"Fin" means "(The) End" in French, maybe it was a pompous way of saying goodbye to her readers.

I do prefer your explanation though ;)

No, you can now *buy* the Beatles on teh iPhone. You could get them on the device from day 1, provided you had ripped your Beatles CDs or illegally dowloaded the mp3s.

The article is about "awful systems". The Sega Saturn was awesome.

There's that, but see my other post about why flash websites suck for users too.

Well for starters HTML5 is superior for us (non-flash) web developers. It's also superior for geeks who use exotic OSes. And from a normal user's perspective, I said there was no obvious difference (i.e. most users can't tell whether they are on a flash site), but Flash seriously lacks in accessibility :

• you can't select/copy/paste text if the developer didn't bother to implement it
• you can't zoom
• you can't middle-click to open a link in a new tab
• if you've focused the Flash content you have to click elsewhere in the window to give the focus back to the browser and be able to use keyboard shortcuts (to create a new tab for example)

I could go on. And as an added bonus, Flash is CPU-hungry and crash-prone.

The difference between a CRT and flatscreen TV is obvious. People see LCDs in stores, or at a friend's house, and that makes them want to switch. And then there's marketing of course.

The general public doesn't know, and doesn't care whether a site is made in Flash or HTML5. You can't wait on the users to switch to HTML5 sites.

Because a jailbroken iPhone is the best smartphone on the planet, except maybe for the n900 and suchlike, but I spend enought time tinkering with computers at work to do it on my phone. Once jailbroken the iPhone just works.

Maybe I should have been clearer : Spotify mobile is my main music player (I know, Android and other platforms have a version too), and by games I don't mean Snake, I mean the shitload of dedicated iPhone games, and the shitload of ports. Know a lot of phones that run GeoDefense, Plants vs Zombies, C&C Red Alert, Street Fighter IV and GTA:Chinatown Wars ?

There really, really cheaper alternatives if all you're looking for is a phone. Plus their batteries last more than a day.

Not sure what you're calling "nonsense". All I know is that I used to travel with a cellphone, an mp3 player, and a Nintendo DS, and now I only have my iPhone in my pocket. And I can check my email and IM my friends from about anywhere.

I use Spotify all the time, it has completely replaced the iPod app on my iPhone. But there's no way I'd pay 10€/mo. if I couldn't background the app. Having to pause my music to answer an SMS, or to check my email would be very, very frustrating. The next major version indeed corrects that, but not if you own a 3G like I do. Except if you jailbreak and enable multitasking, that is ;)

Other cool (non-essential) JB apps are :

• Music Controls : allows you to control about any music apps with pop-up controls, headphones remote, lockscreen, ...
• Quick Reply : double-tap the notification, and the sms appears, along with the keyboard in case you wish to reply, all without exiting your current app.
• 3G unrestrictor : tricks certain apps (spotify, youtube, appstore, ...) into thinking they're on wifi.
• tethering apps (and custom carrier settings) : share your 3G connection without any aditionnal fee (YMMV, my carrier doesn't seem to notice or to care).
• Themes (there are some really nice ones)

"Posted by kdawson on 14:55 Friday 02 April 2010"

That's what I see under the post title. Is that what you're talking about ? If so, yes, you can change the date format in your preferences.

Never said PC gaming was cheap :) Hardware may be more expensive, but as I said I pay (much) less for my games, so if you play a lot of different games as I do, it evens out in the end.

My last upgrade was a GTX275 which I bought almost a year ago, and even new games run fine. And if I turn off FSAA, I'll be able to play 2010 and 2011 games just fine. And I buy most of my games for 20-40€ (last purchase : L4F2 for 25€), or even cheaper as Steam has lots of indie games and oldies for less than 10€ (recently bought BG&E for 5€).

I fear that instead of releasing new controllers, they'll dumb down games (à la Halo) : huge crosshair or auto-targeting, slow IA, auto-regenerating HPs, ... That's what kids are used to, after all. One more reason for me to stay away from consoles.

No*, that's the reason I've got a Wii ;) As Nedlohs says, I was comparing PCs to PS3 (and Xbox 360, as they are very similar).

I only use the Wii when friends come over, for solo and online play I use the PC.

*SFIV and Trackmania could be viable alternatives though. Trackmania wii is coming out soon, you should check it out if you haven't played it yet. Trackmania Nations is free, it's awesome on a big screen TV, very (very) fast and still looks good. The only downside is that there's no split-screen on the PC version.

Can I play every PS3 game in 1080p, 8xAA ? Didn't think so. On my gaming PC, I can. With an Xbox Controller and HDMI output, I can play Batman, GTA, etc. on my HDTV, sitting on my couch, with (far) better graphics than on any so-called Next-gen console. And with the same machine, I can play FPS, CRPGs, and strategy games with proper controllers (mouse/keyboard). Oh, and thanks to Steam's constant stream of special deals, I don't have to pay 50-70€ for each game.

Each time a console's price drops, I've had the temptation to buy one. But each time I quickly remember that I would hardly use it, except for playing the odd exclusive title.

My great-grand father was a pastor, my grand-mother and mother are protestants, but after going to sunday school and such I've become an atheist when I was a teen (for the reason you cite), and no one pressured me into reconsidering it. IMO the problem is the bigotry of the families you speak of, not that particular religion. BTW, there's "going through hell with your parents" and then there's "being harassed constantly and having your private life thoroughly investigated for dirty secrets to try and get you fired, jailed or institutionalized".

Speaking of my great-grand father, he was the kindest, most selfless man I've ever known (hid jews during WW2, helped develop a small pacific island, ...). He most certainly never pressured his parishioners into giving him or his church money.

Anyway, my point was that despite all the crooked priests and bigot followers, mainstream religions are much less greedy and evil than cults like scientology. For example, you can get the bible for free or at a very moderate cost, and without giving out any personal information. Same with the Qur'an. Try acquiring scientology "courses" for free or anonymously...