I think, also, those with very high Karma can sometimes get a story early for free. I've posted on red-header stories, before, and I'm not a subscriber.

If I were in charge of Samsung, I'd have had "supply difficulties" long ago, around about the time of each new lawsuit. It would be hard to prove a deliberate malicious reduction in supply, and furthermore, hard to say if that's in fact, illegal. Nobody is forcing Apple to use parts made by their primary competitor.

Aside from the machines I personally use, that is my work PC running Windows XP, and my two laptops at home running Windows 7 and Mint, each, my Android phone and my Android tablet (Gingerbread and ICS, respectively), I also use a lot of bootable tools at work (I repair computers).

Indeed, when I was selling phones, I found it easier to give customers something close to what they wanted, because there was a lot of variety. Selling computers, I have to think "Well what do you want from me? The ones over here run Windows 7 Home Premium, these ones over here run Pro, both sets are split about 50/50 for mediocre and high power machines, and the only differentiating features are really whether or not it has bluray or an SSD on board!"

Full disclosure, I sell these where I work, but the Toshiba Tecra series ticks all the boxes you mentioned. There is an SSD model, fairly standard GPU, Core i5 processors, and optical drives. Battery life is a bit better, too, being as you're not wasting power spinning metal platters.

Also worth noting, Gundam Wing and Gundam 00 both made it plain how positively evil an unmanned army can be. Gundam Wing with the Mobile Dolls, unmanned mobile suits with one guy at the button, and Gundam 00 with the Automatons, little hyper-aggressive R2D2 like things, loaded up with guns, they seem to have two modes, exterminate, and off. They get dropped on civilian and military targets alike, one guy pushes a button, nobody feels anything when thousands die.

People are fond of the phrase, here "1984 was not an instruction manual", I personally favour saying "The bad guys in Gundam are not a positive role model for governments!"

Thanks for the clarification :) I was just being a smartarse (someone being a smartarse on the internet? NEVER!) Using Greek prefixes would also get tricky when you move outside of the solar system...

I think you mean "Areology" specifically about Mars. Xenogeology would be foreign planet study, but the Geo prefix specifically applies to Earth. Therein lies the problem with basing modern scientific parlance on ancient languages ;)

In light of my signature, I really must point out the above AC isn't me.

When education, to escape the McDonalds job's pay, costs more than your average home loan, what other option is there?

Oh, right. Rich and influential parents who can make sizable "donations" to the educational institute.

I'm reminded of a scene from Ugly Americans:

Twayne hands Leonard a checque, and says "I'm going to give you this, you're going to give me your company"
Leonard crows "A BILLION DOLLARS! WOOHOO!" (or something to that effect)
Callie slaps Twayne in the back of the head and says "You IDIOT! I said give him a THOUSAND dollars!"
Twayne: "Doesn't a thousand have nine zeroes?"
Callie: "JUST HOW RICH ARE YOU?!"
Twayne: "Ionno... How much is twelve zeroes?"

Not that this is actually relevant in any way, just felt like sharing with the class.

All the investors who put their money in at gunpoint, raise your hands!

Right, all the others, when we're done with Nokia, let's bring a suit in Vegas for all the money we've lost in the casinos, too!

It was a bad business decision. If the investors thought so at the time, they wouldn't have invested. If they decided to practically give someone their money, then there was an inherent risk in that. Just because they lost doesn't mean they have the right to sue Nokia for this. They probably have firmer grounds to sue Microsoft because their operating system wasn't up to snuff (not that I really think they could do that, successfully).

I'll count Star Craft 2 when I get more than a third of a game for my $90.

Don't get me wrong, I think an online Elder Scrolls game would be great, but does anybody remember playing Warcraft? No, stupid children, I don't mean "World of Warcraft", I mean "Warcraft", the franchise your beloved time-sink came from.

As soon as WoW became popular, hope of a Warcraft 4 went down the toilet. Blizzard doesn't make games, anymore, they just push expansion packs for World of Warcraft. The exception to this rule being Diablo 3, but it'll be an expansion-factory for the next ten years, too. The Elder Scrolls Online means there will probably never be a TES:VI.

But will the fallout shelter protect you from Fallout Online when that happens? (and you know it will, if TESO goes well)