It is impossible to do the most basic operations like:

• Move a file over from one folder to another
• Copy a file from one computer to another over the network
• Cancel a file operation

I had an install of World of Warcraft on my desktop computer. I pick up a new laptop, I figure it would be faster to copy the WoW install I have on my desktop to over to the laptop over the network. After about an hour of "calculating time" - I tried to cancel the operation. Frustrated at the length of time it took to simply cancel a file, I literally pulled the plug on both machines and powered them back up.

After that I went to the Blizzard website on my laptop to download the client from there. And as for the add-ons, I zipped them up and mailed them to myself as an attachment, in order to save time.

Both the laptop and desktop have Vista on it (came with the computer).

Considering that companies usually have a central file server somewhere, imagine business workers trying to do basic file IO stuff, like copy word docs, spreadsheet files, or large .psd files from the Design Department.

As long as you never have to manage files on your computer, and you have gobs of ram, Vista is a nice OS. If not, it's better to wait for an alternative. I've preordered my copies of 7 a few months back, and I can't wait for the goddamn day I get rid of this POS operation system.

Then I can start streaming my music over the network to any machine in the house, once again.

It's a rare drop, sure. The catch is that you have to have your profession skill up a certain level before it's even visible. My engineering is at 450 and I saw it drop once, but I lost the roll to my guildmate, who chose Herbalism and has skill level of 450 for picking flowers. :-(

it's a reference to the Draenai - an alliance race that was introduced in the first expansion.

Yeah... it would be real nice if the general public had access to the source code in some kind of Open fashion regards to browsers such as Firefox or Webkit/Safari/Chrome so that stuff like exploits can be patched, making it would be possible to have tons of eyeballs pore over the code and be able to submit fixes on behalf of the community, or point out bad stuff that perhaps some other developers may have missed.

That would be cool.

the ff addons that I find to be the biggest culprit for memory leaks are Webdeveloper and Firebug.

The christmas rush is a profit gimmick - the games with the most (advertising) visibility generally would get the most cash - this is regardless of the quality of the game.

Blizzard doesn't really play by the marketing rules. Warcraft 3 was released in June '02. Diablo 2 also in June 2000. The first Starcraft was released at the end of March '98.

I would say that those properties have done pretty well on their own without the help of any holiday season shopping boost.

Perhaps the team doesn't want to have to constantly maintain 3 seperate codebases for the same app whenever an OS goes thru a major revision.

Or perhaps because they want users to use it "right now" instead of having them go thru the install process considering almost every machine has a browser on it.

Rebel Farmer: The more you tighten your' grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your' fingers

Chinese Govt: Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on the World of Warcraft.

Rebel Farmer: No! Warcraft is peaceful, we have no weapons you can't possibly-

Chinese Govt: You will provide another target - a military target? The name the system! I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the rebel base?

Rebel Farmer: ...Runescape. They're on Runescape.

Chinese Govt: There! You see Lord British she can be reasonable. Continue with the operation, you may fire when ready.

Rebel Farmer: WHAT?!

Chinese Govt: You're far too trusting. Runescape is too remote to make an effective demonstration but don't worry - we will deal with your rebel friends soon enough.

Rebel Farmer: noo..

of course there's an explanation - she's 1/2 cylon.

the kindle supports .txt files.

When you plug it in via USB, the computer detects it like a harddrive. Just drag the files in and you're done.

You can even view images on it, just create a folder and place your images in there, the kindle lists the folder amongst the list of books, like an album. Hit the next/prev to go thru the images as you please. I've been using this to read some manga on the bus.

Ditto for me. I fire up Virtual PC with an instance of XP with IE 6 (and an older version of FF for the hell of it). That way it can do it's worst and I'll just shut it down. Saves me a lot of grief.

As an aside, IE6 needs to die in a fire. Especially concerning the png alpha-transparency issue.

You can set your location manually via the browser. Just set it to the homeless shelter every friday and you're all set! Oh and don't forget to update your status to "Doing volunteer work."

The MacGruber Pepsi skits are more pastiche on sponsorships than ads themselves. Even MacGuyver yells at MacGruber, "You're such a sellout!" Not having seem these skits prior, my assumption was that Pepsi saw the MacGruber skits on SNL and wanted to use them for future advertising.

I assumed the problem with using javascript was the inability to manipulate images at the bit level with relative ease. People have made some successful projects using the canvas object to handle their 'blitting,' but do all browsers even support it (shifting eyes at IE)?

Another (rather unrelated) issue would be the lack of a mature way to communicate between server and client - cheaply that is. If someone is going to make their own browser based graphic mud, that means they are going to have to write their own comet app. Not a lot of ppl are willing to write their own server. You can't really control how you want your game to do socked based communication.

But the main issue is the lack of ability to be able to program close enough to the 'metal.' That means no native support to take advantage of things like the video card for 3D, or sound card or what have you. Nor the fact that you can't simply plug in a gamepad controller and just playing your javascript game (at least, not without doing some config work on your gamepad prior).

Most games are (relatively) graphic intensive, and the people that code them want to have the freedom to be able to access the power of the computer that is running them. With different browsers having different javascript engines, you're going to end up with very inconsistent results when playing a game on IE compared to FF compared to Safari compared to Chrome. *shrug* I don't know, it just seems too much of a pain to take into account all those factors when trying to come up with consistent gaming experiences, at least with flash or java you can (somewhat) expect to have a common platform to develop on, considering the trouble people are having with cross-browser compatability when simply making web pages. (just being snarky) :-P