Whiplash, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_subculture#Welcoming_Our_New_Overlords

All they said is they won't turn the power off. They *didn't* say they wouldn't turn off Windows.

They will end up in the "knock-off mall" in Shenzhen. You'll be able to get one by walking around on the 2nd or 3rd floors and some teenager will walk up to you and say "DS? DS?"

Just like everything else.

So, Samsung drops a camera and you wonder why nobody talks about it? Why would anyone talk about a camera that isn't in production anymore anyway?

Paper?

A Census Bureau worker interviewed me for over an hour a 3 weeks ago and didn't use any paper forms. She was filling in forms on a sleek little IBM/Lenova laptop.

#1
What makes you think it doesn't need a computer?

I think everyone is missing who is the real target are for these devices:
Corporate Middle Management

It's a corporate meeting machine.

It's small enough to carry from meeting to meeting (nobody wants to lug a laptop around, even a Vaio).

It can run Outlook (welcome to the corporation!).

It has a screen large enough so that all these 45 year old guys with Presbyopia can still read their email.

It can run Excel (corporate!).

It runs Windows. This means the corporate IT staff already has business processes in place to handle licensing, help desk, upgrades, patches, etc. (This is important in the corp.)

The corporate managers for whom I consult would trade a junior minion for one of these gadgets.

Fellini I know about, Antonioni I know about, Wong Kar Wai I know about. Who is this Beck and why should I care what he says about film? Should we now all listen to what Flavor Flav thinks are the latest and greatest advances in bio-engineering?

"...an extraordinary story of American influence abroad ..."

"...the American effort to spread our brand of democracy around the world,..."

You make it sound like the government of the United States was sending political mercenaries overseas to rig ballot boxes and strangle journalists. What actually happened was a foreign politico hired a consulting firm to help him re-position himself in the eyes of his constituency.

What Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada wanted was someone to manipulate the opinion of the public, so they got the same people that managed Bill Clinton. Tada, James Carville!

#3,

You might not think "there'll" is a word but plenty of other do. Even the editors at the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/02/reviews/990502.02stilet.html

and the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001842773_ptdish24.html

and others:
http://webschool.wash.k12.ut.us/language/lessons/contractions.html
http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17267/1158/6

Oh yeah, and my fourth grade Language Arts teacher.

In the OED (with a very brief search) I found entries at least as far back as 1825 using "there'll":
1825 J. JAMIESON Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. 169/1 There'll be a heap o' ondingin. [just one example]

So maybe it *is* a word after all.