The UI was "copied" out of Redmond because that's what Windows users complained about: "The UI is too different from Windows, and I can't find my way around." You cannot reinvent the desktop UI from scratch and expect people to switch easily. It's like migrating someone from the command-line of DOS 3 directly in to the flashy GUI of Windows 7 or Mac - they will not like it.

The real problem with Linux, and I'm talking the major distros that have been targeting desktop users for years, is that hardware and software vendors refuse to pick up the platform (for the most part). Until the vendors start releasing for Linux what users are already using in Windows (Photoshop, anyone? Yes, I love GiMP too, but some people don't) then Linux will have a smaller market share.

I had started this reply by writing four paragraphs about what I hate about FFXIV and what I like. I then realized that I could sum up all of my complaints in a single statement: it sucks the big one.
I have been a FF fan-boy since I picked up the original when I was 9, so please do not attack me for my opinion on this particular incarnation. I do not believe many FF fans out there will find FFXIV to be worthy of the games lineage. If I were to compare XIV to XI, I would have to say that: in areas where improvements should have been made, there were none; in areas where improvements would have made players happier, there were few (and most had anything to do with the actual game - goodbye PlayOnline); and in other areas, the development/planning/whatever team has taken significant measures to guarantee I will not play the game for more than 3 days.
Maybe the whole plan was to sell lots of copies due to hype, make $60 on the initial sale, and then $15/mo for 2 months for all those schmucks that held on hoping "it'll get better soon, you'll see". That's gotta be several hundred thousand dollars, easy.

For now, I go back to playing my good, old, non-MMO, standbys of FF's I(1) through VII.

Different strokes for different folks.

Some people like the large, expansive world where getting to the capital city feels like an accomplishment and revisiting lowbie areas is a chore that few undertake (think FFXI).

Others like instant travel to any place they've ever traveled before (GW).

And, still others, seek some sort of balance (WoW does a good job of this).

I hate to say it, but, if you don't like the game, don't play it. I've played each of the games I've mentioned and have stopped playing each in turn, but I cannot say that travel time had anything to do with it (although, that was pretty annoying in FFXI).

The ISO, and hence the DVD, is 3GB. I did not say that Win7 came on a DVD that was in some mystical, previously unheard of, 3GB format. Please have a little common sense.

Windows 7's interface?? I have not seen it. I continue to use AstonShell, which still works like a charm.

Windows XP is old. It's very old. It's so old that all the other operating systems are laughing at it (except the other Windows operating system - they just drool a lot). It will not support future generations of hardware, especially those that take advantage of 64-bit functionality. It does not support more than 4gb of memory space(subtract your devices memory space from this and you get the total remaining available memory in your system - many memory cards will chew up 512mb of this space). Windows XP has been Microsoft's best personal (and commercial??) OS yet, but you can only keep an old car on the road for so long before it's time for a new one.

Win7 seems to be exactly what the next generation of Windows should be.

I do not want my password displayed on my screen. A capable person (or a security device) can already look over my shoulder and record my keystrokes. I do not need the idiot in the cube behind me seeing my password in plain-text. The more difficult it is for a person to guess my password, the better.

Long passwords, such as WPA keys, are a different story, but I have not found one that does not have the option to disable the obfuscation (if the person trying to steal your wireless single/data is already in your house, you have other things to worry about).

If a person cannot remember their password, or cannot remember their last 16 key-presses, then they obviously do not know how to type and should not be working in a field that requires them to log in to a system.

I have been using Windows 7 for the last month or so (since it went from beta to RC) and, I have to say that I have liked MOST of the experience so far.

Stability is at least on par with XP (have not had to restart since I finished driver installs). Annoying messages have been minimal - they only appear when I am doing something that should require administrator credentials, such as installing a new application or driver.

Performance... I have no concrete figures but this also seems on par with XP.

The only down-side has been the installation time (hours, even on my beast) and the size of the OS(how DO you fit 20GB of data on a 3GB DVD anyways????).

So, the reason I want Windows 7 is so I can use all of my system's memory without a ramdisk/virtual memory hack and 64-bit support. There is really no other reason to upgrade because everything else seems on par with XP.

Well... Each one is a story unto itself (except X-2...). It's a different planet, with different peoples. There are some (many?) commonalities: chocobos, Cid, moogles, magic, and crystals. There are completely different heroes and villains in each.

So, in a sense, each game is the "Final" story in it's own "Fantasy" world.

What situation is that? If you're talking about tying a customer to a painful and harmful contract, then yes.

I'll remember this the next time I see you holding a device with two joysticks to your head...

As someone who works in the medical information technology industry, I have to say that placing the blame on the software is very misleading. Software is a tool that enables doctors and nurses to better communicate by removing the cause of common errors and making patient data more readily available. The issue in the article appears to be that doctor's refused to look for the patient records, either electronic or paper.
If that hospital's CIO was uninformed enough to purchase software that does not allow different departments to communicate, then shame on the CIO of that hospital for purchasing that software and shame on the doctor's that did not go down the hall to get the records from the other department.
Having worked with Doctor's, I know that they DO make mistakes. Whether this is because they are under huge workloads (which they are, most of the time), they just do not care (I hope this is not the case), or they are lacking in training, I cannot say. However, it has been my experience that whenever a doctor does not understand a process or makes a mistake in a process, they automatically blame the software and then they do not tell anyone. This is not to say that all doctors are like this, but these are the cause of the serious errors.
The issue is not the software alone. Even if the software has bugs (and it always will) the users are ultimately responsible for the patient's care, just like when records were on paper. The software can be improved to prevent errors, but it cannot prevent the doctor from ignoring error and warning messages or from taking an ice-pick to the platters of the hard-disk.

Read up on HL7. It is THE standard for transferring medical data between vendors.

Thank you. I was looking for an explanation to what I understood to be an impossibility. A 13W bulbs uses 13W, but an additional 15W (for a total of 28W) passes through the bulb. Because the extra power is not used, it's not billed, but it still must be supplied.

Makes sense now. I just fear the "CFL Usage Surcharge" on my next electric bill.

You'd have a hard time proving that the user is at fault. "People use my computer all the time... any one of them could have copied it."

Although, I think they could definitely use it for grounds to terminate your account (and therefore future game purchases).

The best way to manage speed is not to abuse it. Too much leads to a coronary, and too little leads to not enough time in your day(having a day shorter than 28 hours leaves me with too much to do the next day).

So, whether you inject, inhale, or ingest your speed, be sure do to so in moderation.

Lasers are both cooler and hotter than water jets.