I've done some minor stuff in MS PowerBI and PowerQuery/PowerPivot that I think meets your need. It's pretty nifty.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/ http://www.powerpivotpro.com/what-is-power-pivot/

Yes. Also, the upper limit on the dynamic range of the telephone network is somewhere around 3400 Hz, well within the range of human hearing. This protocol is designed to send data in a frequency range that most people can't hear, or at least can't hear very well.

So use twinax.

Which goes back to "non standard cabling is likely to remain expensive for quite some time".

Well, technically you can now get into 10Gb for around $150 per port. http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-12-Port-ProSafe-Gigabit-Switch...

Which is my point, this is well over an order of magnitude more expensive than what the 1Gb consumer switches people would buy for home use.

Well, I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'affordable'. 10G is now affordable for small businesses, when up until recently it was strictly the ___domain of the large datacenter. I wouldn't put it in my house yet, but I see no reason to assume that 10G copper switches won't get to that price point eventually.

you must factor in the sfp+ module, around $200. So a complete port would be $350, $700 for a point to point link. Thunderbolt is cheaper

No, that switch is 10G copper, no sfp+ required. Thunderbolt and 10G ethernet aren't really competing in the same space, so I'm not sure why you brought it up.

Perhaps I'm in the minority, but all combined CO/smoke detectors I have ever owned have a distinctive alarm for CO. Usually a spoken alert warning of CO.

Why can't a body of around 4.5 million people encompass both those things and more?

Isn't the real problem that it sucks to drive 7 hours?

Self driving cars seem plausible, especially for interstates, in 10 years. Technically, in 3-5.

And if the tube breaks behind you, you'd just arrive sooner.

Oh crap. They'll need a way to do an "emergency suck" on the whole tube, won't they?

Well, you would no longer need to evacuate the tube...

it would be simpler and more effective to integrate this technology into drink straws and other paraphernalia. Bars will be hesitant to replace their entire glassware supply.

It is in drink straws.

Sorry, where did you see that?