Mac OS 8 was originally developed as Mac OS 7.7. I have the beta CD to prove it....

I use NeXTStep 4.2 on VMWare, you insensitive clod!

Several answers and none is quite right.

Commercial and civilian jets all have certified ceilings that vary depending on the weight, balance, of the aircraft and length of the cruise, headwinds, weather, etc.

Most comercial jetliners can cruise at 36-40,000 feet. The Concorde cruised higher, at around 60-62,000 feet.

Additionally, commercial jets usually stick to well-known routes directed by ATC. Spacing for height and distance is variable.

It's a trap!

I think Smartphones are one area where the vertical integration model works well. The fragmentation of Android will diminish it's value to handset makers as customers like you get soured on the issues involved.

This is not how the Face of Boe got his name.

Or maybe so.

Strangely enough, I find that even over ten years after leaving an Unnamed large computer company's customer relations group that my fingers type "customer" when my brain commands "custom".

Shit, almost did it again.

Do they give money back to the users when a drug dealer is busted?

At the altitude that the space station is oribiting, there is no atmosphere, and thus no drag per se.

I beg to differ. From SpaceRef.com:

"As a further consequence of ISS attitude, the station's daily orbital decay has been at its lowest (~20 m/day). Orbital decay is a function of atmospheric density at the orbit altitude and the station's cross-sectional ("frontal" or "ram") area, which creates the drag. Depending on attitude, ISS drag area can vary between a low of 390 square meters (where it is currently) and a high of 670 sq.m."

Well there is that Saturn V on the lawn somewhere. Houston I think.

One in Houston, two in Huntsville.

The wings on the thing are just on there to help control the descent and serve as fuel storage.

Shuttle keeps fuel in the wings, hunh? That's a new one. Here I was, all these years, thinking that's what the big orange tank was for.

The wings on the shuttle do not provide lift; the entire shape of the shuttle does. Do a search for "NASA lifting body tests".