But all I see putting the Utilities business model in jeopardy is inept management and political pandering. Rooftop solar and battery storage cannot even begin to compete with efficient central generation and distribution. Utilities however have no incentive to run an efficient organization. For decades that have been drunk on the power of captive rate-payers, with no competitive pressure to be efficient. Rooftop solar and batteries threaten to bring that competition to the game. Modern utilities are so bloated and inefficient that the rooftop solar and battery combination is a threat despite being much less efficient. So yeah, utilities are scared, but not for the reasons, or in the manner the Solar proponents claim, but scared they will have to grow up, and abandon the monopoly model and actually run an efficient business. Competition always frightens the monopolist.

If Windows 10 (or whatever they ultimately decide to call it) has that triple damned CHARMS screen, then NO THANKS! I am SOOOOO sick of that darn thing!

You're old enough to own LPs and Cds?? Wow, you must be ancient!! ;) I have records that go back to pre-1920, many having reached the century milestone, (I have one from 1908) and they still play fine. I transferred them to digital, and with a little tweaking, they sound even better than they did on my wind-up Victrola! Oh, yeah, my wind up Victrola dates from the 1920's and it still plays fine. Can't say the same for my many cassette decks, DAT decks, CDs, CD Players, DVD Players, MP3 players or computers... I'll take the "Limited Lifetime" of early phonograph records over that of a cellphone any day. I agree with you wholeheartedly about wanting choice though...

I went thru this a couple of years ago. I had hundreds of movies on VHS I had bought over many years. I had a very good VHS deck to play them on. I spent several weeks playing them into my computer, using Pinnacle Studio to trim the beginnings and ends and remove some of the noise, and Handbrake to further transform them to MP4 files on my Plex server. The result was OK, if not spectacular. Since them I have found many of my favorite movies in the DVD bargain bin at Walmart, at much better quality than my VHS originals, and many more popped up on TCM or Cinemax, where I could capture a nice clean copy. In the end, many of the VHS files on my Plex server got over-written with better copies. I also discovered I could simply watch many of the same movies on Netflix, negating the value of owning a copy at all. For example, many years ago I bought a VHS release of the freshly restored "Vertigo", one of my favorite movies. A couple of weeks ago, TCM aired the same print, much better than VHS quality, and of course it is also on Netflix. The effort I spent making my own MP4 of my own VHS copy was a waste. I still enjoy the movie, but rather the low quality of my own Plex copy, I just watch it on Netflix. Think carefully about what videos you want to copy, and you may find that there are few, if any, you really want to bother with.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. -Robert A. Heinlein

I call BULLSHIT! I know several well qualified STEM workers, myself included, who are unemployed, desperately trying to find jobs, and can't get to first base with people like you. You have a preconceived stereotype, and I don't fit it. My skills, experience, ability or willingness to work mean nothing. Believe me, I KNOW from hard-won personal experience.

Be alright with me. Just as long as I could say I worked for Ray K. At Google! Bragging rights, ya know... Besides, I am just immodest enough to think that once I got going, I might make a contribution or two along the way...

So, how does one go about getting a job in this fascinating group? Heck, I'd sweep the floors, if nothing else....

The idea is to place a box with a few TB of storage in each home. Link all those TB together into mirrored and replicated virtual drive structure, for sharing all the "stuff" we have. Also each home would have a "private" space that is still replicated and distributed, but visible only to that household. Additional services? Not really, but if the box is there running, anything that could be layered on top might be nice additions. A Skype style "intercom" could be useful too. Just noodling additional ideas beyond the basic backup and share of family data. Yeah, Skydrive and Skype do most all this.

Skydrive is currently the primary cloud service we are using. That is what we're considering an alternative from...

As someone using LibreOffice to write a huge manuscript that has been in development for several years, I would like some really good change control tools. I may be dense, and not quite understanding the problem, but it seems to me that integrating LibreOffice with Github to support distributed editing of huge projects, and version control, would be a natural... Am I just to ignorant to understand why this isn't being done? -Stony

Works well for me. I just stuff PDFs into my dropbox folder on my desktop, and read em on the iPad. Makes for a happy combination. There is also an Android tablet in the house, works about as well. Seems like a solved problem from my perspective. I never print anything for reading any more...

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, almost within rock-throwing distance of Silicon Valley, and I have ZERO broadband available. The only way I can get on the Internet is via a Verizon 4GLTE MiFi, at $10/GB. And THEY constantly screw up the billing too!