Such a virus could serve three purposes in my mind:

1) Disseminate and house child pornography anonymously
2) Bored person playing a cruel prank
3) An attempt to legitimize the "infected computer" defense. No way I knew about it. My computer is infected.

You work a 60-hour work week. Apparently, you also get a poor amount of sleep. Working out involves recovery time. Adequate sleep is paramount to a sound body and mine.

You can't do a workout program? You can't wake up early? You really can't do anything outside of your days off. You want a magic fit pill? You want longer days? You want what does not exist.

The answer is blatantly obvious: find a new job or face the fact that your mental and physical state will erode over time.

It is comforting to know that IT doesn't require common sense.

Piracy is rampant on the DS too, and there's tons of money being made there.

Agreed. Buy a flash cart, a microSD card and you're off to the piracy races for the DS. Much less complicated than PSP modding even though that is relatively simple.

It boils down to a few things: price, game selection and allure of the hardware.

It automatically failed on price. Remember, when its price dropped the PSP received a decent boost in sales. Unfortunately, due to their sparse selection of quality games, I don't think it held much interest.

The launch of the DS was stronger. The DS Lite reinvigorated and popularized the console. Also, it provided an interesting way to play games. Now games could be made that actually interested mom and pop (read: Brain Age). The PSP stuck with hardcore technological advantage and fell on its face. Not to mention the 'nub' joystick is a pain to get used to or the disparity in battery life.

Sony has no one to blame but themselves, but honestly, they've done relatively well in an arena that Nintendo absolutely slaughters.

Maybe their whole production process is customized with a Vista image. Imagine that you now have an employee that needs to yank out the vista hard drive, throw in an xp hard drive, and then have another employee make sure that it is an XP system before it ships out. Not to mention the cost of changing the OS sticker on the laptop...

I'd also imagine that such a production process could have custom XP deployments for their machines especially when there seems to be a demand for it. I was given an HP laptop with Vista on it as a gift. It took me less than a day to hunt for the drivers and get it running despite it being a bit of a pain. Now why can't a company with much better resources than me alone accomplish this same task much quicker?

The software/computer industry has always gone the way of forced obsolescence. It has guaranteed revenue for quite some time. With Vista, what we are seeing is consumer backlash with this concept. Couple that with the speeds that your average PC has, and other than hardware failure, your average PC consumer shouldn't need an upgrade for years unless their needs increase.

I estimate I spent about 10 hours on the game, and I would far rather have 10 AWESOME hours than 40 hours of padded frustrating crap. I'm old enough I don't want to waste my time on stupid sh@# just for the sake of being hardcore like an internet suicide.

The combat is eventually a bit tedious, yes. I'd prefer the game be even MORE stripped down. I'm perfectly willing to drop $40 for 8 hours of making you feel like a total badass.

Elika is amazing - she is never annoying (which is astounding for a companion) and the dialogue is interesting and funny. And the ending is just fantastic; it deserves a mention even separate from the lack of death. I can't say anything much without spoiling it, but I love how it asks you (and you likely comply gladly) to subvert everything you've done.

I can't tell if you're talking about a movie or a game. But then again, they'll starting to slowly merge IMO. HD graphics, motion control and CPU power getting better and better. Virtual reality is on its way. Part of me is psyched and the other part worried.

No.

More like buying a house, having to pick the lock, and occasionally the guy you're paying comes and changes the locks. Did I mention that if you want to renovate your bathroom, too bad. The homeowner has decided the bathroom provided is optimal.