Unless you are hundreds of years old, or actually living in a cave and off the grid, life never was private.

In most countries, people are required to have an ID, like Social Security number in the USA.
From that alone the government has your ID number, name, and usually an address and contact information.
This info is often shared in many places, like banks, credit card companies, places of employment, etc.
If you work for a company, as most people do, chances are you applied at many places before you got this last job.
Each company gets lots of information about you, checks your info, credit, criminal background, references and past history, even if you don't get the job.

Then most people live in some type of dwelling. You have to give lots of your information to them, even if you buy the property.
Like most people, you probably get service of utilities like electricity. They want your information also.
Unless you like staring at the walls most people have some sort of tv service, like cable or satellite. They want your info.
Same is true for Internet service, and most any other type of service. They all want and usually get your info.

When you pay your expenses, unless you use only cash, you tell these service business where you store your money, and your financial companies which services you buy. The secrets are out!

If you don't choose to be a hermit, you might choose to make friends, buy groceries, visit places, and they want your info too.

So of all the millions or possibly billions of people these companies like Google have information on, with billions of bits of information, why is YOUR information so special or interesting that it even matters if you store your contacts or emails with them or on your local phone or some computers and servers???

Your life was never private, and unless you really want to remove yourself from any sort of life, it never will be. Privacy is a facade. Only tiny bits of your information can be kept secret. Even account numbers and passwords have to be stored on these companies servers just so you can login.

Using many of the conveniences of life, they can make life easier, simpler or both. Technology is a big part that. To give up so much versatility to hide so little information that is stored with only those companies that provide the services, just like all the other services you already use, seems too high a price to pay just for some pretend privacy.

Most consumer Internet does not promise any guaranteed rate or speed, only that it can peak "up to" a certain speed.
If you want guaranteed performance, you will probably have to pay for a business line, which is far more expensive.

"Linux" is a *kernel*, and YES Android devices run Linux kernels.
However, you may mean "Does it run a Linux distribution?"
Not yet, since the existing distributions were written to run on different hardware.

However, Android devices are running a Linux kernel and have Linux drivers for the hardware.
So, all that is needed is for developers to choose to write a Linux distribution for Android devices.

I can see it now, a newbie joins a game server, with 15 other players. They play the current FPS game, but are not very good.
After a couple of hours, they see this message from the game system:
"15 out of 15 other players have rated you as: Loser. That will cost you $30 in penalties. Your credit card has been charged."
Since the other players were rated higher, some of that money goes to lower their game playing costs.

Somehow, one price for all, seems more fair.

It's a good thing she didn't share music files from a CD at the same.
She could have owed millions of dollars, and her sentence might have been for a much longer time!

I must live in a different "North America". At least where I live, in a city in California, usa, I don't know anyone with an Xbox. Some gamers I know have a PC, some have a ps3, and some have a Wii. None have an Xbox.

First, they tested only a few games.
Plus, the video card is far more important with intensive 3D games.

However, some games do take advantage of multiple cores.
I ran Unreal Tournament 3 on a dual quad-core computer, and it used all 8 cores.

Part of the problem is that many of the kids today, have shorter attention spans than 10 second Tom.
They want instant gratification and rewards for very little effort, and so many of them don't even want to work.
So real apprenticeship type situations go unnoticed or ignored.
Soon they will invent the Matrix, just so they don't have to face reality.

... that's if you can figure out, and remember, which of your HUGE, 2 person, bridge crew, performs which jobs:

"Commander, er, Lieutenant, oh, um, Ensign..., oh the hell with it! Whichever one of you is also the Engineer, turn the crank on the Warp Drive, and get us out of here!!"

This baby is overclocked and water cooled, running at 2.3 Ghz!
It's so fast when talking on the phone, my friends sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

This has not changed. You can still install software in your home directory the old fashioned way.
Just don't expect to use a package manager.

Sure I can. I can use my text editor, remove all the BSD License words, and paste in the other license.
Done! See?

You claim that you have a problem supporting the older users, with declining eye vision. Yet, you seem to care more about office politics, instead of finding the best tool for the job. The idea of having a large monitor in the office, is really just a mental block, especially by those that don't need one. Chances are, if a person actually needs larger sizes, they could get a Doctor's note to support this.

I have declining vision, due to an eye disease.
I bought a HDTV/monitor 3 years ago, a 37" LCD monitor. At first, it seemed gigantic, compared to the 19" LCD screen I had at the time. After a while, I realized how easy it was on my eyes, and to get work done. I no longer needed my monitor just inches away from my eyes, to see my computer desktop clearly.

A standard LCD monitor, up to 24", typically has approximately 100 PPI (pixels per inch), which is just fine for those with good vision.
The 37" LCD has 59 PPI, and my current 52" LCD monitor has 42 PPI, and is 4 feet from my eyes. .
I was once advised to buy a 30" LCD screen, which cost $1200 at the time. However, this is even worse for the money. It is 120 PPI in native resolution of 2560x1600. However, if used at 1280x800, it simulates 60 PPI, but a 37" is much cheaper.

There are a lot of different sizes of monitors, from 15" to 65" LCD. The 37" seems like the best value for the money, and cost as lost as $500.
You can try other sizes, like a 28" for about $380.

Until the person who needs the larger monitor can see it with THEIR eyes, you won't know for sure.
After using the 37" 3 years ago, I will never go back. Those that are too cheap to buy the proper size, can just live with lower resolution, or the strain on their eyes.
However, I warn you about not looking for the proper solution, just to avoid office politics.
There have been many lawsuits over ergonomics in the work place. The monitor is part of that issue.

A landlord can enter the property, even without waiting for permission, to inspect it, as long as they have given the tenant at least 24 hours notice in writing. Laws vary per state.

DNA samples?? What's next? Anal probing?!?
Who needs aliens from outer space, when the government is on its way to doing this to humans?

How do I get off this rock?