While I do agree with a lot of the points here, I wonder if perhaps recent advances in technology (particularly those that might be considered platforms for fut

While I do agree with a lot of the points here, I wonder if perhaps recent advances in technology (particularly those that might be considered platforms for future innovations) are making the idealistic "Garage Inventor" more and more realistic. It probably still requires a big lab to create new technologies or new branches of science, but nowadays anyone with a laptop and some money for web hosting can create something that reaches millions of people. Although that's entirely different from what Edison, Hewlett, and Packard were doing, I'd argue that it's still within the realm of "innovation". (not to say that every website is particularly innovative, just that the possibility is there.)