I agree with everything you said except - Re: laptop popularity - I have no problem playing 2 or 3 year old games on my laptop. Mind you, these are games that I buy at a discount, but they are still A+ titles (just old). I probably just made your point for you but, I've been drinking... "Linux for the PC" - Yep...2009...the year of Linux on the desktop. Indeedy.

The "DDR as exercise" argument is still lost on me. I mean, if "real exercise" is a tedious waste of time, then how does DDR make it better? Beacuse you're dancing/playing a game? Then why not actually dance? I mean with real people and/or with live music (thereby supporting local music and possibly hooking up)? I have the same problem with the esspress-o machines. They have them @ my gym (Sound Mind & Body in Seattle) and the first thing I thought of when I saw them was "How can I hack this?". I thought that because these thing are serve me better as Intellectual Exercise than as real physical exercise. I go to the gym to pedal a stationary bike because it's raining out and I can't ride my "real" bike. I sit at home playing Quake Wars because I'm done exercising and want to take a break from reality. Taking a break from reality (gaming) is mutually exclusive from exercise (reality). I could say the same thing about sport and drinking, except you nerds would just throw Rugby in my face. Damn you nerds!!!!