RTFA. And anyone can accept donations in bitcoins.

Maybe he didn't think it through. What about OpenSource software? Who and How is going to be taxed? How is he going to identify errors without having to get functional specification (sanctioned by law) before hand? What about bugs that are difficult to identify as Hardware or Software A or Software B. What about beta software? Do you have to declare to the authorities that ur software is beta?

I just want to say, Good Luck. We are all counting on you.

After doing some research, I found out that Slashdotters tend to lean towards the right. They don't seem to be 20-30, male, educated and liberal types.

This does not prove that the thief is good person. I think the thief is someone close to the professor. But ones i was stopped by some guy in isolated place somewhere in Africa. He took everything i have, including mobile phone, shoes, eye glasses. But he was good enough to give me money for taxi. He even showed me where i can get transportation.

The problem you are describing is to do with operating system hardware abstraction. There are very easy ways of knowing whether the computer can support mouse and/or it is plugged it. Detecting hardware is not user space application functionality. It is operating systems job to do that and provide and a nice and consistent way of communication with applications. So What android should do to avoid these problems is to prepare, a well documented APIs that are consistent across versions and hardware. And let the application decide to run or not

China has bought IBM http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4077579.stm

I see it as the whole system (the bacteria colony) trying to preserve itself at the expense of some of its parts. Same thing but much more organized way of this happens in organisms.