If it is Apple, you must buy all your content from us and can only be watched on iSomething. We will say when and how you watch it as well

I am pretty much the same way, Games, Apps, Drivers. I have done things with my PC's beyond the PC, like home automation, I can turn lights on and off in other rooms etc. None of this runs on Linux so basically I would be back in the dark ages of having to use a light switch. Yes I am being serious, this is not an attempt at humor. I do like Ubuntu but lets face it. I am a developer for a global fortune 500 company. I develop all kinds of stuff for windows servers from services and websites and add ons. I am beginning to do android development for apps and things but my whole company is windows, I develop for windows, I have more tools and software available for windows, so I run windows at home. Like I said I like Ubuntu, but there is no real compelling reason for me to switch. I don't hate Windows, I don't hate Linux, I do not like Apple though. I wouldn't mind the OS and stuff but the fact your stuck in their world at their mercy just turns me away. If I switched to Linux all my purchased apps that are available in Linux I would have to repurchase. No I am not going to go spend hours downloading and installing free versions trying to find one that can meet my needs. So like I said there is no real compelling reason for me to switch.

I am betting none of the music you purchased was Beiber or Spears. Perhaps if they were all like you we would finally get some good music. I am 40 now and I used to purchase a lot of music. A cassette tape then CD a week. I still buy music once in a while, but maybe 5-6 albums a year. Simply because most new pop music sucks. This month is the first month I purchased 2 new albums in the same month in a very long time. Five Finger Death Punch and Evanescence both released new albums this month. However there is nothing else I am looking forward to. If you are wondering, no I do not just like metal. I like classical and some rap and a wide variety. Just no country twang stuff. Still only maybe 5-6 albums a year are even appealing to me. I will buy music if they make good music. Also they really need to find a new way to market music. Radio stations have also gone away for me in the midwest. I stream radio from LA now. Most radio here went pop, country twang, or sports talk radio. When I was younger MTV used to play music videos, and I would watch and listen and find new bands and new music. However that path of advertising music has gone away. So if it doesn't stream anywhere I don't know it exists.

When I went to get my droid device and switch from Windows Mobile way back when. I was on AT&T, I would have stayed with them as well except they had 2 Droid devices at the time and they had not only changed but locked in Yahoo as the only search engine. You couldn't change it. So I switched to Verizon. Anyway the Android operating system not only can have the search changed by the manufacturer, but also by the provider. So not sure why there even would be an investigation in the matter.

I would suspect your right in they are trying to play the exclusivity thing. However, it doesn't work if you are a Google apps account either, you have to create a profile first. However, the Google profiles don't work with Google Apps accounts. So after going round and round trying to sign up, I finally said meh, and went on my merry way. Personally, I am already sick and tired of all the buzz and news and articles on Google+ either let me in or quit interrupting my regular news with vapor ware. I am honestly reminded of Duke Nukem Forever, lot of hype, lot of talk, but sorry only certain select few can see it. I don't mind it being in beta, but public beta would be better.

Well the big problem and difference here is, your electric company does send huge surges of power to your house and force you to pay for them because someone else thought it was a good idea. Specifically I am referring to advertising. When you go to a majority of pages if you look at the actual data size and what comes through on a page the actual content is minuscule as far as data. However Flash ridden advertisements and JavaScript making call backs to the servers and things is what is chewing up your bandwidth. So why should I pay for advertisers to send me things? First things that going to happens is you are going to see apps being built that actually start refusing connection to advertising sites and blacklisting DNS services to advertisers. I know I will be looking into this because I am not paying for some advertiser to send me adds. I have created massive host files to block advertising servers before and this might actually be a great startup business for someone. Right now you don't care about huge flash ads cause they cost you nothing. Now you have to start paying for them because what would you want your usage spent on ads or the stuff you want. Second, information is power. The more information and data you have at your fingertips the more powerful you can be. What you will see here is Rich getting more powerful because they can afford more data real time. Take a stock broker for example. Getting multiple emails, data on stocks and exchange rates sent to his or her tablet constantly. Powerful tools right there. However, the richer person will now have this access and this data because they can afford it, the poorer person can not.

I would agree. I ordered the Zune HD myself and should be at home when I get there. One of the guys in my office and I have been debating all day, he is an iPod zealot. The last argument was to me the most hysterical but the most scary in showing how biased some people are. I am an Admin, and I run both windows servers and Linux servers depending on what the business need dictates. I prefer windows for my day to day work, quite simple because it is easier to use and I have a ton more utilities, self developed and free I can use. Please note I am not a republican in any way shape or form and he knows it. He actually said to me. "This made me think of politics. Youâ(TM)re a Right-Wing Republican (Windows Lover). A person who is a full-blown Mac Geek zealot would be a Left-Wing Hippie Democrat. I guess that makes me an Independent as I like my 360, love my iPod and iTunes, can settle for Office and am stuck with crappy Vista." Which I quickly corrected him. The Apple is in comparison a republican party. A small group of people that want to dictate exactly what you can do and not only that but exactly how you can do it. I never thought of them like that until this day and well it gave me insight to the mind of the Mac Zealot, they do not want to think of themselves like that, they like to think of themselves as having another choice than windows, I also pointed out to him he could go to Windows XP if he wanted or Windows 7 or Linux, but if he wants a mac he must buy mac hardware from mac at a super high price. Which I guess growing up working on mainframes, Apple 2, even Trash 80's, watching the browser war and so on and I know competition is a great thing and I know I have a choice. Which is why when my 4th create Zen device died choose not to get an iPod and to try the new Zune. Which offers open development through the XNA platform, yes it does look it up. Not only that the developer are allowed to share ideas and not be quelched. The docking station so you can watch hd movies from your zen device on your TV doesn't make a bit of sense to me though. I have an HD TiVo with Access to downloads from Netflix and Amazon. Why would I want to download a movie to my zune then plug it into my TV.

History Channel or maybe Biography Channel has a 2 hour special on Les Paul a couple years ago I watched with amazement and how interesting the guy was. They told a lot of funny stories about him as well. Like one of the houses he owned before he had a studio he would wander around the house looking for the best acoustic place to play for his enjoyment. They also showed a lot of his inventions that I have used but never knew he invented. I would imagine this show would be airing again soon. If you get a chance to see it, check it out.

Actually that whole area in Chicago is great, there is also the Field Museum of history, the Shed Aquarium and the Planetarium all withing walking distance. I would seriously plan on a few days to see them all. Also get a Chicago City Pass, it is like $70 or $80 per person but gets you into all these places free and also you go right to the front of the line. I have seen general admission lines take over an hour wher City Pass gets you right in.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

I would totally agree with this. I mean I fit the demographic, I am male, in my 30's now own my own home, car, and I am employed with job security. What is keeping me from buying games.

Simply 2 things.
1. There are no new games out that sound any fun.
2. Game that are out that I want are DRM loaded and I am waiting for them to come to their senses.

That's it. Its that simple. There are games I want to buy and play but the DRM keeps me away from buying them they can thank Sony for me not wanting to install DRM crap to screw up my computer. So if you put DRM in it, to prevent piracy, you keep the honest person away not wanting the extra crap. The latest Grand Theft Auto was the first one of the GTA series I never bought. I wanted to buy it and I hate to leave that line behind but DRM, bleh.

I did buy 2 games in the month of June, they were older out of print games put up on Ebay. Why because I wanted to play those games when they came out but at that time something else was going on in my life and I have so far enjoyed those games.

Also games are becoming less fun and more just wow graphics. I still to this day play the first Age of Empires. It was very strategic and well thought out, the graphics sucked but I wasn't in it for the graphics and some of the games would take 8-10 hours to complete you had the ability to go in create new terrains and random maps was never the same terrain twice, ever, after all these years. The new AOE games, pale in comparison. They have funky cool 3d graphics but the same lands and terrains over and over again. Once you learn a terrain there is no challenge anymore. AOE 1 In the most difficult modes I can still get my ass kicked by the computer once in a while. The new AOE, within a month it is mastered and of no use, so I quit buying those lines. Supposedly there is a new Thief game coming out, and I always loved the Thief lines, this is one of my favorite lines ever. But if they put DRM in it I will not buy it.

Not much however the user interface wasn't as drastically changed version to version. Same for office until office 2007. When we rolled out office 2007 we did do a lot of in house training, with 3000+ users you have to train, while some won't need it others will. Even though I am a computer programmer and use Vista at home I find something as simple as windows explorer in Vista to be overly cumbersome, clunky and never gives me what I want to see. Then the windows side bar, as a computer programmer I have it disabled it is useless CPU and memory wasters. However average joe user would load this up with all kinds of crap, adding network traffic, and then calling and complaining to the helpdesk that their computer was slow. We are just now rolling out IE7, and yes there are training classes, and instructions and all kinds of other issue to work out just doing that upgrade. For example one we didn't expect was right after you restart from the install IE Opens, well we have a lot of users that for some reason it is coming up telling them that IE is not the default browser would they like to enable it. This little freaking error cause a whole office to shut down for an hour because one guy got it and announced to everyone out loud in the cube farm that this thing doesn't work there are problems and no one reboot their computers. He then called up management and started complaining, creating more of a problem himself than had he just clicked yes and went on with his life. Users are collectively stupid and a minor change to their working environment and all hell breaks loose. This is what makes IT people hesitant to change.

I totally agree, Why can't they just use real trees. You drive by the GM truck plant in Fort Wayne Indiana, and they litterally bulldozed hundreds of acres of trees to build a plant that now sits empty, the plant is now surrounded by wide open grass. My point is they cleared way more land than needed for the plant. .See for yourself We have done this all over, what about cemetaries. They clear this land and keep it flat because it is easier to mow over. Really, how often do you visit a grave. How often will your children's, children visit your mothers grave are you really leaving them anything? When I go plant me in the ground and plant a big old oak tree on me. I will leave my kids cleaner air and heck maybe a tree to use to build furniture someday or a house.

Actually, there is a business model by one author that seems to be working, I would say it is a rare working model and not everyone could pull it off. Sci-Fi author Scott Sigler runs a successful blog. His blog basically started off his writing career. He would blog short sci fi stories, and yes they were free, but he built up a fan base, so when he went to publish his first book it sold very well even though he publish the whole book for free on his blog as well. He has since published several books and a DVD of all his pod casts. How I personally view this much like a rock star, there are millions of people that play an instrument, very few make a living doing it, and even fewer strike it rich. Same with blogging.