> but in 50 years we could have outer-space mining.

Yeah, right. In the 50's, that is what they were promising for the year 2000. Here we are in the 21st century and we still do not have practical, fuel efficient space travel. Hey, I am still waiting for my flying car they promised me.

Outer space 'anything' requires a lot of energy and is very expensive. There are no technology gain on the radar that seam to promise that any of this will change in the next 50 years. My bet is that in 50 years, life will be harder, not easier for humanity as scarcity of resources will take its toll. A good example is how slowly more people trade their car for a bicycle or public transport.

The problem with this idea is that there are simply not enough plants out there. Last year food prices increase was caused by higher demand for biofuels, causing many manifestations in poor countries because people suddenly could not afford their food anymore.

Plants are not very efficient solar collectors. I do not remember the numbers, but think of it; the leaves are green, not black. They thus reflect the green light instead of absorbing it.

Thus, you would need A LOT of land for planting enough plants so biofuels can become some major part of the energy pie. But pretty much all the good land out there that could grow plants is already being used by agriculture. There is simply not enough land on the Earth to do this. And as a society, we have to choose between feeding people or cars; both cannot be done because of the scarcity.

They are cheap solar collector to build though, as they grow by themselves.

Since we are on the subject, Toronto did something similar at a larger scale:

http://www.toronto.ca/environment/initiatives/cooling.htm

Let us know if they do have a firmware updater for Linux. I only run Linux.

I somewhat agree with you, but not 100%. Many of my personal files are ASCII (encrypted with GPG for those with sensitive data). However, submitting a resume in ASCII might cut you off of a few job opportunities. You need sometimes a word processor to project a professional persona.

I have seen the Apple ad... Is it enough? ;)