I've seen some promising results from solar fences. Because the panels are getting so cheap you can offset the efficiency loss by buying more. Plus, because they are vertical and double sided they get more sunlight earlier and later in the day.
I used to use GetRight to download big files over FTP or HTTP, over dialup. You could set it up to automatically re-dial your ISP if you got disconnected halfway through a download. And you could download a file in multiple "threads" - for example, get 2 concurrent HTTP sessions downloading the same file, one thread starting from the start and a second thread starting halfway through the file.
GetRight is how I downloaded Linux ISOs on dial-up. IIRC it had a schedular so the computer could automatically dial after everyone was in bed and gracefully disconnect before "daytime" tariffs kicked in. It could resume the next evening again!
Oh my goodness, I remember having installed Flashget on my parent's PC about 20 years ago! And yeah of course I remember FileZilla, and DC++ and so on. :P
Corporations are legally required to maximize shareholder's value. If reaching that goal requires them to pretend to be transparent, or fudge the numbers that they show to the public, then that's what you can expect them to do.
