Agreed. I've decided to get back into some older games such as Neverwinter Nights 1 and Unreal Tournament 2004 and have been surprised at just how much gaming value these two games have with regards to free, user-made content. NWN in particular has so many damn modules it's amazing how much gameplay you can get from a single game (yes there's obviously going to be crap in that list, but all you do is go to the NWVault, sort by popularity/top lists and the number of available modules ends up in your favour, since this also means there's so much good stuff too).

As for UT2004, the user-made mods and even the bonus packs from Epic, back when they didn't do the paid-DLC thin, is also a great example of what gaming life was like before paid-DLC was commonplace.

Not all mods are created equal. I've noticed that the majority of moderators on the Steam forums (at least the most active ones anyway) are total Valve fanboys who don't see anything Valve does as wrong, and some of them are also quite paranoid at leaving anything controversial open for discussion. Bans are not uncommon if you try to open discussion regarding taboo subjects such as piracy - they won't even bother reading the comment, they'll just ban first and not ask questions later.

We've got some real morons working in the security area of the gaming industry.

Maybe they can hire Steve Jobs. I hear he was the CEO of a pretty large company who left recently.

Oh damnit now I can't remember the name of that company! If only they were in the news more I'd remember them.

Yup. I think the Windows 7 one is superior to Vista in terms of recall speed as well, though I've never compared it to third-party desktop indexing software.

You have a 12TB file server? WTF are you putting on that thing, pirated content you'll never have enough time in your life to watch?

I should have clarified - I don't like how the iTunes store only sells AAC files. I know I can play them in other players (player of choice is Winamp), I just prefer having to deal with MP3, FLAC or in rare cases, OGG. I don't currently have any AAC files, and in keeping a known set of popular and open-source codecs I reduce the likelyhood of dealing with any issues down the track.

As for a portable media player, don't really use them anymore. I either listen to music on my media centre/main computer or burn then to a CD and play in my car, which lacks a USB port. For these reasons the space gained by other formats is not important.

Oh, and before anyone points out the obvious, the missing "at" between good and typing is more about a lack of proof-reading than typing skill. :)

I didn't even notice those dimples on the F/J keys until reading the summary. I've gone through life without noticing them on keyboards for some reason (or I either noticed them once but forgot about them). I'd still argue I'm a pretty good typing though. Shows how useless they are I guess.

I should have clarified - I don't like how the iTunes store only sells AAC files. I know I can play them in other players (player of choice in Winamp), I just prefer having to deal with MP3, FLAC or in rare cases, OGG. I don't currently have any AAC files, and in keeping a known set of popular and open-source codecs I reduce the likelyhood of dealing with any issues down the track

As for a portal media player, don't really use them anymore. I either listen to music on my media center/main computer or burn then to a CD and play in my car, which lacks a USB port. For these reasons the space gained by other formats is not important.

Well it was mainly a joke about the "big brother" bit. I do not wish to denigrate anyone - my mother is from New Zealand. We Aussies just like making fun of the NZ-ers every now and then (hence the famous "sheep" jokes with regards to the New Zealanders).

I'm currently on a bit of a "get legit" roll when it comes to my media. All my software is acquired legally via the net so that's OK, it's just stuff like movies and music that I still require an optical drive for. Why?

1. I like my music in FLAC format. There are very few digital music stores which sell in this format. My favourite by far is http://bandcamp.com/ but they don't have much mainstream/big-artist stuff.

2. Even if I didn't have a preference for FLAC, there aren't any legal digital music stores around which service my needs with at least a high-bitrate MP3. I don't want to use iTunes because I don't want to deal with AAC (I can convert them but I don't want a dependency on iTunes anyway). Amazon still hasn't, for whatever reason, opened an MP3 store here in Australia yet despite promising to open up to the world many years ago.

3. You can forget about any legit digital movie stores selling non-DRMed stuff either.

So what do I do? I buy music CDs and rip them to FLAC. I buy DVDs and use HandBrake to convert them, or just play them directly with VLC. Both of these cases require an optical drive, and until such a time occurs that physical sales of media are completely abolished, I will continue to do this. UNLESS... a suitable online store apears in my area which sells non-DRMed music AND video of what I want, in my preferred format. At this rate that's going to take a very long time (if ever), so I do what I can to stave off piracy.

If I were a Kiwi (slang for New Zealander in case you didn't know), this law would give me an additional impetus to begin searching for free/open-source/creative commons software and media for all my computing and entertainment needs. Sure, I'd buy stuff occasionally as well, but if I had to buy every single thing I was using which was pirated I'd be broke and seriously in debt. Much better to hunt out legally free software and media.

Having said that, I'm an Aussie (the bigger brother of the Kiwis) and it's a hobby for me to do this anyway even though we don't have such a draconian law. I suppose some others in NZ might find ways to get around it, but I don't see the point of risking it myself.

But I've always been told by the fanboys that Linux is inherently secure, right? So that's not possible.

A trojan startup file was added to the system start up scripts

But Linux has no viruses/trojans/malware, right?

BTW - if you can't take this as the light jabbing it's supposed to be without wanting to rip my spine out, turn the computer off and take a break. :)