Ah yes, I have heard of, but never seen one. I do recall around that time playing one called Space Wars or similar, but it vanished quickly and never saw another.

Pong showed up in about half the taverns in town at about the same time, as well as malls, pinball arcades, and bowling alleys. They were everywhere for a short time, and then came Space Invaders, and Pong vanished almost overnight until it was resurrected in the early gaming systems.

  I had a Tabletop Tennis (Pong clone that only did pong variations ) system that could play about 10 different 'courts' in glorious black and white. And the early Intellivision and Colicovision systems all had Pong clones as well.

It's pretty popular in the U.S. too, and while not without risk, that risk is pretty close to zero.

It has a VPN button on it, so if you have a VPN client it can tap right in. But it is no less safe than Bittorrent. And that is very popular here as well. We are not quite the police state yet, regardless of what you may of heard.

"the space between the ears of media executives, their lawyers, and the judges and lawmakers in their pockets is bigger.. even more vast than the empiness of space itself."

So their heads are like the Tardis....this explains a lot. Too bad it wasn't filled with intelligence instead of being a vast desert.

It's reputation is Netflix for pirates.
It's great, slick, intuitive interface, great selection of mostly good quality torrents.

It is so slick I would wager a lot of users have no idea it is basically a bitorrent client that downloads a copy of the movie to your HDD and shares it. It looks very professional. It looks like a Netflix variation, much like my smart TVs and Bluray players all have a different Netflix interface. It has a logo that looks polished and very commercial. Their forums are a disaster for trying to find information when something doesn't work right. Earlier in the year they changed cover providers and the temporary bugfix was posted in a comment (not stickied or prominent in any way) and was a bitch to find as it wasn't repeated in any other thread on the topic.

It looks legitimate enough that at least two people I know were astounded when they found out they were 'gasp!' pirating movies 'gasp!' I work on most of my friends computers although I don't work in the industry.

I occasionally find a specific file that just won't work properly or dies in the middle, but it mostly just works.
Series updates can be spotty, Some shows can be weeks behind but others seem to update within hours of broadcast.

A quick mention when you open it that it may not comply with laws in your region that nobody seems to notice. It's great for stuff that isn't on Netflix.

Sorry man, It is sometimes difficult to know how to describe something to an international audience who may or may not be familiar with the subject. I know there is a large difference between the types of large trucks in Europe and America. And not everyone is familiar with the types in other countries.
"Articulated Lorry," that the other poster used was just something that unfortunately, never crossed my mind.

Probably should of just linked to a photo!

 

A friend of mine who worked on a tavern cleaning crew called me and told me to come to work with him one night. When we got to the tavern, he showed me this big box with a TV screen and two large knobs. Pong was completely unlike anything anyone had seen before. During business hours there would be a continuous line waiting to play it.

It may seem quaint now, but at the time it was truly revolutionary, as was Space Invaders and Asteroids which soon followed. To us, they were much cooler than the pin-ball machines we played at the time, after all they were something completely new.

Yes I was born in B.C. (Before Cellphones) and my kids were born in A.D. (After Direct TV).

I shall add to your anecdote.

I had a 22" Visio mounted in my Freightliner, (large American style tractor-trailer for those unfamiliar) it survived 7 years of vibration, hard shocks (potholes, bad roads), dust, moisture and extremes in temperatures. I used it another year after I retired and then gave it to my son. He sold it after buying a new TV about a year later.

The only two problems it ever had were:
1: about three years after I put it in the truck, a large capacitor came unglued from the board and broke its connection. I re-soldered it in the back while my student drove. (the ultimate mobile TV repair?)

2: at the six year mark, it developed a yellowish discoloration at the bottom center of the screen. It was only noticeable when viewed from an angle or from strait on if it was displaying a blank screen. It was difficult to see strait on with anything moving on the screen (DVD, computer game).

I was very impressed with its performance as it lived through total hellish abuse and continued to function for years afterward. It may even still be working. I certainly wouldn't be surprised!

You missed the most important reason of all!

It is just plain FUN to play around in a salvage yard. And you occasionally come across odd and unique parts.

I had a mid/high Asus that lived a horrible life of vibration, dust, extremes in temperature and general abuse as it lived on a RAM swing-arm in my semi.
it ran 24/7 for 6 years.

During my shift, it was next to my seat as a GPS/music source (wired into the truck sound system which was actually pretty good) and off shift it was hooked to a 22 inch HDTV in the back for movies, games and GPS monitoring of my student while I slept so I could instantly see where we were anytime I woke up.

It was a marvelous computer that stood up to a metric shit ton of abuse while being a decent gaming rig as well.

I retired and the computer died about 8 months later, I think it missed the abuse.

 

Yeah, we voted down that stupid 25% tax, as it was imposed without voter approval, and retail stores are popping up all over.
  The medical is still a better deal, but the retail is frequently $8 a gm. At least here on the eastern side of the state.
And the quality of the retail is approaching that of the medical. Only thing is it has to be pre-packaged on retail so you don't get to handle and smell it like you do the bulk jars in the medical side.
Medical still has the best oils though.

And the 4/20 sales are great, along with 'shatterday' 1/2 price oils, Manic Monday ounce sales and so on....
Rivers, Streams, Mountains, Lakes.....and legal weed, Washington is great!

...came the Lexx, to our dark universe of evil and depravity, destroying the twin worlds of Fire and Water.

Hell, at the price he suggested, you could throw in a small compressor, basic air tools (Harbor Freight or similar, not Matco or SnapOn), engine stand (nothing better to rebuild on!) and an inexpensive parts washer (my total was around $875 US.) in addition to the 'cherry picker' engine hoist.

Pulling the engine in my '95 'Vette was kind of a bitch, (that is one HEAVY and awkward fucking hood to remove solo!!!) but she's always a bitch, and I love her regardless.

"Who is that little green man?"

Jebediah Kerman?

Yes, you are most certainly correct. I merely addressed the use of the current slang meaning of 1% to be a proper response to an American op-ed piece.

As to the rich causing it, only to the extent of resisting efforts to clean sources of pollution would I lay a heavier burden on 'the rich,' due to their outsized effect on politics and ownership of the sources of (industrial, not individual) pollution.

It took force to remove lead from gasoline, but if you lived near Los Angeles in the 1960's, you know it helped a lot! It was never Beijing, but it was close. And it was opposed heavily at the time.
It took force to clean up industrial smokestacks, which at the time were seen as symbols of prosperity and success, while polluting the landscape.
On an individual basis, we now likely pollute more than our industries, and like our industries, it will take force to change.

And I am as bad as anyone. I extensively recycle, reuse and re-purpose, while viewing cars more as 'toys' than transportation. Therefore, I am a hypocrite, who will hold on to his 'Vette 'till they pry my cold, dead fingers from the wheel and shifter....