But we'll be damned if we're going to let a little setback keep us from letting the state put its subjects to death, damn it!

2014 and we're still doing this. Even in the face of acknowledging that 15-20% of inmates are likely innocent and that many death row inmates have likely been innocent and that a lot of those actually executed have likely been innocent. No matter how barbaric one's attitude on "kill the guilty", nobody can defend a system that needlessly kills innocent people (yes, incarcerating an innocent person for life is shit, too, but at least if you don't execute inmates, you don't run the risks of murdering innocent men). To ignore all of this seems contrary to the entire fundamental construct of our society.

And in anticipation of the "oh yeah, sure innocent people have been put on death row" bullshit, here are 143 of them *proven* innocent and *exonerated* in just the last 40 years.: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row

My guess is there are more cell phones sold each year than automobiles. OH NO, CARS ARE DYING!

I'm really tired of these sensationalist tech pundits pratting on about X is dying because Y is increasing.

Take a look at the board and tell me you think anyone finds them a real threat to anything.

The governments of the world have resolved the issue of upsetting their populations by spying on every aspect of their lives at all times by deciding to embrace *openly* spying on every aspect of their lives at all times.

You know, a nice brush fire now and then really helps the forest.

Nope. Hardware sales are projected to decline very slightly over a couple of years and then start to return. For a market that is constantly under the claim of "dying", they sure are selling an awful lot of $1,000 video cards and $300 CPUs and $300 chassis' and making whole businesses out of catering to even more niche markets like water cooling nuts.

Steam has 65,000,000 users. That is more than XBOX (but less than Playstation). That's not PC gamers. That's just *Steam* gamers.

Consoles are $300-$500. The lowest end gaming PC that you can get by with starts at that price. Further, games have largely been targeted at consoles and ported to PCs in such a way that they just don't really demand much of the PC hardware.

In other words, PC gaming is as big as it has ever been. Even if mobile and console platforms grow massively, that doesn't detract from PC gaming. You can do more than one platform. It's just that software necessitates the increase in hardware capacity and software just hasn't been making those demands for a long time, leaving PC gamers to make longer use of their PC hardware. That reflects in hardware sales. A reduction in hardware sales means just that - a reduction in hardware sales; not a reduction in people playing on their existing hardware.

Additionally, we've been told for years now that *console* gaming is dying and will soon be dead. And so will all handhelds that aren't a tablet or mobile phone. Of course, that is bullshit. Steam's user numbers, the popularity of PC-only games, and the 8,000,000 PS4 and XB1 consoles sold in the last two months is evidence that it is bullshit.

I am skeptical about the future of PC gaming, but not because of some perceived lack of interested gamers. The only thing that can harm PC gaming is if developers and publishers continue to treat PC gaming like a redheaded stepchild. If they continue to put out PC ports in a half-assed and often-broken fashion and months or years after the console versions of the same game. And if they continue to not exploit the power of the PC, but just port over console versions of games that look and play progressively worse over time as the console platform ages.

If PC gaming dies, it won't be for lack of interest. It'll be because it was sabotaged and undermined by the developers and publishers.

So . . . basically, Tux and FreeCiv. :P

No, game consoles and HTPCs are not as expensive as a high end gaming PC. I don't mind throwing $400 at a PS4 to stick in my home theater that does nothing but play games, because it does that one thing well and is only $400.

I'm not going to cram my current desktop rig into my home theater, because it's a powerful machine that is capable of doing far more than spitting out a movie or playing a Steam library. I'm not going to invest in a less powerful PC to dedicate to the home theater, because if I'm going to play a PC game, why would I play it on the lower power system when I have a much better one at my desk?

I am hoping for the best out of SteamOS and even these Steamboxes, but I am not quite understanding where the niche is they expect to truly capitalize from. A high end system is expensive and wasted dedicated to just gaming on your couch, but the opposite end of the spectrum isn't compelling when you can just play on your existing system at your desk for a far better experience.

It would seem to me the only real market is for people who don't already have a decent gaming system and are looking for a low-end low-cost replication of a low-end console experience, but with the PC. In which case, that's totally fine, but . . . seems pretty limiting...

So all you're looking to do is meet the absolute minimum requirements and *maybe* match the performance and experience of a console, but with a PC box? What is the point of that? The only reason I would want to build a box to put the SteamOS on and attach to my home theater is if I could replicate the true PC experience on it. That means high resolution, high framerate, high graphical fidelity. I'm not going to accomplish that on $500 worth of parts.

I think the problem is the concept of building a really nice gaming rig and then locking it away to your home theater, where it becomes fairly useless as it becomes nothing but a game console and home theater box.

I don't understand your comment.

Are you saying that the whole "Steambox" thing will be such an utter failure that it will turn people off from buying PCs *period*, thereby killing sales even further?

Of course, PC sales aren't bleeding out by any means, overall, so...

That is never going to happen. Consoles are commodity hardware *at launch* with the specific target of playing games on one platform in one way. With PCs, you've got video cards that cost a couple hundred dollars more than both the XB1 and PS4 *combined*.

A four and five star restaurant will never compete with McDonald's on price. What they *can* compete on is not serving you fetid shit in a paper wrapper. That requires that people give a damn. If people are just fine scarfing down a shitty box of styrofoam chicken nuggets, then you're screwed. It also requires that people make quality products for it. So many PC games are just shitty ports of console games, hindered by limitations of targeting consoles and leaving PCs as an afterthought. Then, you're crippled by trying to operate a four or five star restaurant when you're being supplied the same shitty ingredients as McDonald's.

A bunch of them will.

And then they'll realize how ridiculous it is and they'll slowly and quietly begin to remove the payment method.

Nobody is "whining" about the price, so calm the fuck down.

Also, do you really expect the price to drop that much or do you expect them to milk the sales they can out of it and then roll out the next replacement for this, end this, and continue on with the next $300 device? That seems to be the way routers have gone the last few years.

Yeah, that's a ridiculous price when you can still pick up a WRT54G for under $50.

It might not do N or AC, but so what.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but I'm obligated to receive individual confirmation of each item on the list. Can we continue, now, please?"