If the Omaha World-Herald were to shut down tomorrow, I'd still get all the local news I need from KETV, WOWT, KMTV, or KPTM. And if the TV stations set up a subscription model on their respective websites, I'd still be able to watch the 6 o'clock news for free over the air. In fact, it might prompt them to add more local news programming to take up the slack. There would be no incentive for me to pay a dime for local news when I can get it for free.

I agree with you that The Dark Knight and The Matrix Reloaded put a spin on what we normally consider summer blockbusters, with the added consideration that they were able to do that because they were successful sequels of successful movies. The playbook was wide open for the creative development in those two franchises because people knew who the characters were and what the story was about. Watchmen tried to go straight to step 2, and in terms of looking for box office numbers that's where things went wrong. A three hour R-rated movie with multiple narratives in a genre where the norm is a two hour PG-13 movie with a clear plot made the IP a tough, tough sell.

That said, I am looking forward to picking up the Blu-Ray when it comes out.

I'm in that boat too. The only other games I played on the PSP that weren't remakes of Final Fantasy games I beat to death years ago in high school were Crisis Core and Jeanne d'Arc. My PSP has been collecting dust for some time now and it's sad because it's not a bad piece of hardware as far as handheld consoles go.

The less attention you guys personally give him, the more neglected he'll feel and the less of an attention whore he might become.

Or he'll step up his efforts and when there are no sane people to keep his outlandish behavior in check, he'll be one step closer to getting his way. Jack Thompson isn't some anonymous coward you can filter out of a discussion thread just because you think he's a troll - as long as he's loud enough to get legislation on the table for discussion, he's somebody you need to keep an eye on.

I feel sorry for the "average student" who paid $60 for Office. I paid $15 for Office Enterprise 2007 through my school...

No, but in Los Angeles, the Trojans exploit YOU!

Dude, I'd totally buy that game.

But I see this said a lot by mostly USA gamers, who seem to have huge problems of insecurity as soon as sth could remotely make them labeled as gay. So I see lots of these comments, and it's fascinating to read, because I just can't understand where is this coming from.

Well, applying the American mindset to a Japanese protagonist probably isn't the smartest thing to do in the first place. I certainly don't see them as gay, but I grew up watching TV shows where the heroes were supremely confident and completely muscle-bound, square jaw, scars, and what have you. Probably why I still get a kick out of guys like Vin Diesel even though his net cultural contribution is minimal at best. Seeing slender protagonists like Squall moping about when he could be whooping somebody's ass flies in the face of everything I learned the first 15 years of my life. :)

FFIX was good. That's it, just good. I enjoyed it when it came out ten years ago, but I didn't enjoy it enough to want to play through it again. The music was generic and I couldn't tell you the first thing of what the game was about unless I looked it up first. My imported SNES copy of Final Fantasy V sees more action than the copy of FFIX I have collecting dust on the shelf at home.

Also, am I the only person who legitimately enjoyed FFVIII?

I was impressed by what I saw. The series has been on a downward slide for me since FFIX, but after watching the demo I think I'm ready to jump back into the pool again. I plan on importing this if it gets released on time in Japan, as I'll actually be over there when it gets released here.

One comment though, any other Japanese speakers notice the manner Lightning was speaking in? After years of male protagonists who could get mistaken as chicks, now we have a female protagonist who talks like a dude. For once I'd like to see a protagonist with no sexual identity issues and no antisocial behavior. Is that even possible anymore?

Your mom totally digs my meatsword.

It's actually more of a meatclaymore, but let's not get bogged down in the details.

That they actually listened to public opinion.

More like they tried to pull a fast one on their service areas and got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. If anything, this should make you more alert to sudden changes in their pricing structure - not more confident in them.

The Appalachian Mountains may look pretty, but a large survey from the Centers for Disease Control found those who live around them tend to be more prone to emotional problems.

Looks aren't everything. You know why Nebraska is the happiest state? It isn't because you can throw a rock and hit an ear of corn, or drive outside of the Omaha/Lincoln areas and see nothing but flat fields for miles on end. This place is uglier than sin for the most part (save for a few choice spots like the Black Elk-Neihardt Park on top of the hill in Blair, for example), and the weather ranges from stupidly hot in July to inhospitably cold in January.

But you know what? The economy is stable. Nobody's given up their football tickets. Companies are gonna need call centers. It doesn't cost an arm and a leg to live in the city. The most crime-ridden spots in Omaha are a fucking day care center compared to other cities. It doesn't surprise me at all when TFA says that Midwestern states are ranked up there with Hawaii.

His first point is you can use it with FF and Safari. Nice, but not a really big deal to most admins.

For sysadmins who want their users to stick with Firefox or something else not named Internet Explorer, an improvement to OWA may not be a huge deal but it's still nice. OWA on alternative browsers blows pretty hard. It works, but it blows.

Look at it this way, do you want to give people more reasons to stick with IE?

Well since Internet Explorer 7 doesn't run on Windows 2000 either, ditching Firefox for IE would be at least a step back for the user. Mozilla should be using this decision as an opportunity to educate users on how operating systems get old and fall out of the scope of support at their ISP, OEM, and what have you.