>> tax rate...will be determined by where consumers live

Wasn't there some nutjob article here last week about borders disappearing? Not as long as we have taxing bodies...

tldr: if you have to use dice to get a job you're already f***ed

>> Whether it's an e-mail or a text message you're always on the clock and expected in most cases to be available

That really depends on the job, my friend. I don't have any work email on my mobile devices. I do publish my cell phone number on all my email sigs, at my desk, etc. What happens in practice is this:

1) You send me email when I'm not in the office: I learn about the next time I sit down or RPC in - during business hours.
2) You send me a text: you get "twitter length and quality" answers from me. After every 3-5 messages I'm likely to ask you, "is this something I need to sign on and look at immediately?" If that answer is "no" I'll have you send me an email and I'll look at it during business hours.
3) You call me: OK, you've got my attention, but thanks to recent changes in culture a live phone call is considered invasive and for high-priority stuff only.

The result is that I'm really only pulled into business work about once a week, maybe twice if I'm on vacation.

From a developer's perspective, for 2014 I'd suggest Miguel de Icaza. From his Mono roots he built Xamarin for cross-platform mobile development, and appears to have been a force in the NET Open Sourcing.

>> what you're saying is that you would be willing to page exponentially more money for a vehicle with exponentially less usability than a standard, non automated car (...operates like a train car...occupants at no time would be expected to take control)

I'd pay up to 50% more for a car I didn't have to drive. Maybe more if it took me to work, maybe I could send it home so my wife and/or kids could use during the day when I'm away at work.

What I don't want is to have to share a space I spend up to two hours a day in (commuting) with all the rest of humanity. That's why I buy stuff (house, car, my own seat on an airplane, my own cell phone vs. a public pay phone) in the first place.

>> can you take public transit

Unfortunately no. The other problem with public transit is that it's public. (I prefer my house vs. the underpass for the same reason.)

>> Someone who, given the choice of spending $30K on a car that they fully control and can go anywhere they want at any speed they want – or another, likely more expensive buggy that will only travel on certain routes at slower speeds and with less options." Which car would you buy?

The Driverless Car - Any Day of the Week.

I commute. I always have. I've been dreaming of my own private "pod" that someone else drove while I read, created, slept or talked for 30+ plus years now. Bring it.

>> appear significantly more expensive than their cell phone counterparts as they are typically sold unsubsidized

I just bought two Android tablets for two of my kids at $70/each and two Android smartphones for another kid and my wife for $70/each. With a pay-as-you-go plan, conveniently hooked up to a credit card, I'm still paying just $55/month for all 3 of my family's connected cell phones.

Subsidized cell phones and high monthly plans are for suckers.

>> I want to get a jump-start on next year's Christmas by wiring up my mother's gnome garden

This is mom. While you're out of the basement can you take out the trash?

Awfully long summary to say "you can haz 6TB HD"

>> maybe Google's willingness to build its own hardware just to get the technology on the road means that its self-driving car team knows something the rest of the industry doesn't

Or...that the rest of the auto industry doesn't want to get tagged with the "first death caused by an automated car."

>> java infusion can certainly help, but studies also suggest that alcohol can also have a positive impact

A better idea then: mix the two. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

...there would be no Slashdot summaries.

So this is a call for what - people to use their computer skills to censor viewpoints they don't agree with?

Prehistoric hockey games?