I installed Crouton on a Samsung Arm Chromebook, and it has since become my main computer. Basically, it is the best of both worlds, in my book. Hassle free web experience (including Netflix), and I can flip any time to a "real" computing environment (there must be limitations with chroot. . . just have not found any for my use yet. mplayer over sshfs would have been a deal breaker, but it works perfectly fine . . .).

I am very content, but the price was so cheap there is nothing stopping me from trying out a Chromebook with Haswell or whatever comes down the pipe. Good times.

"I prefer to buy groceries at the store so I can see what I'm actually getting."
Use self checkout, then.

"you are not securely holding the steering wheel and watching the road."
Fine, still the same solution applies. You may need a smart-phone with a very good camera to see that the person is texting, but it still is possible with today's technology (personally, I would focus on capturing the poor driving, irregardless of what the stupid person is doing).

"if I record them in the movie theater, I *am* part of the problem."
Since you wait for the DVDs, I guess the solution is that movie theaters will eventually cease to exist. Problem solved.

Technology. . . the cause and solution to all of life's problems.

Look, personally, I understand because I am also an old-fart, like you. However, I can see also see how this is a technology problem easily solved with technology. So, I see you a gripe and raise you four:

-Why are you watching movies in the dark with total strangers, WHEN YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO? Home theaters are cheap these days, thanks to technology. Take advantage of it.
-Why are you still paying a cashier? You should be paying ONLINE. You are old. You have less time remaining than everyone else, and your bones are brittle. When you go outside, make sure it is for a reason that is important and not a result of being "stuck in your ways."
-There are plenty of idiots on the road. How do you know that the texting is making them any stupider? It could be making them drive better, for all you know. They are idiots, nonetheless, irregardless of their texting habits. Get a dashboard mount for your cellphone, install Daily Roads, record evidence that they are too mentally slow to drive, and forward said evidence to the local authorities. Make the world a safer place.
-Use your smart phone to record people being "rude" on their's. Upload to Youtube. Tweet it. Make it go viral. Hurt them where it counts. Just beware of old-farts mistaking you for "part of the problem."

Yes, of course. . . you and I, through years of life experiences, know this to be true . . .

However, when you and I are long dead, and today's teens are the old-farts, such behavior will no longer be rude (though, I am sure they will be complaining about some other "rude" behavior that the teens of that time will be doing . . .).

Admit it . . . you are old. Just buy a nice home theater with your social security money and get over it. : )

"One of the main reasons people go to a movie theater and pay the extra money is to experience a high-quality sound and visual experience on a large screen."
According to the MPAA, the "Age Group" with the highest propensity for movie going are teenagers (12~17). I seriously doubt that the above is their main reason for going to see a movie. . . It is probably to get away from their parents so that they can text in peace. . . : )

"And the younger the generation, the more rude."
More rude, or just practicing a different set of values than you? Remember what the old folks used to say about Rock-n-Roll? Now WE are those old folks . . .

Perhaps that argument held true . . . before gadgets that could take pictures and videos of blackboards became ubiquitous . . .

Should we get rid of blackboards, too, because anyone can read what a student writes on it? This is the current reality. You cannot protect students from this type of technology. However, you can prepare them for it.

Create a policy to let students know that everything they do on their account should be assumed to be readable by anyone, so treat it as if you are writing on the classroom blackboard.

In that proper context, it is still a wonderful tool, if used properly. I am sure any school would also support such a policy to avoid unwanted incidents.

I use it, too (on a Galaxy S4). It is the best App I have come across so far.

All they need to do is add license plate recognition and automatic forwarding, and I think the world's public roads would get a lot safer, quick.

Russia is probably not safer because the bad drivers are not getting enough negative feedback, quickly enough. That is why I am wanting that App.

Notice my use of the word "potential." Yeah, take it to the "peeping Tom" extreme and no one will disagree with having legal restrictions.

However, public roadways are the other extreme. 30K people die a year in the U.S. from accidents. If you are driving on a public road, I am not sure if we, as a community, need to be prioritizing your privacy over the safety of the public (especially if you are driving like a moron).

Yes, and only the most extreme cases make it to Youtube. Is Russia a much safer place to drive because of Youtube?

The barrier to provide negative feedback to the bad drivers needs to be significantly lowered before we will start seeing significant improvements in roadside deaths. . .

That allows me to press a button that:
-Saves to a file the last minute of video recorded from my cellphone mounted to my dashboard.
-Recognizes the license plate number of the idiot that just almost killed my family with their piece of shit pick-up truck.
-Forwards both file and license plate number to the local authorities, who can then apply the appropriate penalty.

Centrally controlled surveillance is dangerous, expensive, and inefficient. It must be limited in a democratic society. Decentralized, community based surveillance has great potential to improve overall quality of life, especially on public roads, where every idiot has a license to kill with their own stupidity.

You will probably have to use some kind of technicality to get rid of the IT manager. For my company, it was a combination of things, including the HR manager noticing that the IT manager was only coming into work like 4 hours a day on average (which was used with other circumstantial evidence). However, even after we got rid of that manager, we are still in the process of "hitting rock bottom" as we try to fix years of managing the department like a nation of fiefdoms . . . it is amazing how much damage one incompetent high level manager can do . . .

This is really why IT needs to establish some kind of professional certification like doctors, lawyers, and accountants. It is not so much that you will prevent the incompetent from getting certified (though, certainly, hard testing does help prevent that). However, the main thing is that it creates an incentive for any certificate holder to try to keep their certification (our fired IT manager actually brags about how little work he was doing) and provides employers some leverage ("please help us with a smooth transition or we will report you to your professional organization . . ."). Until then, things will continue to be the wild west, so good luck trying to replace the old sheriff in town . . .

But I really think we could have done this more cheaply, more ethically, and more humanely through a controlled experiment. Call me jaded, but I have absolutely no romantic feelings of nostalgia towards the cold war. It was a time when the timeless "mine is bigger than yours" human defect almost destroyed human civilization.