Boeing has been there longer than Ipod of Tivo. I dont think Boeing sold has many planes as Apple has sold Ipods. Does that mean its less of a success? I know, I know, this kind of generalization does not hold... I am just stepping up your comparison to another degree. It might be 'intuitive' for you to measure the success of Ipod and Tivo with the same parameters, only thing is, its not scientific.

From the Google blog, I am not really sure why Google wants to re-think the understanding they had with the Chinese govt. Google has not directly made an allegation that the gmail accounts of the human rights activists was hacked by the Chinese govt.

I dont know if anyone wondered whether a test used 1938 would be relevant in 2010? For eg: If a kid was question about being gay in 1938 and if he thought that being gay was OK, he would have been judged abnormal...I would guess? This question does not make much sense in the world today

See the movie Frost/Nixon?

You think there will be internet in 2020?

A line can't be straight and curved in 2D!

Lets say I create a codec for broadcasts which contain totally random information at periodic intervals which will be ignored by my decoder. Now if I replace this random information with some more detail about the picture, but using less data than the random data that was injected in periodic intervals, theoretically I have produced better quality with lower bitrate!! Taking a more practical outlook, I am sure out of the many tens of codec and decoders that are used out there today, I am sure some codecs could be very smart in compressing video data with better quality at lower bitrate. So, its all in your codec and decoder!

$16000 might be pocket change to MS. They must have hired a few Indian lawyers and paid them to fight their case(they are helping job creation). So the defendants didnt lose anything(they are happy), a few lawyers in New Delhi got paid. I guess everybody is happy. Win- Win.

Are you suggesting that the rulings are different if you are from a different caste? If so, you are uninformed but you think otherwise!

In the article, somewhere it is claimed that 25000 Rs = 5000$. This is is incorrect. 1$ is approx equal to 46 Rs. Even if you assume that 1$ ~ 50 Rs, 25000 Rs ~ 500$

What if you didnt find another job? What if you really wanted that job and didnt really care if your boss was a religious tight ass?

I am surprised that many of my postings on slashdot or not scored 5 by others( which I was expecting ). Sigh... This study about male ego explains it I guess.

What are you doing in slashdot?

So, are you saying there should be no investment in defence or counter-terrorism or space programs just because people are (quoting you) "pissing and shitting on the streets"? One Idea is that Investing in security will create a safe environment that will create jobs that will eventually decrease poverty ( I guess a more dignified way to put it? )