Cyril Kornbluth wrote the idea in a story called "The Marching Morons" back in 1950. Doug Adams did something similar many years later.

Old Scam. - This offering is for "Sophisticated Investors" only. You should read this phrase as "Run Away Quickly", but a lot of people like to think they are smarter and more capable than they really are, and are sucked in. "Hell Yes I'm sufistikated, lets see what you got."

Which is still twice as efficient as a gas powered car.

Two points: 1. No. It isn't - When you take everything into account, including the relative efficiency of a big coal fired plant, the relative inefficiency of an ICE, the transmission line losses, everything, end-to-end, the electric car running on coal fired power emits half the CO2 of an ICE car. 2. Electricity can be produced by all sorts of methods that emit no CO2.

I'm no Seleneologist nor am I a Geologist, but what exactly is up there that we can't get down here in larger quantities for much less money? No sarcasm intended, I'm honestly curious..

6 USB ports? - Lets see - mouse, keyboard (sometimes), phone charge cable, external hard drive, memory stick. I guess I don't need 6 but 3 is a minimum. HDMI- ? yes for big screens in meeting rooms. VGA - not as common as HDMI for big screens, but still out there, could do without. eSATA - dont use it.

Sure its derogatory. Much the same as New Yorker or Scotsman. WTF?

If they do this right it could be an awesome movie, but I'm afraid they will do all the stupid things Hollywood always does when they "adapt" a book for a movie. Like dumb it down, oversimplify the plot and leave out key plot elements, throw in lots of action scenes that weren't originally in the story and then tack on a fake happy ending for Mike,

Inconceivable!

Well, at least it ruled for a while. My kids aren't home much, (went to Uni) I couldn't even give the peripherals away last year.
 
But, it got me to actually start learning to play a real guitar. What Rock band gave you, at times, was the feeling of "Rocking Out". The feeling of somehow being in the music, connected to it somehow, and that is all kinds of awesome.

I was visiting the USA (California is nice this time of year) last week and I had to sign little pieces of paper with my name to buy things with my credit card. Apparently none of the stores and restaurants have chip and pin terminals. You can't prevent even the most basic fraud if any guy with a card reader can make a copy of your magstripe and clone your card. What's worse, in the restaurant they actually walked off with my card, instead of bringing a wireless terminal to my table for me to enter my PIN. You good people are about 5 years behind the times. WTF happened?

Used to drive an old 67 Mustang. Pretty car but a piece of early 60s crap mechanically. The rear drum brakes had grooves worn in the backing plates over the years such that a sudden sharp application of the brakes would cause them to lock up hard.
 
  It was very useful for distracted pedestrians; you would slow down gradually, and if they still didn't notice hey were wandering out in front of a car, I would twitch the steering wheel left, whap the brake pedal hard, the back wheels would lock up, and the car would do a screeching starsky and hutch fishtail stop. Nothing scares the crap out of a pedestrian like a car skidding sideways to a stop 3 feet from them. (Before anyone freaks out, I could do this at about 10 mph, so mr. pedestrian was never in any danger).

My two daughters both had their own computers by the time they were about 10 or 12. They had them in their bedrooms. Other parents we talked to were completely freaked out. "Oh my God, we would never let Tiffany have a computer in her bedroom." Does Tiffany have a smartphone? Well of course. Where does she keep it? In her bedroom. WTF?? It just didn't occur to them that all the reasons they had for not letting their kids have a computer in their bedrooms were equally applicable to smartphones.

"Aging person has lots of medications but frequently forgets to take them or can't remember if they did"
 
My neighbor the pharmacist does a brisk trade in custom blister packs for seniors. They get all their meds for a week on a big card, in a grid, Monday to Sunday, Morning, Noon, Dinner, Bedtime. They can see what to to take, when to take it, and see if they forgot to take any. My little imagination is having trouble figuring out a home automation solution to this problem that would be better than the blister pack.

"La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain."

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.
 
Anatole France, 1894