You can use the Thunderbolt ports to drive external displays, as they are compatible with Apple's previous Mini Displayport connectors. Besides, it's not as if the machine has become useless because there are no other TB devices to connect. Somebody has to be the first to implement TB, if there were harddrives available with TB ports before computers, you'd complain about the same thing because there is nothing to connect it to.

Apple did almost the same thing when USB came out, by being the first to build legacy-free machines with only USB connectors, doing away with serial and parallel ports. That worked out nicely too. And this time, they *did* include USB *and* FW even, so you still have plenty of options.

It's not just Sony doing this. EA sells these "online passes" for $10 too, for example to 2nd hand buyers of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. It is not just annoying for the used game market, but it also makes it harder to return a new game to the store if you don't like it. I have the luck that the people in my local game shop know me and trust me when i say i didn't enter the key of the supplied online pass, but i might not be so lucky if i buy it at another store. EA could have used a layer of that silver scratch-off stuff, but they don't. It makes me more careful when buying games, which in the end results in me buying less games.

Didn't know that Microsoft makes computers. But you are aware that most people who don't understand computers, use Windows, right? "Oh, perhaps the printer didn't hear me. I'll just hit the print button again."

Microsoft en Sony have done exactly the same with their game consoles and their respective shops, marketplaces, whatever, yet nobody ever complains about that. Why is that?

Paypal has a bank license in the EU, so yes, they did have to mess with bank regulations.

He is right though. 12 bit alpha channels in audio files is where the future's at. It provides more granular control of deciding what background noise in the customer's home you can hear through the music. Well worth the upgrade.

Pacman has had no influence or side effects on people whatsoever. If it did, then people playing it in the 80s would now be moving around in black rooms, listening to monotonous electronic music, swallowing white pills, wouldn't they?

No, they'll pirate the finished version instead. I'm not sure i get your point.

Neither was MS, before the first Xbox. Neither was Sony, before the first PlayStation.

Wot, and Nintendo, MS and Sony *do* allow this? Ask geohot about his experiences with that.

There is no difference between public and private addresses technically, it's just an agreement that we are allowed to use 10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x and 172.16.x.x inside our own networks and don't route these ranges to the outside. Even if you have a public address from your provider, you still have a gateway.

My provider sells "access to Internet", not "Internet".

AVM's FritzBox 7370 (i believe) is deployed by dutch provider Xs4all to provide IPv6 to endusers. Now if only they could deliver speeds above 4Mbps in my city (only the 3rd city of the country), i would seriously consider staying with them.

Yeah, i remember buying a light kit for the GBA screen (which came without any lighting whatsoever), and i believe it came with a special screwdriver to open the GBA. Some weird triangular thingy, if memory serves me well.

Ah ok, didn't know the sales tax was that low in the US. Over here in the Netherlands, this tax is 19%, but this is included in the price. Without this tax, it would cost about $308.

AFAIK, US prices don't include sales tax, while European prices do, so add 20% or so to the US price before you start comparing it. But this still brings the price difference to $60 or so.

Uh, several of these ddos attacks (at least in the Netherlands, where the police and government sites were being ddos'ed by teenagers) were made using LOIC, a piece of software that people install *voluntarily* to aid this kind of attacks. I'm not sure you can call these machines "infected", since the software has to be installed manually, and doesn't spread on its own like most botnet-malware. While i do not approve of that kind of software, i would not want an OS that cleans my system of software that i install myself, with or without asking.