Yes I realize this. I was more trying to say that I am horribly biased on this one part of the issue. The only real way for that part to get through is for it to be viable either through insurance (how the bill is now) or through a single payer system (how I would prefer it). Anything else results in what you have already said.

Say it as you like, the fact of the matter is that not the EU but MS themselves came up with the browser ballot screen and they implemented it before the EU's investigation reached any conclusions, nor did the EU do any suggestions towards Microsoft on how to handle this situation.

... the mandatory requirement to purchase a product.

I have wondered in times past what would drive me to drop out. I think this is it. I shall not be forced under pain of fine and imprisonment to purchase another's private product. No. Enough.

Worse still than this bill's moral absurdity is the precedent it sets. There are legal scholars now who promote the idea of mandatory tort liability insurance for everone ([1]). No doubt they would be pleased to see this camel's nose lifting the tent's edge.

Mandatory medical insurance or go to prison? The irony is too rich.

[1] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=844210

I can't exactly recall, but wasn't there an article or two on Slashdot a while back about how perhaps it was better to allow known terrorist network sites to continue to operate, rather than to shut them down and have us not know where the terrorists communicate anymore?

I spent $700 on an IPS panel monitor a few years ago and am an avid gamer. Anantech, after constant complaints about input lag from many readers, began testing it in their monitor reviews. My monitor scored around a 50ms input lag.

That 50ms forced me to buy another monitor. My clicks lost accuracy in RTS games, my aim was off in FPS games, and I could see the delay when watching movies (lip movement didn't match voices). I bought a TN panel monitor of the same size and have them next to each other now, and only use the IPS panel for surfing and image editing. You can drag a window from the TN panel to the IPS panel and see it rubber band due to the delay.

I suspect that 133ms will make a majority of games that require fine accuracy unplayable from my experience with the above.

If forcing insurance to pay for preexisting conditions is theft, allowing an insurance company to arbitrarily raise rates to cover inefficiencies is graft. Our current system is not a free market system. I'll tell you the secret of creating a real capitalist health care system: require doctors and hospitals to publish their fees and compete on value and pricing. Till then, you've got a collusive system that removes consumer power.

Interesting, so Christianity isn't a real religion unless people are stoning their children outside the city gates for disobeying them about anything at all. And of course no Christian eats seafood, or wears two different fabrics at the same time, etc, etc. Great that clears it up, thanks!

Perfect new technology for judging wet tee shirt contests...

Last time I checked, free unfettered internet access still isn't a god given right. If you want a service, you need to pay for it.

If customers succesfully manage to cause PR trouble for 2K over this, developers will have to take notice and they will never do this again with any other game: for subsequent releases, the 108kb key will be padded with 350MB of nothing. PR crisis averted!

And .. like most intelligent people .. you weren't fooled by it. So a bunch of stupid people who have no clue were taken in by a deceptive ad. I'll be that's the first time that ever happened. (Now .. where did I put those sarcasm tags...)

I used to pay for a premium membership so I could send emails to former classmates. During that time, I connected with several friends that I had lost touch with and still regularly send emails. One of those high school friends I am married to now. It was worth it those first few years when it was the only game in town.

I haven't paid for a premium membership in years. I watch my list of classmates, and if anyone new pops up that I want to email, I'll try to find them on facebook. And I'm really not interested in who signed my guest book .. I've contacted all of my old classmates that I wanted to that were on the site.

Unless you take your numbers on Stalin from Solzhenitsyn's work (which - the numbers - are all pure guesswork with no documentary backing, and the man himself even acknowledges them as such), the actual numbers are significantly lower even if you take into account people who died from starvation or quality of life. If you only go by organized repression (gulags etc), the numbers are even lower - so far the archives account for a few millions at most. Compare to Mao's dozens of millions.

Cant even buy incandescent bulbs over here anymore. Kind of upset me when I went shopping for replacements. Could only get the curly fluorescent bulbs at 5x the cost. I miss the good ole days with incandescent lights that didn't give off light that looks like it came from an arc welder.

Sure, but the kid shot herself in the chest. The idea that she was picking it up so she could play a game on the Wii seems a stretch at best, even if it looked similar to the controller. Hell, even a three year old would be able to tell something wasn't right just by the difference in weight between a plastic game controller and a real gun.

The fact that she apparently pointed the gun at her own chest and pulled the trigger suggests she just found a new toy and was screwing around with it...unless she was in the habit of pointing the gun at her own chest while playing the game, in which case I can't imagine her scores would have been very good.

Also, yes the father probably feels horrible, but he still should be brought up on charges, and barred from ever owning a firearm again. Anyone who would leave a loaded handgun within easy reach of a toddler has proven beyond a doubt that they aren't responsible enough to own a gun.

If you read the article, it's the SD card that's infected. Which, no, wouldn't affect an iPhone since there isn't an SD slot. Question is, where did the SD card ship from? Vodoaphone or HTC?