No more than Lexmark had a monopoly on laser printers: the question is whether or not you are allowed to force a specific brand of products/consumables. The courts are very clear - it was illegal for AT&T to force their customers to use only AT&T phones. It would be illegal for Ford to require you to use only Shell gasoline under penalty of warranty cancellation. It would be illegal for Petsmart to sell you a kitten only on the condition that you never buy food from any other source or for Dell to sell you a computer and specify that you may only use Sony brand CD/DVD blanks. Microsoft does not have a monopoly among game players, but they are about to have a monopoly within XBox users.

See United States v IBM, 1936, USSC ruled that it was a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act for IBM to require the use of IBM brand punch cards in their machines. Exact same thing here.

If google blocked search engine and gmail from iPhone users - or Macs - any guesses what the AT&T/Apple reaction would be?

According to their city atty this was the greatest, bestest decision for the city ever. He's obviously clueless. Fire him.

Do something about Verizon saying "you may not use a smart phone without paying $30/month above and beyond your voice plan for data even if you don't want to use our data network". The phones have WiFi - that's what I want. Period. I don't want data. I want a smart phone and I don't want to sure the web using your network. That should be my right to choose.

Unless interstellar travel is nothing but a single "duh" moment away - maybe we're just missing something that will make everything simple and easy to understand. Like pipes or the wonderbra.

Is "sharing genetics" a reference to all of the previously-mentioned pron?

1,500 newspapers all want to sue Google because it is now painfully obvious that all 1,500 papers in the country bought the same story from AP/UPI?

From time to time they have conducted mock attacks and it has been demonstrated more than once that an external agent could destroy various pieces of equipment by ordering them to perform out of spec. And there are other weak points as well - hack into the railroads and instruct the train to deliver the coal to the wrong place, for example. But here's a story from August 13 2001 in the LA Times

For two weeks last spring, hackers wormed their way inside a computer system that plays a key role in moving electrical power where it is needed around the state. The computers belong to the California Independent Service Operator, an agency that oversees much of the state's electricity transmission grid--including the massive complex of power plants and transmission lines. Cal-ISO patched the flaw that allowed hackers to roam through portions of its network before power supplies were affected. But the episode sent shock waves throughout the energy industry.
The crux of the issue is that the system is vulnerable - recall 2003 when a single tree branch killed power across several states for a week? That is not indicative of a healthy and robust grid system. And if the system is that vulnerable to an accident what would happen if somebody with malice aforethought (and a degree in EE) decided to spice things up a bit?
Unless the utility companies make explicit plans to correct things a macro-catastrophe is inevitable. Personally I think that a solar storm is more likely than a terrorist attack but it *WILL* happen and tens of millions of people will lose their grid indefinitely (probably several years to restore full access). (I further predict that the system will be rebuilt to the old specs because it will be cheaper and easier to do it that way, flushing an opportunity to build a hardened grid).
This is your transformer. (note that this company claims to be able to repair your transformer in less than 30 weeks - that means that)
This is your transformer after a solar storm. Yes, the sun did this.
This is the transformer with which most geeks are more familiar.

Amen. Microsoft has *NEVER* been an innovator when it came to the consumer. True, they gave us Bob and Clippy, and provided the fertile grounds for Sasser, Blaster and Code Red to sprout, but they are too large to truly innovate and wield their legacy as the anchor around their own neck.

Voltage doesn't kill - the 50,000V of a taser is much less dangerous than dropping a hair drier plugged into a 120V outlet is. Van de Graaff generators routinely approach half a million volts and they have kids touch the sphere to make their hair stand up. Again, VOLTAGE DOES NOT KILL.

There's always Amazon. But Best Buy alone has 9 on their website at the moment. They are out there - slowly fading away, but they're still out there.

I still see DVD/VHS combo units around fairly frequently....

Wouldn't the pants be kinda smelly by now if you haven't worn any other pants for years?

Once upon a time I wrote an accounting and office administration application using a DOS product called DataEase. Shortly before I left for bigger and better things I rigged it so once a year the bottom border on the primary menu screen would be replaced with a message in HEX wishing me a happy birthday.