Just because you're old doesn't mean you shouldn't still buy toys. Toys are fun.

Bullshit. I'm not sure who you're referring to as the older generation, but here's my thoughts as a 35-45 year old male who interacts with these youngsters regularly. What they care about is "Does it do what I need it to do", same as you, you just need it to do different things. They care about battery life, that's why it's always mentioned. FLOPS? who cares unless the system can't perform the functions it needs to perform. Are you requirements higher than theirs? Possibly, so you get what meets your needs, they get what meets theirs. Upgradability isn't an issue for a device who's functionality is well defined and capabilities are met (this refers to ipods, not laptops), I don't feel the need to upgrade my hammer when a new model comes out. I replace my laptop about every 2-3 years, but I'm holding off replacing my current 2+ year old machine because they only thing that would improve moving to the latest model would be a 20% increase in speed, USB 3, an improved graphics card, and a slightly higher res screen. My current machine is fast enough, the graphics card is good enough for what I do, and the USB 3 isn't really an issue. The higher res screen would be kinda nice, but I'm often plugged into an external monitor, so it's not a huge deal. Since purchasing my laptop, I've upgraded the HD (three time, once to a 120SSD, then to a 240, plus added a 1TB platter) and RAM (twice, once to 8GB, then to 16). Compatibility is definitely an issue, but it's not what you think it is. The devices need to work with *their* other devices. Apple does this pretty well. What do I can about being compatible with a device I'm not going to ever need to interact with? Personally, I like open standards to ensure compatibility across *my* devices. Small and light are concerns for people who are highly mobile and carry things around a lot (i.e., students and generally young people, also frequent travelers). Shiny is nice for some, but some people want to avoid that. We were recently spec'ing out some machines for work but rejected a really good deal because we couldn't have the president of the company walking around with a shiny gold colored laptop.

What part of volunteer didn't you understand?

I'm wondering if Google just killed Roku with Chromecast.

Actually, that's what makes good leaders. Good leaders are able to get a group to do what they want.

Or just unplug the kinect part.

Huh? There are thousands of companies that make money manufacturing and selling things. Why do you assume that their only path to profit is via apps and advertising? Toyota, Vizio, Samsung, Ikea, Asus, etc. seem to be doing pretty well selling things.

Valve has always said that if they were to go out of business, or shutdown their Steam service, they would release patches to all the games to make them playable without requiring Steam.

Damn I just bought an XFX 7850 last week. Performance seems good (though there was I blue screen when I first installed it, but I hadn't installed any drivers yet and it's been stable since), should I expect to be replacing it in a few months?

I don't know what media your listening to / reading. Investigative journalism is alive and well, even if the topics don't make national news. You say you're too young to notice Nixon, but there have been a few other major journalist / news initiated investigations since then. Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance" investigation linking the CIA to the drug trafficking, as well as the earlier investigation into Iran / Contra 10 years earlier. More recently, the uncovering of the NYPD spying on Mosques and Muslim groups in NY. Check out the Center or Investigative Reporting (http://cironline.org/) for more examples.

A believe Valve has an item in their EULA / contract that if they even shut down they will release / unlock / dedrm all purchased content.

RFID is not GPS tracking, this isn't an issue about privacy. There's no new information being giving out. It's a technical improvement over standard photo ID badges. It's a school, they should have student IDs, for a number of reasons (security being just one).

I actually have multiple ID badges that I where for work, depending on location. ID badges are for security as well.

And do you consider this to be a good or a bad thing? I can only think that's it's a very good thing, let the machines do the boring work and let the people do what the machines can't. Automation and reducing the effort required to perform some action is always a good thing (short term, I'm not talking about developing a 100% dependence on automation and losing the ability to perform those actions without the machinery (ala Homer declaration upon seeing an iron lung machine, "and here I am like a chump breathing all by myself")).

Every episode had a different rendition of the song.

Huh? For a rectangular shape, area per diagonal is the same no matter what the ratio.