Real humans read hex.

Does Google have a tool to backup Gmail data? Asking seriously, would like to use one. (I am aware that there are third-party tools and you can also download everything to your mail client yourself).

Try Russia. They substitute Yandex for everything Google.

You have picked a wrong site for such a comment. We are computer geeks. I, for one, don't mind turning more "dumb" things into "smart" ones.

45 cent light bulb? You probably live in America. Europe (and then Russia) banned 45 cent light bulbs. We're now using energy-efficient ones that cost about 10 USD on average. Buying incandescent bulbs is a challenge.

Creating advanced tools (even equal to us in all regards) will never eliminate "who will want to clean the toilets" question. There were societies that used slave labour (which approximates "self-sustaining intelligent machines") to avoid menial jobs, yet they still had the same motivational problems.

You are totally removing humans from the equation, whereas the topic is precisely about them. Even if self-sustaining population of machines can be created, that changes nothing for "who will want to clean toilets" question. There will be a need to either interact with those machines or do other "unpleasant" tasks which they cannot (yet) handle. That job might not look that unpleasant by today's standards, similarly how nowadays jobs don't look that bad from 2000 BC perspective, but it will be considered "dirty" in the future and people will not voluntarily do that.

And who will want to repair machines that repair the machines that clean toilets?

You don't get the point - we cannot avoid undesirable jobs. No matter how far we push the technical progress, there will be occupations that people will shun.

I agree with this logic, although this does not change my original statement about sympathy :) I generally prefer freedom to security, and while I would have upgraded myself (I'm not posting this from IE6 :)), I would not bash anyone for refusing to do so, as long as there's some rationale behind that and not just a negligence. "Don't fix what isn't broken" can be a valid policy depending on the likelihood of being attacked.

Comparison with cars is a valid one, although maintaining it is much easier than upgrading the software; moreover, you can fully enjoy current road network with a 1960 car.

I don't buy the rest of arguments. "People should have an up-to-date browser"... why? By that reasoning, you should forbid the existence of elinks and friends. I'm pretty satisfied with my current web experience (which, for me, hasn't changed much during the last decade) why should I be forced to upgrade if I don't have a clear need for that? (NOTE: I understand developer's point of view and desire for uniformity. But I'm arguing from consumer point of view).

Disparity between people cannot be eliminated (without making us clones of each other) and is essential for the progress. What makes the system unstable in the long run is positive feedback created by the way inheritance works in our society (and nature) . We start with inequal population and with each iteration (generation) the gap widens, which ultimately results in catastrophic "rebalance" happening from time to time.

While we cannot make everyone start "from scratch" (e.g. we cannot prevent people from inheriting certain biological traits like good looks, physical strength, cleverness), we may try to change our inheritance laws so it is harder to form castes. Not sure how exactly though.

Who will want to repair those machines?

If machines to clean toilets appear, then the new shit job will be servicing those machines.

I will have sympathy for them. That software upgrade mill is tiring. If they bought software for a single purpose (or a set of purposes) and that purpose hasn't changed since years ago, why should they be forced to upgrade? As long as they have appropriate hardware, they should be fine with running the same software.

As a developer, I understand the push for new stuff. At the same time, I think that we (software development industry) are too fond of interconnecting things to cut costs in the short term (e.g. during development) or on our side (e.g. during maintenance) at the expense of our clients, so it's no wonder that they fight back. We are selling them apartments in the tenement marketed as a standalone house.

Have you tried any of Humble Bundles? Take a look at these games: Trine, Limbo, Braid, Dustforce, Rochard - there are more.