Eh. POTS may be slightly less vulnerable to system failure than cellular, but not much. And you're depending on physical wire which is more susceptible to damage. If you're really concerned about emergency communication capability, radio is the only way to go. No centralized ANYTHING, no infrastructure of any kind, and (with a bit of forethought) can work indefinitely, entirely off the grid. Go get your ham radio license.

Various forms of 3D scanners, using either light or physical probes, have been around for decades. It was a natural and simple extension of CNC technology, replacing the cutting head with a touch sensor. This product might be cheaper, or more user-friendly, or faster, but its capability is not revolutionary.

Burt Rutan - Airplane Designer, general badass,
Richard Branson - Explorer, businessman, etc.
Steve Fossett - Explorer!

Hell, any of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

My fiancee's family tells the story of her great-grandfather, who died of pneumonia. He caught the pneumonia from spending the night in a water-filled ditch. He was hiding in the ditch after being shot by a jealous husband. He was 78.

My hero.

Have they learned nothing from AT&T's coverage woes? T-mobile doesn't have ANY data service in my area. Or my parents' home, 3 hrs. away. Or my grandmother's home. Or my work. And I'm in a town of 370,000.

The critical moment is when something is offered for sale. If I build an open design car for my own use, and it fails miserably, it's my own dumb fault. However, as soon as I sell that car to someone else, I am warranting it to be a saleable product, which carries a number of legal implications. To a greater or lesser degree, I am liable for its performance.

The underlying problem isn't "open" or "closed" design, it's that when you sell something you're liable for it. To be willing to sell something, companies need to do a lot of work to ensure that the product is safe, in many cases far more work than creating the product in the first place. That being the case, there is little financial motive for openness and a large financial motive for keeping it proprietary.