Japanese awesomeness. What is this?

Cracked by: shrik, Rogi, Bharath, Ananth, Sanador, vinayaknp, Dibyo, jowens, puneet_k, Thejas V R, sandesh, Rahul Rajeev, lotuseater, Aditya Date, Logik, vijayaraghavan, Kaustubh, Siddarth Pai, dineshk, Anjul, udupendra, Whattra, Raghuvansh and Shwetha Maiya

What connects?

Cracked by: shrik, Bharath, Rogi, dineshk, Ananth, Sumanth Patlolla, vinayaknp, Manish Achuth, jowens, Dibyo, puneet_k, rohanquizzer, Thejas V R, sandesh, raklodramA, Sohail Nijas, Rahul Rajeev, v.chandrashekar, lotuseater, Logik, vijayaraghavan, Kaustubh, vkamath, Shwetha Maiya and mankuTimma

Where would you see this?

Cracked by: Ananth, Rogi, Kaustubh, jowens, Dibyo, dineshk, Anjul, KK, Tushar S, Sumanth Patlolla, Sanador, xeqtor, Manoj Venkat, Shwetha Maiya, Thejas V R, vinayaknp, Rahul Rajeev, soumya g, Manish Achuth, Siddarth Pai, Inglourious, mankuTimma, puneet_k, Moju21, Sohail Nijas, rohanquizzer, Mo, cnik, shrik and Bharath

Identify

Cracked by: KK, Sumanth Patlolla, Sohail Nijas, vinayaknp, Bharath, Moju21, Rahul Rajeev, lotuseater, Tushar S, shrey, Rogi, Kaustubh, madhur, dineshk, Ananth, Dibyo, Manish Achuth, Shwetha Maiya, Thejas V R, puneet_k, v.chandrashekar, lanu, Sanador, rohanquizzer, Aditya Date, cnik and jowens

(Very borderline geeky) What phrase has its origins in this seemingly trivial device?

Cracked by: Rogi, xeqtor, dineshk, vinayaknp, Dibyo, puneet_k, Whattra, cnik, Manish Achuth, Rahul Rajeev, udupendra, Siddarth Pai, Sumanth Patlolla, v.chandrashekar, shrik, Moju21, lotuseater, Ananth, Bharath, duriel, Sanador, Kaustubh, jowens, Atul Mathew and Thejas V R

Yay obscure meme question time! Identify the animal.

Pseudo-bonus points for full context.

Cracked by: Tushar S, Logik, puneet_k, Raghuvansh, jowens, Kaustubh, Rogi, Rahul Rajeev, dineshk, Bharath, Dibyo, Sumanth Patlolla, Manish Achuth, buk, vinayaknp, Siddarth Pai, Ananth, Moju21, Higgers, v.chandrashekar, Prachi, shrik, wanderlust, sandesh, udupendra, Thejas V R, syed muneer ali, lotuseater, Sohail Nijas, Shwetha Maiya, raklodramA, Mo and duriel

This question (including the title clue) comes to us from %gqh% Rogi!

What is this device?

Cracked by: Rogi and jowens

The successor to this diagram below is more famous. What is this an example of?

Cracked by: dineshk, Rogi, Siddarth Pai, jowens and Anjul

Identify the location in (1). (2) is a clue.

Cracked by: shrik, Pawankumar Hegde, jowens, Kaustubh, Rogi, Dibyo, Manish Achuth, Bharath, puneet_k, v.chandrashekar, lanu, dineshk, Qbrain, udupendra, Sumanth Patlolla, Rahul Rajeev, Sanador, Siddarth Pai, Ananth and Shwetha Maiya

See stage-1 for the rules.

4 variables here (H, I, J, K). Get all 4 right to get 1 point.

H and E were coworkers at legendary organization **I. **In fact H asked E to apply directly to the head of F, which was how E got his job there in the first place! H was hailed as an internet visionary due to his earlier achievements, his opinions of late (e.g. anti-Open Source, anti-Wireless Networks) have been radically wrong and he has had to eat his words in public on one occasion.

K was the first commercial success of J, the company that created G. J drew heavily on the work done at I to create K. A (probably false) legend has it that I was allowed to make a pre-IPO purchase of stock in J in exchange for some technical knowledge-transfer. I tried (and failed) to sue J later! F also sued J about similar matters, and was actually successful, a lawsuit that has had ramifications until the present day.

Cracked by dineshk, Kaustubh, Rogi, jowens, p vs np, puneet_k, shrik, Sumanth Patlolla, Dibyo, Bharath, Pawankumar Hegde, madhur, Raghuvansh, vinayaknp, lanu and Qbrain