I agree that Nintendo is the lesser evil when it comes to current game companies, but I'm also a little miffed that they brought back region-locking with the DSi and 3DS. Being able to play out-of-region games was a huge selling point in my initial DS lite purchase.

And as long as you're in the world of PC's (but don't have the time or money to keep your rig state-of-the-art) you'll run in to compatibility issues sooner AND later.

"No child left behind" is a GREAT idea. After all, my momma always told me to clean my plate and not waste any food!

What is it with politicians insisting on giving their bills the most inane titles possible, just to spell out some mildly related acronym? We're electing and paying these people to write LEGISLATION, not commercial branding!

You almost had me there for a second. But two things you failed on:

1) "Posting anonymously to dodge NDA" -- If you're really in a development situation with an NDA, you would know that anything you write at work can be read by the boss and merely "posting anonymously" is still an incredibly risky move that could very easily get you fired. Any developer with even an iota of intelligence wouldn't take that risk just to troll on slashdot.

2) "two wiis" -- rehashing the old and tired insult that the next generation of Nintendo hardware is merely "Two current-generation units duct-taped together" was soooo 2005.

But good luck on your next trolling run!

And what about the recent announcement by THQ that they're no longer going to develop licensed games aimed at kids because the money just isn't there?

(Although my personal opinion on that bit of news is that they're merely looking for a scapegoat to blame for bad sales when the real culprit is crappy derivative programming that parents finally caught on to)

I think the 3DS would have done better if they had also designed the demo unit stands to allow for more flexibility in holding and viewing the unit.

Just like you, I sought out a demo of the 3DS when it first came out, and from the Best Buy demo station was not impressed and generally uncomfortable with viewing the screen. However, after my wife bought me one for Christmas and I've had a chance to play it while sitting down with the unit right in the "sweet spot" instead of awkwardly crouching over a too-low off-angle rigid kiosk, I've come to LOVE the 3D graphics, and can easily play for hours (unfortunately limited by the battery) without any problem.

Now that I'm used to the small-screen glasses-free 3D tech, I can't wait for it to get adopted in more devices. It could really do wonders on the right phone/tablet.

A PC Doesn't work with a room full of people. The only time I've seen a PC work with a room full of people is when It's a LAN party, and each person in the room has their own PC.

There are a few other instances that come to mind -- "You Don't Know Jack" for one. Sure, three people on the keyboard at a time might have been a little cramped, but it made the punching/shoving to keep from getting badly "screwed" all the better. Also any hot-seat games work as a group. Or classic adventures, where others can shoulder-surf and give their (often unwanted) advice.

So let me ask you, and I'm sincerely curious, why did you or anybody else ever thought "Liking" a commercial company meant?

Lots of reasons you may end up "liking" a commercial page, even if you're not really a huge fan of the product. In my case, it's usually to get a high-value printable coupon or other free promotional item.

Unfortunately there's been a big trend lately of manufacturers running their coupon and sample giveaway campaigns through Facebook so that they can grab all your demographic data in exchange for said freebies. Recognizing this, I usually use a fictional profile to respond to those offers, but occasionally I need to use my real one as well. My biggest gripe with the scheme though isn't that I have to exchange some (imaginary) personal data to get the coupons, but that most manufacturers don't realize the technical limitations of doing a giveaway through facebook, so as soon as the promotion goes live their servers choke up and it becomes a royal PIA for anyone to get the prints.

Dang. Read the article more closely, and you're right. Looks like Facebook is giving commercial pages the ability to repost friends' activity to your feed in case you missed it the first time the friend liked (or did whatever else with) thier page.

This does not look good. While I personally keep my "liked" pages to a bare minimum, I have lots of family and friends that are overly promiscuous with their clicks. I don't want to block everything from those people, but I don't want to be constantly barraged with posts from companies they've liked either.

Suppose this would be a good time to remind all the friends and family that Google+ is still available and only half as evil...

Because all high frequency trading does is inflate the cost for those of us who do invest in the "old-fashioned" buy-and-hold manner.

I heard it best described in this way: There's a hot new gadget that's being released today, and you *really* want to go buy one. Unfortunately, as you're walking down the street, some hedge fund investors see you coming and quickly jump in front of the store milliseconds before you get there to form a line at the door. The store opens, the investor at the front of the line buys ALL of the gadget inventory. He then turns around and sells all those units to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him for a small profit, who sells to the guy behind him, etc.

Eventually, they get back to you, but now if you're going to buy that gadget, it's going to cost you some significant percentage more to purchase for actual use. And you don't really have any option if you're going to buy one, because every store selling the gadget has a pool of financial sharks circling the entrance just waiting for another "traditional investment" sucker.

In the end, the store doesn't benefit, since they still only sold the item at the normal price, and you don't benefit because you just got your price jacked up. The only beneficiaries are the HFT scum who have played the system in such a way to artificially inflate your costs to their own benefit while adding absolutely no actual value to the product as it passed through their hands. This DOES impact you, because the more of your investment that gets siphoned out by the hedge funds, the less you have left to actually invest in the original stock.

If it's patterns we're looking for, then the real indicator of a new console is when the release of the new Zelda game gets delayed "so we can polish it to perfection."

Just like they repeatedly "polished" Twilight Princess for the Gamecube, only to use it as a hook for selling the Wii to the "hardcore" crowd.

Here's a real world example for you: From my house to my parents is ~ 650 miles across the midwest US. For about half of that distance the speed limit is set at 65, the rest at 70 (construction and urban zones notwithstanding). Using the "10% rule" on a clear day means driving at 72 mph in the 65, and 77 in the 70. Even at this short distance (well, short compared to Chicago-LA), for every 1 mph over I push the limit I save an additional 10 minutes on the trip -- valuable time that I can and do use for taking breaks without losing good daylight driving time. 6-7 mph over the limit means an extra hour each way (two hours round trip) for break time or arriving early, and at that speed I'm still not the fastest car on the road by any means.

It doesn't require driving halfway across the country to see the benefit in higher highway speeds, and that's where this discussion started -- the idea of weighing the risks of speeding (increased chance of accident, penalty for breaking the law) against the benefits (arriving sooner, arriving awake, having good daylight for a greater portion of the trip). And after weighing the options, I've found that the optimal solution with greatest return for the risk I'm willing to undertake is indeed at a speed some 5-10 mph over the posted limit. If I have additional passengers, driving conditions are not ideal, or am driving in a state with high speeding penalties, I take those factors into the equation and drive at a slower speed, sometimes even (gasp!) under the speed limit if that's what the situation calls for.

My guess is that the earlier poster is in a hurry because he has a long way to drive.

Notice that he specified a savings in time AND fatigue. Based on your reply, I think it's safe to assume that you've never driven on an interstate highway in the western half of the US. Generally, they are long, flat, and boring. Distances between major cities are on the order of hundreds of miles. On a long trip, pushing the speed limit by a safe and reasonable 5-10 mph means shaving hours off your overall traveling time, and after you've been driving for 8+ hours every bit of time you save on the road means a significantly lower risk of driving in a very unsafe fatigued state at the end of your trip. Since a fatigued driver is just as dangerous as a drunk one, I'd much rather (and would rather those around me as well) drive a little bit faster and in control, than slow and inattentive.

Go take a long drive out west sometime, and before it's over you'll be in just as much of a hurry as well.