Learn to read.

Mechanical watches were so ridiculously convenient and useful that people would gladly wind their watches once a day. Similarly, if the Apple Watch proves convenient and useful, people will gladly charge it once a day.

Of course, the most myopic aspect of these articles is the unwritten presumption that today's state of the art will never improve. Yes, Apple Watch will need to be charged once a day for the next couple of years, but charge times are going to improve tremendously as Moore's Law continues to plug along. The Apple Watch will improve in a way analogous to the way mechanical and later quartz watches improved far beyond the limitations of the original pocket watches and wristwatches.

Most feel they can hand wave through their technical interviews by citing some abstraction that while possibly correct doesn't actually solve the problem presented. If you are interviewing for a software position, hand waving doesn't write code.
Many others feel the technical questions are beneath them and refuse to answer very basic questions that are used to simply weed out the vast sea of know nothings.

If you fall into either of these camps, you have a problem. Your response to the STL question hints you may be suffering from the latter problem.

The question about the STL containers is not "overly technical". It's just stupid.

I currently have a retired iPhone 4s serving primarily as a git server. Also useful as an SSH tunnel into the home network; to view IP cameras remotely without exposing them to the outside world, for example.

The 4s replaced a 3Gs that replaced a 3G that replaced a long serving, flash only, nslu2 running CVS and later SVN.

Of the bunch, the 4s is the first device that is indistinguishable over the network, performance wise, from PC workstations I've worked with. I imagine the 5, 5s and 6/6+ must be fantastic.

It is available, compact, mobile, has a built in screen and keyboard, and 24 hour UPS battery backup with plenty of oomph and storage for a git server and much more. What's not to love?

De-coupling code is great. However, code refactoring should have no detrimental effects on end user experience. If it does, you are doing it wrong.

Your explanation implies a tail wagging the dog.

The reason this relic still exists is likely explained at 0:41 into the video where you can see the words "Iron Mountain" above the entrance. What can be processed with a few low power computers in a rack for a few hundred dollars a year is generating a mountain of cash for Iron Mountain in rental and consulting "fees".

Follow the money.

All your friend's music and movies are already there.

It is not a coincidence that Tesla has no dealerships. It likely never will.

This strong-arming is a perfect example for the reason. Dealerships wield in an inordinate amount of political power in their regions. The result hash been that once a manufacturer grants a dealership license to a dealership in a certain area, it is perpetual, geographically exclusive and irrevocable by the manufacturer. Unheard of conditions in practically any other business.

Tesla will sooner open its own dealerships across Ohio's state lines. The lost sales taxes will eventually prove irresistible to the coin operated legislature.

The comparison is inappropriate.

At the same time, I do understand the disgust with the neo-luddites of SF and their alarming witch hunt - it is a mob.

There are two basic approaches to handle this:

http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

Now that Europe is mandating the existing micro-USB for all phones are they going to modify the mandate to include this connector or is it too late for that and Europeans will not be able to enjoy this marvelous new connector?

No, the real reason the whole car buying experience is horrific is that there is no competition, by law. Car dealerships have indefinite, irrevocable monopolies in the regions they cover due to historical events that occurred 90 years ago. The real solution is to erase outdated laws, break the monopolies and open the market to real competition.

Here is a podcast about it:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/02/19/172402376/why-buying-a-car-never-changes

I propose Google set their cars free in Belgium. If they can prove that they drive safely through Belgium I'll be somewhat convinced.

Why Belgium you ask? Belgium has a very extreme interpretation of yielding right of way at intersections to traffic coming from your right. So extreme that it often extends to blind intersections where you might not even be able to see there is a road intersecting on your right (think alleys in towns). You need to be familiar with the roads in question to know where to yield, otherwise there is no way for you to know what to do.

Let's mandate an inferior standard and kill a superior standard so everyone can be the same on paper.

If you bothered to ask iPhone owners, you would find three things:

1. They enjoyed the same 30-pin connector for nearly a decade (a decade!) while other handset makers changed their connector and chargers for every new handset. They will likely enjoy the clearly superior Lightning connector for another decade.
2. They have no beef with their connector, or the cable - it works really well.
3. They don't care what Android is using or dream of having a compatible connector because they don't have an Android handset.

It's uniformity for the sake of a pencil pusher's concept of uniformity - not for consumers.

It's too convenient an escape hatch for anything the government wants to sweep under the rug.