So the cheap devices he used only worked inches away. A more powerful device might work up to 20 meters away. Now, I assume a more powerful antennae is going to mean a bigger one. Isn't this going to stand out? I would hope that there is someone in charge that would notice a foot long antennae being pointed at voting areas. You can secure the machine itself, but if you don't have real people doing their part, it doesn't matter how secure your voting machine is.

Its true that people will keep wearing watches but just as jewelry. Their function in slowly being replaced by a more useful device. Some people wear glasses because they think they look good, not because their eyes are bad,

This then seems to be the same issue that traditional land based providers run into. It costs a good chunk of money to spread out that way. One of the huge gains of wireless being that the last mile is over the air and essentially free. Note: I'm not trying to be a kill joy here but it seems these companies haven't gone this route already and I think this is the reason.

Lets not forget a very important factor. I would love some RF guy to correct me, but radio is like the good old hub days. The air is a shared medium. You throw signals in the air, they will interfere with each other. More towers in this case does not equal more bandwidth, it equals more interference. This is where we need some leap of technology where we can cram more data into smaller channels.

I work almost exclusively with Lenovo Thinkpads and I have to say they are the most solid laptops I have ever touched. For the most part, a laptop is a laptop to me, but reliability is a huge concern for a computer that is constantly being moved around. I feel like I could beat a man to death with one these laptops and google map my escape plan with out any hitches.

Where is the middle? Atom based equipment is changing how we define portable computers and is very exciting. These new chips are going to bring amazing power in a portable format. The problem for the average user is that these are two extremes that currently don't help them. The middle of the road laptop that can be used for everyday use has not had any major innovations or significant price drops for some time. I understand diversifying is important, but where is the new tech for that more middle of the road work load?

These activties hurt Microsoft's reputation as well as being a huge burden to users of their products. Microsoft has the money and power to put the hurt on the bad guys. This is win win.

I don't use google docs much and what I have used has been pretty disappointing. That being said, there is a lot potential in the concept. I do hate the idea of renting software but at the very least, there will now be two big players in this market. I would really like to see google being driven to make their software feature competitive with microsoft so I can get one more step away from being stuck with a bulky product from Bill.

I like the idea of a general education on security. I'm not sure what the motivation was for your corporate overlords, but educating users for their own sake is more likely to get them to be compliant at the workplace. Showing them how easy it is to get bugs from social networking sites and how to avoid them is a great idea. It lets them know how to develop good habits at home and thus they are better behaved at work, making your life easier.

It would be good for international trade relations and help us here in the states with our problem with technologically inept judges.

In all seriousness, I have also run into people that won't give up on that OS. The amazing part to me is that they don't really have to. Certain tasks do not change and despite the lack of support from Apple and software vendors most of those system are running smoothly. It could be due to the larger install base, but Windows 9x systems I run into that are task specific are plagued with issues.

Apple hires hit men to track down users and kill them

The price of computers coming down is definitely a good thing and making them easier to recycle is great. Unfortunately there is growing trend of waste due to these cheap computers. As a consumer desktop technician I would see people replacing perfectly good hardware due to software issues. They are just so cheap and labor can be be pretty expensive, that it would be stupid to do anything else. The con is that a lot of cheap computers are going to the dump. Things would be perfect if people could learn the basics. Something as basic as backing up files and reinstalling the OS is beyond the scope of most consumers.