Laptops have pretty much supplanted desktops for all but the most hardcore of gaming rigs. They're the workhorses that are used for writing emails, creating documents, editing pictures, creating videos, etc. All of these are things that I want a mouse to do.

If all you're doing is playing angry birds and surfing the internets, get yourself a tablet. You'll have the simpler touchscreen user interface, with the added benefits of reduced complexity and increased durability.

"Hon, do you want to ski with me and my brother? No? Okay, how about we meet up at the lodge at 12:30 for lunch, and we can tell each other about our fantastic wipeouts."

"Kids, your lesson is over at 10:30. I'll be waiting for you at the bottom of the main lift."

"Okay, let's go skiing, and enjoy our day outside in the sunshine and snow!"

The scansion's just not right without those first two syllables.

I get two magazines regularly:

National Geographic
Alert Diver

Alert Diver is the magazine that is included in my membership with Divers Alert Network, which I joined for their travel insurance for my scuba trips.

National Geographic is awesome. I don't care how much you paid for your monitor, the photos in that magazine will always look better on paper than they do online.

TSA decrees that you have to take your shoes off to go to the Boston Marathon now.

Listen, just because I do not enumerate all of the things that you're not allowed to do while driving, it doesn't mean that they're okay. This article is about electronic devices.

If you really care, solving a rubik's cube, preparing and cooking food, or even just eating food while driving can ALREADY get you dinged under distracted driving or dangerous driving laws. Ontario explicitly ennumerated cell phones and other electronic devices because they were so prevalent in cars, and because they were new, and because it wasn't clear whether or not talking on the phone would qualify as distracted driving.

And feel free to press the "ignore" button on your phone, as long as it's mounted somewhere.

Several Canadian provinces (including Ontario) have "distracted driving" laws that basically state "no fucking around with electronic devices unless they're mounted to your vehicle somewhere."

If you have to hold your phone to look at Google Maps, and/or enter information into it, that's verboten. If you enter your destination before you start driving, and then mount it on your dashboard or windscreen, that's okay.

I like this distinction, and think it is a reasonable restriction on the use of electronic devices while driving. Note - hands-free phone operation is still allowed. Texting is pretty much right out (as it should be).

Summoning Cthulhu is a little bit easier on the throat.

And in order to "test" a hypothesis, the hypothesis must predict a result. Then you carry out the experiment, and if the predicted result is the same as the expected result, your hypothesis has been tested and has passed the test.

The prediction can be something as simple as:

If I drop this cup, it will fall to the floor.

If I had to travel more than 10km, chances are I'd be coming in from out of town, and I wouldn't spend as much time stopped at red lights. I can average about 26kph on my bike when I'm out riding in the country.

Next up - statistics, man. The average trip is 16 miles. That does not mean that 50% of the people travel more than 16 miles, and 50% travel less than 16 miles. An educated guess would be that commute distances follow something more akin to a Poisson distribution (sorry, I forget what the continuous form of that distribution is), with the median commute distinctly shorter than the man, due to the long tail formed by people with 100 mile commutes.

Thirdly- citation needed. Here's a report from the US Dept of Transportation:

http://nhts.ornl.gov/2009/pub/stt.pdf

Here, it states that the average commute for someone who drives alone, in 2009, was 12.09 miles (page 54), and for all people, it was 11.79 miles. Based on the historical trends, I find it hard to believe that it's jumped by 30% in just four years.

Finally - I'm not telling everyone in the US to bike to work. Some guy asked for a good way to stay in shape, and I responded that the only thing that I do is bike to work. I don't really get any exercise outside of that. I think it's a great way to keep in shape. Unless you are also Dishwasha, or you know their commuting arrangements intimately, don't discount my suggestion to them. Anecdotes aren't data, and data isn't anecdotes. Maybe it's a good suggestion, maybe it's not. Only they can tell that.

As is often the case, the original poster did not get into the nitty-gritty details of the law, and you've raised a lot of objections that do not apply.

http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/distracteddriving.htm

Restricts drivers from:
using hand-held cell phones
texting or e-mailing
using electronic devices like laptop computers, video games, cameras, video entertainment displays and programming portable audio players (e.g., MP3 players)
entering information on GPS units

So - dedicated GPS navigator? Mount it on the dashboard and you're fine. Display alerts from the car? Again, mount the phone, don't hold it in your hand, and no problem. Want to talk on the phone? Use a headset, or those fancy through-the-car speakerphone connections, and you're fine.

Calling to report a crash on a no-stop highway? Unless you've got a hands-free method of doing so, this is arguably dangerous enough that you're going to cause more accidents, so it is not permitted. If you care that much, take the next exit and then call in the crash.

Basically, if a cop sees you holding your phone up to your head and talking, or holding it in front of you and fiddling with it, then that's distracted driving. It doesn't matter if you're checking your voicemail or talking to someone. It doesn't matter if you're texting or playing Bejeweled. It's something that you shouldn't do while in control of an automobile, so it is against the law, and will garner you a $172 fine in Alberta.

Buy a bike rack, drive most of the way, and then bike whatever's left.

That, or move a little closer to your place of employment :)

You have kids and you want to increase your fitness level?

Go play with them.

Because of the crazy power-to-weight ratio that kids have, no adult can even hope to keep up with them. You'll burn 10 times the energy that they do, just trying to keep pace.

Climb trees. Play soccer. Chase them around the park. Throw a frisbee or a football back and forth. Ride bikes.

Your kids will love it, you'll love it, and you'll be more fit than you've ever been!

"Truly ridiculous" is anything you can't bike without reaching your personal "I'm gonna die now" limit. For me, I'd set that at about an hour of riding, which would let me acheive the average commute distance on a good day (26km/16mi). But it's a personal choice. Obviously, as the distance increases, the extra time required to bike it instead of driving it increases as well.

I totally understand the stones it takes to join the cars on the road. My route has no bike lanes at all, and is along the biggest, busiest roads in a city of 350,000 people. But I've been riding my bike around town for 15 years now, so I'm pretty inured to the horrific driving that goes on around me. On the other hand, you are correct, I'm not from the US (rather, from that cold neighbour to the North), so at the very least, I don't have to worry about being shot to death when some jackass behind me gets pissed off that I've slowed him down.

If you are going to try this, there are three things I highly recommend:

One - get a rear-view mirror. It's invaluable when you want to change lanes, and for keeping an eye on the cars behind you that might cut you off at that right turn ahead.

Two - practice vehicular cycling, and take the lane (ride in the middle) when it's necessary to do so for your safety. Vehicular cycling means that your actions are predictable to the cars around you.

Three - if you're really having problems, either mount a camera on your helmet, or mount something that looks like a camera on your helmet. I was astounded by how much more room I was given when people thought they were being recorded.

As far as temperatures, I'm one of the lucky few that experiences days as hot as 100F (39C) in the summer, and -30F (-33C) in the winter. I get both extremes! I am fortunate enough to have a shower provided at my workplace, and I recognize that.

I've heard other work-from-homers say that including a morning commute helps them separate their work from their not-work time at home. They'll leave through the front door, go for a 20 minute walk (you could do a 20 minute bike ride), then come in the back door and go straight to their office.

At the end of the day, out through the back door, 20 minute bike ride, in through the front.