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Let's take a step back and look at the goals of free software. It's not just to modify and tweak things I own, it's to allow me to modify, enhance and contribute that work back to the community.

By that yardstick, most textbooks and eyeglasses are not free. I can't improve a textbook and put it online. I can't put my improved sunglasses on the market (even if it was non-profit).

So why are people revolted by a copywrited and patented (hence unfree) OS, but have no qualms using other non-free products?

Personally, I think free and proprietary products can co-exist. Both models produce innovations which ultimately benefit society.

That's because the analog market has natural logistical limitations for copying and improvement.

I cannot OCR a paper book I own, make modifications to it and then publish it on the web. Nor can I photocopy that book and give it to friends.

Textbooks and eyeglasses are guarded by copyright and patents. I cannot improve on the design of Oakley sunglasses and hire a firm to manufacture them. I can modify it for myself, but that is a much more limited form of freedom. Microsoft probably wouldn't care if I somehow reverse engineered Windows and modified it for myself only.

Same goes for architecture. When I buy a house, I can make modifications to it. But I don't think I have the right to hire construction companies to build new houses based on the design.

Electronics and car companies guard heavily the schematics and designs that makes it possible to repair their products much less reproduce them.

Edit - One more thing: Just the ability to modify something you own (like textbooks or sunglasses) does not make it free. For example, I've made many modifications to OS X through utilities and configuration. The fact that OS X doesn't come with source code is equivalent to Textbooks not coming with their LaTeX source.

I'm curious about your thoughts outside of software. This is a sincere question because I often see so much passion about the topic in software, but rarely outside.

Do you only play free games, listen to free music and read free books? What about the electronics you use, the architecture of the buildings you live in and the car you drive?

Having gone to school in a small college town (UWaterloo), I always thought that 24hr open libraries and labs were the norm. I can't imagine not being able to work through the night on hard problems.

For MIT, such open policies must be more logistically challenging because they are close to a city. And my school never had the same culture of collaboration between departments and humble but famous professors.

I was referring to the Windows Phone app ecosystem. There is no app ecosystem for WP8 yet, and I assume that it will allow you to run WP7 apps.

And I did use WP7 for a week. My impressions of the Metro-style are that it is love-or-hate and I fall into the latter. WP8 is a continuation the Metro design language.

Well, Windows Phone has failed to gain traction in the marketplace and therefore lacks a proper app ecosystem.

Second, I think the WP8 UI very divisive. You either love it or you don't. Personally, I think it's a Pepsi. Sweet on first impression, but cumbersome to use every day. Too much scrolling (can't use muscle memory) and giant typography which distract from the content.

Bitcoin provides plausible deniability, which makes lawsuits difficult. In contrast to centralized banking systems which leave a paper trail.

And insuring bitcoins has its own logistical challenges that will probably scare an actuary.

Trust is a hard one as I'm sure the people who used bitfloor had trusted it until today.

A problem with an untraceable currency is that it's also very easy for an exchange to collaborate with a hacker and vanish (or declare banckrupcy). Not saying that is what happened here, but that would be my fear.

I don't think there is anything special about this "video" ad that lends itself to scrolling. You can take any video (infographic, music video, advertisement) and conceptually scroll through it using a mouse, but what does that gain you?

If you could interact with the elements and there was more than 1 dimension of scroll.. then that'd be going beyond.

great work, it would be great if left/right and more keyboard shortcuts could be enbaled

Yes, but those procedures will become increasingly automated and each sysadmin will manage orders of magnitude greater number of servers.

Chromebook's claim to fame (or primary selling point) of 8 second boot-up is very gimmicky to me. People never hard power off their tablets and never need to for most notebooks. If they are, that's a usability issue they're having with the OS, not a limitation.

A fairer comparison is time to resume from standby. But then, Chromebook will have to push their other selling points.

Google Analytics sends URLs to Google on a even larger majority of websites. FB was hardly the one to start this trend.

The different in FB case, that they are not "required" to track URLs so they could of chosen an alternate implementation where sites in-directly served FB scripts through their own servers. And FB would only received a request when someone interacted with their elements.

Regulation will not change underlying biases.

Hypothetically, if employers are behaving irrationally by ignoring a significant pool of talent, then they are shooting themselves in the foot. A rational company would swoop up the talent at below market rates and have a competitive edge.

I doubt that all companies are irrational. The unemployed are likely have less relevant skills. And there is a sampling bias where those unemployed longest are over-represented.

I'm still confused by the outrage. I'm not an expert but a 1/2MM incidence rate seems pristinely low compared to the baseline risk of burglaries. If those 2MM homeowners had not used AirBNB, how many of their homes would have been robbed?

AirBnB should definitely add supplemental insurance; which should be low due to such a great record.