As for sophistication, Google's implementation might be significantly less sophisticated, but it does work reliably, Siri from what I've heard, not so much.

IME, Google Voice does a very poor job of transcribing voicemails. Considering that it doesn't even need to attempt near-real-time transcription, this doesn't bode well for Google's prospects of natural speech recognition.

Siri isn't perfect, but it mostly works and is already out in the wild on tens of millions of phones.

You left one part out:

Using both T-Mobile's standard 3G and speedier HSPA+ networks, at least, I got about three hours and 15 minutes out of the Galaxy Nexus for surfing the Web, streaming a movie, sending instant messages, chatting on the phone and other activities. The phone got quite warm with all this use. Over Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network, it's possible that the phone's battery would drain even faster if you're doing a lot of downloading.

why Android phones are so laggy/sluggish.

Debian runs very well on my Ultra 60, with its 450MHz UltraSPARC II. As does OpenBSD.

The 2012 Impreza gets 36MPG highway, and that's without the diesel referred to in the upcoming Mazda. This is with a 2.0L flat-four with a CVT transmission.

When (if) Subaru pairs the diesel and the CVT, IMO 40+MPG would be very likely.

Exactly. I believe Apple will have fortified its inventory as much as possible to withstand the pre-order and general availability rushes, but how much stock to people really expect to them to horde? It sounds like they had at least 1 million units for pre-order, and probably that much ready for in-store sales as well. That's at least 2 million units, and I don't care who you are, that's a lot of inventory.

I don't have a citation, but Tor's circuit-building algorithm constructs the chain such that each of the 3 nodes are in different countries. A government can set up as many Tor nodes as they want, but unless they are also in different countries they still won't own enough of the chain to break it

Thirdly, on a not so serious note... wi-fi from McDonalds?

Yep, very poorly planned. Last I knew, McD's was part ATT's national Wifi network, which is for ATT customers only and requires some form of authentication. Plus, he didn't pay in cash, thereby leaving additional breadcrumbs.

Planning a little dumpster diving?

I was tested in the 90's as having above average hearing acuity, and I often hear things others don't. I'll hear the whine of a flyback transformer 100 ft away in a quiet room. Strangely, I have difficulty understanding speech if it's not significantly louder than background noise, and have a lot more difficulty carrying a conversation in loud places than most people.

I am much the same way - I tend to hear very low-level sounds easily that others either can't hear or don't notice. However, I too have more trouble with speech - whether it's in-person or recorded, the volume doesn't matter, it seems like my brain doesn't parse the words as they're being spoken. Many times if I pause for a few seconds I can re-process what someone just said it will come to me.

I don't have any experience with Earthlink, but SBC/AT&T seems to lose (yes, send to /dev/null) mail from time to time. AT&T/SBC is my DSL provider, and I run a mail server on my DSL line (totally within their TOS, BTW.)

Even though they allow customers to be released from the port 25 filter, most customer netblocks are listed on RBLs, so I smarthost my mail through their servers.

Every mail I send shows in my Postfix logs as accepted by their servers, but maybe 1-2 out of 10 will get delayed before delivery, and maybe 1 out of 20 will simply disappear.

The frequency of these occurrences also comes and goes; I first noticed it when dealing with an ebay customer whose package arrived to her damaged. Apparently my mails weren't getting through to her, so she thought I was trying to stiff her, and she filed a case with PayPal, which I lost.