I seldom wish I had mod points (I almost never see anything worth modding up), but for you, I'd make an exception. Sarcasm at it's finest -- I salute you!

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I drank what?

If we're talking about a console that is defining where new consoles have to start and grow from, then I totally agree -- the Xbox 360 has set the bar for new systems in the coming decade.

The PS2, however, made owning a console for gaming mainstream. Of course, this also occurred at about the same time that those of us who grew up with (or knowing someone with) a console became adults (that sounds weird, doesn't it?) so it's a hard call as to which was more influential -- the PS2 or our expectations.

If you want to identify trend changers for the decade, I have to side slightly higher on the PS2 side. The Xbox 360, and to a lesser extent the Wii, with it's motion sensing apparatus and focus on non-traditional gamers, are definitely setting the stage for the future; but had the PS2 not been as popular and pervasive as it was, the Xbox 360 would never have seen the light of day -- high end gaming would have remained the province of the power-user computer owner, and not the run-of-the-mill joe sixpack wanting to do more with his TV.

The PS3 was a disappointment -- it's a beefed up PS2 with newer/better hardware, but is a study in failed promises (lack of ongoing PS2 support, etc.) and lost opportunities to change the landscape... The PS2 defined a landscape... the PS3 is riding in that same landscape, while the Xbox 360 is expanding it.

The PS2 set the console stage for 2000-2009. The next iteration of the Xbox, after considering the few things the Wii did right, will set the stage for 2010-2019. One could argue that it already does set that stage, but it's early enough I expect them to push the bar up soon, and that's what our children will be using as their measuring stick in 2020.

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I drank what?

I gotta concur with this line of thought... Win2k, at least after a service pack or two, was and in my mind still is, the moment when Microsoft actually produced something that was stable enough for the masses but powerful enough for the office. I'll admit that Microsoft never marketed it this way, and thus 9x and ME lasted longer than they should have, but...

For those who went to the trouble/expense of installing Windows 2000, and kept it current, XP was more or less ignored, until Win2k was finally put out to pasture.

From a marketing standpoint, I understand why Engadget chose XP -- it was the first time Microsoft openly pushed the consumer market towards a "modern" OS... but this was a marketing decision, and not a technological one, as 2000 was everything the home user needed in stability and compatibility before XP even existed.

We use Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 server editions at work, but I see no need to move from XP to 7 at home until games and home software solutions no longer support Windows XP. Even with MS's desire to put XP out to pasture at present, I don't expect to upgrade my home machines for at least another year...

Re the Mac, though, I do have to give OS X props... "Classic" macintosh OS's gave the power user practically no ability to push the system to its limits without installing buggy, unsupported, likely to crash on upgrade hacks... As a power user, I hesitate to comment on OS X as a "consumer" OS (other than to say my Mom likes it), but as a power user, I can easily say OS X blows away anything Apple did previously. For Apple hardware, it was a game changer, though I admit I didn't use it until 10.3 and later, so I can't really comment on the earlier versions. And the ability to use most (though not all) open source/linux software with minor to no code changes is amazing -- I no longer use Linux on anything that isn't a server or my netbook (due to drive and memory size).

Don't get me wrong -- I like the concept behind Linux, and I push for it for server solutions, but it is not a consumer OS... even with Ubuntu, with which i have a love/hate relationship with older hardware, it's not for the feint of heart. Most people want a system that just works... in that case, OS X (on Apple hardware) and Windows XP (though maybe 7 in the future) for intel/amd PC's. Ubuntu is fine, preinstalled... but on third hand hardware, cobbled together by hand, it's as buggy as Windows... and while a Power User can make Ubuntu work on said hardware, as a tech guy, I'd rather convince a non-power user to upgrade their hardware than spend the fruitless time it takes to cobble something together that works until they add something new or modify a system setting I told them to ignore... training people who don't "get it" isn't in my job description, and I'm tired of telling friends/family that I'm going to have to ignore them or charge them... it makes things difficult at the dinner table during Christmas :-)

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I drank what?

Not a bad summation -- these are corporations and corporations have one goal: to make money for the owners/share holders.

Don't get me wrong, I hate advertising and targeted ads even more, especially when I can't figure out why they are targeting me... However, consider the real costs of the services we are getting these days.

Our poor (of which I consider myself) and even our homeless have more access to information and resources and food and shelter than at any other point in history... Not to say that the rich don't have more, but 50 years ago, if I wanted up to the minute business news, I would have to steal a newspaper and hope the reporter wasn't in someone's pay... now I can walk into any library and look things up in real time, even get differing takes and opinions within minutes.

How is that paid for? Well, in the case of Microsoft based solutions, mostly through sales of things too expensive for me to buy. With Google? By advertisers wanting information so they can market baby-butt powder only to new parents without the wasted cost of advertising it to people who have no kids.

As someone tech literate, though, I do admit I hate not knowing how and what information is truly up for grabs... I know enough from working with ISP's in the past to guess what is collected, both from forms and from other sources, but it would be better to know for certain.

Privacy policies are feel-good statements that have no real legal force in most cases... and should the company go belly up, collected data IS an asset to be sold off... I'd much rather see an audit trail available from every company that collects data showing me what was collected and who it went to. Privacy policies are updated "if we remember", and we're expected to "trust us -- we'll tell you with plenty of time for you to opt out if we change it..."

Give me a real time audit trail for all my data collected and I can decide myself if I will ever trust you again.

Advertising sucks, but paying the real cost of the goods and services we get sucks even more for most people. And free software is great, when it's not abandoned by the developers, but it doesn't put food on the table. Support options might, for the really good/important projects, but a real 9-5 (hah!) job do better.

This got off track, but...

To sum up, consumers might get "boned" either with high costs or annoying adverts, but don't lose sight of what we are getting versus what our grandparents got... And if you can come up with a better way, great, I'm all ears... but if you start spouting off about "free software" and "information wants to be free", you're missing the point that everything else that keeps you alive and moving takes money from someone. If it's not you, than who?

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I drank what?

Probably a lot of protests, a few of your more "paternalistic" chains, like Walmart might refuse to stock it, but in the end it would sell, because the protests would bring a much larger audience than it could have gotten on its own...

Hell, you'd probably get some special interest groups screaming "its about time" and buying it out on principle.

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I drank what?

Not irrelevant if, (and I stress this is a hypothetical because we will never know until/unless someone tries it) had the cited personage actually been Michelle Obama, would the courts have rendered the decision the same way, and would the public opinion be similar (though likely with political affiliation swapped) or outraged?

Admittedly I'm cynical, but having watched how certain media outlets handle certain people with kid gloves because they are black or because they are republican or because they are democrat or because they are christian or because they are whatever... (and this happens on both sides of the aisle, so don't get your panties in a bunch because I'm maligning your "objective" news source -- they all do this)...

I honestly don't think the courts would have backed this, had it been MO, but I admit that's a feeling of mine, not something I'm claiming as a "fact". And I think, had the judges ruled the same way, some of the justices would see their death threat numbers go up...

We as a nation are NOT objective and fair, and in all honesty, we don't even really try to be...

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Huh?

Has anyone here actually read the words he has posted at the begining of his post? At face value it looks like he "discovered" this when he noticed he had an account balance for SOMETHING HE CLAIMS TO HAVE NEVER USED.

But no, it's so much more fun for everyone here to ignore the words Ive never bought anything using Bing Cashback and Apparently, I placed... and call him an idiot for posted about committing a crime.

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not wort it...

I'll second this... my daughter thinks when I talk of BBS's from my past, I'm referring to web sites. I have to remind her constantly that we only had one modem into the BBS at a time (ok, a few may have had as much as 10, but until CompuServer and Prodigy become nationwide, most didn't...)

She's 15 and can't imagine what she'd do without the internet and vacations where her cell phone doesn't have coverage are a challenge because she can't text her friends... I want her to look at the scenery and she's bitching about not getting a text.

Almost makes me understand my parents when they didn't think I needed a phone in my room... almost ;-)

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I Drank What?

That's the funniest thing I've read all day! Thanks for the laugh!

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I drank what?

Read the fine print on Apple's descriptions at Apple's online store... what they are selling is clearly labeled and referred to as the Snow Leopard Upgrade. That it happens to be ABLE to install on a clean machine is irrelevant. They are selling it as an upgrade to your existing Apple hardware and software.

The only exception I think is the OS X Server package... it doesn't use the word Upgrade in it's description (but also goes for something like $499 or so...).

Does Apple's installer check to see if you are truly upgrading? No, and I actually like that cause it means I don't have to dig around for old DVD's or keep an old hard drive plugged in when I want to upgrade the one my laptop. But it doesn't change the fact that I bought an UPGRADE, not a licensed stand alone piece of software.

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I drank what?

This is a troll?

I think the entire digression is offtopic, but not a troll...

And the tweet comment was stupid, not funny.

The fact is, we without are becoming more and more disenfranchised... either it's because we don't care (likely, as Survivor is about to start...) or because we're losing our voice in politics to large money (which can come from large action groups or corporations, so don't get all "you hate corporations" on me here... it's the fact that money talks loudly that I'm noting here)

I don't know how the "revolution" will occur... I hope it's through votes to politicians that change policies and practices, but violence isn't out of the question... look at history. Disenfranchisement of a large portion of your population has never "gone away"... it always has a revolt, though not always violent, and not always successful.

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I drank what?

You mean I might actually have to leave the basement (not my moms, but...) and see people in real life?!?!?!?

I'd crack in a week!

On the other hand, playing GTA with real people and real weapons could be fun... in an OW! OW! I'm Bleeding, You Fu..... kind of way...

But we'd have no more lost carrier jokes, so it might balance out.

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I drank what?

Nah, the T1000 was a wimp... it's the terminatrix from the third movie that makes me feel funny in certain areas I'm not supposed to talk about...

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I drank what?

I agree that all of these are valid issues, and I do think the 15 year estimate someone above posited is optimistic, however none of these are insurmountable. I think we probably will see wide-spread acceptance of ebooks/readers but it's gonna take a generation or two of people for whom online services like facebook, etc. have been with them practically since birth.

My daughter can't believe my parents bought me an encyclopedia set when I was in high school... in her world, if it's not online, then it's gotta be somewhere "special" -- to her encyclopedias belong in a library.

As technology gets better and more pervasive, as publishers realize they can cut costs, perhaps after existing contracts for suppliers, etc. are up for renewal, they will migrate, though I doubt the printed word will disappear completely.

As to the issues with sharing a book, if an ebook cost me $1, I can easily see me buying it multiple times throughout my life if it's one I like or use a lot. And since I'm assuming that most of these services have a site where I can track and re-download stuff I've purchased, it's not that hard of a step to allow me to temporarily assign my rights to a given product to another user... after all, it's just data.

As to data recovery, I will admit we haven't done to well with that, what with tapes and floppies that can't even be read anymore, but we (the geeks) also know this is a concern... it CAN be dealt with, if planned for. I mean, how many DVD drives can't read CD-Roms? (I know, very similar tech in terms of physical characteristics, etc, but the point is newer methods don't HAVE to break older technologies unless it truly is a fundamental change in mechanism/methodology.

We'll get there, but when the next couple of generations expect it and think we're crazy for "reading asynchronous BBS postings at 300 baud" (Daddy, what's a "baud"?), not when you and I think it's ready.

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I drank what?

Wait, are you saying that the chinese can make mini-blackholes with a lunchbox? No wonder we're losing the world to them!

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Everyone needs a sig now and then...