In how many scenarios will a piston/compressor driven air-filled system that can't be dynamically configured to show different elements be useful?(the only 'pop out' you'll ever have on your Pneumatic phone is for the numeric keypad, for instance) And this is without even going into the bulkiness and battery life issues.

I wonder why people (even crazy ones) would want to kill themselves. I for one would be thrilled to witness the End Of The World.

With android, google has created Apple/RIM/Microsoft's worst nightmare. They make a robust, feature rich phone OS that easily competes with Apple's iPhone OS or Blackberry and seriously destroys anything Windows Phone related and essentially giving it away for free to all the generic phone manufacturers of the world like LG, Samsung, Motorola, HTC. By doing this, they totally eliminate said generic phone companies' strongest disadvantage -- i.e lack of software and services expertise -- and they do not even have to spend any effort or R&D money on it! Besides, companies like HTC that make excellent phone hardware and was previously crippled by the sad state of windows mobile* or symbian can now offer a very competitive software-hardware package by choosing android.

Little wonder that apple asked google to not include multitouch in the first version of their OS. But why is google doing this? I find it hard to believe that their only reason is to increase the adoption of google services (not that they aren't doing a good job at it) Nevertheless, it is interesting to consider the disruption android has caused. Google killed the market for licensed phone OS, gave Motorola a reason to live, seriously dented Apple/RIM's chances to compete against generic manufacturers, and provided a good OS for geeks to play with, and to put on various random devices .

* I realize windows CE/mobile was a decent OS around 10 years ago, but there's no denying that microsoft let it stagnate for too long. Now it's just slow, bloated, not user friendly and ancient-looking.

This is especially great news for those of us in places like the middle east, where greedy telephone monopolies block traditional VoIP traffic in order to hold on to their ancient business models. Google talk is increasingly becoming the de facto standard for international calls for the migrant population and the like.

But it's an electric car! Why would it need to 'start'? As in there is no ignition. Is there?

I dunno. If they charge a higher price for the 'DELUXE SpeaksToYou edition' when it's just the regular one with Text2Speech enabled, then I might not buy it.

But isn't universal healthcare supposed to be about not dying at all? If everyone contributes a certain percentage of their income to a nationwide pool, with the intention of helping people in dire need regardless of their ability to pay, then no one has to suffer, even if they would otherwise be unable to choose the better insurance plan.

I'd just get a new standalone VCR, if I were you :)

I think a lot of posters are missing the original intent of the parent poster. I think he's right in saying that the staff required to keep an average IT department up and running will reduce in the future as computer technology matures. For instance, an average car owner in the late 1800s would have needed a daily checkup and tuning by a mechanic just so it could keep running. Early Elevators had an 'operator' who pushed pushed the buttons to go up and down floors. Or even consider the average clipper ship, with it's huge (and highly romanticized) crews of hundreds of men. When steamships started sailing, that crew was substantially reduced. Nowadays ocean liners several times the size routinely travel with crews numbering in the dozens or fewer. Also note that, like the ships, when technology improves, i.e becomes 'better', things also tend to get more complex (compare modern diesel engines to the sail) but the number of people needed to support them will reduce. This also applies well to trains. Early steam engine driven trains required a huge support staff of engineers, coal-shovelers and the like whereas modern electric trains routinely run completely automated -- of course, this technological sophistication creates other jobs like programmers to create the automated switching systems etc, but the fact is the number of people needed for the same job is reduced. I can easily imagine the same applying to IT support. As things get more complex, they will inevitably get easier to maintain, therefore calling for fewer support staff. Like electricians and plumbers, the need for IT staff will always be there, just not as much.