Ok, serious question here; has the intelligence level of Slashdot dropped sharply since last I came around?

You're right though, the Boxee tagging system is completely foolproof.

My father still owns one, and I've been over to his place to see it as recently as two weeks ago. I upgraded to the DroboPro FS and gave him my old Drobo FS. It is just as abysmal product compared to XBMC as it was in November.

And when the hell did it become totally acceptable to release a shitty product with the promise that it would become "okay" later on?

I actually held back.

Anyone on SlashDot is twice as intelligent as necessary to setup an XBMC install that would blow Boxee out of the water. I bought three Boxee Boxes and sent all three back, don't regret it for a second.

But I am legitimately curious what is the real significance of learning Pi to a more accurate measurement? I'm not a mathematician, physicist, or computer scientist.

Good point, which is why I'd never buy anything "counterfeitable" off of Ebay or any other source I didn't 100% trust.

I can't fathom the idea that counterfeit goods compete with authentic ones.

When I was in my teens, I could find counterfeit Movado watches for ~$30 that were indistinguishable from the real deal. Would I have bought real ones for $1500+? No.

Of course now that I want a real one, there's no chance in hell I'm going to settle for a fake.

I shouldn't have to.

Wow, did they really need to have an auto-playing video ad with obnoxious music at the bottom of the page? I'm pissed that I gave them even that one pageview. I won't be reading the article.

You still pay for some (or sometimes, all) of the class, of course.

Not always the case. I went to Purdue for Aviation Management (to become an air traffic controller) and for some odd reason they let students take computer classes in place of some of the other Gen-Ed stuff. I was able to test out of several classes, without having to pay a dime. It depends on the school.

FTFS:

"The technology is apparently mature enough to be deployed as part of ships' short-range missile defenses"