Spliffs are better before dinner, to enhance the meal. Of course, you can always smoke before AND after, that's usually what I do.

and all those videos of the cut scenes from Armored Core getting passed off as gameplay. Hell, there were videos of George Lucas saying the PS2 could render Episode I. I knew tonnes and tonnes of people who bought Sony's hype and didn't get a Dreamcast.

And as someone who's burned discs in 2001 I wouldn't call piracy on the Dreamcast easy. You needed specific burning software, good quality discs and the know how to find isos. You've just taken out 95% of the market for piracy.

On the other hand Sega's Dreamcast marketing was terrible. They had the best looking games of all time and what did they do? Sonic rappin' with NBA Stars... Dear lord, what a mess.

where the heck have you been. Here's a list of just some of the excellent games Sega made since the Dreamcast:

Virtua Fighter 4
Outrun 2/2006
Virtua On Marz
Yakuza (multiple games)
Aliens vs Predator
Aliens: Isolation
The entire Total War Series
Sonic Colors
Sonic Generations
Hell Yeah: Wrath of the Undead Rabbit
Project Diva
Seventh Dragon.

I could go on. Yeah, Sega let some stinkers. But so did EA. See my post elsewhere in the thread for what really killed them.

for all the complaining about how bad Sonic Boom is people forget that Sonic 2006 was wildly profitable. From a business standpoint it's hard to argue with that. Sonic Boom is awful, but not much worse/glitchy than 2006 was. Then there's Aliens:Colonial Marines. Gear Box ripped them off. Period. It's painfully obvious that they took Sega's money and spent it on Borderlands 2. It would cost more to litigate that than Sega would ever get back though, so they're screwed. You could argue Sega should have kept a closer eye on Gearbox, but games like Aliens:CM were Gearbox's bread and butter. It's ridiculous that they'd pull that on Sega, since it pretty much burns every bridge they'll ever have in the industry. But then again who would have thought something as mediocre as Borderlands (which I like, but let's face it, it's just really, really OK) would be one of the biggest games of last gen.

So what else has Sega done wrong since the Saturn? Yes, the Saturn/32x were epic, epic failures. I guess there was Shenmue, but honestly that could have been it's generation's Grand Theft Auto.

Now, what's _really_ killing Sega is the same thing that's killing _all_ Japanese game makers: US and European companies are eating them alive. Heck, bloody Farcry 4 is selling well in Japan. Meanwhile Final Fantasy games are doing so-so.

There's a video blog that did a good video on it, I think it's here but I might have the wrong video. Either way the kinds of games the Japanese did best have been taken over by the likes of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

There is also some potential increase of security:

Unlike (nearly) every card(*), the phone is a device that has its own display and input interface.
Meaning that you don't need to trust the payment terminal(**).
- No risk of skimmer trying to read you PIN: you're typing it into your own phone, not on the terminal which could have been hacked/modded.
- You can trust the amount displayed (again, you are reading your own phone's screen, so even if the terminal is hacked to display a lower sum and actually bill a higher sum, you'll notive the discrepancies).

Also, the phone has connectivity, which allows out-of-band confirmation for the transaction (***).

Thus, the device is protected against fraud that could menace a classical card.
- hacked terminals showing bogus transaction amounts, or trying to record your PIN.
- hackers trying to relay a transaction (small amount are "tap/swap only": no signature neither PIN asked. It's possible to use a powerful antena pointed at a wireless credit card to remotely use it and relay communication to a terminal).

Saddly, the phones have their own problems:
- they eat batteries like candy (even wireless credit card transaction are remotely powered by the terminal. Whereas a dead phone is dead and can't be used for paying).
- again, they are conencted. Which means that they could be compromised themselves. (Specially since people tend to install tons of crap).

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(*): I've seen banks issuing cards used for e-banking that have a build-in screen and keypad. Similar devices are in theory possible on a credit card.

(**): lots of e-banking card reader do exactly that: you can check on the screen what you are asked to sign.

(***): That's a security feature that's also offered by combining classical credit cards and separate connected device. I can be asked to confirm by SMS / by voice call when the bank detects unusual traffic on my credit card.

Even in public stalking is still illegal.

No, HIPPA doesn't cover you plastering your own information all over the internet.

And they SUCKED!

Sega learned the hard way one of the eternal laws of gaming: Gimmicks and buzzwords are a great starter, but they're a poor sticker. They may let you sell a few units, but once the new car smell is off, players will want to, ya know, be able to play their games.

For reference, see all the various recent "real life input" bullshit, from WiiMote to Kinect. MS caught on and realized that gimmicks ain't selling. Let's hope Nintendo will before it's too late.

Well, corporations don't give a shit about their customers, why should their customers give a shit about them? Whoever delivers what I want is who I buy from.

Well, I might reconsider if it's Sony and wonder "ok, how're they gonna screw me over?", but in general...

Just paint the earth white - works during ice ages.

You speak for everyone?

Please. You speak for 5% of the planet. The other 95% is far too apathetic to give a shit.

Tough to believe the IDGAF factor is that high when it comes to privacy? OK, let me know how many millions of people around the planet refuse to carry a cell phone next month when this hits the evening news.

The temperature also dropped.

Honestly, the whole "Climate Change" thing was to explain that "it's not really global warming"; now they want to stop climate change by cooling the earth. ... So. Global Warming.

This kind of tampering would be a disaster.

Mental instability, irrationality, and other issues would cause global nuclear destruction. Hostility is a problem. On the other hand, aggression is the driver that prevents the world from stagnating; remove aggression entirely and nobody would even mate, causing a collapse of the human species.

Bullshit (and I say this as a compiler writer). Very few compilers do anything with data layout at all (some JVMs do, to a limited degree, because they live in a closed world) and none outside of a few research projects will replace one data structure with another. What compiler are you using that will replace and XOR linked list or a skip list with something more efficient?

The belief in the compiler as a magic box that can turn a crappy algorithm into a good one is one of the things that a computer science education is meant to disabuse students of.