Not until the 32 bit era (68000 Amiga, 80486 +SoundBlaster) did they have enough power to convert text to speech.

Sure they did. I attended a demo of the technology in 1978 or so. Sounded much like the Wargames computer, but it definitely was not a small personal computer doing the work.

Indeed! The 80's graphics were state of the art at the time. Remember, there's been nearly 30 years of rapid advancement in computer graphics! Back then, there was nothing even close to Tron's CG effects. Kind of like saying awesomely bad 1920's automobiles...

What will short people sit on now? Catalogs have been gone for years now, leaving the phone book as the only sizable, readily-available booster seat...

Missing option? My Honeywell setback thermostat is not a full computerized HVAC system, but it is more complex than your traditional set temperature thermostat. It is electronic and programmable, as opposed to the simple mercury switch on a bi-metal coil that my parents had in their house.

I'll be voting, but it looks like I'll be voting AGAINST, rather than FOR, anyone in my area. Sad.

Maybe because in addition to correcting the spelling, which is noble enough, it's profane and personally attacking, inviting some form of response, thus qualifying as a troll?

Land ownership is a bogus concept for the individual, at least. Don't believe me? Try not paying your taxes and see how long you keep 'your' land. The government owns it.

eVGA 8800GTS in my case. Only component to fail in this build since summer 2007 build-out.

As I expected, but if one never tries, it will never get better.

Stipulated, there are a lot of people who really do need the scripted flow. However, the language barrier makes it harder for the support worker to determine when that script can be dispensed with. If we're having difficulty with basic communication, how can you tell if I'm saavy enough to move past the script?

Mod up! The biggest pain of outsourced tech support has got to be the language/accent barrier. Right after that would be heavily scripted workflow, forcing me to work through possibilities I've already eliminated just so the support worker can follow their script.

I think we should give the OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he's got his family onboard with the idea. Assuming so, do (all of you expressing negative opinions of the OP's idea) have anything constructive to add, or are (all of you) just into expressing your opinion regardless of whether it solves the problem as requested?

There are many tools in the world that can have catastrophic consequences in the wrong hands, do we outlaw most of them outright? No.

Tools with those sorts of consequences also carry much more stringent checks and balances. The way everyone keeps trying to deploy RFID solutions has virtually no security and lacks any transparency that could be used to check and balance potential abuses of power/control.

Perhaps, but since we've now pulled all of the combat troops from Iraq, maybe we could shift that to Afghanistan?

Not a single one, per the article you cite. Not even just the aircraft, without spares, etc.