I attempted watching Saturday morning cartoons recently, wanted to see if any new good cartoons were on, besides the disappointment at the quality of the only two runs (Fox and CW) the ads were worse than I remember. Sometimes it barely went five minutes before a long ad break.

Do kids really have the attention span to sit through those ads?

I remember being annoyed by them when I was a kid, and getting antsy.

Landline phones are one of those funny things. A classmate remarked how theirs was helpful during that freak Oct snow storm in CT. My great uncle had no land line for over a week because *shock* the line went down. Yet with my cell phone I could go to the shelter and charge it if I needed too. So there are still people clinging too it for the reason it works in an outage...

As for a TV. The only thing it might be of use for me is a console, but I'm starting to walk away from even those. Since building a good PC for gaming is much cheaper these days. You can even stick with a laptop, and still have something great for games. It's a personal choice, but I've dropped down my moving important possessions (also fire replacement) down to my computer, clothes, and Kindle. It saves me a good deal of effort and space. Trips and school also means I can go with the entirety of my real possessions (furniture is just additional possessions that I don't care much about.)

Yeah, I was glad my parents let me play the sports I wanted to for the most part. Little league baseball was fun, but I wish I could have played ice hockey (there just wasn't a rink nearby and within their budget.) I never wanted to play football as a kid, and liked basketball as a winter sport. Though my parents were probably happy with those two because they are dirt cheap for working class parents. Just pay the fee for little league (covers the numbered shirt), and a glove lasts a few years. It was the same for basketball. The only real costs was the new cleats and basketball shoes each year.

Poor kids these days get their parents sports failures pushed on them. Sometimes my team won, mostly we lost, but we still had fun (still sore about the head of the league adding three innings five minutes before the cut off time after the standard six innings so his team could come back for a win.) In high school I switched to track to go from 80s to 90s in PE, and participate in a sport with practice that was more laid back for the throwers. Maybe I was terrible, but hanging out with people I liked more often was nice. Meets meant a great deal of sitting on your ass in the grass waiting for your event, and then warming up shortly before.

Yeah, I see right around 3MBs on Steam often. Speakeasy gives me the same results too.

We have a 24Mbit connection, and don't have issues playing games/streaming Netflix. This is a household with four people in it too (doing more than one of those at once.) So I can imagine the reason most won't upgrade.

I played DAOC, the WoW grind is nothing, and even then I hear Everquest is worse for the grind. As for WoW, they streamlined it in Cata. It's not very hard to level fast, even quicker if you're in an old guild with friends and family (mine is like that, got an IRL friend that will fit or family member then bring em in), or can get the heirloom items.

My reaction to the Mists of Pandaria thing was "WOOHOO!" To me the expansion looks fun, and that's the point of gaming for me, and I dare say most casuals.

My college uses Blackboard, and the only way to upload files from the computer is via the Java plugin (odd since a school I went to before didn't need it to upload, unless more recent versions of blackboard added it.) Once I'm done with needing it, I do plan on getting rid of it. It's another plugin I don't really care for.

I know, to me it's them going "Oh noes! We actually need evidence to prove the case."

My high school had a payphone, and so did my grammar school. Those are now gone. So if I had a kid they would need one to call in for a ride home should they walk across to the library to do research after school. I had a payphone that I could always use, but those days are gone in most areas: if not all. I used the payphone numerous times from:

1) Missing the bus (running to the locker, and then to the bus as it decides to leave in less than the ten less it's supposed to wait.)
2) Walking over to the town library after school to research.
3) Using the computer lab (we didn't have a computer until after my freshman year of high school.)

All of which required me calling my mom to let her know to pick me up after work.

I'm hoping that, since it runs Windows 8, you will be able to set it up landscape on a reading stand with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Easy to get a smaller keyboard for portability; like the Apple one: with the detriment of no number pad. I'm not saying the Apple one is the solution, just that it's a good example of a compact keyboard. One I've tested before, and found it comfortable to type on despite my normally large keyboards.

For home use, if done right, I might just have only a Windows tablet so I can use office for the needed files. Other than Office, all I need these days is a tablet (only thing I do on a computer is internet, email, Facebook, and office.)

Along with not paying outrageous fees to get the SDK. Android SDK is free, and has a $25 fee for creating an account to publish to the store: $100 for Apple (SDK requires OS X, but has no extra charge so getting a Mac Mini is sufficient for development after you make enough on the Android market.)

This makes me glad I have the tab on the rearview. Even if you don't you might be able to achieve the same effect. All my tab does is point the mirror downwards. Get a friend, and try adjusting it down until you see the headlights reflected, but much dimmer. Remember the setting to switch for day/night. Might be annoying, but you might be able to get some relief if you don't have that tab. Though they are supposed to be much more common these days, as auto dim is the luxury feature.

This is the reason I just don't bother ever setting foot in one. Even their used games are too pricy.

We'll give you crap for a game we'll resell for $50!

Yeah....

That's not gonna happen. Due to living out in the country, with not caring about having it at release, I just order from Amazon. Forty minute drives to the nearest store for anything other than food isn't really worth it for one or two items that ship for about the same travel cost (less after the gas tax hike most likely).

As for games, I sold a used copy of Resident Evil on eBay for $25, and didn't pay much more than that to get it used online. So it's easy to get around if you know the method to cheap shipping (yellow envelopes with bubble wrap built in.)

Nope, my parents still have that. Though a forced change may be coming soon as the basic digital package now costs the same $70 as the Basic Expanded one they have without the set top box. So they may have to get one soon. Then again, there would be no way to connect more than one TV without a card/set top, but suspect they want the extra $5/m per device.

Or in cases where the contract is one sided, such as most service contracts with corporations. It just takes a good business lawyer to make that right argument to get binding arbitration voided based on precedent.