"When students started calling me by my first name, I felt that was too far, and I've got to say something," Mark Tomforde, a math professor at the University of Houston said....
Explaining the rules of professional interaction is not an act of condescension; it's the first step in treating students like adults.
Every single work supervisor I've ever had has introduced themselves by their first name and preferred to be addressed that way.
Most humans, especially Americans, already hate automated service of any kind. Being served by an actual human is a luxury that signifies status whereas being transferred to the automated voice answering system, no matter how sophisticated, only serves to reinforce the relative insignificance of the person receiving the "service".
Call me a counter-example, but I generally order take-out once a week through a website rather than calling in the order. When I go see a movie, it is preferable to order the ticket online or use the automated kiosk than waiting in line. I would say a good portion of my shopping is done online as well.
Of course, there are moral concerns here, as you are often downloading the games illegally -- unless you own the physical copy, that is.
These games have often been out of print for decades, and legally exist in the wild only on outdated hardware. Is it not equally immoral to wait for the copyright to expire on these games to copy them, when the technology to do so may not exist in the future? Why is protecting a copyright on something that has been out of print, presumably determined by the publisher to be unprofitable somehow "moral".
New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman