There is a lot of research going into mental health gadgets as well. It's just that they're a bit tougher to make since they involve a lot of stuff related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. One of my Professor's at the University of Waterloo has been working on a system using off the shelf parts to help Alzheimer's sufferers be more independent in their home and thus help lessen the burden that typically falls on their children to care after them. I'm talking things such as reminding a sufferer a step in the hand washing process if they forget it. Of course, everyone has different patterns and has varying levels of "annoyance" thresholds, etc. which makes fine tuning the system hard, hence the machine learning part.

You can check out some of his work here: http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~jhoey/research/coach/index.php

This comment always comes up over at Anandtech and it gets shot down every single time. Ok, yes, ATI had bad drivers during their Radeon 8xxx series; that was about 9 years ago. Since then their drivers have vastly improved and for the past few years have been on par with nVidia. If we really want to get into it I can point out a whole bunch of reasons why nVidia's drivers suck, such as that one release where the driver would actually destroy your videocard because the fan wouldn't spin up.

I know nothing of the Linux driver situation but outside of the statistically insignificant number of people who use Linux to game, nVidia and ATI are equivalent when it comes to drivers.

DirectX 11 doesn't mean anything really, it's all about performance since most games are still mostly DirectX 9 due to the fact they've been ported from consoles. As for the 5870 mobile, it's roughly equivalent to a desktop Radeon 4870 in terms of raw performance. I think the new mobile nVidia cards are a bit faster. Either way, Asus g73jh and their variants are where you want to look :P

You don't need to go Alienware. I am typing this on the Asus g73jh which I bought for $1500 + tax. Here is a review: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3662/asus-g73jha2-affordable-xlsized-gaming The laptop is a few months old so it's cheaper now, I've seen some places selling it for $1000. That said, there's a version coming out soon with an nVidia graphics cards. I would recommend getting those since a large amount of the ones with Radeon 5870s have grey screen of death issues if you update the drivers. There are solutions, but they're a little weird. My solution to the grey screen of death was to install the 10.8 Catalyst drivers, overclock my videocard by 5 MHz, and then download a still in beta hotfix from Microsoft that had something to do with the framebuffer causing freezes. Come to think of it I don't even think I have to overclock my computer since downloading the update anymore but I digress. The Asus g73jh and its variants are some of the best bang for your buck gaming laptops around. In short, the screen on the laptop is good and it gets great performance. The only downside is that some have the GSOD, but since new laptops have nVidia cards that should be solved. The laptop is very large so it's more of a portable desktop but it will definitely fit into smaller space than an iMac + PC monitor.

I would suggest checking out ATI, for the last year and a half or so nVidia has been playing catch up to ATI, especially when it comes to the mainstream graphics cards. While Fermi is a decent video card it's about the same as ATIs 5xxx series cards in terms of performance only Fermi puts out more heat and take in more power. Right now the only card/price point that is considered solidly in nVidia's favour is the GTX 460. Coincidentally, upcoming Southern Islands series (or is it Northern Islands, the names keep changing) from ATI's first videocard will be targeted at the same price point as the GTX 460. Southern Islands should be releasing in the next month or two. I don't know what nVidia has in store really, but we'll see what happens. Both companies road maps got uppended when TSMC (their manufacturer) decided to suddenly dump the 32nm production process and go straight to 28nm. The www.anandtech.com is a pretty good place to do your research. Especially the video card forums, just try to avoid the flame wars in there :p

I RTFA'd and that review is not spoiler free. It gives out a good chunk of the plot of the movie as well as several pivotal scenes. So for anyone who hasn't RTFA'd yet, here's your warning. It would be nice if the Slashdot editor's RTFA'd, and while we're at it, I want a pony for my birthday.

It won't work, because all the crackers will have to do is emulate that distant server on your own box and route any traffic Assassin's Creed II sends through 127.0.0.1 (this is a simplification). That said, it may work for Assassin's Creed II, but for any subsequent releases (Splinter Cell Conviction, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, etc.) the crackers will already know how the system works and break it easily.

So basically what you two are experiencing is the same thing I, as a Computer Science major, experience everytime someone turns on a computer in movies and television (24, Hackers, etc.). It's ok, you'll get over it :)

Nevermind the fact that Quebec has many laws like this for other industries.