I think this is where Android's diversity gets it into a few different categories. At the high-end market, Android is for the technical elite. I can run a python interpreter and do some programming and run some custom apps that take advantage of the more arguably powerful hardware and hardware feature set that high Android phones offer vs iPhone and low end Androids. At the mid to low end market, Android is for consumers who just want to consume media and easily download apps. The statement that Android out-selling iPhone by a large margin requires at least an asterisk. There is only one iPhone, and there are many many Androids with many performance-minded Android owners often buying new Androids multiple times in a year.

I agree that Android isn't *for* the technical elite. It clearly wears many hats, but I also believe it's a likely a smaller subset of Android customers that actually has any more freedom with their Android than I have on my iPhone. In my social circle for example, no one I know runs custom firmware or do anything that really takes full advantage of their Androids. All that power, and they're mostly just playing Angry Birds and doing Facebook. I have python on my iPhone. I've used my iPhone as practice guitar amp and a synth for composing music (work) when I didn't have access to my regular gear. I'm admittedly more on the techie side of iPhone users.

Might I interest you in Logan's Run, the TV Series? It comes complete with enough "pow pow" effects to make you want to "renew" right away with a shotgun.

Thank you! I had no idea about GoG. Looked it up and I've just found Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon. I can't imagine how a game from 1994 will run on a 2013 system, especially a Mac, but the site claims it will.

Actually it is, but Steve's involvement is security clearance ultraviolet, citizen.

People who know nothing about Steve Jackson's work... and possibly the Discordian Society.

As a huge fan of MST3K, I think their diligence is what's kept us fans from getting a complete MST3K DVD collection. There's a lot of separate licenses to work out and some of the original film makers weren't happy having their movies laughed at. I think Rifftrax is also doing some licensing as well. I distinctly remember getting the riff track for Twilight immediately after the DVD was released, which sort of implies that maybe they at least got to view a screener.

No. It's analogous to you sitting at a table and playing Monopoly, then uploading a video of that gameplay, only to have Parker Brothers hijack your ad revenue. Gameplay video differs from TV and movie uploads in that, for consumers, the latter is the goal itself –– to watch the TV program or movie. For a game consumer, gameplay video isn't the goal. Gamers want to play the game, not watch a video of another person playing the game. Yes, the gameplay video involves copyright protected content, without which one couldn't make this new content, and so there is the temptation to argue that gameplay video is a derivative work; still, gameplay video is very clearly within the spirit of Fair Use. This should be especially apparent in the case of YouTube game reviewers or game commentators. If it were not, then I suppose I would be infringing just by playing a video game in front of a bunch of people. The fact that gameplay videos are free promotions for game publishers probably shouldn't have much weight since it's anyone's right to decide how they want to promote their product, but in any case, the threshold at which Nintendo suddenly takes over is curious. How many frames of video must feature a Nintendo product before Nintendo can take the ad revenue? What happens if I'm a video game reviewer and I show clips of gameplay from both Sony and Nintendo content? Will that result in a threeway battle over ad money between Nintendo, Sony, and me?

I get what you're saying. It's not technically bribery to reward someone for going through with what they already planned to. You haven't induced them to doing anything; however, people talk, and if politician A gets a huge "bonus reward" from a contributor for doing a thing, it's probably that politician B will be inclined to seek that reward to by following along. After a while, if enough politicians do this, junior politicians M, N, and O might vote in agreement under peer pressure. Going back to A, big contributors rarely have just a single issue that care about once. It's very likely that, having already gotten a bonus, politician A will be further inclined to continue receiving these bonuses and will thus base his positions on what that contributor wants. Therefore, that initial generosity becomes a seed that will inevitably turns into bribery.

I played WoW and EVE Online for a while, but ended up returning to multiplayer FPSs for the first time since Doom 2 because I was looking for a more competitive sports-like experience, as shallow as that may be compared to what you can achieve with EVE. I play Call of Duty Black Ops and Battlefield. The network effect will keep me playing and will lead me to buy the next round of gaming consoles. I don't want to suggest that WoW should in any way aspire to be more COD-like; I'm just saying that I stay with multiplayer gaming, but chose a different style of play.

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).