No problem. Even 32-bit systems will let you use 2GB per process.

Those on corporate plans (including those of use through combined purchasing partners via professional/industry organizations) can still upgrade and keep unlimited. It's not an option for new subscribers, but I upgraded last summer and my wife last spring and both kept our $20 unlimited data plans. (I know, crazy - definitely legacy. $27 for 400 pooled minutes, and 250 texts/phone, plus $20 for the unlim data). Tethering isn't allowed, but violations aren't rigorously enforced, so I tether with my rooted handset on occasion.

Probably to entice the last few (million) XP holdouts.

There, simplified it for you. Even quantum tunneling can't penetrate the barrier of a thick skull.

The "14yo brat" is free to call anyone he or she wishes a faggot, and you and anyone else is free not to listen.

Being called a faggot in an online game might affect your desire to continue playing online games. Thus, it affects interstate trade, and is clearly within the Federal Government's right to regulate. For that matter, since you listening or not listening to such insults will also affect your future gaming prospects, that too falls under the Federal Government's jurisdiction.

I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.

Sorry, no can do. Dying definitely diminshes your future interstate trade prospects, except perhaps in the organ market.

For a $25 billion plus industry, the trade press is really terrible. Perhaps people who play games expect more that what the existing setup delivers.

"Trade press" is not meant for people who consume the product, but for people who make it. And they're too busy working 60-hour weeks to spare time for reading.

I find it to be mostly repackaged PR pieces and manufactured outrage at issue X of the day. Its time to grow up and be professional.

"Professional" means someone who works for money. So being at the beck and call of games industry is being professional.

There's a big difference between regulating firearms, and attempting to ban and backdoor ban them as well.

I'm actually for a lot of 'gun control' - regulations on when, where, and what you may fire at, I'm fine with background checks, want gun safety training in schools, etc...

What I don't like are cosmetic bans against firearms that are used in statistically insignificant(though newsworthy) amounts of crime, especially murder.

You should think that through a little more. Extraterrestrials might breed like spiders where the males get cannibalized after mating. Can you imagine "To Catch a Predator" on another planet?

CHRIS HANSEN: Tonight, we're waiting for NudeSpiderMan as he crawls up... he thinks he's just here for sex. Little does he know that he's about to get trapped in our web.
NudeSpiderMan: Hi, are you "Charolette"?
DECOY: Wow, you look cute! Hold on while I finish spinning this orb around the lunch I just caught for us!
NudeSpiderMan: Sure babe, take your time...
CHRIS HANSEN: Hi! How are you doin'?
NudeSpiderMan: Oh no! All the way here I wanted to turn around! I knew I was being stupid!
CHRIS HANSEN: well, NudeSpiderMan, I don't understand. You knew she was going to rip your head off, but you came here anyway...?
NudeSpiderMan: Yeah, yeah... sigh... I knew I was stupid... I kept telling myself to turn around... Now I'm losing everything!
DECOY: Oooh, yeah! SWIPE *munch* *munch*
NudeSpiderMan: Chris? Chris? Are you OK? Oh no... she went for him instead... I'm such a loser!
DECOY: You know, I might want seconds!
NudeSpiderMan: Well babe, I still want to stick my head in your mouth, even if I'm not your first...

Well, that's one solution. Another is for them to use their real name on Facebook and a fake name in class... some hilarious options come to mind.

I don't think colonizing before terraforming (assuming we even bother) is putting the cart before the horse, unless you assume that the only way humans can live is on an Earth-like planet. Why should we limit ourselves that way? As for needing more advanced technology, the way you push technology forward is by trying to solve specific problems. Basic research is also useful, but directed, focused efforts get farther, faster.

Up to a point, that's true. But you simply raise the same question again: Are you arguing that since we're letting some of our rights slip we should also let the 2A go? Or do you believe that if we ignored the 2A that would some how make it easier to defend freedom of speech and association? I'd argue that it would help to undermine them, by providing yet another precedent showing that the "living Constitution" means whatever we want it to, making it meaningless.

Because it hasn't yet gotten bad enough to justify large-scale rebellion. Let us hope that it never does.

I think that the right to keep and bear arms serves two functions in this respect. The first is that it preserves at least a semblance of the ability to resist tyranny by force. The subtler and perhaps more important function is as a bellwether... and a trigger.

Must mean they've already caught all the murderers, rapists, serial killers, and other dangerous criminals, now they have to turn to this.

FBI doesn't do murders, rapists, serial killers, etc. Those are the business of State & local law enforcement.

The FBI mostly does counterfeiting and kidnapping (and they only do kidnapping because the Lindbergh Baby was a potential source of good publicity for J. Edgar Hoover).

Actually, lots of people wanted an Xbox One at launch. The XB1's sales curve has been really weird.

It had pretty great month-1 sales. It would have had the fastest month-1 sales of any console in history - if it hadn't launched alongside the PS4 (which broke the previous records by an even larger margin). But some time shortly after Christmas, the sales basically flatlined. First MS switched to talking about "units shipped" rather than "units sold" and then it stopped issuing new numbers at all.

By piecing together bits and pieces of retailer and regional sales data, it's possible to get a broad understanding of where the console stands now. Having originally been tipped to pass the Wii-U and take second-place in current gen sales somewhere around April, it appears that it probably only did so some time in September (and indeed, it certainly hasn't officially been announced yet, so there's at least an outside chance it's still in third). It's had several significant sales blips, driven first by the price cut when Kinnect was removed and then again by Destiny, but background sales outside of these blips have been generally very slow throughout 2014.

It's actually pretty similar to (though marginally better than) the sales profile for the Wii-U. That console actually sold well during its first 6 weeks or so on sale, before flatlining. Each first-party Nintendo game since then has caused a small 1-week spike in sales, but after Mario Kart, diminishing returns appear to be kicking in.

In regional terms, The Xbox One appears to be in a fairly solid second place in the US (behind the PS4), a distant second place in Europe (again behind the PS4) and third place in Japan. Indeed, the PS4 is also doing badly in Japan - home console gaming is dying in that market and even the Wii-U (which holds first place there) is doing badly compared to the last gen consoles.

The Xbox One does still have a few big irons in the fire and isn't quite in a Wii-U style Last Chance Saloon yet (if Smash Bros and Bayonetta 2 don't turn around the Wii-U's fortunes this Christmas, the console essentially can be considered dead). Forza Horizon 2 is a fairly big draw and Halo 5 will be a bigger one. But MS have certainly gone backwards since the days of the 360, when they dominated the US and managed a reasonable draw with Sony in Europe. In marketshare terms, the Xbox One looks a lot more like the original Xbox.

Though in general terms, this has been an extremely boring year for console games anyway. People get excited about new console releases, forgetting that they tend to be followed by 12 months during which there isn't much worth playing for them. It's always the later years of the cycle that are more fun in terms of game releases.

Say what? Why would I "fix" a problem by buying a new OS. If things get massively out of whack, you reinstall the original OS. What forces people out is dropping of driver support and bug maintenance and, quite honestly, you are going to expect that after a while.

I'll agree - upgrades should offer productivity benefits, and for the most part the past 3-4 iterations have been essentially cosmetic upgrades and shuffling of the deck chairs, making it harder - not easier - to maintain the OS (since controls are now buried in 2-3 different places, and the obvious ones are dumbed down for basic users). There are some advantages to 8 in maintenance, but they're overshadowed by the layering of control. Adaptive screen brightness on my laptop, for example, is controlled in 3 separate places, and it's an OR function for the "on" condition - all three must be turned off to eliminate what I can only describe as the most annoyingly 1980s version of a screen dimmer ("fading" in halting 5% steps based on average screen luminance instead of room brightness).