The trouble is, people are lazy. If given a car like this I would just be, or pretend to be, asleep/drunk at every opportunity, letting the car do all the driving.

So you end up with a "fully autonomous" car anyway, just not a very good one.

Better to aim for perfection right from the start, Google Car style. (How very at odds with their usual ship-the-beta approach!)

The market always provides through emergent behaviours. I am expecting this to be the next big thing from Google. Individuals will take it on themselves to cover the zoning board and deliver reports on Google+ / Blogger. Similar to Youtube, Google will start profit-sharing with producers of quality and unique content, delivering a cut of the advertising revenue straight to their Google Wallet. Thus local journalists receive an income stream.

First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.

Having had dealings with several Brethren families this absolutely rings true. Historically they have shunned the internet, radio, newspapers and television. However they still need to run their (normal) family businesses and doing business as much as possible with other Brethren only gets them so far. They now "bend" the rules a bit to allow them to operate in today's market. So they'll have a home or office network of computers but only one with an internet connection, tightly controlled so it can only access industry websites and those of suppliers and customers. The need to satisfy religious beliefs while having a minimal grasp of technology means that they will invariably contract someone (preferably another Brethren even if they are only slightly more tech savvy) to supply this infrastructure for them without really understanding the complexities or legalities involved.

(fixed formatting, sorry!)

Microsoft: You had to marry me, your parents gave you no other choice. Well, I cheated on you. Many times. And you can't do anything about it.

Apple: If you wanna marry me, it's gonna cost you a huge dowry. It's your choice, but once you're in you have to do everything my way. I wear the pants here.

Google: You can marry me if you want or not. It'll be an open relationship, we'll try lots of new things. You might not like some of the things I do, but you can leave any time.

Is it any wonder that the Microsoft way breeds the most resentment?

Microsoft: You had to marry me, your parents gave you no other choice. Well, I cheated on you. Many times. And you can't do anything about it. Apple: If you wanna marry me, it's gonna cost you a huge dowry. It's your choice, but once you're in you have to do everything my way. I wear the pants here. Google: You can marry me if you want or not. It'll be an open relationship, we'll try lots of new things. You might not like some of the things I do, but you can leave any time. Is it any wonder that the Microsoft way breeds the most resentment?

It seems to me Canonical are hoping to piggyback on Android's popularity. By shipping along with a recognisable and proven OS, they get their foot in the door with carriers and customers. As kludgy as the dual-OS approach seems, I have no doubt their end goal is to displace Android entirely and ship a pure Ubuntu phone that does everything in docked and undocked forms.

gah.. I meant to type, *IRIS* and Jeannie

No doubt it is my weird Aussie / European accent, but I found that of the existing Android voice control apps, Siri and Jeannie both really struggled (they seem to have almost the same, if not the same backend), whereas Vlingo was much more accurate. Vlingo doesn't have as nice an interface as the other two however. YMMV. But Evi is by no means the only Siri competitor.

This seems to be a re-interpretation of what is essentially addiction behaviour. When I'm obssessed with a game I'll play it for several nights in a row until my interest is sated, then I won't touch any games for a long period of time.

Not everywhere - the 40-hour week is entrenched in Australian legislation and culture. Ditto 4 weeks of paid annual leave. Companies here actually frown on you not using it, because untaken leave creates an accounting liability for them. So yes the Australian GDP per capita is only $40k while the USA's is $48k - yet the tradeoff in work/life balance and the general welfare of the population might just be worth it.

If I'm lying on my back in bed playing a game on my phone, after about half an hour I get pins and needles in my hands. Certain positions do restrict blood flow, and when you've gotten comfortable with a touchscreen device you're loath to move.

Tablets are not the threat to PCs. TVs are. The stuff they're showing at CES this year is not far off being able to slot right where the family PC used to be.

I converted the XP corporate image to a VM, wiped my work box and installed Linux, and now have a constellation of XP VMs (corporate and development) that I start and suspend as needed, all running on a stable and powerful foundation. The company will start a Win7 rollout this year, but I'm perfectly happy with my current set up.

Same here. They really need to throw up an alert for incompatible browser versions.