The Skype network is certainly interesting. It's based on peer-to-peer architecture that can sustain itself and requires only small amount of centralized infrastructure. Last time the network was affected after a buggy software update Skype only added more of their own supernodes to the network to stabilize it and later shut them down. It's certainly great use of P2p technology. If you think about it, the normal phone network is really centralized too. Even if you're just calling your neighbor your phone call goes far away to exchange. But with Skype the users with good network and computers can become supernodes and the data travels in the network. And it's still really fast! If you think about it, the normal phone network could be compared to a brothel - a central dirty place where the transactions happen. But Skype's P2P model allows the client to travel the network on its own. You take your neighbor node and tell him if you want a woman or ladyboy tonight. You choose ladyboy and he guides you to the correct direction. He's not a pimp tho, just a friendly neighbor on the network. Soon you see a group of fine ladyboys and start processing them. First one has too small boobs. Move to the next one. You don't like the face, next one. Ugh, looks too much like a guy. At ladyboy number six there's a match and your Skype client tells her you have this group protocol extension. The ladyboy client can handle it too, so all three of you handshake and start the process. Now with normal phone network that wouldn't be possible - if the call exchange (brothel) doesn't have the extension (group fun) implemented, you're out of luck.

Supernodes and P2P network is also the reason Skype works so good and easily with NAT networks too. If both of you are behind NAT, the supernodes on the network will relay your traffic. Is there anything similar on the open source clients? As far as I know they're pretty much based on the old client-server model.

I always find it stupid that even here people say that malware on Linux would not be able to gain root like in Windows. Spam bots, fake antiviruses, password stealing nasties and so on run perfectly fine under normal user account. There is no reason why they would require admin privileges. All the personal files are accessible on normal user account and spam can be send without root too. Sure, it could hide a little bit better if it had root access, but there's plenty of tricks to pull out under normal account too. It's like a guy making everything overcomplicated by thinking how he needs to act like a perfect guy and take the girl to a fancy restaurant and many dates before having intercourse with her. Sometimes it's just easier to go for a ladyboy - a woman with mens desire for sex. Requiring access to root account would be more common situation with something like hacking servers since you need to modify logs and really hide in the system. Most likely you also need to get access to HTTP ports and under Linux you need root account for those. But malware runs perfectly fine under user account.

China? The article talks about prison bosses, not the Chinese government in general. And frankly, I would seriously choose farming gold in World of Warcraft over the hard labor on mines. Just clicking away seems like a breeze compared to that.

American "researchers" crying over this is quite stupid anyway. Having lived long periods in different Asian countries, the 12 hour working day is not unusual at all. It's the norm. I had a ladyboy girlfriend who worked at clothing store and her day started at 8am and lasted until 8pm. Still the pay wasn't that good, but it's nowhere. Especially not working in the farms. Farming virtual gold is actually one of the things that pay really well. So unless you want to help increase the total wealth and income in the countries, there's nothing to do about it. The people are seriously hard working tho, and if they choose to farm gold as job, it's their decision and they do it because they get paid well.

That's why ladyboy analogies are the best. They look pretty, but they are still as wise as men.

It's once again religions that is causing problems. Not only this, but since religions were invented. Religion was basically a way to control people without valid reasoning. It sounds a lot better to go to war "for the god" than if the king admitted he just wants more power, gold and lands. When Falun Gong started mass gathering on the streets of China, of course the Chinese government saw a problem with that. It's an absolutely HUGE nation with more than 1,3 billion people and huge land area. Combined with poverty a religious movement taking a stand will cause huge problems. Most of the Chinese also understand this.

What I do, however, see interesting that Falun Gong takes aspects of Buddhism. As I see it Buddhism is the one religion that makes most sense and is actually good for people in general. It doesn't tell people that they should spread Buddhism via forced violence like Christianity and Islam does. It tries to tell people to accept people the way they are. This is extremely visible in South East Asian countries where it's not uncommon to see men who have always felt like they should be women actually be so. Buddhism accepts that instead of just man and a woman there is four genders - man, woman, ladyboy and hermafrodites. Transsexuals are still far from accepted in western countries where the religion has generally been Christianity. Christianity as a religion is really closed minded and promotes forcing people to think the same way you do. Buddhism on the other hand is based on the belief that you should be kind to others and let them be the way they are if it doesn't hurt other people. By being like this you get karma and in future you might be in better position.

So, Apple developers are protected. It also looks like Google and Microsoft have licensed the patents for Android and Windows Phone 7. Technically the in-app purchases also work the same way - via Apple/Google/Microsoft services.

The big question here is, what about Android mods like CyanogenMod and non-official stores? Android is the only mobile platform of those that offer it. If you aren't using the official channels for your application and have in-app purchases, will you be liable for patent infringement? I have a ladyboy friend who is really interested in mobile development, but this might again be a hit against Android's openness and make her rethink about the situation. Sure, you are protected if you use the official Google channels to do it, but the point of Android is to be open and let both users and developers do it their own way if they want to. I am sure that if you implement the in-app purchases in your independent way, and distribute your application yourself, you also need to get the patent. But what about the third party stores?

Why do you think that all ladyboys are prostitutes? It's kind of like saying all women are whores.

The stupid thing with glossy screens is that they're completely unusable in the sun. Every year I spend half of the year in Thailand and want to get some work done by the pool, but it just isn't possible with a glossy screen. It's distracting and gives headaches. Now matte screen isn't that great in direct sunlight either, but even if you get some shadow for it glossy screen is completely unusable.

But other than that glossy screen really is better. The colors come out a lot nicer and more vibrant. So if you aren't like me who enjoys laying down at the pool watching beautiful thai ladyboys and drinking some beer while getting work done, just get a glossy screen. It's much better and nicer to look at.

What I've been wondering tho, since iPad 2 has glossy screen, does any of the Android ones have matte? iPad like device would suit me even better at the pool since laptop is still kind of a hassle to carry around and gets really hot in the sun. I was already going to buy an iPad, but people said it's unusable in sunlight too.