Except Firefox addons are not *necessary* to use any commonly accessed websites (AdBlock Plus and NoScript may be desirable, but not necessary).
Er, Flash? I'd say websites that are Flash-based or contain fairly large amounts of Flash content are "common"...
Try tracing back random pieces of modern technology to all of their component parts/materials, and all of those's component parts/materials, and so forth, with the components needed for manufacturing/refining along the way, and if any of those are consumable, trace those back.
Little bit off-topic but directly related to this, find the book The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. It covers all the technology and industries that had to spring up in order to make and mass produce a simple pencil. Fascinating read.
I live in New Zealand, similar health system to Canada. I broke my pinky finger a few months ago, late-ish on a Saturday night - busy time for the drunks and so forth attending the emergency department. 45 minutes in and out, x-ray'd, splinted and with follow up appointment booked. A few weeks later I started seeing a hand therapist to make sure all the mobility came back, total of 6 visits.
No private health insurance, total cost to myself: $0
I travel to the states regularly for work (medical devices, so I see it from the inside as well) and carry a travel insurance card with at *all* times. I will not leave the hotel without it. The last thing I want is to fall down some stairs and break a leg, and then go through your healthcare system without insurance. The second to last thing is to go through your healthcare system at all - remember I see it from the inside as well. Not a great reputation for a country to have with it's visitors, really.
Just in case you haven't found it, try http://www.gog.com/
I'm currently reliving my childhood, to the detriment of my adulthood, but ah well, plenty of time to be old later. Also Steam has a large number of smaller indie titles as well as the time-consuming AAA titles, not least of which is the old LucasArts games, with more to come.
If they are going to do this, they better be damned sure of the training and ability of the people who will be issuing the death penalty to the gamers.
I think that's one part of the problem, but I don't think that's *the* major problem (although I'm sure there will be plenty of false bans that will cause enough of a problem without the complications of linking the games/forums). I see more of a problem in the linking between games; Daddy buys two games, one for little Johnny and one for little Suzy, which he installs and registers via the same EA account. Little Johnny posts something stupid or does something in-game that results in a ban, and little Suzy loses her rights to play Barbie Dressup 2008 or whatever. That's not going to please Daddy, and the problem gets a lot more complicated if little Johnny sells his game to a friend who then gets banned.
Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend people play nice and act mature.
Beyond that, this also effectively blocks you from selling any EA game once you're finished with it. If the person you sold an EA game to a year ago is banned for any reason, any other EA games you still own and the latest blockbuster you've just bought are now expensive drink coasters...
Stellar rays prove fibbing never pays. Embezzlement is another matter.
