I suppose you also want an error message of "You didn't ask nicely", instead of "Permission denied".

Or, if you use "please" on a noexec mounted filesystem, "Thanks for asking nicely! Permission denied."

Just started playing Fez. On a Steam Linux client. Nice game, and very clever. I like the twist it gives to 2D platforming.

Also, playing Sine Mora on my Vita, when I'm travelling on the train to/from work. Tough side-scrolling shooter! Only a few chapters in.

Very, very rarely is gaming remotely entertaining to mere observers.

Not as rare as you think. Game tournaments can attract a good number of spectators.

Plus, gaming is not necessarily that anti-social. Makes me wonder if the author has any experience with multiplayer games. Surely when VR becomes mainstram, it will have a multiplayer capability.

Yes, it could be argued that most multiplayer gamers aren't very social, or act anti-social. Griefing is an issue. Makes me wonder what they'll do in the context of shared VR, although griefers generally aren't too creative. I'm guessing "floating penises".

Write your own Greasemonkey filter?! That's what I do if I don't like aspects of a particular website's design.

You can even use jQuery in your filter, to bring this thread back to some semblance of on-topic.

The accused are not the head of the park authority. Russell Reichelt is the head, a research scientist with a PHD in marine science.

Accusations for two of the board members does not mean they're actually guilty. The two members are a minority within the board. It's good that there is an inquiry into possible conflict of interest, though.

81 million dollars _will_ make quite a difference to reef conservations programs, whereas dumping dredged waste far from a reef area _may possibly_ affect the reef. Though apparently history shows that previous dumps have had no effect on reef water quality.

Honestly, the whole reaction to this decision reeks of scare tactics. When someone resorts to such tactics, I get quite sceptical of their side of the argument, essentially achieving the exact opposite of what they intend. Since I'm not very knowledgeable of the situation, I cannot comment authoritatively on whether this decision will benefit the reef. My instinct is that it is a positive decision, though.

The conditions require that sediment entering the marine park be reduced by 150 percent over the long term -- a "net benefit" to water quality -- and that $81 million be contributed to reef conservation programs and specific measures observed to protect marine flora and fauna.

It's important to note the sea floor of the approved disposal area consists of sand, silt and clay and does not contain coral reefs or seagrass beds.

  Hmmm, this decision could actually be a benefit to the reef, not a detraction. I'd hope so, considering the park authority approved it. These are people who love the reef, are tasked with the job of protecting the reef, and are presumably experts in marine ecology and environment. They approved it. I'd say it's a very good chance that they made a good decision.

Gosh. Tough crowd. Do you heckle professionally, or is it just a casual thing?

Of course I cherry picked! That was the basis of my list: show great games that are playable on SteamBox / Linux. Way to miss the point.

Interesting that you singled out Psychonauts, as that often gets criticism for the difficulty of the Meat Circus level, supposedly ruining the game for many. I didn't mind it myself, but I can see their point. The insane asylum levels, and Lungfishopolis, are some of the most blindingly brilliant and creative game levels! Blows my mind. What a great game!

As for the other games on the list ... they cover such a wide spectrum of gameplay, you can be excused for not having the good taste to appreciate them. ;-)

Some of these are on consoles. Some are exclusive to specific consoles. Some are only available on PC.

They're all available on Steam, and playable on Linux.

True, you don't need a high powered machine to play these, although I'd recommend something more than integrated graphics for some of them. Valve's own games, which I didn't mentioned, would certainly benefit from more power.

Steam Machines will be created by many different manufacturers. So who knows, maybe one will be priced around the Ouya range. Time will tell.

Seriously? You've never heard of Tim Schafer? Double Fine Productions, previously LucasArts? Tim is responsible for absolute classic games like Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, and of course, Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and Stacking, from my list.

Super Meat Boy and Fez? They are very high profile indie games. Creators and games were also the subject of an excellent documentary: Indie Game: The Movie.

Wasteland. Created by Interplay Productions, and used as the basis for Fallout. You must have heard about the Fallout series of games, surely!

Bastion, To The Moon. More high profile indie games.

Actually, I didn't create my list with the idea that these games were famous. My criteria was more about quality. These are _excellent_ games. Very much recommended to play. It's just coincidence that some are well known. Anyone with a decent knowledge of gaming culture would know the all. I didn't even mention any of Valve's own games.

It's not size that matters, but how you play with it. ;-)

Who is to say that the Steam Box will not be a better platform than current consoles? Let's see what Valve come up with first, before judging.

A very subjective opinion.

With games like Psychonauts, Bastion, Wasteland, Fez, Frozen Synapse, Brütal Legend, Aquaria, FTL, Super Meat Boy, Stacking, Shank, To The Moon, Hotline Miami, and so many other brilliant games, there are a huge selection of quality launch titles for the Steam Box.

I'd easily take the Steam Box and its library over current console launch titles.

Sure, legally speaking, it isn't theft. It's a copyright violation.

From the perspective of the English language, though, the word "theft" is a valid use for this situation. Theft, by definition, is the act of stealing. An appropriate definition of "stealing", in this case, is to appropriate an idea or work without right or acknowledgement. For example, you can "steal" an invention, even without depriving the inventor of their property.

So, while the MPAA et al are obviously using "theft" in a grossly rhetorical manner, it is a valid use of the word. You can't take one definition, and then claim it doesn't fit. It should be inappropriate for all definitions.

I'm not the OP, but thought I'd correct a few misconceptions you seem to have.

It is the distro with the best packaging system.

While this is mostly a subjective matter, Debian's apt/dpkg is pretty archaic. .debs are nothing but glorified tarballs which get unpacked when installing, (therefore have to be created with fakeroot(1)) to name a random point at which it is inferior to a semi-decent system like Portage you can't use it to install packages from source (unless you use 10 debianisms to build a package beforehands). Searching for something with apt-cache is a joke.

You say that like tarballs are a bad idea. It worked well for Slackware. ;-)

Anyway, more to the point, debs are much more than glorified tarballs. That one deb package file contains control information, which specify version information, dependencies, basic package information, installed size, and much more. It also contains scripts to preinstall, postinstall, preremove, and postremove the package. It really is a one-stop shop when it comes to installing programs under Linux. Other than dependant packages, of course.

You can use apt to install packages from source, but the source code must come from the Debian repository. It needs to contain all the info above, and more. A source install is relatively simple to do. Basic process is "apt-get source package; cd package; debuild -us -uc; dpkg -i ../package.deb". So, that's three "debianisms" to download, build, and then install the package. Not as convenient as Portage, but apt/dpkg was not designed to be a source distribution. It probably could work as one, though. Should be simple enough to create a script which does everything automatically for you. If you want a source distro, then Gentoo is definitely the way to go.

Unsure what you find so funny about apt-cache. I use it regularly to search for packages. It works well for me.

It is the distro with the best variety of packages.

Name one relevant package which isn't available on any relevantt distro.

Unsure what you mean by "relevant package" or "relevant distro". I just did a search for a package called "clipit", on packages.gentoo.org. It's a program I like to use to copy between X clipboards, and store a clipboard history. Gentoo doesn't seem to have it. Debian does.

It is the distro with the best package maintainers.

No. Last time i had the pleasure, the maintainer in question didn't reply for 4 months, finally apologizing for not replying and (redundantly) suggesting i follow up with a patch (which i did 3 months ago, at that time). Guess I'll have to wait another couple months until it finally get applied.

One anecdote does not a conclusion make. I've had some very good experiences when dealing with Debian maintainers. In any case, this is subjective. I'm sure other distributions have some great and enthusiastic maintainers, but Debian ranks highly in my experience.

It is the distro with the best reliability.

Stupid and wrong piece of uneducated gibberish. What exactly is Debian's role in Linux' or GNU's reliability? How is Debian more reliable than, say, Gentoo? Fanboyism at its finest.

Not quite. Debian Stable achieves its high reliability by subjecting packages to a good testing period. It suffers jokes from the Linux community for being out of date, but that's what you have to do to achieve that level of reliability. Package maintainers even backport security patches to older package versions, to make sure that they don't install newer package versions on a Stable system.

Debian Testing/Unstable/Experimental aren't quite so rock solid, but that's where the latest stuff goes, and there are package updates on a daily basis. I happily use Testing on my laptop, and it is still very reliable, but Stable _ensures_ that the whole system works exactly as you expect, even avoiding new features and possible regressions.

----

That's about it. The rest of what you said was generally valid. I agree that the OP was acting somewhat as a Debian fanboy. And that's fine, really. Let people be excited by the distro that they use! If you do absolutely have to object, though, formulate better arguments, and try to curb the vitriol.

Fair point, but I still think that the NBN, as originally conceived, and once it gets some good momentum, has a good chance of getting close to its original budget.

As for connections to the home, the cables won't all be underground.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/4/3/nbn-buzz/nbn-co-uses-federal-law-access-nsw-power-poles