I work in my college tech department and both the only non-CS student and the most hardcore about running Linux. No one officially supports it but if there is trouble with Linux AND we're not busy AND we have someone willing to field the call we try and send someone out to take a look or at least google the error and see if they can find anything. Most colleges won't support Linux, but most people who use Linux will support Linux. A lot of larger colleges have linux usr groups and other forums you can go to for help - it's not too hard to attach computers (especially 'buntu variants) into wireless networks and samba servers a lot of universities use for storage. As long as you can do your own troubleshooting I wouldn't worry about running Linux at college.

Are you suggesting people should get a SECOND Life?

I'm not saying this is a certain danger but it is a significant one, local energy companies are more likely to be able to set up monopolies - where they charge consumers WAY beyond what it costs them to produce the energy - than their larger multi-locality counterparts. In large part because they are more successful in arguing that they are meeting specific market conditions or are additionally hampered by costs others in the industry don't face. This argument fails more often with larger companies because they are forced to charge a relatively level price across all regions and are more tightly regulated by Federal and State agencies. In any solution to the electrical problem, it would be nice to see some sort of price constraints set on big utilities and small ones forcing them to stop using regulatory agencies to provide indirect subsidies.

That is the complaint of every generation to the succeeding. I am growing up now, one of today's kids as you call us. Of my friends from high school, most of them are studying hard sciences. I go to a small liberal arts college and we have a larger grant for our sciences and more people interested in those subjects than any other department in the school. I don't see my peers growing up to be any of the things you mentioned. Just sayin'.