There are clothes lines and appliance lines that are exclusive to a particular retailer. There are even in-game bonuses you get that are different if you buy a game time/point card at Walmart versus Target versus Amazon. Gamestop using its market power to do this is no different than it using it to get a bigger discount or larger advertising budget from the developer.

Perhaps it is that for the sort of person who actually trusts their fellow human, it is hard to tell when dementia strikes.

I want a new rig. After reading all the praise of gsync, that seemed like a reasonable cost-benefit to wait for that since the monitors were coming out in early 2014. Except not really. So now we have a new standard coming "year end" which probably means March or April. I guess a new rig with a very good graphics card this summer and then do something about a new monitor at "year end." If it really is a new standard out this year, I can see a lack of enthusiasm for an nVidia-only monitors that costs an extra couple of hundred dollars and only makes sense for a few months.

That was my question as well. You can't say so at PC sites, but I thought the real growth platforms, games and non-games, were iOS and Android (in the order you prefer.)

"Wearables" will have no impact on the several thousand dollar watch market - either those for fashion or for love of the intricate mechanics. IMO, the analogies are digital cameras and GPS devices. The iPhone 5s at al had no impact on $10,000 camera systems with Zeiss lenses. But it is getting tougher and tougher to sell a $200 digital camera.

My 70 YO brother was able to Facetime with me, without training, once he upgraded his iPad. So cameras are useful. Actually being able to see, without travel, relatives at an age when monitoring is more of an issue is valuable.

No judgement, just curious why are you not going to play Everquest Landmark?

People and especially MMO players hate change so your reaction to traits is your personal preference. I still like LotRO. However, the new lotro system is just joining mainstream MMOs. The latest WoW talent tree is very sparse - choose 1 of 3 talents for every 15 levels (six max). Most interesting talent tree by far is Rift. Try another game but I would not expect any of the AAA title except rift to have a talent tree much different than HD. If you are an endgame raider with considerable time to devote each week, preferably with a fixed schedule then WoW is great. If not, it's not. Of the MMOs I have played for more than 100 hours it is SWTOR > LotRO > Rift >> WoW >>>>> EVE. There are so many good features of EVE but the whole / community is way too toxic for my tastes. There are many big games ramping up the hype machine but none are shipping and it is TBD what they will do. Wildstar, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest next, Star Citizen. The interesting, very different option is Everquest landmark the game that is the creation part of the upcoming Everquest Next.

It seems to me the real story is that someone else can place their cellphone on your desk and perhaps log your keystrokes. Loan Applications and Job interviews come to mind.

I can easily see how insurance data could cause you to think warming is taking place. I see no reason that insurance history could provide insight into the cause - be it fossil fuels, freon, lifestyle changes, sunspots or divine retribution.

Due to the government regulation, utilities are quite different. Their profit is a percentage of their approved costs. Being an average utility or the best run in the world does not change that. Nor do I see where the unhappy utility customers will go if they do not like their monopoly.

" By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was not part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it. "

Taking the rest of the comment as fact still does not support the last sentence. If 1) Walmart is selling all the new & best sellers (i.e. a huge % of the volume) at prices B&M bookstores can't compete with thus removing most selling profit and 2) Amazon continues to grow, then I think B&M will continue to shrink. College towns and small communities with bike paths, Whole Foods and million dollar homes may have a B&M but where else?