Rhyming is dependant on the ending syllable of a word generally. To us gaijin, almost all Japanese words rhyme for that reason (hence the reason Japanese rap doesn't really work right).

Purple:
pehl

People:
puhl

Steeple:
pehl

But rhyming is really subjective, so don't get down on yourself. If you can make them sound like they rhyme, then nobody will object most likely.

The fewer commas the more likely it's correct. Mistakes with commas are either using none (causing run on sentences extraordinaire), or using far, too, many, after every, word. If you aren't sure a comma belongs somewhere, it probably doesn't.

"apples, oranges and pears" is most likely correct.

I am assuming that the context was a discussion of multiple internet thingies (e.g. DSL and Cable, messageboards and blogs, etc.) which each move at different speeds. Since the speed of DSL and Cable are distinct, albeit both fast, they both move at rather fast speeds. The range of speeds on cable connections varies as well, so you'd use the plural to indicate that.

Yes. Otherwise people would assume the em dash is a hyphen. I think it's a style issue though, and there are no hard and fast rules to it.

A text generally means an individual self-cohesive text. A bunch of individual self-cohesive texts would be 'texts'. A bunch of words on a page are 'text'. This little blurb is text, not a text.

"Who I was" is the correct way to phrase that. The tense within a sentence should agree the whole way through. "At the lecture yesterday, only a few of them knew who I am" sounds like they can divine the future, as in only a few of them knew then who you are now. If you wanted to state that only a few knew you 10 years ago, you would have to state that. Even then you should explicitly state that only a few of them knew who you were 10 years before the lecture (as opposed to 10 years ago which tends to suggest 10 years from now which could be a problem if the lecture was 20 years ago).

The second would be more correct, but neither looks that good.

Ideally it should read (in my mind):
"AS&E's CTO Joseph Callerame" or "The CTO of AS&E, Joseph Callerame,"

"I am a part of the team" implies that you are an individual composing a part of the whole, which also implies that the whole is a composite. "I am part of the team" implies that the team is an entity of its own, and you contribute to that whole.

Basically, the first is more focused on the "I" while the second is more focused on the "team." Both are correct.

Many suggests distinct objects.
"There are many people here."
"There are many grains of sand on the beach."
"There are many rivers."

Much is used to express quantity of one type of object. You wouldn't say "How much dollars is too much?" but you would say "How much money is too much?"

"A lot of" can be used to mean "much" in a sense, though it carries a slightly different connotation. "A lot of" carries a more subjective tone, while "much" has to be qualified by 'too' in order to use it in the same context.

"The Pacific Ocean contains a lot of water."
"The Pacific Ocean contains too much water."

Generally people say "In THE future." I've never seen in 'a' future, though I'd suspect some people say it because they believe that time diverges á la Back to the Future 2.