The proposed back-up cameras are not supposed to take the place of existing mirrors. Rather, they are installed closer to the ground so that you can see what's behind you at a lower level than what's typically visible with the rear-view mirror (ie small children).

Have a look at the Spring Engine if you haven't already. There are a variety of RTS games, including some high-quality variants of Total Annihilation, which use the Spring Engine and allow for all sorts of client-side scripting through Lua. There are a variety of client-side lua "gadgets" that players have written already. You can move your units into custom formations by drawing lines or squiggles with the mouse; there are widgets to automate using air transports to ferry units between factories and rally points; there are even widgets to automatically alert the player when certain dangerous units are spotted. IIRC, someone was even working on a script for kiting with long-range units.

I imagine a scenario like the following:

Twenty years down the road, a close acquaintance of yours is murdered.

Fortunately, the police find some DNA at the scene! Unfortunately it's yours.

Fortunately that DNA sample you submitted to Berkeley was confidential! Unfortunately, a quick scan of the good 'ol police DNA database finds it anyway. Wonder how that happened?

Fortunately your name isn't associated with the sample! Unfortunately, since the victim didn't know anyone else who attended Berkeley, that's enough for the police to get a warrant for an official DNA sample.

Fortunately you didn't actually commit this crime, and mundane reasons easily explain the presence of your DNA! Unfortunately, someone once heard you say that you really didn't like the victim very much, and that statement combined with your DNA is enough for the brain-dead jury to convict you.

Standardized tests are another reason TI might want complete control over the operating system. If the operating system can be modified then sneaky students could hide all sorts of cheats inside the operating system. Forcing students to clear the memory of their calculators would no longer be sufficient to prevent cheating since information embedded in the OS would not be cleared.

One of the reasons that TI signs things is to provide a form of copy protection for the 3rd-party applications which are sold via the online store. The calculator operating system will not run a flash application for which it does not currently have a license. The operating system binary is signed so that you can't tamper with it in order to disable the copy-protection. A modified operating system could potentially run flash applications without a license.

As far as user-created software goes, TI doesn't really care what you run on the calculator. It's only non-free flash apps that concern them.

I couldn't really tell from the video, and the article didn't specify. Are the touchable holograms 3D, or are they just 2D images floating in mid-air? I suspect the latter. Still impressive, though.

As the 'IT Guy' it is your responsibility to make sure all the machines you manage are properly licensed. Any software that is used for the business is your responsibility, and you're likely to take the blame if someone reports the unlicensed software to a vendor.

I recommend that you immediately inform management of the problem. If they are hesitant to buy proper licenses, inform them that you need to start uninstalling the unlicensed software (and be sure to follow through on this if you have to). That will help motivate them to do the right thing.

Do not leave yourself in a position in which you might end up being the scapegoat, especially if management is aware of the problem and complicit. This sort of thing could potentially ruin your career. While it may cost you your job if you do the right thing, at least there won't be a black mark on your record that could harm your entire career.