Sorry, the ipod connector could not have been mini/micro USB. Unless you have some way to pass analog audio and composite video via USB without an additional set of a/d/d/a. Now, it could have been mini/micro USB PLUS analog line out/ composite out, but that's something else entirely.

New Yorkers are not suckers, and those of us who have lived here a while know roughly how much a cab ride from Point A to Point B will cost. But the taximeter labels on fare schedules ("fare 1" versus "fare 4") are subtle and easily missed. I'm sure the hacks knew to cheat people who are either (a) tourists, (b) people in a REAL hurry (c) drunks. Plenty of those to go around.

Not true. In NYC, Taximeters are installed in individual cabs and are controlled by the driver. All the GPS/credit card/entertainment systems with two way radio communication were installed very recently. Before now it would have been impossible to prove fraud other than by hand matching receipts and rates charged to driver logbook to/from/time entries.

The problem is that those BS detectors are tuned to be so sensitive that they tend to register false positives. I.e., 9/11 "truthers", the people who believe Obama's birth certificate is a fraud, etc. The question I ask these people is "what amount of evidence would cause you to change your views?" They'll toss off a few impossible to satisfy conditions or just crank up the crazy. Bottom line is, you're never going to convince these folks that their view is wrong, evidence be damned. Same for the global warming "skeptics". Exactly what amount of evidence will be required to convince the board of Exxon that global warming is a fact?

"Voluntary patch" ...And what happens if one does not choose to accept this "voluntary patch"? Do I lose access to other system updates, am I locked out of other Microsoft services? ... And is this "voluntary patch" going to be included in the next Windows 7 Service Pack as a mandatory component for non-corporate installs?

If your Tivo has lifetime service then the best use of it is to sell it (working or not) on eBay and recoup your lifetime service cost.
Otherwise, you're looking at a doorstop. The Tivo (series 1 and 2) are woefully underpowered by today's standards. You're better off buying any reasonably expandable PC made in the past 4 years, add on MythTV and some video capture cards with hardware acceleration.

Bzzzt. There is no medical evidence of colloidal silver's safety or effectiveness. OTOH it may very well turn you blue. I wouldn't try it.

Verizon walks you through the (fairly involved, for a newbie) process of manually changing your DNS settings. They maintain one set of DNS addresses that do hijacking, and one set (the xx.xx.xx.14 addresses) that do not.hijack. It's a one time thing, and it's under your control.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [to Igor] Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck's?
Igor: [pause, then] No.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I DID put in?
Igor: Then you won't be angry?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: I will NOT be angry.
Igor: Abby Someone.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby Normal.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [pause, then] Abby Normal?
Igor: I'm almost sure that was the name.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: [chuckles, then] Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?
[grabs Igor and starts throttling him]
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Is that what you're telling me?

Google is going to follow the model used by Mac OS X - ship your own next generation windowing system, then follow up with a rootless X window manager for compatibility with all the apps that are out there.

I am not a regular OS X user so I'd like to hear from those who use it daily; do you find yourselves running X apps frequently, or are you running Cocoa apps exclusively?

Why are they pissing off a significant percentage of my target audience?

That kind of thinking is what propelled Nader's candidacy in 2000. And look what that got us. If the two candidates both suck on tech issues then you have to decide on some other basis. Me, I want my Bill of Rights back. I want Guantanamo shut down. I want a sane foreign policy. So I'm voting for Obama.