Apple are assholes, not cowards. They probably didn't approve the movie because something is the wrong color, or because it competes with their own movie, or because it has product-placement ads but Sony hasn't yet agreed to give Apple 30% of the ad revenue.

You know that more people than J. J. Abrams have used lens flares, right? And that the lens flares in B5 that you love so much were added digitally?

Partly right, partly wrong.

AT&T has publicly announced that it would like to abandon the old copper POTS network by 2020. And, yes, that means not upgrading something that they are trying to get rid of. The company's stated goal is to have fiber in the vast majority of areas by then to replace the copper, although I think at least in most cases the copper will still be the actual physical connection at your home or building's NID.

But the reason is almost certainly not to push cellular broadband on a wide scale. Cellular uses up a finite resource of very expensive wireless spectrum. It's much better to transport fixed phone and data over fiber, and save that spectrum and capacity for mobile users. The main reason to get rid of the all-copper (TDM) infrastructure I believe, is that if you are limited to DS-3 backhaul into an area, at best it only lets you sell phone or DSL service, whereas a fiber-driven infrastructure (all the way to the curb, or at least fiber to the neighborhood and copper for the very last leg of the trip) lets you sell cable TV services, high-speed Internet, etc. That's what FiOS and Uverse are.

From what I understand, the idea is only to push cellular broadband as a replacement for USF obligations where it is cost prohibitive to run fiber (think rural areas). That at least would make much more sense than trying to get everyone to go wireless when you have a perfectly good wireline connection to use.

Thats true! Santa only exists if you dont look. If you do look, he wont be there, and somewhere a cat in a box dies.

Jackie Chan is so many forms of awesome that it's not funny. (Well, no, actually.. he's funny too.) And you have provided Yet Another in the long list of ways he is awesome: as an example for why video fidelity is a good thing rather than a bad thing. (Which you'd think would be obvious, but some people don't get it. Until you mention Jackie Chan.)

If that's truly the case, then motion blur will be added digitally where it enhances the action, just as lens flares are now.

There is a difference though, the 24fps frames makes up for the low frame rate with motion blur. If the new digital HFR doesn't have that it will always feel like you're watching a baseball game instead of a swordfight.

Wait, am I watching the sword fight live, or recorded on obsolete media? And does the same go for the baseball game?

You inadvertently put your finger on the truth: that a sword fight should look like a baseball game.

The irony is that they are in the hospitality business!

It's funny. Many small hotel/motel chains offer free wifi and internet. But the big chains charge for it. Then if you set up a hotspot with your phone, they want to block that, forcing you to use their overpriced internet. They claim they have to cover their cost, but somehow the small chains cover their cost and don't even charge for it.

Not to defend Comcast here, because they do have shitty customer service generally. But the state of customer service is what it is because people generally aren't willing to pay for more. Better service = hiring more reps and/or building better customer service tools = more costs which will be passed on to the customer. Sure, they could be Good Guys and decide to spend more on customer care and not increase your bill to do it - but honestly what consumer services company out there ever does that?

You can get better customer service... you just have to pay for it. Try signing up for a business class service, and you'll see a world of difference. But, again, you have to be willing to pay for it. It's just like with airlines - everyone complains about the crappy seats and paying for soda. But you can get nice seats and free booze on the plane... but you have to pay for a first class ticket. The vast majority of us (myself included) say we want better service but we refuse to put our money where our mouths are and pay for it.

Most employers don't care which specific hotel you stay at, so long as it's within a particular budget. I doubt most employers are going to want employees staying at a hotel that - oh - blocks cellular signals for employees they're trying to contact, and I also doubt that IT employers are going to appreciate blocked wifi.

"I wish to sue Thomas Paine for the damage he has done to the British people." -- Horace Edwards, if he'd lived in the 1770s.

Can you name the brilliant invention, that was made to solve the problem of people like Horace Edwards? It was called America! Fuck yeah!

Honestly, I don't play a lot of Origin games (mostly steam, though they're similar in concept), but it's still a vast improvement over what I had previously in many cases. Multiple discs, serial keys, etc. My biggest complaint is the lack of multiplayer servers. At least with previous games of Battlefield etc you could host your own - on a Linux server even - but now you pretty much have to buy hosting and older games pretty much die out. That's more designed obsolescence than DRM though.

If I don't say "yes", the answer is NO. Period.

I hope the secret code is 'shibboleet'.