Yeah, I agree with you on this point. I'm just coming from a perspective of a rational actor, and that while legally it belongs to Apple - how long did it take the guy to realize it? I guess I'll have to wait to hear all the facts in the (now obviously upcoming) court hearings. I just can't believe that the guy didn't leave his name and number with the bar so that the test engineer could contact him.

There are more attack vectors than just web traffic.

They'll need decent e-mail spam/virus filters, and physically disconnect USB drive access to their machines (people plugging in their dirty USB sticks).

I still have to respectfully disagree here. Even if it was a pre-release unit. As far as the guy who 'found' the phone should be concerned, it was property of the engineer that 'lost' it. As I've mentioned in some other posts, if you lose a HTC phone or Nokia phone, do you expect someone to call those companies directly to return your phone to you?

1) He obviously knew it wasn't a normal phone because instead of leaving his information with the Pub to have the owner contact him, he 'tried to contact apple support' (Seriously, wtf? So if I lose a HTC phone someone is going to call HTC to return it to me? Really?) 2) He turned around and sold it within a few days of "finding" it. Typical protocol for ethical people is to write down the serial number, and then hand it over to the police.

So much this. A *lot* of people aren't getting this fact through their skulls.

If people found a Nokia cell-phone on the bar counter-top where the a guy was just drinking, would they call up Nokia to try and return it? This is what's absurd about the whole, "Oh he tried to return it to Apple" argument. It just doesn't hold water.

I want to agree with you based on the fact that I have to believe that Europeans are better educated in things Technological. However, given enough money thrown at the problem with enough motivated entities it becomes an inevitability even in such an environment.

I wish I had mod-points for you because this truly is insightful, informative, AND hitting the nail on the head for physical devices.

If I remember correctly there was a case where companies would mail out books or catalogs to people, then send them a bill if the people didn't return the books after a certain period of time. Some guy ended up suing them to claim storage fees (I wish my Google-Fu was better so I could find the citations).

Well firing your top two devs will certainly help you with that goal. Imagine anyone's review, "You think you're *that* special? Shit son, we just fired our top two guys, now work 90 hours a week without over-time or you're out the door too!"

Sadly, since this is the gaming industry, this cheese wad Kotick will not only get away with this abusive behavior, but he'll be rewarded (like you said, it brings in money). In most other industries, when a CEO tries to create a similar culture, the good people jump ship right away (go to the competition, or start their own company), and the average people jump ship as soon as the economy improves, and this works to punish the company by losing a lot of brain power. However, in the gaming industry, all you have to do is license an engine, hire and teach someone from the endless supply of sucker.. er.. talented prospects, and you're right back on track - abusing the new employee.

Exactly.

FTA (emphasis mine):

He was saying that due to the ability for Android phones to customize their L&F unlike other popular phones, he noticed his friend's update much sooner due to the widget automatically updating on his phones homepage.

The widget updating itself on the homepage gave him immediate data and insight since Facebook wasn't an obvious choice to look for SOS from survivors. Other smart phones, people would have had to check their Facebook newsfeed which they only do every so often... (unless they're a 13 year old.

This lead him to a further realization that maybe other survivors were using Facebook to do a canvasing approach to letting people know they're still alive and need help because they didn't know what else to do in the situation.

FTA:

I'd add to this that testable code often, not always but often, is well planned, well defined, and/or well managed code and this is what makes it fundamentally better. One might say that testable code is well engineered code.

(Disclaimer: Haven't read that book yet, this is just an off the cuff remark from experiencing some of the best and some of the worst levels of unit testing and beyond)

FTA:

This is just one possible outcome to programming new antibodies. I'd also be concerned with how the treatments mitigate any risk to shutting down our own immune system.

Hypothetical speculation: Say the treatment works well while you're taking regular doses of new Immunity 2.0 shots, but as soon as you can't afford to pay anymore, you're off the Immunity 2.0 shots. Well, it's been a while since your real immune system has had to work, so the next mutation of a virus comes along and 'oops'.

Most questions to risk will probably be found in lab research and trials, but it's still something to think about.

For this to work, we'd need RNA Shots and a knowledge that the state has use for an empty man.

Excellent post, I agree with you on a lot of your points; especially about the dialog (Best in class, imho) and ranking/experience system (ugh). I hate it personally when a RPG studio decides that they need to dump-down the leveling/ability structure to "reach a wider audience". It makes the game feel hollow.

I maybe mistaken (or picked up so many that I tricked myself into thinking something opposite), but I think when you pick up a 'heat-sink' clip it does apply to other weapons on a smaller scale. At the very least, I believe the game will top off your current weapon, and then start filling up your auxiliary weapons that have depleted ammunition. Also, all weapons will get some sort of recharge when you find a "Power Cell" box.

I feel like this game actually provides a lot of main-plot forward motion. I consider it to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of the ME trilogy, and Bioware delivers in spades. (Can't go into too much detail because I don't want to spoil it for others).

One question that comes to mind for me: Did they play ME 1, and import their character?

My personal feelings are that ME2 is more rich and enjoyable, if you have a character from ME1 that you transfer over to ME2. It adds extra depth to the game.