Here in Anchorage 3 mbit down 512 up DSL is over $100/month.

Nonono. I'm not claiming anything about "people" who distribute cracks. I'm saying that you are relying on the MOST sociopathic, immoral, uncaring bastard in the entire world who creates cracks. Somewhere out there is someone who just doesn't care. That's why lots of antipiracy (and the "just don't pirate" rhetoric) is flawed; when dealing with this many people you have to forecast behavior and your model has to account for outliers.

No. The problem is that you're not relying on the average person, or even most people, to be honest. You're relying on the most sociopathic immoral uncaring bastard of a cracker to refrain from cracking the game. That's destined to failure.

- no-one sane is advocating for removal of online authentication, which actually works - a basic check to keep people from simply copying CDs can be helpful Forget the people who torrent; they're too hard to stop.

On headphones (and replicating my headphones with speakers would cost thousands of dollars) I'm a bit afraid for my hearing unless I constantly adjust the volume with some music. Nonetheless, I do agree that overcompression modern-style is awful.

Depends on the music, personal taste, etcetera. I love Beethoven's 9, most Mozart, CPE Bach, Bach's organ stuff, Vivaldi, Grieg, and am trying others. Nonetheless, some musicians are just *bad* to me: all atmosphere and no music; it sounds like a theme for a movie in the non-musical almost sound-effects like sense (Stravinsky, Bartok, etc.). On the other hand, Philip Glass, who I sincerely expected to hate (minimalist just sounded horrible) I loved the second I heard. Delving down through what you do and don't like to find more stuff you do and expand your horizons takes effort.

you'd be *VERY* surprised at the difficulty of telling music apart. I've got decent headphones (AKG K81, they're certainly not high-end but they're better than what 98% of people use) and I had trouble telling 128 from flac last time I tried. My ears aren't bad - I can tell speaker quality in an instant and I can't stand the ipod buds / PC speakers most people use.

very true. Foobar 2000 has ABX included; you pick 2 files and it'll set them as A and B. It then gives you four buttons, clicking one plays the song: C D (one of these is A, one is B - randomized) E F (one of these is A, one is B - randomized) You then say "well, C is F, D is E", click a button and it mixes them up again and gives you another test. You can do (say) 10 or 20 tests fairly quickly to get some reliable results.

yeah, I really don't buy this. None of the people I know with iphones have jailbroken them either. They *don't buy the apps*. While it's heartbreaking to see massive numbers of pirated downloads, your game isn't worth four bucks to most. It may not even be worth the time of putting in a credit card number.

looks like it has a 236 watt TDP. so it needs a very hefty PSU, but nowhere near 650 watt, even with a fast quadcore.

I'm pretty sure you can see the diff on an HDTV sized screen. After all, 2560x1600 for a 30", and TV screens are 50+.. even granting the fact you sit further, I'm pretty sure the difference would be visible and useful for say desktop work.

I don't really need to say anything. The article cracked me up and I'm still laughing. It's a a giant 1984 joke which could have been written by the Onion.

Because you're saying we have to violate the contract just to have what we should have had already. This will only work as long as the DRM is really, really weak and worthless and in certain situations.

Most people don't have the knowledge to do that - especially people who buy that crap. It's more likely that it came with too little RAM to support all the crapware they stuffed on it, the machines ran horribly, and the computers were replaced as soon as their owners could afford it.

Fruit is a consumable. The RIAA is neither selling nor marketing the music in question as a consumable - big difference.