A while back, I bought Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II on Steam. I didn't notice it was saddled with Games for Windows Live, or else I wouldn't have bought it. Oh well. So I go into it and hook it up with my existing Xbox Live gamer tag. And I play. And everything works fine.

A while later, my girlfriend decides she wants to watch a movie. So she turns on the Xbox in the living room. And I get kicked out of the game I'm playing on my PC, because the Xbox is set to automatically sign in under my name when it's turned on.

And so now I wrote a greasemonkey script that warns me whenever any Steam game mentions 3rd-party DRM or Games for Windows Live.

But... yeah. This is definitely something Valve needs to sort out if they're going to try and push a set-top box.

I loved The Brothers' War. Great novelization of some poorly-codified mythology.

Also got one of these. I've been wearing it for 3 or 4 years now. It's comfortable, but most of its features are rather lackluster. The zippers on the pockets are rather persnickety and tend to stick, and there are little threads all over the place that come loose.

The biggest reason I bought it was for the headphone integration. It really doesn't work well. The velcro tabs to hold the cord are tiny and somehow manage to both be insecure and yet sometimes grip too tightly and cause snags. I now just keep the earbuds in my pocket when not in use, and wear them normally when in use.

I still use it, though. It's warm, comfortable, and I love that the main pockets are magnet-fastened. I don't use any of the other pockets at all.

My next vest won't be by them, and I wouldn't recommend it.

Video games really just shift the problem. The ESA (which until very recently supported SOPA, against many of its largest members' public whims) could very well be the MAFIAA of the future.

The problem isn't Hollywood, the problem isn't even industry groups... The problem is publishers. Music labels, in particular, need to die a quick death.

Kill the book publishers. Kill the music labels. Kill the movie studios. Kill the video game publishers. The latter two, I realize, might not quite be feasible yet, as the economics are such that it's really not possible for an unknown group to fund themselves for a large movie or game project, but in the case of books and music? They serve no purpose whatsoever anymore, and are just parasites sucking money out of those they represent, putting impediments in front of those they sell to, and slowing down the pace of technology and innovation.

I really enjoyed the This American Life episode mentioned in the summary, and one of the things I found really interesting was the second part.

The first part was all about the terrible conditions the guy found at Foxcon and other manufacturers. The second part was all about what we should take away from this.

The general concensus is that, yeah, these factories are terrible, but they're actually a step up from the abject poverty the 3rd world would otherwise be in. Even more surprising, things are improving. Factories are starting, ever so slowly, to compete with each other for workers, and that means they're easing off on hours and otherwise making incremental improvements to the workers' quality of life.

This isn't to say that we should be okay with how the workers are treated. Simply that, given a choice between no sweatshops or sweatshops as they currently exist, the workers are actually better off with the sweatshops. And sweatshops are really the first step on the ladder of development. The industrialized Western countries went through very similar pains during the industrial revolution. In a few generations, Chinese working conditions might actually look a lot more like turn-of-the-century American working conditions, even without outside pressure.

Not a direct quote, done from memory, but yes, American Gods. The key thing here, in my mind, is the point of pride. That, if nothing else, is unique to Gaiman's anecdote.

Here's an old 2-man scam for you.

The two of you are eating at a restaurant, separately. The first of you is dressed decently--not super well, but not shabby-- and has an old-looking violin. Personally, I make it a point of pride never to spend more than $10 on the violin. Anyways, after the meal, lament that you've forgotten your wallet, but here, hold onto my violin as collateral, and I'll be back in an hour.

After you leave, the second fellow pulls aside the waiter and asks to inspect the violin. He then declares that this is a genuine so-and-so, worth thousands, and you'd be ever-so-interested in buying it and when did the violinist say he'd return? Oh no! I can't wait that long, I've a plane to catch. Here, give the man my card and let him know that I'm very interested in his violin.

When the first person returns, the waiter in all likelihood will offer whatever he can scrounge up, perhaps a few hundred dollars, for the violin, keeping the other gentleman's offer to himself. The worst case scenario, the waiter simply passes the card along and you're out no more than the cost of lunch.

(Kudos if you know where this is from)

Again, dude, you're talking to the wrong guy. I'm the one that gets the emails when you reply to me. You want to focus your ire up the thread a bit.

Actually, I'm reacting to someone who couldn't see an obvious implication. You should take up your beef with the however-many-greats grandparent post.

"It was Apple's idea!"

"Star Trek"