The fact that Facebook and Apple are Google's competitors in certain markets -- namely advertising and mobile eco-system -- doesn't diminish his point that a walled-garden, unsearchable web (Facebook) is a poor substitute for what we had 10 years ago, and that a walled-garden mobile eco-system that ties you to a single hardware vendor (Apple) is similarly no good. Google+ posts are searchable on Bing or any other search engine and if you don't link your Samsung Galaxy SII, you can replace it with an HTC Rezound or a Motorola Razr Maxx without losing your apps or data.

You haven't addressed the points he makes about Facebook and Apple, nor his concern about governments imposing restrictions on use of the internet and surveillance legislation that affects internet users' privacy. Stating that Facebook and Apple are competitors isn't insightful - it's obvious, and it doesn't invalidate his argument.

Easy fix. Upper-right corner of the search results: click "hide personal results" (the globe icon). If you want to get rid of them permanently: settings drop-down, "Do not use personal results" radio button.

Not to mention they don't cover the fact that while the 3G was updated, the updates (particularly iOS4) left it barely useable. Tap camera... wait 30s... shutter opens. Tap Maps... wait 1 min... maps crashes. Tap it again... another crash... phone starting to heat up now. At first I thought it was faulty hardware, but my wife's had essentially the same problems.

On further digging I call bullshit. Let's see a valid citation that claims sale of used games is illegal.

Here are some showing it isn't:
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/22924/used-game-sales-upheld-in-japan/ [2002]

Online shopping for used games:
http://www.suruga-ya.jp/game.html

Used games flourish in Japan:
http://www.hudsonent.com/user/feature.php?f=IT_CAME_FROM_JAPAN__Used_Games_Market&feature_id=%99%A4%A7%AA%96%A5

Can't be bothered to look it up, but if it is illegal, it certainly doesn't stop any of the shops near my place from selling them... and you don't often see people openly flouting even minor laws here.

Having grown up on the West Coast of Canada, and lived in California and 5 years in Japan... this earthquake was barely even noticeable in Montreal, despite co-workers panicking. Potted plant balanced on my cubicle wall still sitting there. A lot of overreaction in a region not used to earthquakes.

Names, phone numbers, email and snail-mail addresses:
http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E

is what we Canadians call it... eh :P

Japan is again considering to introduce DST even though we already concluded it won't work in Japan for cultural/geometrical reasons decades ago.

I don't want DST here either, but let's at least roll back one hour all year long. It's insane that the sun comes up at 4am in summer time and goes down at 7:30pm. A whole 2-3 hours of daylight is lost while we sleep! I'd much rather have it light from 5am-8:30pm in summer and 7am-5:30 in winter than what we have today.

Might not matter as much in Okinawa, but I know it bothers me in Tokyo, and it'd be worse in Hokkaido.