Agreed on the ending, as it was more fun to watch. BB was pretty much pre-ordained as he had terminal cancer from the get-go, you knew certain folks were going to live, etc. but with the Shield you just didn't know. In terms of season-season quality, I think that's just due to a much larger cast with The Shield. They really only had a handful of recurring characters in BB, where the Shield had to tell a much larger story with a much bigger cast, which is a harder job. Still one of my all time favorites though, and if folks are jonesing after BB and want something in the same vein, you can't go wrong.

They did make that show, it was called "The Shield". Starts a little bit down the road from "good guy" (ok, well a lot) but they flash back to where they started before they became so corrupt. Not as even-keel as BB in terms of season to season quality, but in the same manner they tend to escalate season to season, and part of the fun is to watch them try harder and harder to keep things in control.

"Pity that graphics now is the selling point instead of gameplay and story development."

Oh that old chestnut, whheeeeeeee... Here's some facts:

#1) Things weren't as great as you remember them
#2) There were always shit products that focused on graphics. There were always fantastic games that focused on graphics. Here's one that people love: Doom. Yet its one of the all time best ever games, and an immediate classic. Why? Graphics.
#3) There are many many games that have great stories, intriguing gameplay, etc. You don't play any of them. You haven't even looked for them. Your contact with gaming is most likely commercials or occasionally glancing at what your kids are playing.

True story: when the second computer game ever was completed, it was shown to the one guy that played the first game, and he complained about the focus on graphics and the lack of story.

Its possible to both love burning man and hate hipsters. For instance, I hate hipsters, but I like going to Dolores Park, so therefore I love Burning Man as one week a year its hipster-free!

Who is dreaming?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/14/bradley-manning-statement-sentencing-trial

Google says you're wrong:

http://www.sabrepc.com/p-2521-fusion-io-fs6-802-640-cs-0001-512tb-iodrive-octal-multi-level-cell.aspx?gclid=CNfJ5vOVybkCFcU5QgodwkYAMg

Ok, its $10K, but that's 5TB which you can't even buy right now. :)

Still, at the enterprise class, you're looking at ~$500, so its more like ~20x.

But its still apples to oranges as a PCI device will get you huge bandwidth. Different tools for different problems folks!

Hmm, I was expecting to see "sheeple" in there somewhere. Disappointed for sure...

There's definitely some titles sitting in a box somewhere I'd love to have the ebook for now that I've moved most of my reading to it (outside the out of print stuff they haven't deemed worthy of ebookness yet).

I've been pretty pleased with the AudioRip stuff on amazon - in a few cases its actually been cheaper (with Prime) to get the CD instead of the digital album (or maybe $0.50 difference). True that it starts out in the "cloud player" but its been easy enough to file the resulting files off to my home storage solution instead of doing the rips myself.

Whoops, messed that up. 2378 was voyager return date, 2404 was endgame. So its either 2388, 2404, 2414, so 143, 159, 169. Still really freaking old!

Mccoy was born 2227, Chekov 2245. McCoy is in TNG in 2364 tottering around at 137. So obviously the med tech allows people to live longer (though not necessarily age slower). 10 years after Voyager could mean 10 years after Voyager's return (2404) or 10 years after the last episode, which was already 10 years after Voyager's return (2414). Either way you're looking at 159 or 169 respectively, and he looked a lot younger in that video than McCoy did in Encounter At Farpoint. I think they'd pretty much need some type of plot device to put him in with TNG/DS9/Voyager era folks and still have him kicking around. Of course, given the integrity and respect for canon the writers have, I seriously doubt they'd compromise that much just to put Chekov in.

Oh who am I kidding! Three loops around the sun and straight on till morning! Next stop, the future!!!!!

Its more likely that someone hacks your xbox to make it catch fire. That's what I'd call horrific abuse.

I don't know why people would disconnect it while not gaming. Voice controls for video playback are one of the greatest things ever. There's been so many times I've shamed my cable box for making me find the remote. "Stupid cable box, why can't you be more like your brother xbox! He _always_ listens to me."

The problem is that "ground beef" while probably the most consumed, is just part of the cow. There's a ton of different sections of the animal, with each part being important to some kind of dish. You're going to have to create basically an entire animal before you satisfy everyone. There's different prep methods, sizes, cuts, etc. What about ribs? Tounge? Tail? You're going to tell a Texan he can't have brisket because they can only grow a burger?

The only real way to do it I guess would be vat grow an animal without a brain and somehow stimulate the different cuts to marble them. Or else you've got a whole different ballgame of creating new artificial cuts with different fat contents (fats that can break down, fats that can't), marbling, bone structure, etc. Those will be cooked using standard methods, and a whole new vocabulary will have to be built up to translate New Meat from the cuts we know. What an odd world it will be when the worst cuts become delicacies because those have to come from a real cow. FIlet for everyone, chuck for the rich!

You can make phone calls on a pay phone. You can browse the internet with a 30lb luggable. The experience gap is only going to get bigger. Can you cache the map for offline browsing? Can you do IP calls? Street view? Voicemail -> text? I couldn't when I got my smart phone. Sure, the OS dev for feature phones can do that, but I seriously doubt Symbian is going to get those updates? I'm not saying the shit is perfect, but I welcome the power and flexibility (and the updates) that smart phones, mobile apps, mobile websites/etc provide. No way I'd want to go back.

I agree that Siri is a joke, but for those of us that leave the house and travel the rest is invaluable. GPS + maps + websites will find you stuff in a local area, get you directions through an unfamiliar place, etc with a minimum of fuss. Plus texting/IM is a much more efficient way of communicating for small messages and/or things you'd need to write down like addresses. And occasionally there is a work emergency to respond to, so having access to email rather than needing to find a computer makes a whole bunch of difference.