Because hosting plans, especially budget shared hosting plans, are more likely to come with a screwdriver than with the particular version of a hammer that your application needs. You could have the best web app in the world written in Perl or Python, but you'll pay more to run it than you might on PHP-only hosting. MySQL is popular for the same reason: ubiquity on entry-level hosting.

That depends. Downscaling and compressing at lower resolution is in theory equivalent to running a blur filter over the whole high-resolution picture and then compressing the blurred high-resolution picture. But in practice, video codecs prefer to handle features of a given size. MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 use 8x8 pixel cosine transform blocks, as do H.263-style codecs such as Spark, ASP (DivX), and Theora. H.264 and VP8 use variable transform block size to efficiently handle both flat areas and detailed areas in the same picture. Video codecs also differ in what sizes of motion they compensate for. Some codecs support precision down to the quarter or even eighth pixel, while others support only half pixels. Other codecs aren't effective at 1080p HD because their maximum displacements aren't big enough.

Royalties for connecting your controller to a particular gaming platform can also be "cost-prohibitive in smaller runs."

Of course, all this depends on a platform capable of using third-party controllers. Xbox 360 used cryptography to lock out unlicensed controllers, and to my knowledge, Microsoft never licensed a third-party wireless controller for the Xbox 360. I've read rumors on the Internets that Xbox One will continue this policy and may end up not having third-party controllers at all.

My rule of thumb is that if the escape function is a method of a database connection object, such as the $conn->escape_string() of MySQLi, it's the real deal. But most of the time, I just use prepared statements, reserving manual escaping for things like the right side of operator IN that would need a large, variable number of placeholders.

The distinction here is between word-addressed and block-addressed memory. Cartridges were more often word-addressed, but it isn't quite a reliable predictor of this. TG16 "cards" were word-addressed and allowed execution in place. Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Advance "cartridges" had seek-and-read protocols, which were a compromise between word-addressed and block storage but allowed execution in place through caching (N64) or lots of wait states (GBA). Later systems were more likely to use block devices because RAM had become so cheap and block devices require fewer pins on the connector.

The "system cards" used with the TurboGrafx-CD expand the TurboGrafx-16's capabilities. And any SPI peripheral can be put on a DS Game Card. Most often it's used for a serial flash memory for save data, but the Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver Game Cards for DS also include an infrared transceiver for communication with a "Pokewalker" pedometer that the player uses to take one of his party members on walks.

If no Mega Cartridge or Sega Card was inserted into certain revisions of the Master System, the player could launch the built-in Snail Maze game by holding Up + 1 + 2.

No, "anti-Bono" means you oppose the unbounded extension of the copyright term.

With even home Internet providers enforcing monthly caps, how will you fit your 3D 4K movies across a home Internet connection without having to take a week off surfing after streaming a single movie? (4K, or quad HD, is the next step beyond high-definition video. The consumer version has roughly 3840x2160 pixels.)

Unless Debian happens to be compromised at the time you download packages, as it was in October 2003 and July 2006.

No, they come on a "game card", like games for Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, and TurboGrafx-16, and smaller games for Sega Master System.

You missed my point. A game card, like a cartridge, is solid-state storage on which a game is shipped. What is the essential difference between cartridges and game cards other than that game cards are thinner? Would you claim that the Master System and TG16 were not cartridge-based consoles because of Sega Card and HuCard?

Unless you want to play games with house guests who happen not to have brought a gaming laptop. In theory a home theater PC could serve this use, but in practice there are more consoles than home theater PCs.

Every iTrinket since the first generation iPod has had a headphone jack. Plug in a pair of Koss PortaPro headphones and hear all.

But once you tap the app, how do you control the character in the game? A flat sheet of glass gives the thumbs no tactile feedback as to where the on-screen action buttons are. Swipes on the left third of the screen can substitute for an analog stick, as first seen in Super Mario 64 DS and Metroid Prime Hunters First Hunt, but how can the player make sure he doesn't miss the jump, fire main weapon, and fire secondary weapon buttons? What's the uptake for clip-on Bluetooth gamepads?

Let me guess: You don't have a Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, or PlayStation Vita. All use cartridges.

Presumably the same way OnLive works: a pile of blades in the carrier's datacenter.