Because of copyright, we'll need to wait, what, 70 years until a fan-based, open source game can be made? Yeah, I know someone linked to eDuke32 in this thread, but that's not the same thing. You still have to buy copyrighted assets and not have much control.

I can confirm this. I am with Qwest DSL. Recently I moved literally 20 blocks, from one part of town to another. At my old place, I'd get rock-steady 5.5 Mb/s down at any time of day. At the new place, I can still get that speed in "off peak" hours like early morning, but in the evenings, it drops down to as low as 0.75 Mb/s. I'm still paying the same $52/month, still have the same modem, same computer. All that's changed is my location (and that not by much).

I might switch to Comcast cable Internet at some point, but their past shenanigans with interfering with Bit Torrent, etc. make me wary.

That's a little misleading -- I live close to an awesome book store, so I frequently am selling back my books. Also, I read a *ton* online. Most of my reading is electronic these days.

Yes, I have an exceptional memory, always have. I hadn't thought about that as a possible cause for my bookless-ness. I can't remember exact dialogue all the time, but I can recall numbers with scary precision and the same for major plot points, ideas, etc. I can see a school acquaintance on the street after not seeing them for 10+ years, and just hear a few seconds of their voice and instantly know who it was, even if I didn't know them well at all. Comes in handy. :-)

Naw, both my mom and dad are *huge* readers, and I inherited that. Hell, I used to have a lot of physical books lying around, I just don't anymore. Like I say, lots of reading off a computer screen.

Yeah, I kind of overstated my case for rhetorical reasons. I have no problem with people who have an obsession with collecting books. I heard a "This American Life" story recently about a guy who amassed the largest collection of Lewis and Clark books in America. I have no problem with people who collect books with care. I guess it just bugs me when I'm at someone's house and I see their disheveled collection, and I just know they aren't going to re-read 99% of the books in it. It's like a collection by default -- they were too lazy to sell or donate the books, so they piled up.

I have tried collecting books, but I feel so silly doing it. Let's see, I have four books in my apartment right now. I don't think I've ever read a book a second time, unless forced to in school. And I can get cash or store credit when I sell books I've read. So, honestly, what is the point of keeping them around?

Aside from librarians/lawyers/other people who legitimately consult a large number of reference books, book collections serve only self-indulgent purposes: decoration, "look at me" (look how smart I am), compulsive collecting, and messy people who can't organize their lives.

Now if e-readers didn't suck, and you could have full-color, high DPI, open standards books in a collection on one of those, I'd probably go for that. But physical books are kinda dumb.

the dam has quite literally broke

Um, no. Just, no. You fail.

I downloaded it, couldn't figure out the controls, stopped playing. There are thousands of shitty Flash games on the web. At least those ones don't make you download a .zip file.

Depends on how cash-strapped they are. I went to a large state school on the west coast that would send out mass emails advising people to wear more clothing in the winter so that the uni could turn the heaters down by a couple of degrees. It saved serious money in the long run.

That's why they call it "'fuck you' money". If you get rich enough, you can tell anyone to fuck off. Work on whatever project you'd like. Hell, the most absurd the better. What better way to live a happy life than to do something absurd just because you can?

I don't get the sense that they're trolling; they seem to actually feel the way they present themselves.

RMS is a different case. He's not so much a luddite as an idealogue. He has very strong views on certain political issues within technology.

Don't forget the obligatory rants about window manager "eye candy", 3D video games, cell phones that do more than make calls, and how there are never any good movies coming out anymore. I've never understood how there can be so many luddites on a technology news site. Maybe it's because this site skews older than most, and as one gets older, the nostalgia memory bias becomes a stronger?

You got the CLEP? Sorry to hear that...

I'd like future phones to do two things: 1) Not let people mess with their phone at a movie theater. 2) Not let people use the phone while driving.

Your user account is too young to understand. ;-)

Anyone who thinks their sense of direction is good should try the level in Crysis where you have to navigate in zero gravity. Holy macaroni! I'm normally great with direction, but I got lost a couple times when I had to navigate with six degrees of freedom.

Speak for yourself. Some of us do our best to buy product brands -- my laundry detergent and dish soap, for example -- that aren't tested on animals.