Before WASD became the norm, it used to be common to use right Control as fire/action button in games together with the arrow keys.

It does not send the same key code as the Menu key though.
Reportedly, it sends Windows + Shift + F23.
(Apparently there are also several other hidden key combination with the Windows key and F14...F24.)

I have seen the "hamburger" Menu symbol as an alternate legend on the Copilot key on some laptop keyboards though, so I'd guess that it is available as Fn+Copilot.
Hopefully, there will be some laptops on which it can be remapped in BIOS also. That would be preferable IMO.
I always map it to the Compose key myself, as I like to express myself with beautiful non-ASCII symbols such as ligatures, maths and logic symbols, etc where appropriate.

You are misrepresenting the situation by calling it "not a thing", indicating that the decline would be demand-driven.
It is not. The Swedish telephone operators are actively discontinuing landlines where they can, and pricing it to make it near-unaffordable in areas where it is still common, so as to push consumers and businesses to use the more profitable cell networks instead.

It's also why, when a manufacturer stops supporting a particular version of software, they should be legally obliged to open source the code and file formats.

I am not sure I agree about going as far as requiring all abandonware to become open source. In many cases, there are complex licensing issues with components, especially with video games.

I think that publishers of commercial software should be required to have any DRM keys to into escrow ahead of publication.. When the software becomes abandonware (for whatever reason: stop of support, closing of servers, bankruptcy, etc.) then the escrow agent would release the DRM keys publicly.
The publisher would have been required before publication to have proven that using those keys would be enough to make the software free to copy and use.

Did the Apple IIGS have any clones at all?

It had several Apple-proprietary chips, including the video controller.

Originally, "smiley faces", or "emoticons" where not used as words. They were intended to express feelings.

They are there as a substitute for intonation in conjunction with words because it is otherwise difficult to express intonation in text form.

So, the most a thumbs-up emoji can do to express entering into a contract, is to express that you are feeling positive about the contract and want to proceed.
But it does not necessarily mean that you'd want to enter it right now.

The problem is who is allowed to create them, and assigning responsibility for how they are used.

Well, that's just the crux. Microsoft is marketing this tool as "safe and appropriate for user of any age" when it clearly isn't.

That's how publicly traded companies have always worked. That's nothing new.
Were you trying to make a point or were you just letting off steam?

I think there is limited utility to having the screen be transparent. However ...

How about darkening the back of the display with liquid crystals when up?
Then when you close the lid, you turn off the liquid crystals revealing the screen: mirror the pixels and enter the computer into tablet mode.

I think that a double-sided screen would be much more sensible than a 360 hinge, and having to flip the entire laptop around.
Of course, the keyboard would have to be made so that it is completely black whenever its backlight is off.
Personally, I would prefer a keyboard with actual keys, but...

If the lens is made of plastic then superglue would make the plastic fog up in addition to sticking to it.

This hits the nail on the head.

Microsoft made this shitty investment, and now they have to market it to people to make it seem worthwhile.

However, in reality nobody will buy a copy of Windows because it has AI.
Nobody will buy a new laptop because it has Windows 12 and a "copilot" key on the keyboard.
Nobody uses Windows because they like it, because Microsoft has seen to it that they don't by making the user experience as shitty as possible.
People use Windows because for the applications they are using, it is the only alternative, Linux is too difficult and alien, or Macintosh is too expensive.
People use Windows because it is the default installed on their machines, and they don't know about alternatives.

Any other reason is only is only in the delusions of Microsoft execs.

Microsoft is a company in the enshittification phase. But managers and investors don't see it, because Microsoft still has too much money in its bank accounts.

Unfortunately the world is not managed by logic but by greed and fear.

Too many people are going to be, .. (I'm sorry) are being laid off right now not because an AI can do it better, but because ignorant managers have been fooled to believe that AI could do it better or just that the remaining workers could do better work with the help of AI.

When AI replaces you there is no need for urinals any more.

Would it, or would it not lead to more posts about hot grits down my pants on other web sites?

There is a 73% risk of a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the Bay Area within the next twenty years.
Right underneath San Francisco is the San Andreas Fault, which has a lower incident probability than the rest of the region but a risk of higher magnitude.
AFAIK, downtown San Francisco is one of the areas in the region most susceptible to liquefaction = the earth will turn into quicksand when the earthquake hits.

That is not anywhere where I would like to live when it happens.