So how about that? A programming language that'll download and store a program for later use just in case the network connection isn't stable or available. Sounds good to me. Having more than one way to get a program is a great thing to do.

Seems to me that if I can't rely on my network I'd want some sort of storage media that'll let me back up or reinstall the base program. It should also be light and easy to transport with plenty of additional storage space, just in case of anything.

Seriously, the older I get the more I find out that everything old is new again.

The problem is a human one, however.

Yes, this makes it harder should someone get to your stored hashes. But it doesn't make it any more secure if people continue to use "123ABC" as a password. Which they will do since that's an easy thing to remember.

Because it doesn't make the right people enough money for them to set that up.

Notice, this isn't about making money. Businesses can make money doing what you have asked for.

This is about making enough money. Greed.

Except there has never been anything close to a 1:1 relationship. There couldn't have been because even since the IDSN days the up/down ratio of what we could get was always in favor of the down. So there's never been enough traffic coming from the ISPs to even approach parity.

In fact, it's been the stupid ISPs have been using this as a club against the other players. It's of their own making, and now they're choking on it. In fact, Nexflix is even willing to give ISPs servers to take the congestion away from that part of the network, something that's been consistently rejected. The ISPs are the problem. In specific their greedy, overly Wall Street focused, stupid management is the problem.

So, no. They don't get any sympathy from me in this. They aren't being held accountable by their customers, they aren't being held accountable by what little law is in place, and they certainly aren't being held accountable by the market. If they were, they'd be out of business by now.

Microsoft is going to hold on to that thing for as long as they can. It's not going away for several different reasons.

The first and largest is that the Kinect is a product differentiater. It makes the XBone different from the PS4. There really isn't that much a difference between the two boxes otherwise. Fine, you can go on with the technical differences between the types of RAM and the custom silicon for the XBone's APU but those are not large concerns for Mom and Dad buying little Sally's birthday present.

Until MS comes up with something besides the software that makes their product different, the Kinect is going to hang on. But the second that happens, it'll be tossed. They know they've screwed the pooch here. They know exactly what it cost them in terms of customer relations and in terms of developers.

Well that's easy. They'll work to help the government turn into one of those. They have experience in maintaining one, how much harder to could it be to offer up the same "services" to those in power and sit back to watch the results?

Does your wife know you're trolling slashdot with this account these days? :)

And it is almost to guaranteed to drop over time.

Don't forget you're getting: The A/C radio standard , a huge amount of space to store/program in, and support. Yes, support. So if you brick the thing with your endless tweaking of it, they'll try to get it back to working condition.

That stuff is going to cost early adopters. Like it always does. So chill out, have a cool beverage of your choice, and wait awhile. Let the other people absorb the early costs. Wait some for others to figure out the traps.

But for heaven's sake, shove the whining about the price right up your ass.

And they can do this without resorting to channels that are known first and primarily as propaganda machines.

Because, and let us be honest here, part of the reason why we are in this position is that the media in the US are not there to provide the informational bulwark so that we may function as close to an ideal republic as we can. They currently exist to sell us things and to make us feel better out said purchases. This extends to the government at all levels. Who better to give an interview to than the very apparatus that is there to appease and not investigate?

Since the original Xbox was running mostly off the shelf hardware, I'm not sure it needs an emulator (aside from whatever security/copy protection hardware).

But the 360/PS3 is going to be tough. Tougher than average, I'd say since those were both custom CPUs. Yes, there is some papers out there covering how they did their execution but that doesn't cover some of the weird stuff. Stuff like with the PS2 and original PS that took years to sort out.

Those of you who don't remember the Bleem! saga and the fact that Sony not only lawsuited them to death, but also make emulation even harder by changing the way their compilers did certain undocumented graphic blits and other memory tricks. This was why Bleem! had a specific target list of compatible games.

Still not sure that all of that was documented.

Bad memories.

I thought we'd put that behind us finally. That everyone, including the HR drones and PHBs, understood that those things were meaningless.

Or am I getting another chance to play my favorite interviewing game again?

You mean, what the entire tech community said was going to happen, happened? Kids found ways around their stupid requirements and made them look like fools while some contractor got away with tons of public money?

It's like we need to establish the "If an average 5 year old can find holes in it" rule from the evil overlord list for public institutions.

The problem here is that you will loose a lot of the things which make the engines smaller (better managing of head-gasket displacement, so smaller bore and stroke to get the same amount of power), more efficient (direct fuel injection and stroke cycles), less polluting (no need for a leaded fuel to get burn and temperatures necessary for combustion not to mention the catalytic converters), quieter (see the previous reasons), and generally more pleasant to be around as I am not choking on the smog created by the engine when it is started up.

I, for one, like to have all of those things in my car and any future cars I wish to purchase. Of course those things will require special tools. Working on engines have always required special tools.

There is a certain amount of missing the forest for the trees in your statement, I feel.

Which is what I was saying. It's a well defined legal area that's been administrated by the states for a very long time now. For the Feds to step in with a new law, they'd have to show (to whatever court this gets taken to) some sort of legal authority over it where none existed before both as in the US Constitution as through well settled and aged legal precedence.

It's not as easy as saying "Interstate Commerce lets us" as it's never before been defined as such. Doesn't mean that it won't get upheld on that ground, but it will have to be shown that such legal ground exists within the framework of the current laws.

but I hardly think that an amendment to a provisioning bill passes sufficient legal muster for it be enforced. First of all, I am already required to pay local and state sales taxes for entities operating out of my state. So no change there.

But for extra-state sales, this will have to survive a 10th Amendment challenge and well settled legal precedence dating back to the 18th century. Not saying that it can't but a short blurb in a different, unrelated law doesn't seem sufficient on its face.

For an "internet sales" (whatever that means) tax to work, it would have to be established as something the feds collected and redistributed. The legal authority is already there in the 16th amendment, and it could easily function as interstate funding for roads and schools do currently.

Likewise, if two states wanted to enter into a compact to collect and remit as some currently do with income taxes, then that could also work.

I guess this is just some more busywork for the congress-critters to say that they've been doing something rather than nothing.