Cool car technologies

Automated steering, other in-car features face legal, regulatory concerns

"Want your car to automatically brake to avoid a crash, fly high over traffic-clogged roads or get 100 miles per gallon? Too bad, because while all of those things are technically possible, they are impractical for legal or financial reasons, which means you can't have one anytime soon..."
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By Dan Carney
msnbc.com contributor
There is a poll in the column to the right for quick comments.

Keeping a (cyber)eye on the kids

"Symantec plans to launch a promising Web-based service called OnlineFamily.Norton to help parents get a grip on what their kids are doing online...Parents can view reports on what their kids are doing on the Internet,... tap into easy-to-digest activity reports from any computer connected to the Internet — and peek at thumbnail images of Web destinations that are blocked... Another excellent feature: Parents can be notified if kids misrepresent their age or try to create an account within a social network."

By Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY 4/23/09

Although this is aimed towards parents of younger children, do you think is being over-protective?
Do you think your parents might be watching your computer use?
Will this be successful?

Cell Phones

As technology has grown, we have gained the ability to make very complex things very small. Cell phones have become more and more minute and are already very easy too lose.

Are cell phones too small?
Do you think they can become smaller?
Have you ever lost a cell phone due to its size?
Are Bluetooth technologies / Wireless headsets making life easier, or more difficult?

Windows 7

In a recent study, most businesses and schools agreed that they would skip over Windows Vista, and move on to the next Microsoft Operating System, Windows 7 (which is to be released October 2009).
Already XP is somewhat outdated, and Microsoft's major focus has been to build up and change the public view of Vista.

Is Vista really that terrible? If so, Why?
Do you think Microsoft has enough feedback about Vista to create an extremely successful Operating System like XP?
Is Microsoft losing popularity to Apple?

Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has recently introduced IE8. They have stuffed it full with extra features to make our lives easier.

Do you think this is too much?
Not enought to get you away from FireFox?
Will these features actually be helpful?