I think at least in the United States, we've also hit the maximum commute times people are willing to tolerate. For a long time "drive till you qualify" (i.e. "drive outward from the city until you find a house you can afford") was the motto of the real estate industry. People found out how much the quality of life suffered when they were spending two hours in each direction behind the wheel of a car. They're now willing to make sacrifices in other areas (less living space, smaller yard, schools not as good) for more reasonable commute times.

I've been looking for a house to buy recently and there's a maximum commute time I'm willing to tolerate. Beyond that, I'll keep renting, thank you.

Many of the people who bought houses in far-flung exurbs "because it's where I can afford to buy" were also stretched pretty thin financially to afford those houses. The recent recession, with its layoffs and real estate bust, was not kind to those people. Many of them are not commuting long distances to work because they simply don't have a job anymore. Or they've lost their home and have moved back into a rental closer to the city.

I want to keep my Boston-area job, and friends, and especially my SO...while buying a house somewhere where mere mortals can actually afford to buy a house. Preferably where it doesn't snow, because I hate this whole "New England Winter" thing.

Does anyone remember asking for most of this stuff? Because I sure didn't. I think the major "feature" of Vista and W7 is that they removed the Playskool "My First Computer" window-dressing they used in XP. That stuff was just tacky.

At least with previous versions of Windows, upgrading added significant functionality. 3.1 -> 95 got you a whole new user interface, and removed the clunkiness, for the most part, of having to work with DOS directly. 95 -> 98 got you FAT32, which allowed you to use bigger hard drives, and USB support, both of which were missing from most versions of 95. 98 -> XP got you CD burning native to the OS, plus it got you off the 16-bit code base, adding stability. XP -> Vista or W7 doesn't get you anything on that level. I think probably the biggest advantage is that with 64-bit versions of Vista or W7 you're able to use more than 4GB of RAM but how many computers ship with that configuration right now? (Yes, I'm aware there was a 64-bit version of XP, but it was largely ignored by both computer manufacturers and the public.)

News flash: Many of the engineers who design things like the iPad, "flip" cell phones, etc., are Star Trek fans, and probably designed those things in either conscious or unconscious imitation of fictional technologies they'd seen on the show. Film at 11:00. Seriously, Star Trek in its various incarnations has been a pretty big influence on pop culture. Characters like Mr. Spock (cold, rational) and Captain Kirk (swaggering, arrogant, yet having plenty of competence to back up the braggadocio) have become archetypes. "Beam me up, Scotty", "Engage!", "Make it so", and so on have become catchphrases in mainstream culture. The first space shuttle was named Enterprise because thousands of Star Trek fans wrote letters to NASA, their Congressperson, etc. I bet when our culture finally does design a starship, it'll end up looking as much like the Enterprise as engineering considerations will allow: saucer-shaped hull + a cigar-shaped hull + 2 engine nacelles out on pylons.

"Snails on Speed" is a card in the game Munchkin. Life imitates art.

Yeah, there's a lot of the USA where there's either no broadband access at all, or the only broadband provider is the local franchised cable monopoly. What are those people going to do?

Usually that's the approach networks take with shows they want to kill off--move it around the schedule, pre-empt it a lot, etc.

Colluding with your competitors to set minimum sale prices or minimum profit margins is usually called "price fixing" and, with a handful of narrowly-drawn exceptions, it's illegal in the US,and probably most other places in the First World as well. Or did I completely misread the intent of your post?

Judging by the vehicles I see around Somerville MA, your Prius will do just dandy.

I agree. I don't, in general, object to advertising. Content, after all, must be paid for. However, all too much online advertising has "dancing bologna" written in javascript and flash that's unbelieveably distracting at best (I'm trying to read a *news article*, I do not want to "hit the bouncing chimp and win a free iPod") or wedges my web browser at worst. *That* sort of nonsense is why I run AdBlock.

Google does ads right: they're unobtrusive, text ads. If more online advertisers went that route, there'd be much less of an incentive for me to run AdBlock.

More importantly, if they jiggle the handel, will it jiggle bach? After all, the toilet *is* baroquen.

Seconded. I am disappointed at the lack of a "motorcycle" option. Plus, in California and pretty much everywhere outside North America, you can lanesplit and get there faster in congested traffic.

Sales tax doesn't just vary state to state in the US. Some states have a uniform statewide tax. Others allow counties and/or municipalities to enact "piggyback" sales taxes on top of the state levy. (For example, Pennsylvania, IIRC, charges 6% sales tax, and the City of Philadelphia levies an additional 1% on top of that for a total of 7%.)

So online and mail-order vendors don't just have 50 or so online taxing jurisdictions to worry about, they have hundreds.

Also, what items are taxed varies by state. Most states with sales tax don't tax food and clothing but some do. Massachusetts taxes single items of clothing over $175, but only the amount over $175 is taxable. (E.g. if you buy a coat worth $200, you pay sales tax on $25.) Furthermore, there are a lot of weird corner cases in various state definitions of what's taxable and what isn't. Most states tax "prepared" foods--but the definition of "prepared" varies widely. I remember for a long time NJ taxed meals eaten in a restaurant but not the exact same meal packaged as takeaway. (We're talking 30+ years ago, IIRC, and I think that's changed since.) If you walk into a convenience store, pick up a frozen burrito, and heat it in the store microwave, does that count as "prepared"? What if I just pay for the burrito and take it home and heat it up at home? If I walk into a motorcycle shop in Mass. and buy a pair of leather riding gloves, that counts as "sporting goods" and is taxable. But if I walk into a department store and buy a pair of general-purpose leather gloves, that counts as "clothing" and isn't. If you tried to figure all of this out, I can guarantee you your brain would hurt after a few hours.

Bottom line, if you're an online vendor who ships to all 50 states, D.C., and various U.S. possessions, and US Military APO/FPO addresses, you could have guaranteed employment for a small army of lawyers and accountants figuring out what is and isn't taxable and how much tax is due based on the nature of the item and the destination jurisdiction.