If instead of diesel fuel one wants to use natural gas or LPG there was a solution developed in the '70. Take an engine from a Fiat 127 (or first model Fiat Panda or Uno), bolt it to a three phase geneator, modify the engine to run on methane, LPG, or biogas, put a governor to make the engine to run at constant speed. You get a nice system that makes electricity and heat. Unfortunately newer petrol engines with electonic fuel emission control are a lot more difficult to adapt to be used as engines for generators, and are a lot more complex to service.

Older phones had more rugged connectors. I've a DECT cordless phone that has two metallic plates that make contact with two spring-mounted electrode, put in the cradle, the weight of the handset is sufficent to slide the phone in the contacts. The same method is used on two way radios, where it's a necessity due the higher charge current used. Unfortunately with current smartphones, the space required for a rugged connector is too big to blend in thei sllek design, so weak connectors are used, that could fail easily.

Another key difference is that only some projects in other engineering fields have to be signed by a PE, and are project that only one person could follow reasonably, and that have a set of rules by science or by law that have to be followed. A project for a car or an airplane doesn't require to be signed by a PE, even if requires a lot of engineers, simply because is too big to be followed by a single person and the regulations applicable are only on the whole product and nothing is said for the design phase.

Seems to me that Microsoft is trying to follow Apple moves because are quite successful. But Apple is mainly an hardware company and the operating system in an accessory revenue. More importantly the hardware ecosystem is reduced. Now I've tried to look at the new windows 8 beta image in a virtual machine, but even after playing with bios options and virtualbox configuration the operating system failed to install. If the final version remains so picky with the hardware refusing to run in a virtual machine or on a beige box PC, when 7 and Xp could run happily on the same hardware or virtual machine, it could me a graveyard stone in the adoption of the new operating system. If Windows 8 installation in older hardware or generic hardware is difficult, people will stay with older operating systems, or even try to downgrade the operating system on new machines, and this is naturally bad if not for sales, for the adoption.

Maybe because you're Roadrunner or Speedy Gonzales so you belong to a Warner Bros cartoon?

Actually the problem of boot time malware was solved in the DOS day with a BIOS setting that prevented to write the first sectors of the hard disc An MD5 checksum of the MBR and the boot sectors saved in a read only memory shoud suffice. I think a jumper to enable flashing the BIOS and this checksum area kill easily the unwanted tampering of the boot sectors.

Having to choose a sport based on a '70 sci-fi drama I like one not based on the six million dollar man and bionic woman, but one based on Knight Rider. It should be like DTM tournament but the circut must have a ramp and it's mandatory at least one ramp jumping during the race and a moving red light on the bonnet is mandatory. Winning cars should also be able to answer to interviews with witty comments.

You should look how amateur radio operators and/or people with RV are setting up thei systems. I think you should stay with a 12V power supply system, an inverter is a more complex system rather than a lead acid battery, and yu'll need a DC/DC inverter for the sound system amplifiers. A mini ITX pc with a 12 power supply it's not a big deal, so a satellite receiver. If you want to be sure to not fry your electronics, use a dual battery setup with a contactor that disconnects the secondary battery from the main circuit when the engine is not running, like RV pepole sometimes are doing, and remenber to flip on the switch when needed, or use an automatic system. If a dual battery system is too much take the supply from the electronics directly from the battery poles, with a suitable fuse on both poles. Put some L-C filters and a big diode in antiparallel to the supply.

Yeah, let's auto open a cmd.exe shell at start up and work the unix way.

... should make a diet and make some exercise and become thin clients or at least only a bit overweight.

Presto! Someo calls Benny Benassi to make a suitable music for this video!

... drinking until passing out at parties.

Salad dressing with rabies? DO NOT WANT.

Another problem is the technology used to solder on PCB and the type of part used. Soldering SMD is significantly harder than though hole components and the soldering irons for SMD have to be more precise and costly than regular irons. The more interesting components are now using soldering system like BGA that are easier to mount in a robotized line than hand made. Designing an interesting kit with through hole components is becoming harder and harder. Arduino and friends solve the problem selling premade boards, so the soldering part is limited to glue them toghether. Anyway in 1985 selling an Apple //e clone kit or a monophonic synth kit was a viable opportunity and the final product was in the same ballbark of the industrially made products. Now is pratically impossible to build in house an iMac or a digital sampler keyboard.

Minitel and videotext systems were cheaps terminals that used the phone lines to send and transmit data. Ceefax and teletext systems are data transmission on television signals. Teletext is compatible with digital television and almost all DVB decoders could either process the data stream internally and display it or add the codified data on the PAL or SECAM video signal to be displayed on a standard definition TV set. Other european nations mantained the Teletext system on DBV broadcasting,for instance Italy: http://www.televideo.rai.it/televideo/pub/pagina.jsp?p=101&idmenumain=1