Ah this "no-value-added middleman" is the guy who created the show, researched it, wrote it, his wife is one of the main characters and he acts in it as well. He is by no stretch a "middleman". I am not saying I agree with him - haven't read the article yet even - but he definitely on the creator side of things.

I agree, although I also think there is a strong element of "not on my watch" covering of the ass. No one in the West wants to be held responsible for the next 9/11, so gathering *all* the information on everyone seems a prudent exercise to prevent being blamed because *you* didn't do something to prevent it, no matter how flagrant a breach of the public trust, laws, etc.

Yes you are. Sure makes sense in that light doesn't it? :P

Rights holders won't have to worry about the effects of piracy when they offer a means of consuming media that is as userfriendly as torrenting that media is, or better. The technology exists, all they need to do is sell it to us at a reasonable rate.

Netflix is the wave of the future. Cable TV and all the other rental services that want to sell me media for consumption at 10x the rate of Netflix are doomed to failure, unless they can jury rig the laws to close Netflix down.

Which is why the fact that they are building a parallel case should be relevant and should be revealed to the Defense. In essence the use of these parallel cases means the government has the motive to "find" evidence to create a chain of evidence that can be used against the defendant. That is an encouragement to create evidence if it can't be found by other means. That's just wrong, period.

This also provides and incentive for the prosecution to rely on evidence acquired illegally, and only encourages the surveillance state mentality.

I am using an 20" iMac Desktop from 2008 or so. I have it set up to dualboot into Win7 using Bootcamp, and I admit I primarily spend my time on Windows. It is more or less completely silent, I can hear a slight sound from the fans but its almost always drowned out by sound from other sources (traffic, fridge, cat snoring etc). To the point that I was surprised to read this poll because I hadn't thought about system noise in ages.

Whether or not you like OS/X, the iMac is a brilliant desktop computer. Mostly I spend my time actually doing something with it rather than thinking about the system, unlike a lot of my Windows PC desktops prior to 2008.

But the key thing here is that most people do not care if the device is closed and limited - their needs for it are limited too. The average person does not need a computer, they just need something that lets them perform a limited amount of functions (mostly email and social networking), and a tablet can be put in your pocket or purse.

Thats a hard sell to the folks of /. of course, for whom the computer is an important tool they use heavily in a lot of cases for a variety of purposes that go beyond mere social networking crap.

I have a desktop that I do creative things on and play complex games on, I have a tablet that I use as my e-reader, and to play a few simple games etc. Each to its own purpose.

Hmm, that seems awkward. You would think there would be some sort of relationship between the two rating methods.

Wow, I have never seen a score of "0, Insightful" before this.

During the period after the old show was canceled (when the movie with Paul McGann came out), and the new revived series, they have set a whackload of Dr Who adventures starring Paul McGann's iteration of the doctor. They are radio-plays effectively, available here: http://www.bigfinish.com/

There are also recorded episodes for a pile of other popular but now defunct TV shows. My wife has listened to a ton of these and says they are very well recorded, full cast stories.

If you count these, Paul McGann has likely done more Dr Who stories than most of the other actors playing the Doctor :P

Check out http://www.swgemu.com/ if you hadn't noticed it exists. You need your old install disks, but its free, and its SWG as of Patch 14.1 - or will be once they are done rewriting it. Currently much of it exists and is functioning, and its receiving regular improvements.

And these are all problems that have come up in previous games, been resolved, and then ignored in modern games.

I think the problem is mostly the players mind you, people do not want to group, do not want to PvE and learn the skills, they want to PvP and be Uber right away. Developers are catering to this because of course they want the number of players to increase and they think simplifying a game and making it soloable will do so, but I think thats a mistake in the long run.

The MMORPGs I have stuck with the longest have been those in which it was fun to group up to face a challenge, in which there were enjoyable PvE experiences and PvP (if any) was an add on as the end game. The best example of this, bar none, was Dark Age of Camelot. Best PvP game ever, despite its flaws, and a decent PvE experience at least early on. As it aged though, they made leveling up 100x easier, ignored the PvE side for the most part, and made changes to the game that were in many ways damaging to it, based on feedback from players who after all, are *not* game designers.

Yeah, what would actually happen is somewhere between what is legally supposed to be possible under US and international laws and what has actually happened in the past that was in no way legal. Given the choice, I would assume that the US Government would do whatever the fuck it wanted and completely ignore the laws. Assange would be in Gitmo inside of 24 hrs, never to be seen again.
The fact that he is not a US citizen and has broken no laws since he isn't subject to US law unless he is inside the US, is completely irrelevant.

that way if we make a programming error we can just comment "Bad Wolf" (too much exposure to Dr Who recently) :P

Very well said. The best form of government it seems to me, is the one that grants the government only the power and authority it needs to function and no more - as defined by the citizens not the government :P

Look up "Sin of Onan" then you will see the wordplay involved :P