Wasn't that an episode of Sliders?

How about present a few options instead of offering complaints to complaints people? I know there are some current, fun, "mind-buster" style games out there. I would recommend Braid or Machinarium as interesting, side-scrolling, indie puzzle games. Racing has it's niche in competence also with series like Gran Turismo. FPS is a twitch sport but that doesn't mean the need to think isn't there. Check out games like ARMA2, Americas Army 3, or Resistance and Liberation for more teamwork, realism, strategy. I hope my list is enjoyed, these are just a few of the current games that one could get into which do require a bit of thought not to die, crash, get stuck, and/or lose. Any suggestions for the RPG, RTS, flight sim, or other category that I missed?

Last I knew MKV was a container, not a codec. You can put divx, h264, wmv or whatever you prefer for a video format inside it. Or all of them together at once in parallel tracks. Same goes for audio and subtitle tracks. One more feature MKV preserves from a VOB is chaptering. It really is sweet and the best direction for digital video to go. But the commitment to use one codec should be remembered as Handbrake's decision as just about any audio/video/subtitle formats work inside the MKV container. In h264 vs DIVX, h264 wins outright. I'm also always a fan of wasting a few extra megs on better audio so AC3 is the way I'd go.

Yes!! Go Walter! :)

I guess one benefit to that would be less moving parts to break. Another might be reduced grimy build up to scrape out of input devices.

Maybe we should harness them! :P

I had the same opinion when I read that. The Lakota, Mandan, and other tribes from northern North America required better shelter to survive. They had very large animals (bison) to kill and process for food, shelter, and clothing. There are also vast forests as you progress farther north in their area of what is now the northern Minnesota and southern Ontario. All of which makes a big difference when you need to learn to survive. It's -9 F outside right now and I'm guessing the temps weren't that much different back then. Compare that to the arid plains, desert, and relatively small prey size which the Aboriginals had to contend with. I saw others mention the concept of land ownership. That was also a new idea to Native Americans when the Europeans arrived also. Sure there were tribes with their semi-staked out hunting lands and there were battles over that space but I would say it was more for basic resources which grew or fed upon that land than the land itself.

That is true and Microsoft's initiative to convert all things Flash on their network of sites to Silverlight has all but failed also (I did some of that development even). But Netflix is also a pretty big competitor for local/national rental shops and video rental vending machines like Red Box here in the States which are also limited by market just as flash based sites like Hulu. Even some of the more illicit divx streaming sites restrict their content to US only but that's probably more for bandwidth considerations than anything else. The great thing about software is that it can be replaced with much greater ease and savings than say, buried communications cable that isn't quite fast enough for everyone and their child to stream 1080p all day, everyday. I have a feeling that if Silverlight starts to fall out of the cards at hand Netflix will switch up for the new standard rather than loose customers because a browser doesn't know what Silverlight is. Plus if you've ever written any Silverlight you'll know that its not far from Javascript and XML in syntax and a conversion to Javascript, HTML5 and SVG shouldn't be that painful of a transition.

Yeah but being staunchly opposed to something is great fun. Also, sticking to your morals is very commendable. I do hope they don't join just to ruin the standard or offer halfassed support for it. Both of which make web developers struggle further while being coaxed into their closed standard for a lack of functionality in SVG which they assisted in creating. It's happened too many times, and by more than just these people.