Steam's current setup is that you can disable automatic updates on a per-game basis, however, only until you try to play it next at which time it forces the update on you. You can run in offline mode for up to 6 months, losing a huge chunk of Steam/some games in the process, but after 6 months you have to go online to re-validate your DRM and bam - updates.

Besides, how is it my fault that I purchased a bunch of games under one set of terms (including the ability to re-download) then having the terms arbitrarily changed to a set of terms I would never have purchased under? It's a bait and switch scam.

Actually, in my case I didn't even get a chance to download it. I purchased a game December 3rd, sometime between now and then it was delisted, when I went to download it less than 60 days after purchase it was no longer possible.

Except the car is under my control. XBL games are not. They limit your ability to perform backups (no drives larger than 32GB), ban your console if you try to install a larger HDD, etc. For 9 years you always had the ability to go back and re-download the content, that was the understanding when you purchased the item. Then suddenly they change the terms so that's no longer the case?

I would need 8 Xboxes or 63 USB drives to backup my content.

Yes, buy them from the likes of Microsoft who, after 9 years, changed their Xbox policy so that once you delete local content of a delisted game, you lose that content. They made no announcement, gave no notice of games being delisted, just changed their polices and screwed over their customers.

Or from Steam, who forces patches on you that can completely change the product you purchased. Bought a GFWL game? It's now a Steam Edition game.

Or Origins... *giggles*

They're all just as bad as the other because no one is willing to put up the money to fight them.

I completely agree. What hasn't happened is someone in politics being publicly humiliated by information that big data has collected. It'll happen and it'll be the fault of someone like Google. That will change things.

This. Something major like this will happen long before it gets to the point Eric suggests and governments worldwide will come down hard. Chinese "code security audits" will be just the start.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt41...

TSI isn't fighting it - they just said get a court order and pay our costs (as they should). The fight is up to the Does.

The comment wasn't anything more than a lighthearted anecdote. No I do not believe things are black and white.

For personal use I buy 2 drives a year typically at no more than CDN$37.50/TB. I always retire a drive when I add a new one though to keep upkeep costs down.

I can't tell if you think I'm actually archiving Linux distros or not. Lately I've been finding it hard to find certain "distros" and when I do they're HC with NL/swede/asian scripts. Especially older/less popular ones. The latest greatest stuff is super easy to find that's for sure, but even that is starting to thin... I mean how is Cordelia Chase's latest "linux ISO" not everywhere by now.

LOL - nice one.

What can I say, between my STEAMy addiction, my "linux ISO" habit, and my xmas archive there's just not enough storage let alone backup storage.

Ya... my last drive purchase took me 6 days to fill. It was a 3TB drive.

Besides, who has free storage space!?

That's true, however, your standard hard plastic is ideal for run of the mill superglue. The harder plastics used in latch mechanisms like that will almost always leave a clean striated surface when they break. That is easily bondable (unless it was sheared off) and unless the glue you're using melts/softens at low temperatures it's an ideal fix. If it were a softer plastic, like that found in plastic gears, I wouldn't have recommended it.