I imagine they'd do something similar to how some of the new suspension bridge cables are designed. The main cables are actually cable bundles, and they're made so that individual strands can be replaced if necessary.

HP has been notorious for doing things like you describe... just proves the GP's point, I think. :)

Exactly... Could be the government or private company, but we just need a law that says no single entity (or parent, sibling or subsidiary entity) can own more than one of physical infrastructure, connectivity, or content generation.

Well, the metering *sort* of makes sense, but really the problem is that ISPs lie like crazy when they sell you a connection.
What they say is "50Mbit for $49.95/mo! **"
** (that you can't use at 50Mbit all the time because it's way oversubscribed)

What they *should* be doing is selling various combinations of guaranteed/burst, so people know what they're actually getting. I have a feeling that "unlimited 50Mbit" really means something more like "512kbit guaranteed, 50Mbit burst."

Actually, it went like this:
Win 95 - crap
Win 95 OSR2 - OK
Win 98 - crap
Win 98SE - OK
Win ME - crap ...

The question is, why the heck not? And why limit it to workplaces? It would be a great incentive for businesses to provide charging hookups.
Just make it so that both the cars and the chargers are smart. I can charge my car at home at night (maybe with one of those, "free nights" plans that a few electric companies have) when the rates fall below a certain point. Then I set the car to sell up to X% of capacity, if it can do so above Y price, or charge if it's hooked up somewhere below Z price. The businesses can just tell the charging stations "buy as much as you can at 10% less than what I'm paying for grid power right now", or whatever.
Once there are enough places like this to plug in, you can park anywhere, plug in, and know that the car will try to maintain enough charge to get home, and make a quick buck if it can.

I was thinking more along the lines of "decorating" my house with balloons on wires (kind of like the navy did in WWII), and if any of these flies over my house, there's a good chance it will end up "crashed" in my yard.

Some modern ABS systems can detect snow, and will actually add in a "lock the wheels for a second" every so often just for this reason if they think they're on snow.

Or change the way you check out. Put RFID tags on stuff so I can just bag stuff as I shop, then pop the bags on a reader and swipe my card on the way out. That would actually get me using my own bags.

You can't forgive yourself, because there's nothing to forgive. I haven't had to go through this with a family member (thank God), but I have with my cat who had cancer. When there's nothing more than can be done, and your loved one is doomed to suffer terribly and inevitably die, keeping them alive because you don't want to lose them, or are afraid of what you'll feel like if you allow euthanasia is ultimately quite selfish. Realize that what you're doing for them is actually a great act of love - you're accepting that you'll live with the memory of what you're doing, because you're doing what's best for *them*, not what's easiest for *you.*

It means throwing it in the car and taking it back to the store to demand a refund, and if I don't get it, calling the credit card company and doing a charge back.

So, how long till someone comes out with a device that sits between these things and the car, and makes everyone a perfect driver?

the pF-150 :)

And how long before the NSA just gets court+gag orders that force the members of a target's web of trust to sign their bogus cert? Obviously the more people they do that to, the more likely it is the target will be notified, but I wouldn't put it past them any more.

You don't even need anyone to do that. My experience is that competent IT people can pretty easily find a new gig - and they will, now, before all the good local openings are taken. The deadwood that's left has the potential of causing just as much damage accidentally or out of ignorance as someone malicious.