re: software gripe
I think this supposed epidemic of software not getting updated at the user end isn't really so much a result of lazy users as it is a result of commercial software updates not being trustworthy.
Look at Windows - updates are opaque, are pushed out without warning, occasionally include adware, and put the system out of action for an inordinately long period of time. It's not poor planning that causes industrial systems to be running Windows XP SP1, it's shoddy software quality that does.
When responsibilities get chopped up to the point that nobody is responsible for anything, problems that have an easy and obvious fix become impossible to solve because nobody has the authority to just do the needful and everything gets hung up because the only person with the authority to do some tiny part of the task got laid off 3 months prior and the person who would have noticed stuff not getting done was eliminated during the merger. But at least it's all documented and CYA'd.
For those of you wondering what I’m talking about: in response to tumblr attempting to drive off the better part of its user base a bunch of fans got together to spec out what they wanted out of a social platform for fandom. The finished doc is 134 pages long & includes discussions on everything from federated vs centralized to identity verification to How Tags Should Work.
If you want to read it, you can do so here: http://docs.google.com/document/d/1r-Wof6X0aPXjU15edcqukZjwqIiNfrbJFOwaYT48UMg/
Innovating without a budget and giving the result away to the world seems like a better thing to give an award for than successfully taking other people's money to start your for profit company.
They should send me an award anyway. I've innovated stuff and done it on a budget of approximately $0.
Author of Typica software for coffee roasters.