@#10
I don't know if people in East Asia are more submissive than the Indian Sub-Continent, but if any hotel tried that in India, Indians will beat the shit out of them. Of course, we excel at other kinds of bigotry! :)

What I'd like to know is how do you finagle your way into something like TED? Friends in high places?

It's all great watching TED talk videos after the fact and reading attendant's blogs, but it's really the networking opportunity TED presents that's fascinating.

On a side note, what with the combined IQ of the gathering, I hope the terr'ists don't get any ideas! Hey, I'm just sayin, y'know! :-P

Why can't we ordinary citizens pool together some money to put stuff like this on the airwaves? Too many people in US are unaware that there is such an issue at all!

Microsoft has a history of taking on something good and mangling it. Look at Hotmail. Hotmail was the single greatest webmail system when Microsoft bought it. Now, it's just people lingering on because they don't feel like moving. Nothing exciting has happened with Hotmail since GMail took over the lead. If you suggest Hotmail's recent UI updates, you should compare the Hotmail and GMail UIs objectively.

The reason Flickr users should be worried is the Bloglines example. Bloglines introduced web-based RSS aggregators to the masses 5+ years ago. Then, Ask.com bought it and killed all top-end development, and Bloglines users defected en-masse to Google Reader. Flickr will almost certainly stagnate if MS takes over. Then, users will start leaving and new users will join whatever else becomes the leader. Then, MS will 'merge' Flickr with their Live Photos service, and Flickr will become another has-been.

Yes, Flickr users ought to protest. I'm not a MS hater. I've worked for MS, and they are a great company to work for. But they are also a bully company to be a customer of.

The first thing I thought of when I read Egypt and Internet was the nondescript building Neal Stephenson mentions in Mother Earth Motherboard. It's an awesome read! Check it out at:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

A relevant part:
" The adjective Blade-Runneresque means much to those who have seen the movie. (For those who haven't, just keep reading.) I will, however, never again be able to watch Blade Runner, because all of the buildings that looked so cool, so exquisitely art-directed in the movie, will now, to me, look like feeble efforts to capture a few traces of ARENTO's Alexandria station at night.
"