The world is full of technologies that the most influential people in tech could hate—like nuclear weapons, dental drills, and Microsoft Vista. But they are most frustrated by electrical wires.

"What an archaic way of doing things!" says John Yemma, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, a newspaper taking the lead in shutting down its printing presses and going all-electronic. "Bury wires inside of a wall, run them to an outlet, and then snake a cord around the room. Lamps should not have to be static. TVs shouldn't be locked down."

Here at Condé Nast Portfolio, we pulled together a list of 25 people who, through technology, are having an outsized impact on their industries. As part of that effort, we asked those who made the list a series of questions, including "What tech product frustrates you the most?" and "What do you wish someone would invent?"

Unexpectedly, many of the answers revolved not around the woeful lack of Jetsons-style flying cars and robotic maids, but around electricity and power cords. David Bohrman, the CNN executive responsible for advances such as the "teleporting" of Will.I.Am into the studio on election night, wants someone to invent wireless electricity.

Jon Wellinghof, President Obama's new chief of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, wants someone to invent a portable energy storage technology (which most of us would call a "battery") that can improve at the same pace as information storage devices like hard drives. "Most of our current energy problems would be solved with such a device," he says.

Google Vice President Marissa Mayer at least wants a universal power cord so we don't have to carry a different one for every single gadget we own.

Other than the common gripe about electricity, answers were all over the map except for this trend: Responders are frustrated by the mundane but get all whimsical about what they want someone to invent.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, who runs DreamWorks Animation, can't stand "that a keyboard is still the best way to get something (into) my computer."

Joe Rospars, the Obama campaign's Internet wizard, is most frustrated by clocks; Bohrman, by TV remotes.

Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, hates "the first 45 seconds after turning on my computer," and wishes for a PC that turns on instantly.

Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn, is most aggravated by Microsoft Outlook.

Going against the public's love affair with the iPhone, Twitter CEO Evan Williams declared it to be the tech product he finds most frustrating.

But what do these great thinkers want invented? Katzenberg: "A 26-hour day." Rospars: "A cure for cynicism." Kilar: "Teleportation—preferably by Toyota, given its historically low defect rates." (Maybe Kilar should talk to Bohrman....)

From Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect: "I dream of technology that can effectively aid in delivering a real sense of empathy among people." Sites like Facebook and Twitter are "an amazing foundation" because they connect people, but he's hoping for something bigger. He didn't share specifics—like whether there's some kind of world peace technology brewing inside Microsoft Research.

Oh, and we asked about Facebook friends. Rospars said he had 977; Williams, 483; Kilar, 159 and Yemma, 112. Wellinghoff confessed that his teenage kids won't let him join.

And the dogs do eat their own dog food, as they say. LinkedIn CEO Hoffman has 1,810 LinkedIn connections. Twitter's Williams has about 85,000 Twitter followers.