Long ago I started ripping DVDs the instant they come out of the package, they stream from my media server now. Having kids will do that... The 4th time I bought "Cars" on DVD, I knew it was just not sustainable.

Also, my kids would rather stream crappy content from netflix than dig out a DVD and wait for 15 minutes for the actual content to start... With my own content server, they get an interface as responsive as Netflix, but with the content I want them to have.

The contractor is Lockheed Martin, which is why it is not in the headlines.
Any time you ask them a question you get: "Well sorry, the reason it is late is classified." It is their typical scapegoat, so nobody even bothers asking them questions anymore.
"We have an excuse, we only work with the government, we didn't realize it actually had to work... we just thought we had to grease the right palms...Also we need more H1Bs please."

There is green paper-like substance that can be used to purchase goods and services. There is even a space for it in your wallet... it is that spot in the back that is twice as wide as the credit card slots.

Well, it was also loss of service, not just the data breech. They shut everything down for weeks while they sorted it out. Several of my 40-60 dollar games were 100% unplayable for nearly a month, because services Sony agreed to supply were unavailable (log-on servers).

I actually had a game I had never played at the time that was unplayable (because it required a patch that I could not get, thanks to services being down), and since I broke the shrink-wrap it was not returnable either.

yeah I have moved to prepaid cards for most everything video game related now, except for places where it carries a hefty premium, but that is rare, Steam cards even go on sale at Target sometimes... last month I paid $17.90 for a $20 gift card.

I have been a defacto member of several class actions... very rarely has it been a check in the mail. It has ranged from a Coupon to a month's free service, even gift cards. Paying in promotional materials seems to be the standard.

I would also like to note that PSPlus is a service that encourages you to purchase discounted items, and also that Little Big Planet and InFAMOUS both have sequels, making them excellent marketing give-aways. This is not punishment at all. This is a 15 million dollar marketing campaign.

The welcome back program was:
TWO free titles from this list:
Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

plus 30 days of Playstation Plus (note: "free" games, if "purchased" during this 30 day time frame remain on your account forever, I got several small/old games this way.)

The new deal, for the holdouts is worse, imo.

Every time we talk about SETI, people say "who the hell says they use radio waves"

the answer is, of course "well, it seems plausible, and it is SOMETHING we can look for."

Then we talk about Kepler and everyone says "Who the hell says they have to live in the Goldilocks zone?"

the answer is "well it seems plausible and it is SOMETHING we can look for.

So now we have pollution. Same question, same answer.

This is how science and exploration work... Lets say we get really good at all three types of search... What are the chances that complex life lives outside the "habitable zone," does not produce radio signals, and does not produce industrial pollutants? If we look for all the signs we can think of, we increase our slim chances by a slim margin.

Every specific thing we look for is a specific thing we can find.

because the average judge/jury/CEO/consumer/manager has no idea how to write code.

They can understand how a toilet is cleaned, how a sale is made, how a 1099 is filled out, how a fire drill works, how a sandwich is put together, how oil is changed, etc... but Coding might as well be a dark art.

Developers are part of a very narrow segment which has no reliable Key Performance Indicators.
Part of that is developers are smart enough to game any system, because they can think in algorithms.

Want to track productivity on Lines of code? Fine, Developers can do NO WORK, and produce TONS of code
Want to track productivity on Number of defects introduced? Fine, doing NO WORK is the baseline for perfect.
Want to track productivity on Number of defects fixed? Fine, through the magic of hand wavery, defects can be found and fixed with no actual work happening

Compare that to well-defined Key Performance Indicators for sales... Bring in X dollars of sales, your performance is X.

CEOs HATE things they cannot measure... which means CEOs are a natural enemy of Developers.

this is more funny than you know. I have had 2 vasectomies...

The Odyssey (best selling single model of minivan) has a higher safety rating than almost all SUVs. It gets better gas mileage (28mpg) than almost all SUVs, and absolutely all vehicles with similar passenger capacity (7 or 8 passengers)... Not to mention resale value and reliability rating.

The Minivan is the practical and logical choice... Not to mention, with seats down/out, the cargo capacity is laughably better than an Explorer or other "large" suvs. I can (and have) move a washer and dryer in mine... which is my litmus test for "cargo capacity". (Explorer and Tahoe, which are "large" suvs, cannot fit a washer/dryer, even with all seats folded).

It is fine to hate Minivans, but to pretend they are somehow less practical than an SUV is kind of laughable.

Minivans are not dead. Pretty much every model still tops 100,000+ sales per year. (Mazda 5 being an exception, though it is really a subcompact with sliding doors, not really a minivan) 2013 model year sales ranked by top sellers:

#31 - Honda Odyssey
#34 - Dodge Grand Caravan
#37 - Chrysler Town & Country
#38 - Toyota Siennav #45 - Kia Sorento

Link

My reality is that they only sell $45,000 suvs or much cheaper minivans that can fit my whole family... So for me, they are here to stay. My minivan seats 8, a suburban seats 8. Most suvs seat 5...

that's just not true. You don't have to do new things to be brilliant. You can do old things, better.
Google search was not new, but it was better
When iPhone came out, there was nothing it did that my Palm Treo didn't do, but it was better
The Printing press, which revolutionized the world, was just a big screw press combined with some thousand year old block printing techniques... it was nothing new.
Every best picture Oscar ever was an old story, retold.
Shakespeare's Hamlet was a re-telling of a common folktale.

DRM is a publisher choice. It is a checkbox in the Amazon "publish my book" interface. All of my books sold through amazon are DRM free. If you want to know how to tell (since it is non-obvious)... under "product details" there is an item called "Simultaneous Device Usage" if that says "unlimited" it is DRM free.

My DRM-free, Amazon hosted and sold ebooks already net me more revenue via "Kindle Lending Library" (where customers may pick one "free" book per month if they are prime and kindle customers) than they do via sales.

The way the lending library works is they fund it every month, then they divide it up based on how often your book was checked out. I assume the ebook service would be similar, but better funded.