I went to chicago for the weekend #survived..

Takes on a whole new meaning here.

Yet again the human race proves it has zero business messing with nature. Seriously, who is surprised by this?

I wouldn't say they're not concerned with security.. but rather, they're probably the most targeted.

I can see this reducing emissions, when I consider the assumption that whoever is leading the train does not drive like a bloody idiot. In a modern car, even with today's technology, most of us tend to drive as fast as we can get away with. 65-70 miles per hour is common in my area, but mileage increases significantly if you forget about trying to get to your destination a whole three minutes faster than it would be (on average) if you just relax and drive 55.

Personally, I dislike setting my cruise at 55 and getting there "when I get there". It's more fun to step on the throttle a tad, turn up the tunes, etc. But it's rough on the fuel tank, so I don't.
If I could tag along with one of these trains for my commute, or better yet.. even for a while on long trips, read a book, enjoy a cup of coffee, enjoy the scenery - anything but focus on driving- I don't believe I'd care if the train were moving 45 or 55 miles per hour. I'm not driving.

That said, my major concern is this- I live in an area where a typical winter day of driving is fraught with icy, snowy, wet roads. I don't believe any car would be safe following a lead vehicle at 10 feet, let alone 10 meters, in those conditions.

that said.. this could be some devastating psychological warfare goodness.
If an army is too busy scratching to shoot, everybody wins.

if bioterrorism and war were reduced to bombing each other's cities with a swarm of crabs, I could deal with it.

Unfortunately, we're all too happy to find new ways to kill each other.

Firefox loads all windows and tabs into one process. If one crashes, they all crash.
Chrome separates each tab into its own process. If one crashes, one crashes.

When I'm using a browser, for work or play, I typically have anywhere from 15-40 tabs open split among a few windows. Then they get shoved to a second (or third, or fourth) desktop while I have my nose in monodevelop or geany. I don't want some random flash advertisement to crash everything I've opened if I happen to pull up a code reference page in a 41'st tab.

That's stability, imho.

agreed. Fortunately for me, the only option would likely be sitting in the snowbank - I can barely pick up my wifi from the garage, no chance at all from the road. :)

This is true :) but.. I fall back to part two.. if some clown wants to freeze his butt off sitting out in a snowbank using my internetz, I really don't care.

My wireless router filters devices by mac address.. if I understand it correctly, there's no way for it to be cracked into so long as the filters in my router are enabled. It recognizes my netbook, a skype phone, and an ipod that I own. All other devices will "see" the network but will not be able to access it.. if I understand the way it works correctly anyway. :)

Anyway, I live out in the sticks. If some bonehead wants to sit out in a snowbank and use my internet connection, more power to 'em.

Offices, or well designed cubicles - the kind with high walls on four sides, with room for two people when necessary to sit in chairs and discuss.
A meeting room. Now, the thing that lets this work is a central way to collaborate- a way to for two or more to view the same desktop via VNC or a similar app, a central IM solution, and a chat server. Ventrilo or Teamspeak, they're not just for games. If you're a linux shop, it's not difficult at all to use Ventrilo in wine, for those of you who'll cry that Teamspeak's audio quality sucks.

You have privacy and openness in one. 2-3 or more people can sit at their desks and discuss while they work, in familiar environments, without having to see, smell, or listen to co-worker's annoying habits.

I realize it's not exactly what you asked for, but a Dirt Bag (http://dirtbag.biz/) may be useful in some cases. They're made for desktops & tower cases though, not laptops.

Technology has increased paper use far more than it has reduced it. One office worker will create a document, probably printing it at least three times during revising so he/she can hand it to someone in the next cubicle for review. Then it'll be sent to a manager who'll probably print at least two copies, one for review, and one for filing. from there, who knows.. possibly to a line printer that'll bang out seven thousand pages per second (ok, slight exaggeration) and feeds off a four foot spool of eleven inch paper rather than stacks of Xerox paper. Yep. We live in a paperless office.

Oh, the shoulder pads. Is this a dance troupe or a football squad?