That's when you call Big Jim Slade.

This is also why such a complaint is strange coming from Strauss. In *his* rebels-vs-evil-despots novel the rebels find a insta-cloning machine and in the last four pages of the book make enough copies of themselves to assure total victory. Brilliant use of science and storytelling there.

It's something that should have been set up long ago. If I'm playing an online FPS I can always play with people I know IRL. The friends I have who play WoW are all on different servers; what good is Massive Multiplayer in that case?

"...is the Online Auction Tracking System" previously used to prevent piracy of online FPS titles, software pirates have come to fear Quakers' OATS.

I read slate regularly and this guy's headlines have gotten on my nerves. I see three or four of them each week sucking up to the latest features being developed by Google and Facebook. After I read a couple it became clear that not only does he not have an inkling of what goes into the tech to make it successful he never delves into alternatives. It's as though he, and anyone reading his vapid column, has no use for a computer other than as a social networking box. Maybe this is appropriate for a 'culture site' like Slate but I'd rather go there for politics and find my technology analysis elsewhere.