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Considering that such materials were commonly sold for residential housing use back in the 70s and 80s, I'd say you were spot on.

2001: http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/HVAC/phase-change-materials
1999: http://freespace.virgin.net/m.eckert/index.htm
1998: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040603198003682
1997: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890496000726

There's also Underground housing,SIPS,AAC,Rastra,Engineered Wood,ICF,Steel framing,Rammed Earth,Solar Housing (active and passive)

I have no idea if they exist yet, but after I saw them in Blade Runner as a kid I always dreamed of being able to dim and outright black out my windows with the push of a button.

Took me a long time to find thanks to Microsoft, but here you go http://www.toolbase.org/Technology-Inventory/Windo ws/switchable-glazing-windows

http://www.sage-ec.com/ makes them and links to a number of places like http://macdonaldsystems.com/glazing.htm that sells them.

Why not just open up the AC unit, and stick the condenser outside, and the evaporator inside, with a fan on each?

Sure, why not. After you've torn apart a window unit, pissed off the EPA by letting the R-22 escape (because you're not going to buy the proper recovery equipment, right?) and bought several tools and supplies including: service valves, refrigerant grade copper lines, fittings, R-22, an oxy-acetylene torch, a manifold gauge set and a vacuum pump, you can easily build (and pay just as much for) what would basically amount to being a ghettofied mini-split system.

And yet they are wrong!

http://www.toolbase.org/tertiaryT.asp?DocumentID=3 216&CategoryID=949
"Paybacks vary widely, but you can expect a simple payback of 4 to 8 years on a well-designed and properly installed solar water heater."

http://www.nrel.gov/ncpv/energy_payback.html
"Paybacks for multicrystalline modules are 4 years for systems using recent technology"

There's a lot of BS flying on both sides of the debate, but the reality is that PV is a good solution for many problems.

Kyocera powers their entire solar panel plant on PV.

Certain aggregate parameters are known to be important for engineered-use concrete: hardness, strength, and durability.

I can see it now, our server rooms will eventually have a rack or two devoted entirely to the radiators for the liquid cooling systems of servers, which run hot enough form plasma.

It seems more likely to me that the radiators would be placed outside. I could forsee water cooled racks that come with a centre mounted warm and cool water manifolds plumbed to high flow lines to take all the water to one big radiator outside...

Or probably easier to manage, a 2-4U centre mounted unit with the manifold and pumps for that rack, circulating water through that rack and to/from a central resevoir (55 gallon plastic drum) in the server room, and annother set of pumps and very large pipes to take the water through an outside radiator.

Each (1U, 2U, etc server ) unit could have it's own rear mounted hose attachments (and bleed valve) in a modular fashion so you just hook up a new computer to the warm and cool manifolds, open the valves, bleed the air, and your new unit is cooled. To remove it, just shut the manifold valves, open the bleed valve, put a bucket under the lines, and take the lines off the connectors.

<a href="http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumerinfo/heat cool/hc_drain_water_heat_recovery.html">Link 1</a>
<a href="http://www.toolbase.org/tertiaryT.asp?Docume ntID=2134&CategoryID=1402">Link 2</a>
<a href="http://gfxtechnology.com/">Link 3</a>

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

Raceways are conduits you put on the outside (facing the room) of your interior walls. After you've installed them, rewiring your house then requires ... a screwdriver. It's supposed to be easier on the insulation, too (no holes in walls).

Raceways, incidentally, were often used when first installing electricity in old houses back in the early to mid 1900s. Some houses still have them, but they are usually too tiny to run anything but electrical wire through.

One problem, though. Many non-geeks might find raceways ugly. :)

The oldest church in South Carolina is made of rammed earth as well as the oldest church in the San Francisco area (towers that Hanibal built in Spain are also still standing). The new techniques of using rebar to tie the pad and rehinforcing top beam together is great. Here's a good book on it.

We're planning on having a rammed earth ground floor with a timber framed second story. The ground floor is going to be designed for additions to be added on as needed (large doorways in exterior walls).

For interior use, we're going to use a manifold system that will pipe water to where ever it's to be used. You can think of it as two hubs, one hot, one cold and flexible pcv/vinal lines that run, in the ceiling, from the hub to the faucet. This gives you flexibility in placing sinks and such or even repurposing rooms. For sewage, that'll run under the floor. This'll be accessable from the basement. We're looking into grey water recovery as we'll be doing this in New Mexico (not that any place can't stand some water conservation).

For networking, am going to be running hamster tunnels (smurf tunnels?) along the base of the walls as well as along the top of the walls, between ceiling and upper floor. Don't know about adding wireless access points/antennas to the system.

The layout of the house will also make use of berming along the north walls and a porch along the south walls that will block most of the summer sun but allow winter sun to heat the place. Some of this design will come from earthships being built in New Mexico. We'd like to be totally off the net, but our love of tech makes this a distant dream (unless low power laptops take over for just about everything).

Electrochromic technologies are available for license to manufacturers. There are currently no U.S. manufacturers that are producing a true electrochromic window. Liquid crystal "privacy" glazing is available in the United States, for residential use.