Actually, NRA has a video game of its own now called NRA: Practice Range. It is available on iOS. It has in-app purchases for different types of weapons, so yes, NRA is participating in the video games industry.

I've never tried Planetside, but I'll look into it, thanks. I get that I'm asking for something that probably wouldn't be very popular. I would like Battlefield/COD meets EVE Online. So, deep customization of my avatar's looks and equipment set in the near-future with contemporary weapons and a huge urban sprawl to explore. What I would really like is Mamoru Oshii's 2001 cyberpunk film "Avalon" If you haven't seen that movie, it's pretty dry. I'm still not sure whether it's what I would have expected from the creator of Ghost in the Shell.

It'll probably quite some time before I return to EVE. I just don't get the time to do more than log in and train. For anyone interested, in EVE you can queue training so that your character can be constantly training to level up even when you're not logged in. Low-sec is definitely where the fun begins even if you're wanting to play the market. Right now though I'm really craving a real world based competitive MMO FPS with a lot of customization options for my character builder game personality, but I don't think such a thing exists. I'm living off COD because it's instant satisfaction when I get 10 minutes here and there.

The elitists definitely earn it. They have real money in the game, if they didn't buy their characters, their skill levels came with longevity, and they survived the jump from carebearing around in high sec with destroyers and cruisers modded for salvage and mining to doing PVP in null sec with total assholes. I would have loved to be amongst them except I just found the game frustrating for the constant "Join my clan!" invites. I like soloing, and it's not easy advancing fast without help and protection. I remember slipping into near low-sec territory because I wanted to sell some merchandise at a higher price. I decided to make a quick raid on an NPC pirate hideaway and do some good mining when a player jumped in, destroyed me, then held my pod for ransom. He pod-killed me when I refused to pay. Have to say I respect the guy's style. That you can play EVE that way or you can play EVE my way and try to earn a modest living selling components speaks much about this game.

Going back a ways, I would say Windows 95 generated buzz. My mates and I couldn't wait to get our hands on the beta. Borders Books and Music carried Windows 95 branded coffee. There was a lot of excitement surrounding it. Longhorn in its early state produced a lot of buzz as well. Microsoft peripherals tended to generate excitement in the press, Microsoft Natural keyboard comes to mind. I was really excited by Zune even as a mini-disc and iPod owner. I was very excited about Surface and Windows Phone 8, enough to spend a lot of time playing with WPF programming (I'm Macintosh based). Then there was XBox and Xbox 360. I still remember when XBox was laughed at by Sony and Nintendo fans. I thought Microsoft made a few really good commercials. The Zune ones were odd, but good. I just wish we could have seen more of them. The Surface ad has been a joke. How far to you expect to get with a product launch when the feature you're trumpeting the loudest is the bloody click of the kickstand?

16-bit Windows is getting to be like VHS. There's so many great, not-so-great, and just plain odd things you could have gotten for Win16, and much of it hasn't carried on into Win32 or Win64. Some of it never will. Some of it will be in name only. I collect VHS recordings. I love finding those odd movies, docs, and special interest videos that never made it to DVD and so will likely never see Blu-Ray or HD streaming.

He'll have to get QuickTime as well. There were a few games that required it. WinG will be necessary for Civilization II if I'm remembering right. Great game, and fun in part for the videos of the advisors that appear when your civ is in a state of anarchy.

A couple of early CDROM games are must plays: 7th Guest, Hell, The Journeyman Project, Quantum Leap, etc. I'm trying to figure out how to get Phantasmagoria working at the moment (iMac running Wineskin).

Agreed. For me, it's the totality of it, not simply that it's horse meat, but that it's just not 100% cow. Tesco shoppers should wonder not just about the 29% horse meat, but also the remaining 71%. Is it 71% beef? Just what constitutes beef? Taco Bell counted 64% tasteless fibers. Also, is the horse meat quality horse meat?

In my BBS days, online behavior seemed substantially better. But then, there was far less out there to comment on then and far fewer ways to comment. From my own experience, online anonymity hasn't produced nearly as much unabashed idiocy and vitriol as what I often find posted under real Facebook identities. I'm putting aside the trend of anonymous forums and picture boards and speaking only of the comments section of major news sites and social networks. I think online anonymity is only a perceivable threat if we assume that everyone online is a rational even-tempered adult, because that would explain not wanting to risk associating one's identity with the kinds of garbage I have to sift through just reading the web versions of my favorite newspapers. In actuality, what I see are people that proudly stand by their stupid, hateful, and poorly written words. Maybe Lanier is on to something and Web 2.0 culture has caused us a lot of trouble, but I disagree that it's from anonymity. There is the issue of cyberstalking though and the real effects it can have on young teens. I don't know if Lanier even predicted people using web 2.0 sites to make someone so miserable as to commit suicide?

> You can pretend all you want, but deep down you know you're a pleb.

Not if they didn't put enough points into their Intelligence score, they don't.

I don't think your tax argument is apples to apples here, but maybe it is if you're arguing from the angle that Microsoft as a significantly richer company ought to be allowed out of fairness to pay a lower effective tax to Apple than poorer indie developers. Apple just isn't making special allowances for Microsoft. Microsoft no doubts wants Apple to take less because it feels that Office on iOS would be a killer app that really advantages Apple. Ergo, Apple should be grateful because Microsoft could always do something more strategic like make Office exclusive to Surface. But Apple either doesn't see Office as deserving special conditions since Apple sells its iOS platform easily enough without that, or Apple maybe has decided it will not get into strategic negotiations with Microsoft over Office again.

Steve Jobs wasn't kicked out for trying to market useless stuff, he was kicked out because he was divisive to the company, placing the Apple ][ camp at odds with Macintosh camp, tormenting workers, and being just difficult to deal with. And after Apple, he had NeXT and Pixar, both of which did some useful things.

I myself would choose to pay more to have my apps on a platform that has a very number of consumers that are very willing to pay for apps (even higher priced apps) vs a platform with an arguably larger aggregate number of consumers that don't buy as many apps. Android does have the reputation for being more difficult to make money on, whether it's true or not. I would think a new dev might want to target Windows Phone 8. It's a smaller market sure, but there isn't as much glut in the ecosystem, so one's app would likely stand out better. Even on iOS it can be difficult to find a particular app from amongst the choices. Why wouldn't a dev just be cross platform and use some of that lower cost development on Android to pay for the cost of developing on iPhone anyway?

The author is probably presuming computer equipment, but I'm mostly a musician that dabbles heavily in computer tech enough that I am a bit of a computer geek. In my studio, I still a lot of vintage gear for my sound. I love my vintage Marshall amps and my Laney. My main guitars are a 1957 Les Paul, a 1959 Les Paul, then I have a bunch of '80s era Kramers and Charvel superstrats. I use MXR script pedals often as well as vintage overdrives. These days, a lot of musicians have moved on to all digital effects with a lot of amp modelling, and they're getting pretty good sound. I am gradually moving to computer based production. For a lot of musicians, a Mac laptop or tower running Pro Tools sits alongside amps, pedals, and guitars that are 30+ years old, and you get this anachronistic combination of ancient microphones and new DAWs. Visually, it's enjoyable. I also like vintage synthesizers, particularly the Roland, Korgs, and the Yamaha DX7 keyboard. Today, many keyboardists use computer based synths and samplers to mimic the sounds of these old keyboards. On my iPad alone, I've got a virtual keyboard app that does FM synthesis and may possibly read in the patches from the DX7. I'm also using a virtual app that emulates the old Fairlight CMI. I still have no idea what to do with it.

I still love analog recordings. I in fact prefer them to digital, so I've got a turntable setup that feeds into my desktop, making my music collection a combination of miniDisc, cassettes recorded on a Nak, FLAC and AC3 made from vinyl sources that were run through a tube preamp, and then the regular assortment of MP3/AC3 and FLAC you collect from across the Internet. I'm also a photographer, so I've got a collection of very old manual focus K-mount and F-mount lenses that I use on dSLRs today.

I also still have old game consoles plus DOS era video game diskettes, but most of the software has been virtualized by now, so maybe that doesn't count for much.

I can't say I'm one of those practical types that enjoys reusing old things for the sake of it. I have very few of the many computers I've owned for example. I'm just very much stuck on what I like.

On certain things, yes, every other company does get a free pass. Look at the Foxconn story. To this day, Apple is associated with Foxconn, and every now and then, someone will bring up Apple's labor abuses in China. Nevermind the fact that Microsoft, Google (Motorola), Sony, Nintendo, Samsung, and a slew of other companies have work done by Foxconn in China too. It would at least make me a little happier if journalists would do better to fairly explain who Foxconn are and point out their role in the whole industry. Granted, consumers should do their own research, but after a while the joke gets old, and it becomes tiring hearing about how horrible Apple because of Foxconn from some idiot typing on a Samsung.

Actually, I don't think that was the goal of "Designed by Apple in California". I believe it's been more to stir up emotions about California and California culture. It's a point of pride thing. Made in the USA isn't something I'd associate as mattering to people who buy Apple products. I'm not suggesting Macintosh owners don't love America - I own many Apple products, including many Macs, but for me "Made in USA" is usually at best an empty phrase and at worst a grave concern about quality. This comes from me being a guitarist. All of my Les Paul guitars are made in the USA, particularly Kalamazoo, though I've had a Nashville here and there, maybe a Memphis too. I have had a lot of guitars that had a made in the USA label on them, or some variant. This isn't the official stamped "Made in USA" logo with a flag though that wound up on Wal-Mart type products. In fact, many of these guitars were made in Japan and Korea during the 1980s, then sent to the US to be either assembled or "finished". In fact, some guitar makers would have "Los Angeles, CA" or "Fort Worth" on the neck plates for guitars that were brought over from Korea and Japan.