It's actually not a diode, but rather new battery contacts that only make contact with either the positive or negative connection at either end (but not both). Simple, nothing new required but wiring and these new connectors, and nothing to get in the way of the function of the device. I'm actually mildly impressed.

Well, when you put it that way... :) It tends to be enough for us, either way. There's a good bit of content! It might not be what you thought you were looking for, but that doesn't mean it's bad either.

We dumped cable long ago. We have a netflix account, netflix online access for whats on there, which isn't tons, but it's not bad... as well as hulu for what they've got (lots of very current TV content). Presently get about 20 channels (or more? I'm not that sure) over the air. It's enough for us and the kids to have stuff to watch when it matters, and little enough that we don't spend days each week watching TV :) I might well sign up for this if it expands the library a bit, but it depends. Sounds like it could be a bargain compared to other options.

Yes, but it's not a big deal since you can just store it outside year round. Lower electrical and storage costs make up for slow sales.

I have one, I love it. Never use a touchpad, never use an external mouse, and even have an IBM travel keyboard very much like the one reviewed for my desktop.

Or maybe we do, in conjunction with raised speed limits on roads where such things are suitable. That would make me happy.

But you'll only be able to read them while online.

I was hit on the passenger side by an elderly fellow who claimed at the time of the accident he hit the wrong pedal and went through a stop sign. It happens :)
Not long after, he tried to blame it on me. His insurance people came out, took a look at the car, took a look at the photos I'd taken after the incident, and I never heard about it again.

Wash away the evidence? Yeah, so they are stealing stuff that is about to be destroyed... Worry about the looting AFTER the event.

I wish you luck :) I've not given up all hope yet either.

I tried REALLY hard to find a good way to contact ubi about silent hunter. I LOVE the silent hunter series, and I was ready and willing to buy it, but not with this DRM. I have every previous version of the game, all paid for. Silent Hunter 3 is the best, a brilliant, fun game that I've probably put several hundred hours into (a lot for me).

Anyway, I failed. The support email I found for them bounces. The people on the phone don't care. They are lost at sea.
My last attempt was emailing jaime.cottini@ubisoft.com, apparently someone who does PR. I figure this is a PR issue, or would be, if they cared what we thought. The full message follows. It was sent on March 23rd, 2010, and as yet I've received no response.

--

Hello Jaime, I hope this finds you well,
Yes, this is misdirected, although I'd paint it as a "public relations" issue. The further I go here, the more I come to the conclusion that ubisoft is terribly out of touch with their long standing customers and will only become more so with this path. I've been trying to get this message through... a message from someone who sees a good enjoyable game that is being stuck behind a wall, for over a month now. I've emailed (and had the mail rejected, from addresses I found on ubi's various sites) repeatedly. This morning, I tried again, with the same results. So I'm appealing to you, as one of the only addresses I can find and hoping this one doesn't bounce, to read this, and see what I have to say.

If you scroll down, you can see the initial email and my initial thoughts, as of this morning. This isn't terribly different from the message I've been trying to send for the last month (or more). But in trying to do so, I've come across what I see as a deeper issue... a complete lack of attention to what the paying customer actually wants.

No customer wants to require an internet connection to play a game. No customer wants to spend many hours trying to figure out how to relay their desires. It seems clear to me that ubi has lost sight of the customer, and no longer really cares about what they want. There are not many publishers left who I can feel comfortable buying from with DRM restrictions and attitudes like this. Maybe ubi can turn around, and maybe ubi can even turn the tide and set an example, to their own benefit , of what is possible.

I will wait and see. While I do not expect a response, I nevertheless would appreciate one.
--

That's amazing :) I wish you luck and strong pain meds. Also, RIT? Come to fosscon!

Not likely, yet.
Game publishers still think no one wants linux games, despite that fact that me and my wife spent the weekend looking for good linux games for her, mumbling the whole time about how we would be happy to pay for such a thing...
Fail. I think part of the issue is it's very hard to target "linux" with any sort of reliable, always working game. Granted, games on windows aren't always reliable and always working either, but publishers have more experience with it, and limiting to "XP, Vista, and Windows 7 (or these days, just the latter 2) is a realistic move they can make and still sell games for windows. I don't know if this would be true for linux.

I'll never forget the time I was playing with dragon (the speech recognition software), and it seemed to pick up an obsession for the word "orange"... Mall was orange. Bus was orange. Elephant was Eggplant, but that's a pointless tale for another time...
Meanwhile, speech recognition still fails, and google voice is just the worlds best demonstration of why :)