I'll pay the extra money just so I can have a cheerful cashier, a clean rest room, and a brightly lit store. As well as Target's contributions to the community and schools.

Begin looking for another job as soon as possible. Document your communications with your manager and attempts to get them to go legit. But leave as soon as possible.

The reason is simple: a company who believes it is okay to do what they're doing is not going to appreciate what YOU do. Your raises will never be good, the respect you garner from upper level management will be negligible, and you will always be treated as a second class citizen that is there only because the world requires it. The companies that do what you're describing are those who view technology as a "necessary evil" and "money sink" rather than the enabler it should be.

*if you're not licensed to drive.

You own the software, but you're not licensed to use it. Kind of similar to the "you can have a circumvention device, and you can have a product on which the device works - both are legal. Using the circumvention device to remove the protection is illegal, however."

Car analogy: you can be given the keys to your parents car, you can have access to their car, but it's not legal for you to drive it if you're licensed to drive.

Yea, in Missouri I can vouch this definitely happens. I had to get my car repaired, they cleared the codes but said I had to drive a minimum of 500 miles before I brought it back in for inspection. I asked him how I was supposed to drive with expired plates (nothing like procrastination, eh?!) and he said not to worry about it. If I got pulled over explain to the cop and he'd know what was going on.

IMO these codes should have been released a long time ago. Then again I don't like DRM or any sort of other lockin either, so...

My credit score is ~600, from three issues.

The first is from AT&T and a fight I've had with them. They cut off my cell phones when my account was paid in full, then billed me for three months more of service, and a cancellation fee - TWICE. ($100.00/month, $600.00 cancellation fee x2 = $1,200.00, plus interest and charges = $1,500.00.) When I called to ask them why this occurred they told me I "needed to learn to pay my bills." My boss has signed a notarized affidavit indicating that he tried to contact me on my cell phone and was greeted with the "this number has been disconnected" message. I'm not liable for a cancellation fee if I didn't break the contract. (Psst. They did. This also occurred with OneRate back in 1999 with AT&T. I called to update my billing address. They told me they had to charge me a $200.00 cancellation fee. I asked why; she said I no longer qualified for OneRate. I said I want OneRate, I'm not cancelling that. There was no provision that I had to stay in the service area for the plan to stay in effect. That was the benefit of it. I won that fight, at least.) I've had to order the bill collectors to cease and desist per the FCRA in order to have quiet at my home -- but they still report to my credit. This one is not my fault, although if I get another collector next year... well, I may just have to show them what workplace violence really is.

The second is from CompUSA. I had a store credit card which I paid online. In October 2007 their web site went offline (because they went out of business). I had destroyed the card, didn't even know who issued it, and was unable to make payments. When a bill collector contacted me in March, 2008, it was a firm that wanted to play games - the first message on my answering machine was talking about me going to jail for not paying my debts. I whipped out a tape recorder and recorded every call with them, which I then forwarded to the FTC - and never paid them a dime. The debt was sold in February, 2009, to another collector - which I promptly paid due to their professionalism in collecting the debt. But I still have the other collector on my record. This one is, admittedly, my fault -- I should've taken the time to find the credit card issuer and make mail payments.

The third is from XM Radio. I cancelled them two years ago. I'm on my fourth BBB complaint to try to get them to stop billing me and reporting me as late on my credit, and to stop them from harassing me at home. When I call their customer service I get hung up on when I request a manager, or when I request to cancel my service. This one is not only not my fault, but stupid - the CSRs for XM Radio are rude, unintelligible, and should be shot.

Funny thing is, I work for one of the major U. S. Banks in their mortgage software development department, and these three things were already on my credit report when they hired me - and they did pull a credit report.

The idea behind the credit reports is sound, but it's been abused and stretched and is much larger than it should be.

The originals - Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Pools of Darkness. Wrap them in one long game. Tie them together a little more neatly. Remove the reliance on journals. (Although I will admit the translation wheel and journal were awesome in the day, now they only serve as a distraction -- dig through the box, find the manual, read the entry - and that's only if I've managed to forget what the entry was, which isn't likely.)

Remaking the games and giving PoR and CotAB the Fix command in camp would be nice. Updating the graphics would be nice. But the game play - what I refer to as fantasy based squad level combat, not role playing - could be hugely improved. You could add role playing elements by expanding the options in the games for solving the puzzles. Make the players think more in quite a few of the situations they found themselves in.

Though, SotSB could probably be left out to die. I don't have many fond memories of it. And this probably doesn't qualify as a reboot so much as a remake. And WotC, or whoever holds the AD&D license now, would insist on using 4e rules which would change the flavor of the game entirely...

Dungeon Keeper would be a fantastic game to see re-imagined. Eye of the Beholder. I'd enjoy seeing what some of the darker personalities of the world could do with the Warcraft lore, given the chance. Space simulations need to come back -- picked up FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2 at Good Old Games (http://www.gog.com) and loved 'em; they're made even better with the FreeSpace Source Code Project created by the source code release by Volition. (Hm, have they already been rebooted, or just remade? There are several new campaigns...)

Wing Commander would be awesome to see revived. Ultima would be a fantastic series to see reimagined, especially the first three (which I never liked all that much due to the space portions). RIP Origin. :|

Doesn't this give broadband companies a vested interest in ensuring that botnets stay active?

How do they plan on resolving situations where the traffic isn't requested by the customer? I understand that mobile phones charge the owner of the phone for an incoming call, but even mobile companies have started moving away from that model.

Do they plan on giving us a breakdown of our usage? If so, I'd like to see what kind of breakdown they'll provide. Phone companies have to provide a listing of the numbers and the charges for each.

The comments about Steam are true though. I recently reformatted and reinstalled my Steam collection. I downloaded over 80Gb in three days without realizing it.