> Mine still has the old-fashioned steel (or whatever metal its made out
> of, I'm sure it some sort of alloy) key. ;)

You're aware that steel *is* an alloy, right? ;-)

>> Given that the batteries in the fob eventually die, it would be a safety
>> issue if the car just suddenly stopped when that happened.
>
> Hmm.. Good point, but would make auto theft rather easy. Not much the
> owner could do if the car thief jumps in, presses start and takes off
> while the owner is distracted.

I don't know about other cars, but mine seems to only work if you're 
within a few feet of the driver's seat. Even if you're getting something 
out of the boot, if the keys are in your pocket, the engine won't start. 
It's apparently that accurate.

> Oh, it can tell if the key is inside or outside the car?

Apparently. Doesn't make any sense to me, but hey...

>> I think we all knew that flying cars really weren't just around the
>> corner. ;-)
>
> Flying cars are impractical. the FAA would never allow it ;)

The safety issues are one thing. The sheer inefficiency of 
heavier-than-air flight is another...

>> It was possible to make a portable solid-state music player for quite
>> some time. But with (say) 64MB of flash, why would you bother? That
>> would be, like, 6 minutes of music.
>>
>> MP3 is what made it feasible. Now 64MB is nearer an hour of music...
>
> Right... Remember when MP3 came out, computing power wasn't really up to
> task, either. I remember it took hours to encode a single song.

Decoding is faster than encoding. For MP3 and many other codecs. 
Generally encoding requires you to transform the input stream and apply 
some kind of psychological model to decide which data has highest 
priority, and then perform constraint-solving to cram as much of the 
high priority data in as you've got room for. To decode, you more or 
less just execute the instructions you're given. A bit like the way 
executing a compiled program is way easier than compiling it in the 
first place. ;-)

>> I wish my car could play compressed CDs. Or even if it just had a CD
>> changer like the salesman claimed it had... Or, hell, even just a way to
>> plug in an external sound source.
>
> Mine plays MP3's and has an AUX jack.... I mostly use my Zune, nowadays,
> mostly because it's a PITA to burn new CD's when my musical whim
> changes. I wish it had an SD or CF port. Also, it tends to be a bit
> finicky when it comes to playing MP3's that have been ID3 tagged in a
> weird way.

It's not uncommon for stand-alone players to be real picky about 
technical details of encoded media. I've seen MP3 players that choke if 
you use variable bitrates, or bitrates above or below a certain 
threshold, or whatever.

>> I don't see CD dying anytime soon.
>
> Maybe ... Though it will continue on more as CD-R than as pressed CD's.
> DVD and Blu-Ray will continue, though.

Last time I checked, HMV was still selling pressed CDs by the truckload. ;-)

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