The 5.1 "up-mixed" sources I hear now allow me a contextual basis to better understand the initial complaints over bad stereo upmixes of mono sources from the 1960s.

I listened to a classic album (The Doors - Waiting for the Sun) from a 5.1 source. It sounded like you were in the middle of a large studio, with each performer about 30 feet away from you, each coming out on one single channel, for the most part. It was horribly, horribly gimmicky and awful sounding. But, much like the initial move from mono to stereo, I'm sure albums or performances originally recorded with 5.1 in mind are going to be better than these gimmicky up-mixes which are a lot like the after-the-fact 3D processing a lot of movies are getting today.

Generally, though, if I had a choice between stereo and 5.1 and neither was just a gimmicky version of the other, I'd take the stereo version. It's more convenient, you're not always in front of a 5.1 system.

Agreed. The intellectual property cartel is supporting laws like SOPA, PROTECT-IP and the OPEN Act not because they are innovators, but because they have failed to innovate, and are looking for legal means to protect them from the failure of their increasingly irrelevant business models.

I don't know about the T series, but the SC series of PE machines have 8x slots that have dividers which prevent use of 16x cards in them.

Interestingly, this can be solved by a heated blade and a heated screwdriver.

I don't really understand the ES fanboy position. I played and enjoyed Morrowind, until I got bored of it because of poor plot pacing.

Oblivion lost me in the first six hours due to poor quest mechanics - I got to a point where I was supposed to be somewhere (poorly specified) at a certain time (poorly specified) and kill a certain guy (poorly specified). When it didn't work, I waited for the same time of night, and broke into the house, after about 30 tries, and of course there was nobody inside it. Instead, I just wandered around freestyle, kept bumping into stuff that wasn't relevant to any quest or side-quests I had, got bored, and never played the game again.

Frankly, the best thing that ever happened to the Oblivion engine was Fallout 3; I knew there was potential for a good game in there.

Skyrim is going to be more of the same: fantastic engine, huge world, and poor plot pacing and quest mechanics. Having just finished Dead Island, I'm not much in the mood for another profoundly broken game with regards to quest mechanics.

> Their position on why used record stores aren't stealing is that "games are budgeted on the assumption of no used game sales, and books and albums aren't.

Their position on why used record stores aren't stealing is that "we aren't making records".

If games are budgeted on the premise that there are no used sales, it sounds like a piss-poor business model to me, akin to budgeting socks on the assumption that people have three feet. Used video game sales are nothing new; it shouldn't be anything new to Penny Arcade or its fanboys, either.

...and the first to be replaced. So, whatever Microsoft decides to do with the file manager is pretty irrelevant to me. I say this as someone generally pretty happy with Windows 7 otherwise.

I'd be happier if Apple had patented a way to make the cable-end-to-wire connection less prone to damage. That's been a perennial problem for decades.

I'm going to assume that the OED isn't going to lose any of your business, because you're not in the market for one.

For all of that, I'm a descriptivist, and don't consider "fucking" to be improper grammar or any of that stuffy prescritivist nonsense, but you don't strike me as someone who sees the value in having an exhaustive historical research tool such as the OED handy.

I do, but I can't afford it. So in the end, we're more equal than I'd like.

...for anything related to Blackberry?

When I had a Blackberry, I was astounded at how there were almost no apps, how terrible the browser was, the low build quality (three clit transplants in two years? really?), and how horribly obtuse configuring just about anything with it was.

The only thing it had over the iPhone and Android? The bill went to my employer. When policy changed and that was no longer the case, there was no possibility I'd ever touch RIM again.

This needs to be said over and over:

As bad as the name idea was in the US, Canada and Europe, it's an absolute disaster for some other countries.

Some people can create engaging content that many people want to interact with, but would in this country put their job or reputation at stake.

Some people can create engaging content that many people want to interact with, but in some countries will get them killed.

Please explain to me why a women's rights advocate in Saudi Arabia should have to give up her privacy to a state which considers her activity to be treasonous.

Please explain to me why a political dissident in a dictatorship should have to give up their privacy to a state which is known to imprison people for publicly advocating incorrect political ideologies.

Please explain to me why someone who disagrees with the anti-public-domain intellectual property dogma of the US and other countries should have to risk his freedom in order to discuss ways to subvert that system.

Please explain to me why I cannot decide who I, as a person, am, and what my "real" identity is. I'm much better qualified to do this than you are, Google.