Come on man, don't take away the only thing we've got going for us. Everyone knows we have to disparage Chicagoland lest they take over completely. (spoken as someone born and raised in the Quad Cities area... no longer living in the area though)
I just hope no one from the University of Illinois signed off on this... Prof. Kaler in the astronomy department was one of my favorite professors while I was at school there.
...there are no extended validation cues...
Actually (and I just checked), but Safari 3.2.1 (on Leopard, at least) displays the name of the extended validation cert owner next to the lock icon in the top right corner.
Nope! Go get a BlackBerry Storm. Touch screen device that is improved via mechanism to detect difference between touching a widget and pushing a widget. I used to have one of those other touch screen phones, and navigation was a complete pain in the ass. My new phone with the clicky screen is much better, and it still uses multi-touch for on-screen text selection purposes. Interface improved, patent improved, life goes on.
You know, it's interesting. I have an iPod Touch and find its interface to be vastly superior to the Storm, which I have borrowed a few times from friends and thus had an opportunity to try out. However, I asked someone who was obviously not familiar with touch screens to type in their address on my iPod Touch the other day, and they had a very difficult time working out how to use the thing. They kept trying to push down on the "keys" and were frustrated when it wouldn't click. The idea that they just had to tap was apparently very difficult to comprehend.
On the other hand, to me (having used touch screen technology in general, and the iPod Touch / iPhone interface specifically), the "clicking" that the Storm implements seems forced and hokey. I thought it missed the point of the, "But there are no buttons!" complaint, since one still can't type without looking at the screen (i.e., one can't feel their way around the keyboard). I had not previously considered that it might be a more intuitive interface for someone who had never encountered touch screen technology before.
...damnfool landowners who plant big trees too near power lines...
It's not always the landowners' fault. The city in which my folks live planted trees in their right-of-way a few years ago, directly under the lines that connect to Mom and Dad's house. Dad pointed out that they'd be a problem in a few years but was told that it would be at least ten years before it was an issue and anyway the city would fix it. (This by the landscaper putting in the trees.) Of course, five years later the tree is becoming a problem, and Mom and Dad are expected to take care of it. In this case the landscaper just wanted to sell an extra tree, and there wasn't really anything the landowner could do about it at the time.
Always leave room to add an explanation if it doesn't work out.