I don't even think Microsoft looks at the events they sponsor. I can't tell you how many tech events I've been to where Microsoft was listed as a "Gold" sponsor. The last few were small ones in a 100 person conference room and nobody from Microsoft was even there. They just paid the x number of dollars to get their name listed as a sponsor for the event. What is $20,000 to a company that charges $30,000 for a single-processor edition of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise?

Obligatory Penny Arcade comic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11

Ok, so what would happen if there were no default option. Before people could use the browser, a box would pop up on first run and ask the users if they wanted to be tracked or not. How many people do you think would choose to allow it? My guess would be a number near zero so I'm all for Microsoft streamlining this process and just turning it off by default. If you really want to be tracked just go ahead and turn it on.

Of course, I don't actually use IE myself, but I appreciate the effort on behalf of my parents, aunts, uncles, etc.

If you pre-order the game you get access to all beta events. You could just pre-order then cancel if you don't like it. Most places will provide a full refund on a pre-order as long as you cancel before the game is actually released.

...or just play the original Guild Wars. It's only 30 bucks for the 3 games (Original, Factions, Nightfall) and the Expansion (Eye of the North). Of course the second game plays nothing like the first, but it will give you a good background of the story and background of Tyria.

Governments who make purchases using public funds (i.e. tax dollars) are usually required to go through some purchasing process which generally makes them choose the vendor that meets their minimum requirements and has the lowest price. In this case I would say the whole "not affiliated with nuclear weapons development" rule is probably one of these minimum requirements.

I think this might be the study he was talking about (percentages are slightly different, but close). It does say the reason why the values don't add up to 100 is because some people have multiple tablets but I agree, this does seem kind of high. It may be because people don't tend to toss/sell their old tablet when they buy their new one. I know my dad still has his original iPad even though he already bought a new iPad3.

I don't think that would work. The reason people bot is to get gold and loot which, thanks to Blizzard, they can now sell for real money. People who bot aren't going to buy any of that stuff, only legitimate players with far too much money on their hands.

By the way, does anyone else think this real money auction house has the potential to be used for money laundering? I mean once the money has been "converted" to gold, I doubt it is tracked all that well. Maybe I'm just paranoid?

I'd like to think so. Here in Canada Best Buy hasn't been around that long but Future Shop (which is now owned by the same company) has, and they have been treating customers like crap for decades. As a result, a lot of people started going to the computer shop which used to be just up the street from my place. In fact, so many people started going there that they opened a new location. Then they opened another, and another. Now they have 14 locations in BC and Ontario as well as website where you can buy any of their products online, or check stock quantities if you prefer and in-store purchase.