It wasn't just 'dumping' that they are being investigated for. They were preventing AMD from entering markets through condition-based incentives; i.e. 'I will give you {discounts,rebates} if you don't sell product from {AMD,other competition}.' It is fairly hard to compete in a market that refuses to let you in.

You are mixing up 'programmer' and 'computer scientist'. They aren't necessarily one and the same. Computer science is largely the mathematics of computing, it just so happens that to physically show it often one has to write code to do it. This doesn't mean that everyone who writes code automatically is a CS major/graduate.

As an aside, you could also argue that programmers should have a good grasp on design patterns, requirements, planning, etc... Which seems to fall under the title of software engineer now. My CS department to date has required me to take a single SE course since I've been here and it'll be the only one I'll take.

'Programmer' is too vague a description, as it is just one who programs, regardless of how they learned, why they are programming, what they are programming, etc... It could be someone writing Lisp for their Masters/PhD research, some web designer writing javascript for their new website, or a CE/EE writing assembler for a new driver/BIOS for hardware.

This was a city looking at what was best for the residents. It went asked area ISPs for upgrades, due to many residents complaining of high prices and poor service. What do you suggest they should have done instead? "Sorry, not our problem?" They view internet connectivity as being nearly as important as water and electricity, and that sitting on their hands is doing a disservice to their residents. So they built up their own ISP. Do they have advantages due to being a city? Sure. Does TW and Embarq have advantages due to having near-monopolies and are already entrenched? Sure. The bean counting of the ISPs has cost them a city and hopefully they will learn from it.

So net neutrality and bandwidth caps/metering are both bad, but separate problems. I can buy that.

However, could the argument be made that Time Warner is attempting to meter/cap bandwidth in order to encourage customers to use TW cable vs. Hulu/Youtube/BT/etc... By enacting a price barrier, isn't TW indirectly prioritizing data? Wouldn't this now sort of be considered a Net Neutrality issue?

Please, correct me if I'm wrong, there is still more blood than Steaz in my system at this point.

If they are never used in the course, why buy them in the first place? I usually refrain from purchasing any textbooks until the ... second week or so once I know what I actually need. Some courses actually require a textbook (in class work, homework) and others don't really need it at all. The number of computer science books I have bought in the last 3 years is fairly small compared to the number of computer science classes I've taken.

Adding to this, campus 'security' at UMass Amherst is a State Police barracks, fully equipped to handle any silly riot that ZooMass will come up with this time. Mind you, the 'real' state cops will make fun of the university state cops, but that doesn't mean they aren't real cops. Just means they have more of a chip on their shoulder and are fully ready to take it out on you.

Not completely on topic, but something I'd like to add to this. When I purchase things, usually of the food variety, I check to see where it originates from. I try to avoid purchasing things like, apples from china, oranges from brazil, etc... mainly because of the transportation costs associated with such an operation. I am in inadvertently 'Buy(ing) American', but really aiming to buy local products. I am by no means saying that people should or do purchase cars based on locality, just that some types of products lend themselves more to this type of purchase.

I can think of few RPGs (regular or MMO) where money is not an issue (for at least part of the game). From Final Fantasy VII to Everquest, Disgaea to EvE, Neverwinter Nights to WoW... All require money in some way. Some of them require more grinding than others. Investing time to improve your character(s) is just part of the genre.

As for partaking in the 'game's economy', in the case of an MMO, this is sort of required. Once you start playing a game that involves multiple people and gives some semblance of choice(items,equipment, etc), an economy is created. It isn't just in MMOs either, trading card games, tabletop miniatures, etc... There will always be 'better' cards, pieces, equipment... People will value said items differently... It just comes with playing such games.

Yes, why did you do that? Speaking of the AI X-Ray vision problem... the Farsight sort of makes that valid.

How about max NPCs, all turtle sims, with mainly shield drops. Talk about being rocket proof.

Reminds me of the 'dark sims' in Perfect Dark for N64. A dark sim would already have a shot lined up and ready to fire as it is rounding a corner. Mind you, the description of the bot included something along the lines of "isn't human, can do things humans can't".

Great game as well.

Don't forget playgrounds made of metal and concrete, lawn darts, and tree forts. I remember, for one of my early birthdays, getting a hand saw as a gift... Used it for making tree forts, cutting off branches, and generally being desctructive...