Time to ban kitchen tables.

What do you consider "reasonable" access? I tend to be very conservative about it. If I can do my job, I consider that reasonable access. Anything not strictly required to do my job is simply a bonus. Under those definitions, I've never had a job that did not afford me reasonable access to the internet. I know that many people will consider "reasonable" access to include things like access to Facebook and twitter and their bank accounts, etc. I disagree. When I'm at work, I'm working. When I'm not at work, I'm not at work. I try very hard to keep the boundary distinct. the more I blur the line, the easier it is for my employer to want me to be always available.

Exactly. Even now, 2015, the vast majority of computer users are clueless. Since the nail that sticks up is the nail that gets hammered, I just hunker down. When (if) the majority of computer users clues in, I may change my policy. Until then, I keep quite. FWIW, if it was something truly urgent that really did require me to notify someone of an incorrect email address, I'd have my lawyer do the notification.

I'm not expecting that my boss will always do what I want. I will settle for the knowledge that when I say something, my boss actually pays attention to what I say and gives it fair consideration. If you want to lose me, ignore me (and then expect me to clean up the mess that occurred because you ignored me). Remember, you are the manager; you are NOT G-d. Your people do know more about some things than do you, and you know more about other things than do they. If you work together, you can maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

as long as you don't keep the weekly 1-on-1s running forever. They're great for a new manager to get to know his team. But the last thing I want to do is spend 15 to 30 minutes a week in an awkward meeting with my manager when we've nothing to discuss. Keep an eye on the number of meetings your developers are attending. If meetings regularly chew up a large chunk of developer time, you've got a problem. Conversely, if your developers never, or rarely, meet with anyone other than developers or you, you've also got a problem. Developers should be talking to their customers (i.e. the people for whom they are developing the software). Yes, in an ideal agile world, the customers would be right there with the developers. But, in 29 years (dang, has it been that long) as a developer, I've yet to encounter that.

If you really cannot do offices, one thing I've encountered that worked well was a "quiet" time. Essentially, a block of hours each day when no meetings would be accepted, no visitors or conversations allowed (emergencies excepted, of course). It's not perfect, of course, as there are plenty of dorks who think they are too important for such nonsense. But if everyone holds firm and enforces things ("I'm sorry, I cannot talk right now. Can I come by your desk at 2pm?") it can work.

In my current situation, we have all three of the developers, myself included, open plan in a single room with a real door. This works reasonably well. The people with whom we interact most are within very easy reach. Other folks are isolated from us. Don't know how well this would work with, say, six or seven developers. But a handful of guys working on the same project - not bad. Bonus: being able to close the door is good when we get a bit raucous or when we want to discuss things privately.

a process problem: either the process sucks or the prison staff are not following process.
Release notices by email? By email from an unofficial email address? By unencrypted, undigitally-signed email from an unofficial email address?

If something goes wrong, you're carrying a boatload of highly flammable material while playing with fire. Sounds like a setup for a Darwin award.

Stupidity. It's not merely legal - it's a requirement.

Yep, the nearest pair of Best Buy/FutureShop to me here in Winnipeg actually shared a parking lot. Never understood why both were kept open, unless it was a regulatory requirement of the merger. Knowing that they were owned by the same parent company, I shopped more at Best Buy than FutureShop because Best Buy sales reps were not on commission while FutureShop sales reps were (and, as a result, tended to be very pushy).

most important thing the CTO of a tech company finds to consider, I think the tech company has a problem. I want well-written, well-tested code. I really don't care about the DNA of the person (people) who wrote said code. Now that I think about it, most of the code I've encountered in my life has been modified by multiple people before I ever got to it. How do I tell the gender of the person who wrote the function, particularly if the function has been modified by several people? And how can I even check their gender if all that is associated with an update is a userid? Perhaps the "T" in CTO stands for "Twaddle"?

And, for good measure, travel with a laptop running BSD without a GUI.

Um, that might work if you never leave the city. Some of us like to actually leave the city and go places where there might possibly be a cellphone signal, but there definitely ain't no wi-fi. Actually, my last real vacation was sufficiently out there that there wasn't hardly any radio, much less cellphone or internet. Surprised how little I missed it all.

Pick one cellular provider. Give them one month to tell the cops to get bent. If they don't do so, every customer (well, all the customers we can get to do so) switches to another provider. Or, if that's too drastic, a warning shot: no cell-phone week. We all leave our cell phones at home, turned off, with the threat to cancel service if Stingrays don't become extinct.