But free-to-p[l]ay gaming is also becoming a serious contender. It solves the problem of gamers who won't buy a game without a demo, it solves the problem of having an adequate online player base, and it solves the problem of gamers who simply won't buy games but who might buy the occasional piece of DLC.

The truth is that Gamestop guaranteed their eventual nonexistence when they dropped games for old consoles. I get that they can't stock everything, but it eliminated my reasons to go in there. I can get all the same stuff cheaper somewhere else, and I can get a lot of stuff that they can't (or won't) get. Since I don't really need a $200+ headset, I'm not sure what I'd go in there for anyway.+

In theory, that's true. In practice, that's false.

You might consider giving Garmin some money, then. They have a product with offline maps which apparently lets you buy map data and indeed basic functionality piecemeal. It's a dollar right now, but it's supposed to remain cheap. I guess they are or were also offering deals on content. Linked article complains about spending a hundred bucks, but if that were lifetime that would be well worth it. The big problem with buying a Garmin GPS is that the hardware pretty well sucks unless you spend a lot, and your updates are tied to the device so you could get into a situation where you're motivated to give them money to repair a device that was kind of lame (hardware-wise) when you bought it. But if I can take their app to a new phone when I upgrade, then I can let that unit go to a friend and just use my phone, which has a much nicer screen overall. In particular, text input on my Garmin is horrible. I forget what model it is ATM or I'd include that info. Suffice to say it was a cheap refurb.

Well, there were really two reasons why it died. First, it required a windows machine to run, and until recently none of them have really been that nice to use in the car. You need a combination of battery life (in case you forget the charger, you won't be able to get another cheaply and you're depending on this thing, remember?) and form factor that just wasn't there. Second, even when it was brand new it was out of date, so why buy it new? If you bought one a year old you could get it for $20 with the GPS dongle. If they had actually put in the effort necessary to keep it up-to-date, then I'd have paid for it when it came out, rather than when it got old. I've bought it twice now, a couple years old both times. It would fall on its ass anywhere around new construction, but it was pretty sweet for route planning and it was a cheap way to get an adequate GPS dongle.

I also bought Delorme's software a couple years aged on the same basis. It was better at turn-by-turn but the interface was atrocious and that made it worse at everything else. The GPS dongle is bright yellow, so I suggest the Microsoft package instead. Either one is adequate as a time source :)

Too bad Microsoft didn't have any synchronization between their automotive platform and streets and trips. If you could plot a route on your PC and then load it into your car (why isn't the key also a USB key?) then both Microsoft automotive bullshit and S&T might have received a boost.

Well, to be fair, Libertarians also often suggest the dissolution of borders. Everything which was not necessary for the function of the minimally-sized government would be private property, and you could sell it to anyone you liked. But they'd be motivated not to move to certain places because they'd be exposed to prejudice; under such a system, you cannot be forced to trade with someone. It's a sort of choose-your-own-feudalism-adventure.

Don't be. If it is ever decided that thou shalt be tracked, they will simply install Accelerometer/GPS-based black boxes in all of the vehicles, and your engine will be irrelevant. They'll know how you were driving, and when you were doing it.

Yep. Anything which is mandatory and not fully transparent is guaranteed to be a scam.

It only hasn't killed anyone in this country due to luck. We have the same shitty reactors as Fukushima, sitting on fault lines and so on, with spent fuel sitting around in pools dependent on backup power which is on-site. Only the Tsunami risk is absent, but a big enough 'quake will do the job and is feasible at a number of sites.

I am for it in places which seem to be able to manage it, and not in places which are just piling up their waste and finding more and more excuses for not dealing with it.

I only care about the number of people killed by plane crashes, less the number of people killed in plane crashes. You can choose whether or not to get on a plane.

Yes, and how are they doing that? Because you're using easily-tapped electronic forms of communication. If you were sending your messages via sealed scroll (presumably with something more modern than wax) you might have greater informational security. And indeed, when corporations or even simply savvy humans want to communicate, that's precisely what they do. The data gets bundled up and handed to a courier, and if security is sufficiently important, they will literally drive it to the airport, get on the plane with it, take it to another country, and hand-deliver it so that you have a reasonable expectation that there has been no eavesdropping.

Or, you know, you could just use encryption. But they'll still gather metadata. But then, they can do that regarding the travel related to your package. There's always going to be some kind of wrapper, even if the only one they get to read is your itinerary, gathered retroactively.

Move out of the country, become a citizen of another nation (tricky if there's not a baby on the way) and renounce your US citizenship. Then, don't use electronic communications :)

You only know if you get to see their code, and/or if they are a public figure.

I cracked open my wallet and spent $150 on a unit with lifetime traffic and maps. It was last year's. Might have been a good idea to spend another $50 and get a slightly more optioned one, but there it is. It's not even necessary to spend $300. Cheaper is better, because the units are still fairly fragile — especially around the cable connection. You don't want to be financially motivated to actually be sending units in for repair.

If you even had a mother (we all know that anonymous cowards come out of lawyers' assholes) she would be aghast but probably not surprised at the emotional results of your tiny, shriveled member.

He didn't just fail to enforce due diligence, his intent was to sell the car to someone not entitled to buy it, so that he could get a judgement. You can borrow against owed debt. It's all a very well-known scam.

Yes, your job is to build and maintain those tiny robots. But that race to the bottom can only end at monkey with a stick.

Neal Stephenson had it right when he said Music, Movies, and Microcode. But the rest of the world will figure this stuff out eventually. It is adorable and charming watching them gradually zero in on our style.