These debates have always bothered me. Does a nation/society/culture/state/collective do nothing with its resources if there are some with less than others? Seriously ... this debate seems a red herring because it can never be concluded.

• - Don't build that table because the Johnson's down the road don't have enough wood for the winter
• - Don't spend resources researching reconstructive surgery when there are people on the organ transplant list

My sig paints a picture of my general mindset around 'progress' - I kind of find space exploration a silly idea but what the hell does it matter what I think? It's not like I set national budgets or anything like that. Nevertheless, can't we ask that question of every resource expenditure of ourselves and others? What business did I have buying my kid an XBox 360 when I don't have 100% of his expected college expenses saved?

I really miss those days. Being able to download something and use it for a week or so before deciding to get the full deal or pay the shareware fee. A few game companies do this, like Spiderweb Software - you can play a huge chunk of the game before it stops and requires payment. By the time the demo is over you're pretty sure it will run on your computer and there's no question about liking it or not.

... I use a surprisingly small number of applications. In the last decade the types of applications I always run on my computer are one each of the following:

• Photo software to grab from camera/phone and put into albums on my computer
• Text editor to update my homepage
• Interactive fiction authoring and interpreter software
• Some kind of office suite - usually not Microsoft Office and I'm happy
• Music management software to store my files and copy them to my phone
• Calendar and contact manager that syncs to my phone
• Email, RSS, Web, FTP, Jabber software

Having tried this with Windows, Linux, and MacOS I can say the solution that works out-of-the box for me is MacOS. I'd rather use open source software because I like donating money to software I use rather than paying for a silly license that puts a smile on the face of an attorney somewhere.

When I tried this with Linux I have to do a lot research to make sure the phone works with the OS and the software available for the OS. I've tried using Songbird and Lightning/Sunbird as well as the full suite of Mozilla-based applications. Inevitably something I use a computer for is not available in a single Linux distribution. If the phone works the calendar is crappy or Songbird doesn't sync with that phone.

So for me it does boil down not just to the software that's available but to device compatibility. I'm sure it's possible but computers are less hobby and more appliance for me. On an odd notes I was able to do all of this on an older MacBook I didn't know what to use for. So with the exception of the OS, obviously, I had all my music in open source applications: OpenOffice, Songbird, Thunderbird, Instantbird, Inform 7, Sunbird and a small handful of text editors. I couldn't find the right Linux counterparts.

How can you possibly know that? Does anyone know what percent of the profits of the phone the company gets and how the labor fares?

What does habitation have to do with anything? Some uninhabited areas have lots of travelers. Airports probably have a population of zero, yet those travellers I'll bet use a lot of the provided cell coverage. Same goes for the endless stretches of Interstate in places like Wyoming and Montana. Population zero but lots of people using the road.

I read "Paperweight" instead of "Paperwhite"

I agree. Education is more about discovering yourself than learning geometry or calculus - two things that directly benefit few people; but obviously their work is to the benefit of the rest of us. Presumably when a kid leaves high school they have an idea of what they want to do next - study to become a writer or mathematician, for example. Forcing Hemingway to do math problems in the summer would have wrecked his writing ;-)

That's a good point. My son is in school for seven hours a day. Minus one hour for lunch leaves six. That's six periods each 50 minutes, for a total of five hours of scheduled instruction. When you factor in roll call for attendance, the normal hustle and bustle of teenage kids it's probably closer to four hours of actual instruction, on a good day.

We have friends who home schooled their kids. They completed (and exceeded) minimum curriculum in our state in four hours a day. And she educated two very smart and confident kids.

I wish had a mod point. But I'd make one correction: "People do not have to work this hard to thrive, let alone survive.

One of the students did not know 8 x 4 is "32". He did know 8 x 2 but, according to my son, could not double "16" to get to "32".

I don't think he forgot that over the summer - he never learned it. This high school is a popular public school in my city many students "choice" in if they are not in the school's immediate vicinity. Even the silly statewide proficiency tests let this kid fall through the cracks.

He wasn't failed by summer but by a school system that allows a fourteen year old boy to enter high school not knowing 8 x 4.

There is noting wrong with summer than a year-round school will fix.

I've done a lot of driving in the American west - and I've been impressed at the proliferation of WiFi at truck stops; even those in ten people towns in Montana and Wyoming. Of course, this restricts you to interstate travel for the most part, but that's the same case with 4G I'm guessing.

The Trucker's Guide to the Internet gives some advice on this, and talks a little about MiFi, which may or may not be of use to you. Truckers have solved many of the problems you may face and I'm guessing will have some sound practical advice.

Good luck in this. My approach is similar but involves a sailboat with up times doing software testing when I'm in a marina with WiFi. I can break software from a sailboat salon in the Bahamas as easily as I can in the Rocky Mountains. I won't have any access while sailing, of course, but like truck stops most marinas offer WiFi and many of those have free access.

If you replace the word driving with any verb your statement is true. I can't imagine the mayhem this will mean - in part because I don't think anyone knows how 'autonomous cars' will be implemented. In the simplest since we are talking about putting our safety into the hands of something engineered. Fair enough - we do that every day of our life - most of it unwittingly. However, engineering it seems to me, is best when solving a specific problem we're having with a conflict between our sets of rules and the environment. Homes and bridges were probably the first things experienced, if not hunger or thirst, solved by engineering. I can't for the life of me think of a problem solved by 'autonomous cars' that won't create more problems requiring more engineering.