I normally try to be constructive, but WTF is up with the giant font for the headlines? I may be old enough to remember when Slashdot was a newborn, but I'm not so old I can't see a more reasonably-sized font. The old style with a smaller contrasting font on a colored bar would make scanning the page for items of interest much more enjoyable.

I loved the power key on the old Apple ADB keyboards. I didn't enjoy the operating system back then, but I remember wishing PC's had such a key.

Really? Outlook's what's going to save the day? Well, there's a first time for anything.

Thank you! It's amazing how many customers bring in their computers for a tuneup who have no idea how they got the Ask toolbar. Granted it is just as much the user's fault for not reading, but at the same time, the user puts a lot of trust in such a major-name product and shouldn't have to worry about having something slipped by them.

I've had good luck with Net10 and quite like their pricing plan. I know folks buy the Net10 SIM for unlocked GSM iPhones, but I don't know how well they would work in the scenario you describe. I think their SIM is something like $15-$20. I pay a little over $45/month for an auto-renewing 'unlimited' prepaid plan.

And, if you use their forum for support and don't mind waiting a day or two for a response, the support isn't bad. Calling their support line can sometimes be a frustrating experience (like any other cell provider nowadays), so I just use the forum.

Actually, spoken as someone who uses and supports a number of industrial and consumer operating systems and is tired of fanboyism on all sides. The Mac zealots and the Windows drones are just the most public of the stick-the-fingers-in-the-ears crowd.

Anybody who totally discounts the usefulness of any major OS seems, to me, intensely closed-minded. I couldn't live without any one of the six different operating systems I use, and I would never substitute one of them for the other, because they all have their strengths and purposes. And to use a completely non-OS topic as a platform to spew OS bigotry just happened to hit my buttons yesterday.

Then again, I myself am off-topic, so I guess I'm just as bad.

It's just so precious to see someone who doesn't watch movies, watch television, listen to music, or participate in any of the other large variety of things very often created on Macs.

I thought trolls live under bridges, not under rocks.

Even the best efforts tend to become commercialized. Look at Google Shopping's new upcoming direction.

What is to stop them 3 years later from creating a paid class system? And who would be able to honestly blame them? After all, it would be THEIR network.

Watch out, it's getting dark. You're likely to be eaten by a grue.

Actually, I was meaning to say First Person ADVENTURE not Action... sorry for the slip there...

I'm not surprised by the state of the industry. The decline began a few years ago when a new generation of players chose war/battle/FPS games over First Person Action games (What's FPA? Think Myst, kids. If you don't know what that is, you know where to look).

In my opinion, war-like gaming appeals to a base survival and agression instinct and can indeed be involving, but eventually becomes numbing and the player is unsatisfied until another game provides a stronger instinctual reaction, which becomes more and more difficult to achieve. As this happens, interest falls off. I've seen it happen to people time and time again.

Storyline-based gaming based primarily on a world and interactions within that world activates more of the creative portion of the mind, digging out the player's imagination from under the clutter that schooling and obsessive parenting buried it under. The abilities of the imagination are endless and a properly planned First Person Action game uses as much of the player's imagination as it does game mechanics, ensuring that the user is partially responsible for creating their own experience.

For the most part, I think the folks at Frictional Games might understand how to use the best of both better than anybody. While their games may not appeal to today's most vehement FPS gamers, once those same people reach an insurmountable numbness with their own genre, those who try the kind of product Frictional puts out could find some comfort, as Frictional builds on a mix of both survival instinct and imagination.

Let's see, unless you are George, the support call there is:

"Hey, I need to use this application I can't find in my computer. I know I have it in there, but can't find it."
"It's not in the Applications or Utilities folder or on my Desktop...."
"Huh? What's the name of the application so we can do a spotlight search? I dunno. I need it though. No, it's name is not in my Recent Applications list, either"
"What do you mean have I created any documents with it? You say that if I have a document file I created with it, we can find out the name of the application with a Get Info window? Yeah, about that... I didn't create anything with it. But I really know I need it."
"What's that? Since I haven't created anything with it and apparently have never used it, you want me to put the install disc in or point you to where we can download it? I lost that."
"What does it do? You say you're an experienced enough tech you'd probably know what the application name is if I told you a little about it? No, I have no clue what it does."

If you got that call, I'd guess they came to work drunk or stoned (or are reclining at home in said incapacitated state) and can usually be distracted to forget about their imaginary application. Or they're just playing with you. Seriously.