Simple. The game appeared worth some minor annoyances here and there. I certainly was not anticipating a complete inability to play for the entire release week. I was wrong. Provided Valve doesn't go off the deep end and require an always-on connection for HL2:ep3 or HL3 (which is about the only other game franchise I'd ever consider putting up with this crap just to play), this is the last time I'll make this mistake.

I preordered a physical copy several weeks ago. I was never able to play the beta, because Amazon delayed my access code until it had ended. I have still not played the game, despite owning a physical copy. Tuesday, the game spent two hours completely downloading itself all over again, despite the physical copy. I was unable to join any servers in the US. It them refused to create a city once I was able to join a server in Europe. I gave up. Tried again Wednesday, still could not creat a city. Today, all servers were busy. Eventually got through, but was only allowed to play the tutorial, and about two minutes in the servers dropped out. Then back to unable to create city. Frankly, I knew this was coming. I hate EA for what they've gradually done to Maxis since the acquisition. I knew always-on DRM and shunting the region math onto the cloud was going to mean connection issues. What I didn't fully know is that my saves are on the server, and I cannot even create a game if the server is down. I love SimCity...I can remember many hours spend with SimCity (the original), SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, and SimCity 4...and this looks like a welcome update. Shame I cannot play it.

I don't know... How you gonna do it? PS/4 it just lacks a certain ring to it.

"Fears of the U.S. exerting undue influence..." Please don't conflate US based lobbyists exerting influence with the US itself exerting undue influence. Admittedly, we have been known to do that, but at least make the distinction when the offending party is a private party and not the United States itself/themselves.

The submitter injected unneeded worry. According to Ford via USAToday: "The driver can overcome assistance and vibration at any time by turning the steering wheel, accelerating or braking" The article also uses the word "nudge" in reference to the control input, so I read all this to mean the system won't be fighting drivers. See: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/12/ford-says-fusion-sedan-will-get-lane-departure-system/1

Possibly. But would you rather send pilots into a scenario where their planes are merely adequate, or where their planes will totally dominate the enemy. I'm a lot more comfortable having at least a few F-22s available.

BS. There were two major conflicts during the Cold War that involved major air to air combat on a daily basis, Korea and Vietnam, and neither went nuclear. Your assumption is that no conflict with China or Russia could remain non-nuclear, but in both cases American air power was forced to fight Chinese and Russian planes and pilots in a proxy context. Further, your assumption is also that major powers have a death wish and couldn't carry out a conflict that was limited to a specific theater. Spurious assumptions.

Opponents of the F-22 keep screaming about how it has never been used in combat, despite three conflicts having occurred since they entered active service. Problem is, neither Iraq nor Libya had a functional air force that actually tried to fight AND posed a serious threat to our aircraft. The Taliban doesn't have an air force, and at the start of the war in Afganistan (prior to the F-22 achieving active status) Afganistan's air force was basically rusting hulks. This is an air superiority fighter. It isn't meant to bomb things. It is a predator, built to hunt and kill fighter aircraft, nothing more. That role justifies a lower overall number of aircraft, but the aircraft still needs to exist. In a conflict with a country with a formidable air force, such as China or Russia, or at least a functional one like North Korea or Iran, this aircraft would be invaluable. It could mean the difference between victory and defeat. I for one am glad it hasn't seen combat yet. That said, it looks like they need to fix the emergency O2 system. Might not be a bad idea to find a way to provide a graceful failure of the primary system, too, or automatically activate the backup. Either way...fix the damned thing.

Nothing against Indian call center workers, but I'm glad for this shift. My experiences with call centers in the Philippines have been dramatically better than my call centers in India. The accent, if present, is easier for an American to understand. I suspect that has to be with respective colonial relationships. The call center employees don't bullshit me by claiming to be Todd in Texas, they give me their real name and don't try to tell me they're local. They also don't get defensive when I'm pissed off. I suspect the companies there must be training their employees differently. Indian call centers seem far more aggressive...clearly run by MBAs. Plus, it is an economic break for a country that needs one.

Actually... I think it is a checkpoint. Road goes in, road comes out.

I'm most interested in this double curve structure... 40.510163,93.236783 It is associated with a modest solar array. If you follow the roads, there is a very remote structure several miles in a nearby in line straight with, but offset from the concave structure. Antenna?

For pic programming, I was very pleased with this USB kit. http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/prog/ck1708.htm It looks like they sell similar assembled units now. http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/prog/ck1710.htm

Hear hear! I come here for tech news and discussion. The more general news material, especially political material, finds its way onto Slashdot, the less I feel compelled to bother with a visit. Knock it off.

Excellent point. The instant video site redesign was the first element of the customer service fail trifecta at Netflix. First, they pissed off their instant customers with a redesign that, at best made it hard to use their site, and at best appeared to be a veiled attempt at controlling what we watch by hiding a considerable portion of the content. Next, they pissed off their entire customer base, especially DVD users, by raising prices suddenly, excessively, and with a snide explanation that further inflamed emotions. Finally, they pissed off the joint DVD instant customers with the incontinence of Quickster. Then they made everyone think they were idiots by backpedalling. None of these factors individually led me to cancel my account, but taken together I felt alienated enough to pull the plug and try out Amazon Prime* for a while instead. If Netflix cleans up their act I might come back after six months, but somehow I don't expect they to clean up their act. *Not that I don't have beef with Amazon, I do over their Kindle update policies, they just piss me off a lot less right now. Here's hoping for an Apple streaming monthly plan. I never thought I'd say it but they piss me off the least lately.

My home PC boots Windows 7 faster than the POST/SATA boot sequence, with an SSD and ample memory. My work computer takes about two minutes to get from login to Vista desktop, another two to five minutes to clear scripts, security logins, A/V start, two different alert systems (one phased ut but active) and about a half dozen utility loads to the task bar. Plus, all our storage and apps are on the network, and we used a jury-rigged Word template system, so loading Word takes another minutes or two. Generally speaking, the first 10 minutes of my day are wasted waiting for my computer to login, and another two to three at the end of the day to verify it restarted, otherwise I'll get a nastygram from IT.