This is a lot off-topic, but: 8-track studio recording was the hot thing in the late fifties when the Ampex 5285 and other multi-track studio records came out. Multi-track analog recorders remained very popular until digital multi-track started to replace the old analog units in the mid/late 1990's. Those studio 8-track machines do not have much in common with the continuous loop cassettes we also call 8 tracks. From a technology standpoint, Kodachrome has just as much reason to still be around as the 8-track cassette - none. From a nostalgia standpoint, maybe there's room for both.

I also have graphite under the skin on one finger from the same sort of accident. I wonder how comon it is.

Broadcast television is still free, over the air, and have always had commercials (in the case of PBS stations more subtle, but still there). I don't remember anyone promising me that cable would eliminate commercials. Provide better and more reliable picture quality and add choice, yes, but not change the actual programming delivered.

Where I live there are hundreds of publicly-accessible real-time cameras pointed at highway interchanges and major intersections.

FM-200 is not Halon, it is the Dupont brand name for a non ozone depleting Halon replacement - heptafluoropropane. Still yet, the deployment works exactly as you describe.

I wish Sprint phones would roam at EVDO speeds on the VZW network like it did on the (former) Alltel network. Not gonna happen, but it would be nice.

This is not true. That red map is the VZW 3G (EVDO and not just 1xRTT) network just as they claim. They have basically upgraded their entire network to EVDO.

I don't care who you are, thats funny! I wish I had a mod point or two.