In other words, there is no causal link. The videogames can merely serve as a trigger, much as any frustrating activity could.

The years of bullying or the abusive parent were the causal link.

Late to reply, but figured I will anyhow:

See my point 9...I bet you a nickel that the next gen of Xbox/PS/Wii will do everything in their power to eliminate resale.

Apparently that would be to send them an email or call them saying 'I am a developer':
http://www.onlive.com/corporate/plugin

To address your points:
6: Big whoop. Stated from the beginning that they were aiming more for a console experience, not a PC experience.
7: There are a bunch of Indie games on Onlive:

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
Braid
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
Shatter
The Ball
The Maw
Trine
World of Goo

In fact, Onlive was the #3 contributor for Humble Bundle 2: http://www.humblebundle.com/

I'm sure there are more on there, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind. I'm sure if Notch approached Onlive, they would have no problem adding Minecraft once it is out of beta.

8: News flash: already a problem with consoles. People manage somehow.
9: Can't resell your PC games already. Publishers are already looking to eliminate console resale as well. Probably a moot point by next console gen.
10: Whatever. If they can make it subtle, and the ad crap doesn't physically touch my machine, I don't care.

Yes, as a Comcast customer, I can confirm this.

90% of the time we watch Netflix between 12 PM and 12 AM, we end up getting very low quality video (1 'bar'). I pay for the mid-tier service (not the "super-fast" gaming connection, but not basic either). Nothing else at the time is using the internet, other than maybe a bit of Stumbleupon on 1 PC.

Heck, even trying to stream Youtube at 720p requires a several minute wait as the video buffers.

It is unacceptable. If I actually thought it would accomplish something, I would complain. Sadly, Comcast is still the only reasonable option I have. DSL service equivalent to what I'm getting now would cost about $20 more a month than what I'm paying Comcast.

Just to test...I tried Netflix here at work...less than two blocks from where I live. They pay for an internet connection from Level 3. Full HD quality. HD Youtube streams instantly.

Moodle may be horrible...but what are the alternatives for Higher Ed?

Almost everything else is closed-source, expensive, and just as buggy, if not moreso.

The college I work for recently ditched Blackboard in favor of Moodle, because all of the 'core' functionality was comparable, but we could extend Moodle's functionality for free, instead of paying Blackboard's ever-increasing fees. We hand-rolled the following, for less overall TCO than we would have been paying Blackboard:
Integration with our SSO solution
Automatic course creation based on Banner data (Blackboard was a black box...we would have had to pay for this functionality).
Automatic add/drop of courses based on our Banner data (Again, would have had to pay extra for this).

The kicker is that we're running Moodle on Oracle, which required a bit of tweaking (especially for plugins) because Moodle was designed for MySQL. But the performance hit is worth it for us because the integration is easier to manage in an all-Oracle environment.

Yea, Moodle's codebase is a bit of a nightmare. But at least there is a codebase to work with, which is more than can be said for any other LMS on the market.

Then you were not working with idiots. I've worked with IDIOTS. I'm talking about people who freak out if their desktop icons get rearranged. I'm talking about people who submit helpdesk tickets saying 'something is wrong', but don't include any details whatsoever. Who insist that they need 7 different toolbars installed in their browser. People who write passwords on post-it notes in plain view. Who give me a blank stare when I say 'Double click the icon.'

They don't listen to you. They assume that any knowledge you try to impart on them (even as simple as 'On the new system, do this instead of this) is a waste of time. They expect you to fix any problem they have, and disappear.

I don't expect people to write scripts, use a command line, or compile. Heck, I don't expect them to install, configure, or update anything.

I expect people (who do their work on computers 6-8 hours a day) to be able to read an error message and fix their own icon arrangement without me babysitting them. I expect anyone who uses a computer for more than 1 hour a day to at least understand basics (start menu, right click, left click, double click). I expect people to be able to follow detailed instructions for very simple (changing desktop background) tasks. Sadly, most people I've come across are incapable of these simplest things.

Yawn.. Our local supermarket (Giant) has had the barcode printout for produce for years now. Replaced all the old-school hanging scales everywhere.

The cool feature we have is going 1 step beyond self-checkout even: Self-scanning as you shop.

You scan your bonus-card when you enter the store, you get a hand-held barcode scanner. You pick up an item, scan it, put it in your bags. When you're done shopping, you go to self checkout, it copies over everything you scanned, and you pay.

The system works well. They deter theft by doing random audits, which typically take less time than waiting for a cashier anyhow. Plus they take $2 off if you pass the audit. Fail 3 audits, you're banned from the system.

I love it, because most cashiers care more about speed than bagging things sanely. With this, I can sort all of my groceries as I shop (dry goods, freezer foods, refrigerated,non-foods, etc)

I'm curious about this point. While I completely agree about spelling errors or cutesy fonts, what is the logic behind cutting based on the phrase "references available upon request"?

I put it on my resume simply for the privacy of my references, particularly when posting online.

Ok, I'll amend...you're half-right:
Here is the tech you saw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XpanD_3D

It is the only shutter-based tech for 3d films in theaters. Used at about 1000 theaters worldwide. Here are the far more common ones:
Polarized - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealD_Cinema
Polarized - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterImage_3D
Optical - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_3D

These are the predominate systems. RealD alone has over 3000 theaters worldwide. (Counted off their official website) All three of these other systems are passive. When making a statement that applies to all cinema glasses, you should apply it to the majority of systems in use.

So as such....MOST cinemas use passive glasses...because they are cheaper, and less of a loss if the glasses need replaced.

No, cinema glasses are polarized, and thus are completely passive.

Honestly, am I the only person who doesn't have an immense hatred for Acrobat Reader?

Yea, it's a big install, and uses a sizeable chunk of RAM...but does any of that matter anymore?

I have a 9 MB PDF file...600 pages of Oracle documentation. Adobe Reader opened it from a cold start in less than 2 seconds, and I was able to scroll the entire document quickly, and find the information I needed. No other free PDF viewer I've tried can do this, with the same responsiveness and ease of scrolling, zooming, or selecting text...all without the annoyance of ads. It's using about 30 MB of RAM to do this. Big fucking deal....Firefox is using 150MB, Chrome 60 MB, Outlook 80 MB...hell IE 8 is using almost 30 MB with only one tab open.

For any computer newer than 4 years old, the 'bloat' in Reader is negligible. It truly hasn't sucked from a performance standpoint since version 8. And in my mind, it beats the hell out of dealing with the various quirks in other PDF viewers...especially when you have to fill out a PDF form.

I for one welcome the attempt at beefing up security, and hope that other highly targetted apps take a cue from this and implement sandboxing for themselves.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I say hell yea. It would be awesome to have kids run booze and cigarette runs. Heck, my parents told me several times once I had my driver's license that they wished they could have me bring booze home while I was out doing other things.

News flash: Kids can get this stuff anytime they want anyway. My fiancee did more drinking in high school than she did in college.

If the parent does their job right, there isn't any need for arbitrary regulations.

On the Xbox at least, this is easy to do:

Step 1: Join Scavenge mode with your mic on, play with randoms.
Step 2: Rate the players you encounter...prefer the more mature ones, dislike the screaming 14 yr old.
Step 3: Add players you come to recognize/come to recognize you.

Doing this, I've added 3 L4D2 buddies, on top of my RL friends who own the game.

This doesn't really work though. The infrastructure was built using government funds. It has already been paid for. Any usage fees are upkeep and profit. Guess which one is the reason the fees keep going up?