But the key thing here is that most people do not care if the device is closed and limited - their needs for it are limited too. The average person does not need a computer, they just need something that lets them perform a limited amount of functions (mostly email and social networking), and a tablet can be put in your pocket or purse.

Thats a hard sell to the folks of /. of course, for whom the computer is an important tool they use heavily in a lot of cases for a variety of purposes that go beyond mere social networking crap.

I have a desktop that I do creative things on and play complex games on, I have a tablet that I use as my e-reader, and to play a few simple games etc. Each to its own purpose.

Hmm, that seems awkward. You would think there would be some sort of relationship between the two rating methods.

Wow, I have never seen a score of "0, Insightful" before this.

During the period after the old show was canceled (when the movie with Paul McGann came out), and the new revived series, they have set a whackload of Dr Who adventures starring Paul McGann's iteration of the doctor. They are radio-plays effectively, available here: http://www.bigfinish.com/

There are also recorded episodes for a pile of other popular but now defunct TV shows. My wife has listened to a ton of these and says they are very well recorded, full cast stories.

If you count these, Paul McGann has likely done more Dr Who stories than most of the other actors playing the Doctor :P

Check out http://www.swgemu.com/ if you hadn't noticed it exists. You need your old install disks, but its free, and its SWG as of Patch 14.1 - or will be once they are done rewriting it. Currently much of it exists and is functioning, and its receiving regular improvements.

And these are all problems that have come up in previous games, been resolved, and then ignored in modern games.

I think the problem is mostly the players mind you, people do not want to group, do not want to PvE and learn the skills, they want to PvP and be Uber right away. Developers are catering to this because of course they want the number of players to increase and they think simplifying a game and making it soloable will do so, but I think thats a mistake in the long run.

The MMORPGs I have stuck with the longest have been those in which it was fun to group up to face a challenge, in which there were enjoyable PvE experiences and PvP (if any) was an add on as the end game. The best example of this, bar none, was Dark Age of Camelot. Best PvP game ever, despite its flaws, and a decent PvE experience at least early on. As it aged though, they made leveling up 100x easier, ignored the PvE side for the most part, and made changes to the game that were in many ways damaging to it, based on feedback from players who after all, are *not* game designers.

Yeah, what would actually happen is somewhere between what is legally supposed to be possible under US and international laws and what has actually happened in the past that was in no way legal. Given the choice, I would assume that the US Government would do whatever the fuck it wanted and completely ignore the laws. Assange would be in Gitmo inside of 24 hrs, never to be seen again.
The fact that he is not a US citizen and has broken no laws since he isn't subject to US law unless he is inside the US, is completely irrelevant.

that way if we make a programming error we can just comment "Bad Wolf" (too much exposure to Dr Who recently) :P

Very well said. The best form of government it seems to me, is the one that grants the government only the power and authority it needs to function and no more - as defined by the citizens not the government :P

Look up "Sin of Onan" then you will see the wordplay involved :P

and if they had made encryption the default - they would have handed over the keys to the NSA anyways.

It only takes a few years after something wonderful is invented for somebody else to come along and make their livelihood by fucking up the wonderful new thing.

I would like to think these sockpuppet firms would get their asses sued into the ground somehow but I can't see that happening. In fact I think increasingly you cannot trust any opinion in any comments these days because there is so much of this shit going on everywhere.

The first mistake we made was in allowing commercial enterprises on the 'net :P

Those of us who are capable of living outside of the war to control resources, are able to do so because someone else is waging that war for us.

The coming wars will be not only over hydrocarbons, but over water. Since a large percentage of the world's politicians and industries are hell-bent on ignoring or denying the climate change we see around us, water is going to become a very important resource and a cause for future conflicts - along with food of course since we are denuding the oceans of their life as well.

When that happens you do want *your* society to be able to do something about protecting your resources from those who will take them. the more we can do to make fighting over resources unnecessary the better, but our whole capitalist system is founded on harvesting and selling resources to gain money and power. I don't see that changing so conflict is inevitable as an outcome of our economic system.

Sadly, I honestly expect it will take the deaths of a few *billion* people over the next 40 years or so for us to find a different way, if we ever do. Mind you if enough people are slaughtered by our ignorance and willful stupidity, a lot of the resource pressure will go away. Its just the wrong way to resolve things.

Until they get used for Riot Control, or sold to dictatorships for the same etc.

Plus of course a lot of sensational tragedies - shootings in schools come to mind - are likely perpetrated at least in part *because* those responsible know they will reach everlasting fame (albeit negative fame) at the hands of those very news services that report on them.

We need news services but we might benefit if they returned to actual reporting and research rather than merely over the top sensationalism.