This article is based on the premise that people correlate the number of features of a product to the simplicity of using the product. This isn't an accurate premise. A better description of the problem would be that features get added to products without much thought for how it integrates with usability. "The Design of Everyday Things" is a good book that addresses where and why design goes wrong. http://amzn.to/17Wew
In MRI Ruby 1.8, Ruby creates a single native thread and all other threads run in that native thread. In Ruby 1.9, each Ruby thread is a native thread. In JRuby, Ruby uses native threads created via the JVM. Not sure about IronRuby, Rubinus, or Ruby EE. A tangled web of options for sure.
We still own the "traditional" childhood games mentioned in the article but rarely play them.