So then what? Enter the SUV. It falls under the "truck" standards, so it doesn't need to meet as stringent requirements. It seats more than four people, which is important for some people, and it can do things like move furniture. It also doesn't drive like a beached whale.

Anyway, I disagree with this sort of ham handed management of fuel economy. Push the gas tax through the roof, and we customers will roast manufacturers who don't give us good fuel economy. We ought to bump the gas tax in the US up by 10 cents per gallon every month until we've added at least $1, then index it to inflation so it doesn't erode away like it has. No need for government fuel economy mandates. Make fuel economy worth having, and let the market figure out the details.

The only reason someone would spoof their caller id is if they are up to no good.

I cannot help but wonder if the only difference between us now, and Nazi Germany pre 1939 is solely hindsight.

or if that doesn't work, emigrate!

once the standards get entrenched, they'll stay there until there's a compelling reason to switch.

I'm just always baffled by complaints that Vista doesn't run as fast as on an older machine with much smaller specs than it does on a new one. That seems fairly obvious to me. :-P

I have always maintained that the best way to future-proof a machine is to put as much RAM as you can afford/it can hold when you buy it. Very few applications have ever really needed more CPU speed, but not enough memory is going to slow your machine to a crawl.

"fast enough" has been achieved. speed is only the concern now of a small minority of power users