"If all goes well, the new and improved insect will continue to pollinate our crops for years to come."

Wow, that's going to be one super busy bee.

But isn't that putting all our gets in one basket? I mean, maybe we want *two* of them just in case one dies?

"At $150 a pop to "consult" with a man in a nice suit, you can easily remind him that his phone and laptop aren't secure, even offer him advice on what he can do and what he can buy to keep his tracks concealed better."

You better be giving him some damn good advice, or you might end up with some broken kneecaps if you're lucky, getting fished out of the river with cement shoes if not.

Windows users?

Not only that, fighter jets have experienced maintenance crews who spend many hours ensuring all systems are functional. On the other hand, how many people out there are driving with the CEL on? How many don't even bother to do routine oil changes? How many are driving on balding, under-inflated tires? I bet if fighter pilots had to pay for the maintenance of their own jets, there'd be a *lot* more skimping on replacement parts and service, and you'd see a lot more accidents... just like cars.

I find this personal mobility devices pathetic for able bodied people.
Why aren't we satisfied with walking anymore? I will be walking 30 minutes twice a day from September.
The only issue is boredom and wasting of time. I will counter this with podcasts.

So... you don't actually do this *walking* stuff now? You don't actually know what it's like walking to work in a suit, when it's 95 degrees with 95% humidity? You don't know what it's like meeting with clients smelling like you just walked out of the gym? You don't know what it's like having to spend $100 a week on drycleaning? And you're calling people pathetic.... that's funny.

The device would have been great for my last office. It was a 4 mile ride to the train station, the commute into the city, and then a 2 mile subway ride. Would have been fine by bike, but you couldn't take the bike on the train, so you would have needed two bikes. Which I wouldn't have minded either, one bike from home to station, one in the city from station to work, but there wasn't any place to lock up a bike at work and you weren't allowed to bring the bike into the office. The YikeBike could be stowed in a garment bag, that would have been perfect.

I'm an engineer. And I'm still at work.

My mechanic left yesterday on vacation. I have to wait until he gets back sometime next week before he can fix my car.

Must be nice to be a mechanic...

Yes, there certainly was a "craze". You just missed it because you're weren't living where it happened. The small notebooks have always been popular in Japan but never really caught on in the US. Americans could only buy them through import sites at twice the price, so mostly we just looked at the pictures, read the specs, and sent letters to the manufacturers begging them to bring those models to the US. It was fantastic walking around Akihabara, seeing machines that you only saw pop up as brief descriptions in US magazines. Beautiful machines that never made it to the US shores. Nowadays, with the web, it's all to easy to see the pictures and look up specs, but back then, we only had mere glimpses. So yes, there was a craze. But because the machines were never exported, that craze never made it to the US.