and yes, that is sarcasm. I love my Galaxy S3

Everyone should think the way I do, and if you don't you're overly influenced by marketing trends. If you would just listen to me, then all the manufacturers would give me exactly what I want. We don't need choice as long as everyone realizes I'm right.

So the gist of his argument is that no one else is creating new worlds like they did in Bioshock. It is all New York (GTA) and Military Shooters(CoD, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, etc.) No one is doing historical fiction (Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire) or SciFi (Halo, Killzone, Gears, Dead Space, Bulletstorm, Crysis, Homefront, Rage, Resistance) . He totally ignores the fantasy genre, which I can kind of understand since they all have similar worlds, but some are well designed and have strong storytelling. Basically, he is full of crap, and I think he knows it and knows that getting a lot of people to disagree with you is a good way to get some publicity for your new game.

If you had all your media on a Windows PC, which you probably don't but lets pretend you do because lots of people who don't read slashdot do, then an Xbox would be a pretty good way to get that media into the livingroom for $200. The big thing it is missing is that it isn't a DVR, but it is actually a pretty good solution for the rest of the problem.

That doesn't answer the question. I don't believe the shape of the tablet, or the look and feel, is something that can be copyrighted, patented or trademarked. So unless the UK has something else, I don't see how their similarity matters. I could decide that I like your style and copy you, getting the same haircut and wearing the same clothes. Everyone would agree that I copied you, but why should the law care? So I ask an honest question, does the UK have another kind of intellectual property where "registered design" means something?

So Apple has the rights to "cool." Is that patent, trademark, or copyright? Or does the UK has some other category where a "registered design" means something important?

That would be a factoid, rather than trivia, because it is false. The Pacific Ocean has both typhoons and hurricanes. The cyclones that hit Hawaii are usually hurricanes.

You can't give him a tax cut, he already doesn't pay taxes. He doesn't exercise his options, because that would be a taxable event, he just borrows money against them, which isn't taxable income. But if you claim that the rich aren't on a level playing field, then you're engaging class warfare.

If you're going to throw around some vague accusations of a plot to sell expensive equipment and raise ticket prices, then you ought to have at least a scrap of evidence that Peter Jackson, or the production company or the Move Studio in charge of distribution is tied to or is somehow making money from projection equipment bought by cinemas. Just saying "I wonder if..." isn't a good excuse to besmirch filmmakers.

Pffft. This is a Chinese tourist destination, not a way of life. It is one step away from a theme park. Saying they are discarding their own culture by making/visiting a fake Austrian town is like saying that I'm discarding my Anglo heritage if I go to a Greek restaurant to drink Ouzo, watch belly dancers and break plates. Playing like they are in Europe for the day doesn't degrade their Chinese-ness.

Pfft, everyone knows what is really going to happen if, because of [FICTION] End of discussion.

You probably think "Paranormal Expert" is an oxymoron.

I love the way the big snag is barely mentioned near the end of the article. They need about 10V to power up. That makes them rather unsuitable for Terahertz computing.

But the thing that Xbox Live has over Wii or PS3, or even the PC for that matter, is the built-in voice communication, separate and compatible with the games and apps, so you can join up in a Party, then fire up Netflix together or go into a game together and have the chat continue to work through the loading screens and not interfere with the application sound. Playing with people you know, even if you only know them from Xbox Live, is so much better. It works so much better that I know some people who wanted to play Killzone together on their PS3s, and they fired up their Xboxen just to provide the communication.

I agree that it is an interesting coincidence that Portland City had declined to joint the Joint Terrorism Taskforce and so the mayor was just as surprised as anyone when the FBI announced the arrest. But I think your characterization of the 19 year old "boy" is a bit off. The article you linked to describes someone who had been interested in joining jihad since he was 15 and had tried to go to Yemen and join the cause the previous year. He was only mad at his family because they had notified law enforcement that he was trying to join jihad. Bombing the Christmas tree lighting ceremony was his idea, he wasn't steered towards it by some informant. He hadn't done anything yet, but not for lack of trying, and he seemed pretty determined. I don't think it is fair to pretend that the FBI manufactured this threat.