... to the point where I can boot XBox 720 discs on my PC, even without booting Windows first.

Anyone remember how some games on the Amiga loaded very fast because they did not boot an OS first?

Why do we need competing platforms from Microsoft? Windows 7, Phone, Xbox?

I would propose to give your students something of practical value. Before you jump into programming with them, make them understand that they should start to program only when necessary. For example, many people underestimate the power of spreadsheets. If you can express a program as a single function, mark all cells in a spreadsheet, and copy the formula into that block, what you get in essence is a Turing machine with limited storage. Meaning: this can compute anything the human mind can compute. And often all that is needed to solve recurring mathematical problems is a well-designed spreadsheet. This will teach them a lot about programming already: they will have to deal with the fact that certain dependences between cells would lead to infinite loops, and how to solve mathematical equations using assignments.

Whether you want to teach this with Microsoft Office or with Open Office may not matter from a theoretical point of view, but please keep in mind that they own Open Office for life time, without need for ever purchasing an update.

... then vent the bottle via remote control.

I see only good things about this. Satellites that become defunct can easily be tracked, actively reduce space junk, and are decelerated faster if they enter the high atmosphere.

Then use batteries only to bridge gaps between road segments with overhead lines. Or go even further: integrate overhead lines into rails mounted at a height of 4m to eleminate any threads that cars pose to pedestrians. I am seriously sick of breathing in exhausts of people's cars who come to visit to my city or being nearly overrun by them while I live in a place where all essential spots can be reached by bike, on foot or by tram.

Use electricity from overhead lines instead. Hauling energy around costs energy and slows your vehicle.

No problem. Linux drivers support lots of hardware. For older hardware, driver support is often better than for new editions of Windows. Also, not all types of hardware need to be supported. Instead, vendors could test their hardware to be compatible with a test boot disk.

Also not a problem, because Linux drivers are mostly open source. For the few pieces of hardware where no Linux-compatible driver exists, such hardware would simply not be compatible with such a boot disk. Still no problem, as plenty of alternatives exist.

As I said, Linux works on a wide variety of configurations, and such a boot CD does not need to support legacy hardware.

From the licensing agreement for Nvidia drivers: "2. GRANT OF LICENSE 2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files)."

"We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible,"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7052420.stm

... they could provide their games on bootable Linux discs. No install needed, no patches possible, full control over the player's experience, with the added bonus of being able run the games in Linux. Just a dream? Also no need to update DirectX.

Does your game really require a server? Servers increase cost for open source projects, so I would run as much code as possible on the clients. Granted that you need the server to set up the games, but all actions could be refereed indepently by several clients. If they don't agree, this may mean that someone is using a hacked client, and a warning should be displayed. The more players participate in such a peer-to-peer game, the more clients would have to be hacked in order cheat, but of course a single vulnerability in your system may still be fatal for security.

I agree that wires can be dangerous to your health when you stumble over them, but are they really ready to run all systems from battery and recharge using induction?

Sorry, couldn't refuse...

You can use MechVM to set up MW2 and find out:
http://www.mechvm.org/

More info and discussions:
http://www.mech2.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=24&sid=e01242e30227541e3a1fa45f9fc5d72a

Further down the list: linux: 1410, windows: 226

According to my count, the following words appear more than 2000 times:

alpha: 299534, skytel: 237233, arch: 122616, metroca: 73973, num: 72115, tone: 63352, com: 43040, call: 36191, from: 33065, this: 18987, has: 17926, all: 15899, sep: 15773, down: 15761, weblink: 14934, will: 14215, new: 13903, frm: 13723, test: 13269, txt: 13082, page: 13077, sub: 11974, have: 11060, been: 10876, center: 10687, number: 10512, your: 10444, update: 10292, york: 9740, home: 9562, alert: 9338, critica: 9334, server: 8994, trade: 8846, connect: 8807, informi: 8465, error: 8330, machine: 8208, cnn: 8013, world: 7967, message: 7947, news: 7901, that: 7894, time: 7815, edt: 7743, reboot: 7515, due: 7484, cabinet: 7339, cmp: 7339, status: 7332, mail: 7320, gblnetn: 7307, periodi: 7256, sequent: 7199, tkt: 7176, can: 6971, sev: 6833, service: 6514, ibm: 6409, now: 6206, today: 6054, evacuat: 5838, site: 5670, problem: 5289, network: 5111, system: 5102, ncc: 5101, www: 5057, everyon: 5031, sent: 5018, office: 4914, need: 4815, abs: 4745, socket: 4719, terrori: 4701, check: 4605, breakin: 4573, element: 4549, mpfetch: 4503, tue: 4412, line: 4409, get: 4394, asap: 4387, greater: 4325, contact: 4284, outage: 4224, any: 4218, phone: 4196, pls: 4183, custome: 4180, http: 4159, msg: 4139, unable: 4081, meeting: 4076, unch: 4027, subject: 4015, sendq: 3995, monitor: 3967, process: 3946, know: 3773, city: 3681, code: 3650, fyi: 3641, calls: 3616, plane: 3602, availab: 3553, yahoo: 3553, just: 3538, current: 3492, report: 3485, back: 3467, open: 3411, closed: 3407, team: 3406, being: 3399, bridge: 3375, timed: 3362, when: 3356, data: 3343, per: 3339, att: 3324, work: 3308, support: 3268, inc: 3266, updates: 3213, complet: 3205, job: 3198, reports: 3079, info: 3052, minutes: 3049, until: 3034, net: 3019, file: 2989, root: 2953, noc: 2952, issue: 2944, msn: 2933, failed: 2910, they: 2889, working: 2852, email: 2804, tomorro: 2795, case: 2723, access: 2678, operati: 2654, switch: 2652, ticket: 2630, sybase: 2611, still: 2599, alerts: 2503, emmc: 2484, our: 2484, informa: 2477, cdt: 2472, see: 2458, day: 2435, follow: 2406, script: 2405, their: 2397, investi: 2391, buildin: 2365, cell: 2338, pentago: 2318, fire: 2316, room: 2284, emergen: 2282, confirm: 2280, about: 2275, tuesday: 2272, name: 2266, event: 2260, opencon: 2258, sock: 2255, creditd: 2251, come: 2250, crdtdrv: 2250, alarm: 2245, chunk: 2245, possibl: 2240, web: 2229, sales: 2221, loock: 2217, attack: 2216, hudson: 2212, high: 2198, prob: 2187, says: 2173, only: 2136, west: 2134, request: 2133, followi: 2107, user: 2099, applica: 2076, let: 2076, account: 2061, nationa: 2050, going: 2046, device: 2014, morning: 2011, immedia: 2002

I'd like to have one of those.

Changing the resolution that the game uses for rendering beats upscaling. This is sometimes possible using some clever hex-editing and disassembling. There are several things to look for; for one thing, find any occurrence of the screen resolution. Also, you will need to know whether the game is based on VESA, DirectX or whatever. For VESA, the INT 10h calls are what you seek.

Here are some notes of how I did it for MechWarrior 2:
http://www.mech2.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=213

The Wikipedia article on VESA BIOS has links to the various VESA APIs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_Extensions

Yes, you need to know about hex-editing and disassembling, but this nerd business. And you may want to consult your lawyer on whether this is legal in your part of the world.