No, you won't have to pay for "every damned little thing in the OS". Windows 8 is targeted at tablets and PCs without optical drives, which are increasingly common because movies are in digital download formats today, so it makes sense to not have to include that functionality in the shipping OS. You're not going to be paying for every little feature, and there won't be a window popping up telling you that you need to pay for expansion packs--you're falling for the baiting headline hook, line, and sinker.

Slippery slope arguments are almost always bogus because you can turn practically anything into a "what's next" statement that exaggerates the original situation and makes it seem worse than it actually is.

The headline is trying to incite a backlash, but this is a reflection of the decline of optical drives and the rise of tablets. Apple has also gone down this path by not including optical drives in the MacBook Air. I don't find myself that concerned since it's literally been years since I watched a DVD, and all my movies are digital.

Presumably, the expense that was previously included in the cost of Windows will not be in Windows 8. I say "presumably" because I'm sure Windows 8 will still inexplicably cost over $100 or whatever.

Hello, yog. Yes, you implied that a filter should be put in place on lawsuits by complaining that "in America, you can sue anybody for anything".

You make a rational, well-thought point, but ranting about lawsuits in America gets the mod points, sorry.

Not to worry. They're far too busy feeling up 3-year olds and grannies to do anything about deadly weapons of any sort.

After reading the snarky comments in the previous story about "holding it wrong", "it's an iPhone so it's a feature", and "ban all phones without removable batteries", it's interesting to see what happens if you wait for investigative facts to come out. But where would be the fun in that? Slashdot's comment section is more about cathartic bashing than insightful commentary. Of course, now we'll see accusations that Apple bribed the ATSB or fake-posts from pretend-battery-engineers telling us how the story is wrong or some other similar silliness...

Not to come off as a defender of Microsoft, but Ballmer said that over 11 years ago, and it was in reference to the GPL's viral nature. Ribbing of Microsoft on Slashdot has to do with us-versus-them platform fanboyism more than anything.

To gloat over the irony of Microsoft using cheap UNIX boxes for P2P infrastructure. Even in 2012, Microsoft is still the bogeyman here.

If by linear content you mean quests, yes, it has linear quests because quests have a beginning and end. An MMO like World of Warcraft has barely any sandbox qualities. You level through a certain zone, then you move to the next designated zone, and you run specific dungeons designed for your level. Elder Scrolls isn't like that; you can just go out and do whatever and explore, ignoring the entire main quest line if you'd like.

Not only is the market saturated, but the cornerstone of today's MMOs is a linear content path regularly updated by the vendor. Elder Scrolls made its name for being a do-anything sandbox RPG. The last time such a thing was tried in a mainstream way, we had Ultima Online which ended up having to create a PK-safe continent.

Either it just won't feel like Elder Scrolls, or it will be too full of griefers to compete with mainstream MMOs.

No it wasn't.

Yes, it was. From TFA:

Advocates of export-control reform say that the report is the first encouraging development since 1998, when Congress placed all spacecraft and related equipment under ITAR, following revelations that two US companies had shared technical information about a launch failure with China, without seeking government approval. The move proved a blow to many US satellite firms, which lost international customers who were unwilling to deal with the licensing rules. Universities with foreign students are also subject to the rules, which cover what can be taught in classes and who can work on satellite-related student projects funded by the government.

Bonch wasn't saying the law was created in 1998. He said it was expanded to cover spacecraft in 1998.

Football is a money-making industry. One wonders how much resistance there has been to revealing its true physical consequences.

Yes, you are right, there's no connection between humongous gladiators smashing into each other hard enough to cause concussions and brain damage. Nosiree.

People have a habit of repeating that correlation does not cause causation, but correlation is often a very obvious indicator of a connection. If a bunch of dead football players with a history of concussions end up having the exact same brain encephalopathy...come on.

I think you didn't even read the report. It explicitly states that there was intent to use the data. It was the whole point of the project according to the design document that management apparently approved without reading.

The seven engineers weren't just people he circulated memos to. They worked on the project--five tested it, another reviewed the code, and another helped in some unspecified way.

Let's be realistic here. It's extremely difficult to believe that seven engineers could work on a Street View project, managers could approve the proposal, yet not a single other soul in the company knew what was going on or intended to do anything with the data for the two years that the project ran.

They spent a year and tens of thousands of dollars "investigating" Google and couldn't find any violations of the law, so the make a bogus claim that Google "didn't cooperate". Why should Google? What the Feds wanted was for Google to unilaterally admit to some crime.

It wasn't a bogus claim. If you had read the article or followed this story at all in the last couple of years, you'd know that Google refused to turn over the data they had collected to investigators.

As for not breaking any laws, that's hardly the point. I guess the spin now is that anything goes as long as you technically don't break the law. Way to hold companies to an ethical standard, guys.