Ah, to have enough room to have enough tools... :)

development does that (I've heard) so drivers won't freak out at a major number change.

They get their music by having their customers upload it.

Well, after avoiding 9, going to Windows DS9 would be silly, but Windows Voyager could work.

This (and the AC's mention of German) makes more sense than anything else I've heard :)

Sure, anyone connected to the grid is likely to be drawing power from it at some point. But the point that has the energy companies up in arms is that over the course of a month, some people will not be net consumers, and the current billing system is not designed to handle that in a realistic fashion.

This. I have no problem at all if they want to split my bill into two parts, a fixed cost for just being hooked up and an incremental cost for generating the electricity I consume, as long as the two costs are calculated sanely. The proper fix is to adjust the tariffs to reflect the growing reality of universal connection without universal consumption.

This. Yes, right now Tesla is absolutely a fringe player. But all the signs seem to point to them growing to be much more substantial, especially once (as Bob himself said) they get their next tier of lower price, less frills up and running.

Not necessarily. Some states (I know CA, and someone else mentioned Massachusetts) will consider a car that enters the state less than X years/miles after purchase to be taxable (although CA, at least, considers how much sales tax you paid in the state you bought it as part of the calculation of how much you owe in CA sales tax.)

Only licensed dealers may engage in the business of selling cars at retail. Test drives are probably considered to be part of that business; there's not many other cases where a company will lend you a vehicle for free to drive a couple of miles.

Test drives are probably considered to be part of "the business of selling cars at retail" because while an individual may lend you their car for something, most companies will not lend you a car for free to just drive around a block or two.

My understanding is that Iowa is not saying "you cannot sell to an Iowan". They are saying "you aren't licensed to have a showroom, or give test drives".

Most dealers buy the cars from the manufacturer (which is typically a transaction crossing state lines) and then they sell them to locals (a transaction not crossing state lines), although they sometimes have enough creative bookkeeping that they don't pay the manufacturer until they get paid. An Iowan is, as far as I know, perfectly able to order a car from Tesla of CA and, assuming they can arrange shipping, take delivery in Iowa. But they can't go to a showroom in Iowa, look it over, and take a test drive, so they better be sure it's what they really want. They also may have a hard time finding a shop that can service the car, since Tesla isn't licensed to have one of those either.

I've never gotten that pitch in so many words, but when my wife and I rent cars (which is at least 3 times a year) we always call it "test-driving" and we'll choose the specific car based on whether we've tried that model before. (We still tend to prefer Japanese brands, in part because we're used to how Japanese brands do the steering column stalks :)

New Math isn't all bad. It gave us a Tom Lehrer song :)

F35 had other options that got picked: fancy unused bells and whistles, and pork