Not any longer, no. But up through the R52/T43 Thinkpads, there was limited US production.

Granted, it's inescapable to have all my devices' components China-free, but I can't help feeling smug about my Samsung phone (Korea), IBM laptop (USA), and HP calculator (USA).

A Pentium 4 Thinkpad? Does that mean it's one of those monster G or A series machines? I always loved those beasts. As an addendum, older hardware is totally feasible--I'm using an IBM R51 (1.6GHz Pentium M, 1GB of RAM) just fine for Java work+basic office tasks/web browsing. Funny, many of the posts here that point out the feasibility of older hardware seem to refer to Thinkpads--they're neither cheap nor pretty, but they're pretty awesome.

While I agree with your premise, 4*(0)==0...

The huge stack on my 48G+is nice, but the calculator I go back to again and again is the single-line (!) display on my 15C. And I grew up with the TI-83+ et all, so it's not even a matter of what I saw first. There has never been a better scientific calculator than the beast that is the 15C. The batteries last for decades, the buttons are perfect, and they're damn hard to kill at that. Too bad the only Voyager still sold is the 12C...I know an awful lot of 40+ year olds who wish they still had/had another 15C. Oh, and if you think the HP35 is a rip-off, try looking up what it costs to get a 15C today...

The one exception is the SE Xperia X10--it can be reflashed with a debranded firmware that allows sideloading, as well as ditching all ATT crapware...no hacks/terminal use required. Still, ATT doesn't exactly encourage this.

Yup, spot-on. OHMSS had the closest thing to an unmolested Fleming story, had a fantastic score, and happened to be one of the best Fleming original stories, at that. Unfortunately, it made no sense how Blofeld didn't recognize Bond, since the movie producers swapped the order of OHMSS and You Only Live Twice (nevermind trashing the original YOLT story). Originally, SPECTRE was part of a three-story arc (Thunderball-->OHMSS-->YOLT), but that disappeared due to From Russia With Love using SPECTRE as the villain instead of SMERSH (for political reasons, one assumes). That said, if you can accept the SMERSH/SPECTRE swap, FRWL is is a pretty good take on Fleming's idea of 007, too. The new Casino Royale actually did a pretty good job, but the movie would have been far better if they'd kept Fleming's original ending (Vesper commits suicide in the middle of the night at a seaside hotel, leaving Bond a suicide note explaining her double-cross), rather than turning it into crazy action hysterics with sinking Venetian buildings/gunfights etc. I'm still holding out for a proper Moonraker movie, though--using the book's plot--including the chapter-long side story where Bond and M play bridge (no joke!)

The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people, A TUMULTUOUS NOISE OF THE KINGDOMS OF NATIONS GATHERED TOGETHER! THE LORD OF RINGS, MUSTERETH THE RINGS, OF THE BATTLE! they come from a far country...from the end of heaven, EVEN THE RING! And the weapons of his indignation...TO DESTROY THE WHOLE LAND! Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb! Their eyes shall not spare hobbits! --with apologies to Isaiah and Randall Thompson.

Same story for me with the Sony "NGP"--I think Neo Geo Pocket, and then wonder why Sony's making an SNK product....

(Top of class with regard to screen quality, that is.)

Er. The T60p never had anything better than a 1600x1200 screen as stock (the 15" 4:3 Flexview). The QXGA screen you have was only ever available on the R50p. That said, Thinkpads from a few years back (think 2005-2006ish) were top of class, no argument. Not so much with their current offerings.

Agreed. As the owner of several Apple laptops as well as Thinkpads, the Apple keyboards are middling at best. (Personally, I don't even like the flat-topped keys on any keyboard, preferring the concave keys on a "traditional" board...but that much is up for argument. Decent quality switches and overall rigidity really aren't.

Was I the only one geeky enough to be pleased at the sight of KDE 3.x on "Zuckerberg's" laptops in the movie?

The first-generation Macbook Pros were nothing special in terms of build quality, but up until now, the unibody machines had been rather good. If you're not paying for build quality, what ARE you getting (hardware-wise) for the extra money, given that most of Apple's components are industry standard now? I suppose this is a good reminder that regardless of the brand, most electronics are coming out of the same crappy Chinese factories.