Yes, I didn't think to mention that recyclers are buying aluminum around $0.50/lb.

The article says the battery contains 55 lb of aluminum. The price of aluminum currently fluctuates in the general vicinity of $1 per lb, so we're talking at least $50 in raw materials. Add in other materials, manufacturing costs, and profit, and I'm going to guess a $100 battery is not out of the question. Maybe $75 if we're lucky. That sounds high as a gas replacement initially, but if it truly gets 1,000 miles on the aluminum battery and we compare it to a gas-sipping car (we'll say 50mpg), the gas at $3.50/gal would cost $70 for 1,000 miles. When you consider how few cars in the US get that good of mileage and the ever-climbing price of gas, we are probably somewhere close to a break-even point economically.

...then there should be a market for lossless albums on DVD. I'm not an audiophile, but I haven't heard of this happening. Is there one?

Use tax is arguably unconstitutional due to the interstate commerce clause, and that is why states do not enforce it. They can wield the moral force of "this is the law" to those that don't know better and get them to put it on their tax returns, but they won't go after those who don't pay because they're afraid to lose. The states' end game has been a federal authorization for the states to collect sales tax because it would put them on much more solid legal ground.

You can drive 65 (and more) and turn the heat up. Just give it the hour charge. I've read that they have plans to get the charge time down to 30 minutes for the same range.

Watson learns to pick up coeds.

Legally, yes. In many other respects, as a matter of long-term profitability, no. Take care of your customers and employees, and they will take care of you. Abuse them, and they will find someone else.

...because having more selection than any physical store could possibly carry couldn't be the main reason. Nor could economies of scale that physical specialty stores can't reach in most areas. No, people are so cheap that they have to scrimp on 5-10% and wait days for the product.

I just bought a mid-range camcorder through Amazon this weekend. I looked at physical stores, and no major chain carried anything more than the cheapest low end products.

I'm not familiar with the HC1 specifically, but I am familiar with Motorola Solutions products in general. They target enterprise, and typically the devices are ruggedized. They write their own web browser that includes APIs for their built-in peripherals (barcode scanner, MSR, etc.) Their Android devices also feature significant tailoring of the OS, for example they have multi-user support in an Android 2.3 build. In the past year they have acquired RhoMobile and integrated that company's cross-platform development environment and libraries with the Motorola Solutions Android and Windows Mobile devices. They also sell rapid deployment infrastructure and wifi infrastructure, all tightly integrated with their devices.

In short, the pricetag isn't worth it for a consumer, but there's typically enterprise features that draw companies in. Is it worth it? That's another question entirely that I'm not going to get into.

He's an issue whore, aka a politician.

Being selected as a VP candidate gives that politician instant name recognition in presidential politics. Sometimes this is enough to make them an early contender for a presidential nomination in the next election (Edmund Muskie, Walter Mondale, Sarah Palin) or gives them a building block for later campaigns (FDR, Bob Dole). This is somewhat of a modern phenomenon. The age and performance of the candidate and the strength of the field are certainly factors.

My wife has narcolepsy, which means even when medicated her 15 minute commute is a risk that she could fall asleep behind the wheel. She probably won't be allowed to drive when she has to go off of the medicine for pregnancy. This emergency autopilot would be a necessity for us if it were available.

A computer backup should be able to make it to market quite a bit faster than a computer-first human-backup driving system. The Google approach is more luxury than necessity. We should push the computer backup system first, but the nature of our economy now is that the luxury of the wealthy will likely be pushed ahead of the needs of a middle class family like mine simply because they can finance it and I can't.

...to go out and get experience in another field that interested me. Relatively few jobs in software development are purely about computers. Most involve programming in knowledge of another field where the computer system will be applied.

You've had a summer of coding in the workforce already, and that puts you ahead of most incoming freshmen. Go out and learn about something else because you'll need it later. It'll help you to know what you actually want to do with your degree when you get out. You have the next several years to focus on the computer side.

My company is a Motorola Solutions partner, and I'm currently developing on the ET1. Let's just say it's a clunkier version of the Xoom, 2 years later and stuck on Android 2.3.x for a price an order of magnitude higher than a consumer Android tablet. If they don't do better with the ET2, they'll be in serious trouble. We've also developed enterprise apps on the consumer Android tablets and iPads, and we're doing better business with the consumer devices.

I'm beginning to wonder if cancellation of the shuttle is turning out to be a good thing. How many bright minds came from NASA and are now involved in these ambitious projects? How many of them would still be at NASA for the job security if NASA still had a major orbital program?