What I'd really like Microsoft to do for XP (...) is when the product reaches end of life, create a new installation medium which includes all the updates
Isn't that obvious? It shouldn't be a wish, it is a requirement (Even Ubuntu does that).
What about a nice game of chess?
With this, you won't be disappointed.
Will IBM's clients pay lots of money for all that cognitive power?
While TFA emphasizes the correlation between "cognitive" and the previous "jeopardy success", that jeopardy program was still extremely far away from human reasoning. The answer to that questions is: Of course. The ultimate goal of computing is the human reasoning. Once that step is reached, there is no reason the computer would not be able to improve that "cognitive power" by it(him)self, providing revolutionary reasoning power, thanks to almost unlimited potential hardware extensions which is available to the computer, contrary to the human brain, limited to relatively little progress thanks to hard learning and working.
Reference the NULL within NULL, it is the gateway to all wizardry.