We should all have such problems. Also if they find the cure for cancer, a lot of oncologists will be out of a job. It's still a big net win for society in either case.

I'd like to see that happen too, but I feel the need to point out that any number of electric car companies have tried exactly that approach and promptly gone out of business. At least in the past, a $15K electric car ended up being a glorified golf cart that didn't sell. Maybe in the future, battery technology will advance to the point where that is no longer the case; we can only hope. In the meantime, Tesla has approached the market from the other direction and appears to be doing quite well.

If they did that, the publishers would revolt. Think about it, Microsoft would be selling digital copies of the game for less than retail and probably not obliged to give any of the money back to the publisher. Of course, I suppose they could split the money three ways, but if you're getting less than a third of the retail price of the game in exchange for trading it, is it still worth it? An allternative way I see this working is if Microsoft allows you to "return" digitally downloaded games for a small refund in Microsoft dollars (M$) which can only be spent on other Xbox digital purchases. The carrot is the ability to get money for returned games, the stick is you can only spend the money on the Xbox. Lock-in achieved.

Has a D-Wave quantum-nature?
This is the most serious question of all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own quantum-nature.

From the company that brought you Windows 3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, XP, Vista and then 8.

Yes, that company.

I remember excellent four player gaming sessions on the couch with Warhawk ... I miss it sometimes.

Voice controls in Sing Star are quite smooth but still delayed a fraction of a second. I wouldn't put it past either company to have excellent voice control this generation. I still don't want people talking to the TV to change channels.

And hackable ... didn't Panasonic have trouble with their Skype TVs having the cameras hacked remotely?

Its called a loss leader ... its a common and very workable technique in marketing, and more so when you're a hardware company who knows how to whittle down production costs with time.

If you're a spy or diplomat or whatever, don't use Gmail. At the very least it is subject to the US government's laws. Get yourself a secured server somewhere else.

But with the newer stuff, their abilities are amped and their weaknesses are nerfed. Why not?

Exactly. You get eternal youth (at whatever age you "died") and all kinds of extras in exchange for a literal blood thirst. Which may or may not require you to kill a person (depending upon the writer) or animal.

So what effect would that have on society? And when did it start?

Are there "good" vampires and if so, why aren't they converting some of our best scientists? Why aren't they our space program? Stake them on Earth, send them to Mars and have a machine pull the stake. No need for food during the trip. Be the first vampire to see Saturn up close and then turn the ship back to Earth. How many astronauts on Earth would willingly "go vampiric" to do that?

Although I have to say that the downside is that these are going to be just as annoying as jetskis, but in places where jetskis can't go.

The other day I had two share a beautiful, quiet, peaceful woodland with two irritating idiots on noisy little dirtbags. not nice.

Do you feel that we should stick more with the classic mythos? Or are you in favor with your own spin.

The problem would be FINDING the "classic" vampire. They've been changing ever since they were first invented. Mostly because the person telling the story needed a certain feature set for that story.

I'm not saying anything against Michael Reaves. But the main problem with most of the stories is that the reality created by the writer is inherently limited to the knowledge of the writer. So there are usually huge plot holes such as "if vampires are so cool then why wouldn't everyone want to be a vampire" or "if vampires are so powerful then why do they have to hide".

You missed the "I got an Android phone, so I've got a G+ account now..." people in this list- which are liable to comprise most of that 390 Million 'subscribers' they're claiming.

Here's a hint: If it's a Chrome extension, you're still running it when you "leave" it and Hangout's still up.