The state of broadband in North America may suck now, but it doesn't have to stay that way.

The Obama stimulus bill provided billions of dollars for broadband development in rural areas. I don't know if any of that money is still available. If it is, then we (collectively) should start forming Co-ops like the East Vermont Fiber Project that was featured on Slashdot a while back and start building out our own infrastructure.

Except that in the early days, Nintendo didn't refresh the product as quickly as you make it sound. The NES was out for 8 years before the NES101 (top-loading model) was released that corrected design flaws in the original side-loading model. The Game Boy example that you use above had a similar life-span: the original gray model was released in 1989 and didn't receive an update (the Pocket model) until 1996. The next update two years later added a color screen and (mostly) maintained compatibility between models.

My recollection of Nintendo in the 1990s (and supported by Wikipedia) shows that Nintendo didn't just discard the NES or Game Boy when they had something new. New NES games and a system update came out after the SNES was released. Game Boy lasted for over a decade with minimal changes, and the Advance models maintained backwards compatibility with games that were written almost 20 years ago.

If Nintendo was milking it for what it was worth and throwing it away, they wouldn't have cared about backwards compatibility on the Game Boy lines.

Why would you split your dollars amongst vendors like that? If you're going to recommend vendors, at least try to keep everything within the same company or within strategic partnerships to maximize savings.

Here is another recommendation that might save more money: Dell Servers and Equalogics SANs. Since Dell owns Equalogics, you'll get additional cost savings if you have a halfway decent sales representative.

Only reason we didn't dump it entirely is that number's good for giving out to people you don't want to give your cellphone number to, like church directories or other organizations you belong to that need some way to contact you.

Isn't that what Google Voice is for?

With 90,000 apps (75,000 of which are redundant "Crapps") it has the clear lead in developer mind share, monitization infrastructure, and deployment.

I doubt this assertion for several reasons. While the number of applications appears to be impressive, it is hard to compare the number of iPhones available in the Apps Store with the number of apps available to the WinMo and Blackberry platforms because both have multiple apps stores between the offical platform stores, sites like handango and crackberry, and independent vendors who sell their own software.

As for the app store, it is nothing special. Handango has been doing the same thing for multiple platforms since 1999. All Apple did was take similar functionality and add it to iTunes. Its nothing special.

I don't know if Android would take that large of a chunk out of Blackberry's user base. It will probably draw away Pearl users and small-businesses, but Blackberry's core market (medium to large enterprises) will probably stay on that particular platform. Exchange integration is great (for the 95% of companies that use it), but as far as I am aware, on Blackberry with BES and WinMo w/ SCCM have true central management capabilities that enterprises want.

As you put in your post, Android will probably have the biggest effect on Palm, especially since they've seemed to tie their fate to Sprint. I can see Palm being bought out by RIM in five years or so. It will also be the final nail in the coffin of Windows Mobile, but that shouldn't be a surprise as Microsoft has been licensing ActiveSync to any mobile software developer that wants to pay for it (there is even a Blackberry implementation of it).

Apple will probably be hurt more than people realize, and the Android platform will play a small part in it. The iPhone is a great product, but in the United States, it is restricted to AT&T's now overburdened network while the Android "platform" will be available on most carriers in some form. I don't think that many iPhone users will switch to the Android, though, but it will attract many potential Apple customers who were holding out because they didn't want to give any money to AT&T.

I hear this every time a new version of Windows comes out. While it may be good policy for businesses to buy time to test the OS, develop training materials, and fix any application problems, it isn't as big of a deal for consumers, and articles like this come off as anti-Microsoft FUD.

There is always risk in upgrading to a new operating system, especially if you don't have much experience with it. That shouldn't stop you from waiting for the service pack.

Comparatively speaking, your average PC and your average Mac aren't that different. Of the features you described, many aren't included on the Macbook, or I can't find any reference to them on the Macbook.

Some of the features you listed are:
Easy removal of Power connector - Not available on the Thinkpad T-series or Dell Latitude E-series as described by Apple marketing materials
Accelerometers to shut the hard drive off - This feature comes standard on the T-Series, and it has been a feature of almost all Thinkpad lines. I had it on my A30 back in 2001. Could not find any mention in marketing materials for either Macbook series
Backlit Keyboards - Available on some models of the Dell Latitude E-series as well, only available on Macbook Pro.
Automatic Screen Dimming at Low Light Levels - Available on the Dell Latitude E-Series
Single-Piece Aluminum Frame construction - everyone advertises some special construction using a lightweight metal
Custom battery arrangement - A wash. Macbook batteries are built into the case and are not user replaceable. I'll take a slightly larger 9-cell for longer battery life if it means dealing with a battery hump because I can replace it without sending it in.

I would have to wager that your working assumption is wrong. If you have interests outside of technology, you would be surprised at the type of people that "get" you. Of my friends, I can only think of two others that work in IT, and one only does it as part of his job. We occasionally talk shop, but its usually other things like sports, barbecue recipes, and whats going on in our lives.

Good listening skills, and asking good questions, play a role in this. I really don't care for sports, but that is what my friends talk about. So I listen and ask questions. And I learn something. My friends don't care about photography and writing, but they listen when I talk about the things that interest me as long as I don't get too long winded about it.

What interests you besides technology?

This may seem like a joke, but it is exactly what happened when I left my last job.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adapid:

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adapid:

I don't get what the big deal is with Hungarian Notation. Why do people consider it a bad thing?

Modern IDEs might reduce the need for it, but not everyone uses an IDE to read or write code.