I can see that they'd want to make sure they are still driving the storyline in whatever direction they want it to go...on the other hand, given the costs of developing RPGs (in particular), with an obviously interested fanbase who'd buy something like this, it seems like they're missing an opportunity to get together with the people developing this and put it out on the DS or whatever. IIRC, there was a fan-based mod of Half Life which went on to be sold as a standalone game in its own right (can't remember the name -- like a western in space or something).

While I have no problem with capitalism -- or being part of a Ponzi scheme if they want to be -- consider this: almost all companies have a guy (or set of guys) at the top who make the most money. They have people working for them in progressively lower responsibility and lower-paying positions until you get to the guy at the bottom who does the most work and makes the least amount of money. Ponzi schemes need more "investors" while businesses need more "market share." People are promised more wealth if they can find new people to be part of the scheme, while workers in a company are promises more money and chances for advancement if they do well (never mind the fact that there are only a limited number of slots above, which are often filled based on personal factors, not merit). Just something to consider...

I once had to write code while sitting next to a massive injection molding machine, where the temperature was probably 110 degrees inside (surprised the computers worked), a blow-off air jet going nonstop on the other side and the plant manager coming out about every three minutes wanting to know why things weren't done yet. Job lasted about two weeks of pure fun.

You're right. I didn't want to be in school, however since we live in a "free"* country, government enforcers made me attend so tax-funded bureaucrats in my local school district would be able to keep their educational budgets intact even while making do such rudimentary things as coloring maps in a CP-level History Class or trying to learn German from the woman who'd been the Spanish teacher the year before. I found it was far more effective to pursue an education by exploring on my own, coupled with finding mentors who knew a great deal about certain subjects. Maybe that sounds elitist, but the same path is open to anyone with a little curiousity about the world. Crazy idea, I know, not wanting to use tax dollars taken from other people for my own benefit.

NASA actually needs to start moving more into the public eye and pop culture again. The general public won't care about space exploration until there's a joint mission with Britney Spears and Dale Jr. onboard (I'll wait for the obligatory Challenger-type jokes). Otherwise, people will go "WTF are we spending money on space for?" I'm no fan of government spending for anything, as it involves confiscated taxes, but at least space exploration might lead to some real progress again.

Let's see...people back in the 90s bitched about having rationed access, so companies got rid of it and went to unlimited use because their competition was. How long is it going to take a competitor to again figure out they can have all the business they can handle if they don't charge for volume?

That's an excellent point...I'm in my late 30s, grew up around computers and electronics, too, so I think you're probably right. The problem is still that some people look at information exchange and propagation and see nothing but $$$, like those aholes who try to make money off of freeware or think of the worst cockamamie schemes to extract dollars from people. One thing that gives me a lot of hope is the growth of social computing, like Facebook, which I see as leading the general public to being fully interconnected, something which can't happen unless the DRM/IP issues start going away. They will see obstacles put in their path and then demand to know why those obstacles have been placed there and more people will start questioning why we have DRM/IP. A couple of years ago, I had a conversation with an acquaintance who's basically stereotypical hillbilly auto mechanic. He'd figured out how to hack his hardware to record "copy protected" DVDs. It's when the mindset that it's possible to do something like that and the will to do it spreads that we will see the end of our current broken system, not when "IP" holders dribble a little free content out now and then or we have a few philosophers make arcane aguments over the morality of bottling up information.

It worries me when the free flow of political and economic information is going to start becoming the newest IP/DRM battleground because people who produce information simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that information is now cheaply and easily reproducible and their old business models are defunct. All sorts of de facto censorship could very easily occur now under the guide of "protecting their business," especially given the tight mingling of media companies, the government, banks, etc.

Back before helicopters were successfully demonstrated, people dismissed the idea, saying basically they violated the laws of physics, too...

int totalCongressionalIQ = congressAPI.Stats.TotalIQ; Likely error: Cannot convert null to int because it is a non-nullable type.

I picked up Empire: Total War yesterday and didn't notice the little text, in about 6 point type on the back that said the product was activated through Steam, you needed a Steam account to activate the product and that if you didn't want to abide by the policies to return it to the store unopened. Yeah, sure, Steam works pretty well, but I hate the idea that I have to rely on something out of my control to make a product work. I don't like the fact either that they basically try to hide that info and only stick it on the side of the box because they are either legally required to or figured it would be a good idea to avoid a lawsuit.

...with such scents as "Dagobah Evenings," "Cantina Musk," and "Allure of the Dark Side"...

Why does anyone think a Net Neutrality bill wouldn't come with a couple of hundred billion more in spending for special interests, some new regulations mandating national content filtering, maybe even taxing E-mail and so on...just sayin'..