VT-Vincent

I couldn't agree with you more. A lot of people actually call my scope in games very limited, but the reason for that is there are so many A+ titles I haven't played through at this point. If I still have A+ titles to work on, why would I even look at B or C games?

I would have to agree that we've lost that type of simplicity that made games of the past so great. I think it a lot of ways it has limited the creative scope of today's games. A good example would be the previously-mentioned Mario Sunshine. That game diverted away from the abstract nature of most Mario titles and put too much effort into making sure the levels made sense and fit within the game's specific setting. That put a lot of limitations of what could be done and in turn made it a very dull release. In Galaxy, they released the error of their ways and returned to the abstract style with minimal story and explanations. That is what made that game great, they could do anything they wanted and there were no creative restrictions. Nights: Journey of Dreams, a game I reviewed a few weeks back is another game that suffered from this problem. They took the simple and whimsical mechanics of the original Saturn game and attempted to craft an explanation for EVERYTHING in the game. Having to listen to 10 minutes of that drivel at the beginning of the game was mind numbing.

I've always been a Nintendo fan, and I have to admit I'm actually pleased for the most part with the Wii. The launch was very strong and the console has some great first-party titles. I think the biggest failure of the system at this point is to keep it's launch momentum going and also the lack of compelling third-party content. The reason you don't see direct sequels so often from Nintendo is they don't believe in that formula - for the most part, they will never make Mega Man style sequels where the sequel is virtually indiscernible from the original. At times, that too has frustrated me about many of their classics, but usually I've found that their unique direction has actually worked out for the better. I think Super Mario World is a prime example of this. Back in the day, it was one of my all-time favorite platformers and I wanted nothing more than a direct sequel to it - Nintendo never delivered that sequel, but near the console's death they released Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island instead. While it had virtually nothing in common with the game I loved, it was a fantastic work of art and in many ways was much better than it. In retrospect, I'm glad they handled that license the way they did. I really thing the worst days for Nintendo were without a doubt on the GameCube. The console had an extremely weak launch with a minimal first-party presence. While all of Nintendo's games of the GC era were technologically sound, looked good and played well - they just weren't fun. It was one of the first times in history I actually had to force myself to play through a Mario title. My best gaming experience on that system was actually Wind Waker, and even that didn't compare to many of my favorites. I think aside from the VirtualBoy, it's one of the few Nintendo consoles that could be considered a major failure. Regarding today's consoles though, I would agree with Agozer that most of the manufacturers are essentially using gimmick features and functional as a cop-out for real content. I see a bigger issue though, just look at how online dependent most consoles and even some games have become these days. We all know that when these consoles finally die, we'll be lucky if they maintain the servers for 1 to 2 years after the console's official end-of-life date. When that happens, just imagine how much of what you own will actually still work. What if you want to go back and play one of these games 10 years from then? I think that much of this generation of gaming is going to be lost due to it's tight integration with these services.

That is one thing that has always perplexed me... "Macs are good for graphics", "PCs are good for business", etc... Neither is "good" at either of those uses per se, it is simply a matter of the platform having the software you need for a specific purpose. Adobe's products exist on both sides and they don't run "good" on one versus the other. It's like people think there is some sort of magical fairy dust that somehow makes one machine better than another and locks both PCs and Macs in to only specific uses and nothing more. I know these people are VERY knowledgeable and really understand the fundamentals of computer science... but it was always my understanding that both Windows and OS X were designed to be multi-purpose operating systems capable of running software for whatever use the user desired. I could be wrong on that though.

Ditto. The school district I work in is about 90% Mac.

Actually, I think Apple has been quite reasonable about PPC support. The transition to Intel started about 5 years ago and they introduced several things to keep compatibility. For existing PPC users, they encouraged developers to make their programs universal binaries so they could run on both sides (and up to about a year ago, most developers did just that). They also released Leopard on the PPC side and included Rosetta on Intel Macs so they could run old PPC applications. Considering how old the PPC architecture is at this point, I don't think they could have done much more to keep supporting it. The only people I feel sorry for are those that bought in to the G5 - they were very expensive and died way before their time. The lack of malware on the OS X side is definitely one of the biggest advantages, I'm just curious how long it will last for.

People still do though! I don't know, some people are just sad. You have no idea... when I worked as a technician at Circuit City and they were offering free copies of Vista to every person buying an XP computer during the couple months leading up to the launch, just about all of them found something to bitch about. I just loved some of the conversations... Customer: So I can just go home and pop this 'ere Vister thing right in and it will all work? Me: There's a little more to it - you want to make sure all of your software will be compatible with Vista and download all of the Vista drivers before installing the operating system. If you're not technically inclined, you may also want to do some research into the process of installing an operating system or consider having us install it for you here. Customer: Duh... how much is it if yinz do it for me? Me: It is a flat-rate fee of $119.99 and an additional $59.99 if you would like us to back your files up beforehand. Customer: WHAT THE F***!!! I GOTS TO PAY YINZ 200 BUCKS TO MAKE MY COMPUTER WORK? Me: No Sir, your computer is working fine now and will continue to do so on Windows XP. You are also welcome to perform the upgrade yourself if you feel so inclined. Customer: Duh... so if I dun need it, why'd they send it to me? What the f*** am I supposed to do with it!? Me: *Grumbles to self*... I have a few suggestions.

Oh boy... this is what happens when the CEO and marketing department get together. Truth be told, I wouldn't go out on a limb to call any manufacturer "the best", as all of them generally use the same components from the same suppliers. It still amazes me that most people believe there is some mystique about "Apple hardware" that somehow makes it drastically different from it's "PC counterpart". The truth of the matter is they are built on the same architecture on the same hardware that most other vendors use. Truth be told, I actually like Apple's products a lot but I think calling it an ideal platform for graphics performance couldn't be further from the truth. Due to how much customization Apple does on their hardware (at least compared to companies like HP that just pick it up of the shelf and throw it in a box), there has always been a "spec lag". This is particularly true of video cards since they need to be customized for the platform and most of Apple's systems are fully integrated. In short, if you want the latest and greatest hardware you can probably cross Apple off your list. With that in mind, I think there is a lot that Apple has done right. In my opinion, they have the only other consumer-ready operating system that can actually compete with Windows. Their hardware design is also more streamlined and elegant compared to their competition. With their hardware there is also the benefit that it will continue to be well-supported due to the set scope of their product lines. With a manufacturer like HP, you can expect any "odd ball" computer they create to have support quickly dropped after it has had it's run. Lastly, the fact they present their product as a platform and not individual components takes care of a lot of the issues that can be found on the PC side. In the end, I think it's really a matter of personal preference... personally, I would like to have both platforms around and continue to stay for a long time. I don't think either side dominating the market would have any positive impact for consumers.

I would have to agree. I've never gotten a close shave from electric razors either, which wouldn't bother me except for the fact most of them gave an uneven cut on top of that. I've had pretty good luck with the Gillette Mach 3 Turbo, the nice thing about it is there is a moisturizing strip built-on that makes it easier to shave against the grain to get a really close shave. At any rate though, I would definitely avoid any cheap disposables... I've tried several brands before and they can cut your face up pretty bad.

For some reason, I could imagine the Wal-Marts in ghettos having them stacked up outside like a street sale.

Not just caskets, they have urns and "memorial jewelery" too! I guess they should change their slogan to "Save Money. Live (and Die) Better."

Wow, that's odd. The two Wal-Mart stores here will take back just about anything without any problems. It's one of the best things about their store. The electronics stores around here are another issue though, Circuit City when they were still in business (including the one I worked at), would give some of the biggest return hassles I've ever seen. Best Buy wasn't too far behind us either.

Nothing lets someone know you care(d) like a quality casket from Wal-Mart. Damn, the one thing you can't return at Wal-Mart!

I suppose the most obvious question would be, did this start around the same time you started on the medication? It has been my experience that side-effects with medications are far more common than most doctors would like to admit. If you think it's tied to the medication, I think your best bet would be to see your doctor and discuss the issue. For this particular problem, you may want to consider seeing a urologist.

I would agree, I understand the need to enforce copyright law but that's the key word - LAW. For some reason, the entire legal process has been sidestepped and abused in the digital age. This is not the way our (and many other) justice systems were designed to function. These companies are going on witch hunts and gathering up anyone they can. For some inexplicable reason, most governments seem to be going along with it happily.

The worst thing is that I don't think it even necessarily needs to - this is essentially what the legal trolls already do. They get bad press for going after the end user, so instead they go after their ISP.

The worst thing about this treaty is that like most attempts to stop piracy, it adopts a guilty-until-proven-innocent philosophy and completely bypasses the judicial system. What ever happened to the right to a fair trial?

Unfortunately for most people. there was no point. For the most part, Windows 7 is just Vista with a few new features (and some new problems for now). It was just the marketing department's attempt to make up for the bad reception that Vista had.

Yes I think you are the only one who brought copies of Windows 7, but not the only one who got a product key legally. I got mine from the MSDNAA! =) At one point, I actually considered subscribing to TechNet to get my Windows and Office licenses but luckily I qualified for their $30 educational offer on Professional x64 so I haven't gone that route yet. Maybe I will when Office 2010 comes out, if they don't provide a free copy to the beta users.

Not to mention the maple syrup and canadian bacon!

I would like to withdraw myself from that statement... if things ever went to crap here, I'd be headed up.

I wouldn't like to see our countries merge either - I think there would be a lot of disadvantages there for everyone and I think each of our counties have a lot of issues that need to be worked out before anything like that would be viable. Regarding Mexico though, I would like to see an express path to citizenship implemented to fix the illegal immigration problem. The reason for that is simple, no matter what we do short of completely militarizing the border they will not stop coming over. The idea of trying to secure a border of that size reliably is idiotic. I would say in exchange for 2-4 years of service in our military or national guard, their families should be granted citizenship.

Ah, thought so. In the past, I've installed my Linux distro last as most of them will recognize and automatically add Windows to their bootloaders.

Won't Windows 7 overwrite the Linux bootloader, though? To the best of my knowledge, BCD doesn't automatically recognize any non-Windows operating systems so you would need to reload your boot loader after installing Windows 7.

Welcome back, Hera!