All the engineers left when HP split into 2 companies a few years ago. They're still going strong at Agilent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilent_Technologies

Wow. Drink too much often? Seriously.

I just add files to the folders on the NAS and XBMC finds them, every time. The ATV replaced my PS3 streaming files from PS3 Media Server running on the NAS (the NAS is a Core 2 Duo PC running Ubuntu server). I really like the Apple TV over-all. Have you updated to the latest version of XBMC? Having said all that, XBMC crashes daily on my Apple TV. I've re-flashed it and all that, but I believe the unit is a dud. Once the IOS on the v.3 units have been jail broken, then I'll send it back to Apple for replacement. So many others, including many friends, have units that work just fine so I believe mine is just a random ATV with issues.

Check out "1Channel". Also, Icefilms seems to be back at or very near to its old goodness.

1.) Extensible via add-on streams and apps 2.) Navi-X add-on program 3.) Stream just about any TV show or movie over the Internet (with appropriate add-ons) 4.) Run it on a rooted AppleTV (Sure, you can run it on a desktop PC if you want. I do as a test environment and for watching stuff when my wife is using the TV). 5.) Full access to your media files on your network shares with minimal/no fuss It excels as a HTPC environment, which is the whole point of it. This is how it was used on the XBox. Now it can go on many different devices. My AppleTV 2 is the perfect HTPC. Small, unobtrusive, can be controlled via my iPhone, low power... Goodbye Satellite TV.

You assume/oresume that kids have the $$$ to buy cocaine? Your reality distortion-field is clearly superior to any that has made its way to my poor neck of the woods.

That, sir, is frankly fucked. I've perfected the unblinking stare. I'd just stare at the ass-hat that tried to demand any amount of $$ out of my wallet. Pity the damned fool that pushed the issue.

I'm on the board of a science-oriented non-profit in Canada. We submit our reports 1 week before the monthly Exec meeting on our forum. At the meeting it's "Any questions or anything to add to xy report?". Then it's new business. Most questions are handled on the forum *when we have time personally to deal with them*. Meetings are to the point and handled within an hour. We also open the Exec meetings to interested members to observe. Now, if I could get my employer to adopt such a model...

+1. Wish I had mod points.

Are you saying that tablets are replacing PC's? That every tablet sold is a PC not purchased? Seriously? for 99.9% of consumer/business use, a tablet is a convenient accessory to a PC. Great for media consumption. Now go ahead and try and do some serious work. Coding? Photo editing? Movie Editing? Writing a long document or complex report? Et al ad nauseum. FWIW, I have a Touchpad, my wife has a shiny new iPad, and I have a custom-built-by-me enthusiast PC and a loaded laptop. The tablet has it's role: convenient web surfing, music, recipe file etc.

Gee...lets take that logic to the hackneyed metaphor of...the automobile! "Why would anyone want to work on an Aston Martin Coupe when the minivan or the Reliant "K" car is in such wide use?" Get it now? No? Then let me spell it out in small words for ya: "Widely adopted" i.e Windows, OS/X etc does not always equate to the best. See "'reality' TV". Does that help a teensy-weensy bit...?

Wish I had mod points. My 49ms (lowest on the crowded server) is gold in my FPS games.

Blah blah blah. When I game, I game with my closest friends, and we're geographically dispersed (we knew each other before there was an "online"). We have our own private TeamSpeak server and we shoot the shit as if we were around a table playing cards or watching a movie. I also usually have 3 books on the go at any given time (fiction, non-fiction/biography, astronomy/physics), have a wonderful wife, am active in my community, hold down a job, hike every weekend etc. And guess what? Games are FUN! They're not passive, like TV, and you have to coordinate carefully with others and use strategy, reflexes, detailed observation. Your comment verges on "troll" and is mired in elitist ignorance.

Citations please. Most of my fellow gamers (our clan has 450 members) are males in their late 30's to mid 60's, with about 15% female in their late 20's to late 40's.The average gamer is 37 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_culture The average social game is a woman in her early 40's. http://gigaom.com/2010/02/17/average-social-gamer-is-a-43-year-old-woman/

Nothing personal, but fro where I sit, fuck you. Seriously. The Call of Duty games have sold utter boatloads in their first week for both consoles and PC's. So do other FPS games. I play COD World at War (because it's the last COD version that let's users create their on servers without paying additional fees to Activison, create unique maps without having to pay for them from Activision, create mods without having to pay more to Activision...you get the idea). In these games, my average ping of 49Ms gives me a huge advantage over most other players, who can range between 75 and 100, 200, 500+ Ms. So, for a boatload of gamers, ping is king, I've spent a bit more money on a Cisco router that let's me adjust QOS per port, gone for a Fiber to the CO high speed internet connection (waiting for the fiber to the home upgrade), and optimized the snot out of my system and network to give me the best pings.For you Farmville types, a sub-mediocre Internet connection is just fine. Burt you do not represent everyone else. So STFU with your idiotic statement that your requirements are representative of the rest of the Netizens. Because they are absolutely not. Not even close.