Upshot: clearly I am still not missing anything.

It is Grand Central Terminal, not station.

So the $64,000 questions are, will AT&Ts LTE penetrate buildings more substantial than a thatch hut, and will it have have back-haul for more than, say, 3 dozen people to use simultaneously? These are two of the big problems with AT&Ts (still) atrocious (and that's being generous) 3G "network" here in NYC.

20cm?? Really? That won't even reach from my U2711 USB port (or my Dell 23" USB port for that matter) to my desk surface.

This hack raises sort of a related matter...remember that when you "delete" a photo (or msg, or comment, or chat txt, or anything else ever uploaded/shared via FB), FB keeps a copy of said item(s) permanently and indefinitely, which cannot be deleted by the user. Ever.

Hmmm, so 8 is the new 69. Must be the economy.

What's odd is that I thought (perhaps wrongly) that W7 was basically the same code/kernel as vista, but improved for obvious (and massive) stability increases...and also to get rid of the annoyances (e.g., 34 popups to make sure you really want to empty recycle bin, or adjust your screen resolution, etc).

Yes, I used each OS above, and (in my opinion) Vista was worse, by a big huge ginormous galaxy-eating longshot, than ME.

I agree, I have had W7 since day 1 (I was desperate to get off of vista as soon as humanly possible) and to date I have only had one crash/bsod (which occurred many times per week on Vista) and just one odd "quirk" (but that may have been a mobo quirk, not OS...I'm not sure).

the above is my opinion only based on my usage; i did not know others had this same "star trek" like opinion, and that it was my opinion was clearly noted in my post (although I suppose it is noteworthy that apparently my view is held by many others, i never claimed to be, and i quote verbatim, "the first to say it");…

Hmmm, I am skeptical of W8, isnt this a 'bad-cycle' release for MS?

Meh, that'll buff right out.

What a bunch of hullabaloo about nuthin'.

my condolences to all camry and accord owners at malls across the country

So there are Facebook phones after all?

Only somewhat true, when one is issued an AT&T handset by one's workplace without any ability (whatseover) to choose, then it is more like being pushed into a tankful of piranhas, not "jumping into" one.

Sadly, my opinion is that either way...ATT customers get the shaft - had the deal gone thru, AT&Ts already "highly stressed" (I'm being exceedingly polite) 3G network in congested areas (read:NYC) would have all but collapsed with millions of new TMO customers. Now, the deal is off, but ATT must cough up $4B breakup…

no problem, i figured the actual agreement had some loopholes as FB has made it very clear that they never, ever delete information that was ever uploaded onto FB - even when users (attempt to) delete stuff

I agree with your last post (vis a vis TMO needing to be absorbed somehow) except for my honest belief that if this deal goes through in any way-shape-or-form, current AT&T customers will experience: 1) more network congestion (tens of millions of added TMO customers), and 2) even less (as if thats possible)…

yes, required to prevent any users from accessing the material 30 days after deleting an account...