Tablets are huge sellers, second only to smartphones, which outsell everything else by massive margins.

Any idea why tablets outsell laptops? I think it's because tablets have millions of apps for a dollar or for free. However, if you were to use tablets for 2-3 hours a day, won't you get arm/hand strain from carrying the tablet for hours at a time. There is no such strain with laptops as you typically place them on a table and don't have to carry them. Tablet type devices are useful for occasional use (like on Star Trek). But for constant use, laptops/desktops are far superior, ergonomically.

Tests aren't needed.

How else will you determine whether someone is worthy of entry to the next level of education or a job? Aren't job interviews tests? Do you just ship software to customers without doing any testing?

Socrates needed no tests. Buddha never taught with a closed fist holding some knowledge back.

These people loved knowledge and were probably already well off. To other people, education is a means to getting a job and therefore, survival.

... which millions of people use to connect to the internet... and there are dozens (thousands) of bugs still hidden where that bug came from. Do you still think browsers should be allowed for serious stuff like online banking, home automation and online elections?

And how do you know the binary code running on the server was generated using exactly the same open source code you have been provided with? IOW, the code could be modified without the customer knowing about privacy breaches. Don't be so naive when it comes to security.

Where is the problem?

The problem is the browser they switch to is very likely inferior to google search, so they won't switch search engines. Meanwhile Google is promoting their inferior non-search services on their search service to the detriment of the customer. Do you see the problem now?

Of course Google will prefer their own brands.

The problem here is Google has over 75% of the search engine market and is pretty much the gateway to the Internet to many users. It should not be abusing that monopoly to unfairly promote their other non-monopoly services over that of their competitors' services.

As does Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and all the others which have complementary products and services

Maybe that's wrong. But Google search is a monopoly and the impact of abuse is greater.

If automated driving is so perfect, are you willing to fly in a pilot-less commercial plane? No? Remember, planes don't have deal with as much traffic as cars, and yet it not 100% automated. What does that tell you? If automated flying with little traffic is difficult, driving automation is not a fully solved problem, and won't be, for many decades.

Is this something people actually want, empty marketing rhetoric, or a frightening imminent example of 'manufactured consent'?

I definitely think this is manufactured consent. How many drivers complained they don't want to drive anymore? Maybe a few, but the vast majority of the drivers do enjoy driving. Being a passenger all the time sucks. For these people, self-driving cars are a solution to a non-existent problem.

What would be a lot of fun would be the rednecks encountering many state troopers a mile or so ahead. That's because these self-driving cars are made by Google so it will have all types of sensors up the wazoo. The second the car detects it's being "attacked," it will send a distress call over wifi, along with the license plates of the attackers.

This though, is the reason I don't like self-driving cars. The car manufacturer and the govt can track your every move. It's a ridiculous invasion of privacy.

Wait till there are 5 or 6 electric car manufacturers building cars similar to Tesla. At that point, do you one separate, unique showroom per brand? That seems like a waste of space, salesmen, and mechanics. A more practical solution would be 3 car brands per dealership.

But what if Apple, Microsoft and Google ban such apps from using NFC for payment or they have proprietary API not shared with app developers that you need to make an Apple Pay clone? After all, despite millions of apps, only 4 or 5 app stores exist in the mobile world and they belong to Apple, Google, Microsoft and other mobile OS vendors.

But what do you think about the blank space around keys? Isn't that kind non-user friendly and non-ergonomic? Does it use a mechanical switch or those ugly rubber dome key switches?

According to that graph, 5% more IE users are likely to quit compared to FF users. So hire only FF users to save money?

The target person's smile looks completely computer-generated and not natural at all. They are very far from a toothpaste smile. Real actors in movies need not fear Hollywood replacing them with no-acting-talent pretty faces.

As far as lunches go, I can and do get them cheaply by buying materials and making them myself.

I'm not talking about ordinary home-cooked meals, but tasty restaurant meals created by expert cooks. I'm willing to pay the cook for the ingredients + hourly wage + rent of his kitchen tools/or he can borrow my kitchen utensils.

My condition: the restaurant open sources all its recipes, so no we don't pay for any trade-secret IP.

Adding up these costs results in 1/5th the cost we pay at restaurants. Why should we pay so much for the IP and renting a table/chair for an hour or so?

No cost to anybody else involved. No noticeable use of scarce labor or materials.

But I specifically selected examples where labor or materials are not scarce. Cooking is thousands of years old, and cars, hundreds of years old. If I were to pay for all the materials and labor required to build cars, or prepare food the cost would be a tiny fraction of what we pay in retail. Why should we pay so much for non-digital IP? If you agree to apply the same low cost to physical products (which are simply, IP + raw materials), we can agree to reduce the cost of digital goods.

Why do you care about how a product is embodied: physical or digital? It requires the same cost structure (maybe more upfront costs than physical products), talent and genius to create both types of products. So why should you have the right to pay little for digital goods?