Steam at least brings something to the table - fast downloads, huge catalog, chat and matchmaking, workshop, community forums, etc.

SecuROM just breaks shit.

There's probably some license thingy hidden away somewhere that mentions it in a vague fashion.

AFAIK it's a wrapper. It loads itself in RAM, decrypts the actual game binary, and runs it's code. I think there are hooks available for use, as well (think "level 25 boss has infinite health if integrity check fails")

You're missing the point entirely.

The problem is that it is there. Period. End of story.

Why would russia need to stay saddled with that boat anchor?

Bring everyone back down, and just leave it. It's constantly aerobraking anyway, without recurring thruster maneuvers it will meet it's end.

Hmm, so if your target was someone who has been killing innocent people, and the three choices for you were:
1. Ignore it and hope the target just decides to stop
2. Go in with ground force, with all the casualties on both sides that would result
3. Drop a bomb to wipe out the threat with as little casualties as possible

You're telling me #3 isn't the better choice here? Because it is... and because it is, that's what happens. When it happens, are you trying to say you'd rather we drop fuel-air bombs in crowded neighborhoods instead of precision munitions? Because I have to say the controlled destruction is just a teensy bit better than blowing the whole neighborhood to shit...

I should retract that. After finding my old forum post about this, I realized that it's been quite some time. I've since got new hardware, moved on to Windows 8, etc... and possibly they have updated their build too.

In any case, the freaking thing ran fine out of the box. I am absurdly happy right now!

Sometimes all that crashing happens anyway. Try to play IWAR on anything build in the last 10 years... good luck! If you manage it, do let me know because I REALLY would love to play that.

I think this is appropriate.

You don't need to know why, because what they were measuring is what steers the reasoning. You either have the emotional response or you don't.

True, but this isn't the case. In the case of the dead fish, they didn't filter the results (google "multiple comparisons correction") and got bullshit data because of it.

All that proves is why multiple comparisons correction is so important, and why everyone uses it.

You didn't actually read the article you linked to, did you?

Hell, even if traffic laws didn't, running out into the highway (or just stopping your car on it) is not exactly safe. The nice thing to do would be to rescue the thing, but not at significant risk to your own health/life.

Even if that were true (not going to beat a dead horse there) all it takes is one (unfortunate for us, fortunate for the virus) mutation to throw that out the window.