--You know, it's funny - but when I read Asimov's "Robbie**" I was rooting for the robot, because reasons. The robot was written from a sympathetic point of view, appeared to really care for the daughter, and 3 Laws blahblahblah.
--I find this whole "spying Barbie" idea to be creepy (and unnecessary) as hell. Perceived motives and all that. USRMM (from the story) had no vested interest in advertising to litle girls.
--You might want to look into mobaxterm if you haven't already; it has a subset of cygwin's functionality and it's way more fully featured than Putty. FYI - just a satisfied user
New York is another. Ultra-high-density communities may not be common in the US -- but the ones that do are exist are, well, kinda' a big deal.
But -- oh, yeah! -- we were talking about city planning as relates to lower-income folks. And the thing is, even though you and I might consider it impossible to get to work, buy groceries, &c. in much of the country without a car, there are still people doing that by necessity. My brother-in-law used to take his bicycle on the bus and sleep on a bench until his shift started, because the bus routes he needed shut down long before his shift started. When city planning is done in a way that assumes everyone is going to have a car, what you get is people left behind by the system. If you're lucky, they can manage to hold down jobs anyhow -- if you aren't, you have more folks who need safety-net features much more expensive than public transportation.
What this country needs is a good five dollar plasma weapon.