That's prety cool. I had 4/4 right and started to suspect it was saying right to everything as a joke, 'cos I hadn't signed up. That's when I found out I didn't know the proper term for cat whiskers!
Escape From Colditz, if I remember correctly, has a 'Do or Die' card you can play. Basically, you roll the dice x times and must escape in that many moves. If you don't make it you are shot dead. Kinda like a startup.
There's all kind of stuff in TOU's that the lawyers insist on. I think Apple are actually concerned that people will run telephony apps across the mobile network. So the threat isn't in the language/environment per se, it's the apps they might support. Presumably a delinquent app can be identified by its traffic and the iPhone disabled whatever language is used.
A quick search on http://arxiv.org for 'spacecraft anomaly' shows ~50 papers - mostly about the Pioneer anomaly. Some do suggest dark matter as the cause.
Is there a cumulative reduction in friction everywhere? I'd say yes. I've used Unix, PC and Mac for years and have always found I get more done and am happier when it's on a Mac.
Maybe you're right that it would be impossible to hide this in America.
I don't like to get all conspiratorial, but have you read 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man'? If half of what Perkins writes is true, then maybe it wouldn't be so hard. He says that there is a parallel economic system in operation that most of us don't know about. If you were part of that world, you probably could flaunt your wealth... you just have to be sure it's hidden from the population at large.
I dunno, haven't trillions gone missing from the Pentagon budget? Who has all that money? I think it might be easier to hide immense wealth than you suggest. Granted, to do so would require extreme political power or approval, which is why the GP's question about Putin is so insightful.
Same here, however I've started treating my laptop as a 'thin client'. All my files are hosted on my iMac, which I access over Wi-Fi when at home, or via iDisk/Back to My Mac when elsewhere.
That's an interesting question. Buffet is clearly the "world's richest man" measured by the criteria used by the author of this article. I suspect there are many people in the world who are 'richer', but we don't know about them because they operate in the 'black' economy or appear much further down the 'official' list.
When Steve retires, a lot of OS X fans could switch to Linux, figuring Apple will never recover from the loss. Maybe hackers will then take the task of turning Linux into the best OS seriously.
I think a distributed startup could work. HD video conferencing will be affordable very soon. With a ~20" HD monitor and a little suspension of disbelief, you could converse with a co-worker as if they sat opposite you.
Right, but bear with me - in my 'fantasy economy', one thing companies could do to prevent consumers over-reaching themselves is raise prices? I'm not saying they should, or would do this. I assume all they should do is make money for their owners (and hang the consequences, lol)?
Interesting. So companies would have to raise prices to prevent consumers from over-stretching themselves - but of course they have no reason to do this, they should just take the money and hoard it for use later?
So, a naive interpretation of this state of affairs is companies are ripping off consumers by over-charging them, and are also partly responsible for the credit crunch?
Social software with a 'how closely I'm related to you' feature would be compelling. Social networks obviously apply, but how about when you exchange emails with someone... wouldn't it be cool if it mentioned a common ancestor in the footer? Oh, and on a dating site, automatically filter out all first and second cousins!