People sometimes ask me if I could put up with a whole day where I'm cut off from my up-to-the-second news sources, my RSS feeds, my constant torrent of media.

I say to them, yes, I do it every April 1st. And I end up with the shakes and it strengthens my resolve to never willingly unplug.

At least there are video games. Sweet, blissful, calendar-unaware video games.

It's "venerable" because, despite its flaws, it's extremely memorable. I remember so much from that game, and I can't even remember what I played yesterday. There are a half-dozen scenes from that game permanently burned into my brain.

And because of that, I am totally going to fire the game up in ScummVM, suffer through some warts, but enjoy the heck out playing out the scenes that I've been remembering for years.

When a course requires a certain software package...

This is the problem, not what the rest of your post describes. Fix this and the rest of the problem goes away.

Use that money for other, more useful puposes.

Provide (or upgrade) campus-wide wifi, provide an on-campus "geek squad" that actually knows what they're doing, etc.

I don't come from monkeys. I come from Martian water life.

Undercover Blues reference = win

Well the guy's moron instructors didn't teach him how to instantly extract ammo from a dropped gun with his foot.

Adding to the brain drain is a problem with slow US visa processing, since last November or so, that has been driving desirable students and scientists out of the country.

I like my protectionism like I like my women: passive aggressive!

Russ Pitts tells TechTV that he "couldn't care less if the building spontaneously filled with eagle semen"...

I think they should both be sacked, just to be sure.

... despite poor economy.