Uh, have you ever seen Anonymous? Attacking their own site seems exactly like something they'd do. That's one part of all this I've got no trouble with processing whatsoever.

In other news, fish swim, horses eat hay and I'm posting this comment through use of a computer. Or is it news when what we already knew about a case is proven to be totally correct?

I feel a great disturbance in the internets, as if millions of fanboys suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely loathe the dungeon crawl that serves no purpose other than to increase a number, and by extension several other numbers. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were, in my mind, reasonable executions of the RPG genre because the games weren't just a tedious serious of crawls through a few caves. I'm more looking at Final Fantasy and the majority of WRPGs we're seeing these days, and how they're critiqued. It's a travesty that game developers feel the need to pad out good games with the conceptual diarrhea that is grinding, to give their products a longer play time. But for whatever reasons, games that aren't filled with that shit get torn to shreds. As far as RDR goes, I finished it. I played a fair bit of the side-quests, and it's the only Rockstar game I've ever finished, period. It's also the only one I'll ever finish in the conceivable future. I had too much time on my hands, and I got the game for free. Those are the only two excuses I have.

And immediately whatever game gets made like that gets a hugely negative rep for being too easy, and core gamers stay right away from it. We've been conditioned to grind in RPG's, and the distinct lack of trawling through a dungeon to make sure you're at the highest level you can tolerate to play to leaves us feeling as unsatisfied as our girlfriends on those weekend nights we're playing. Shooters, while they've never actually been my favourite, don't ever require a worthless grind but there remains a semblance of skill that leaves players satisfied. It's no wonder they dominate the market these days.

Or ponies. This is nothing new, Anonymous turns on itself on an hourly basis if not more frequently.

I tend to agree with this. There's quite a few problems with digital distribution that still need to be ironed out - not least of which is actual bandwidth consumption in non-US countries. Not everyone has an unlimited download connection, and with games getting larger and larger these days it does raise the concern that it'll cut into the ability to feasibly get it to potential consumers.

In Microsoft's case, their digital distribution of most games cost as much if not more than what it costs to buy the game in a store, with no potential for resale. They're pricing things all wrong, and it's a huge download. I can't say I know about what Sony and Steam are doing as far as that goes, but I am aware that there's been a few pretty large bungles as far as DRM has gone.

Until this kind of problem gets fixed, I'm all for keeping physical copies of my games.

I guess the only news here is that it kind of puts a dent in Nathan Fillion and co's plans to buy the rights to Firefly and distribute it online.

Though I guess with recentl-purchased IP comes the outside possiblity of another series.

I'd like to agree with you on the notion of trying to vote in the Greens, but that just wouldn't happen.

I'd be more inclined to vote Liberal on the grounds that they've historically been far more concerned with staying in power and they've done that by keeping the people happy enough. Labor went in with some good ideas and a far superior approach to the election... they've just made some really awful decisions.

Best outcome I could see would be Labor getting the House of Representatives majority, then Labor and the Coalition around tied for reps in the Senate so the Greens and other independent reps would have a more important say. Labor's ideaology is generally more progressive, but the Libs have a rather useful tendency to sit back and wait for what the Nation has to say about it instead of acting like bullheaded idiots and pushing seriously bad legislation.

I just knew this article would include some comparison of Chihuahuas to some breed of large dog (in this case, Mastiffs). So I'm going to go ahead and make a similar comparison of a 600-pound caucasian female to a 110-pound asian male. The male may have just as much trouble with the process as does the Chihuahua, but we'll still call the result be a human. Similarly, we'll call the spawn of a Chihuahua and a Mastiff a dog. Because it looks like a dog and it barks.

Examiners can take away your calculator, though. Besides, you could text message your friends during an exam and have their answers show up on your hands.

I actually think this is brilliant. $43bn on infrastructure over 8 years, coming direct from the government. 47, 000 jobs at peak means more money which filters back to the government while people get good work across the country. It's a whole lot more effective than tax cuts or stimulus packages like a $900 cheque and it means that when it's all over, the government can make back the expenditure with privatisation, which will help pay back the public debt we're looking at down the road. It's good for businesses, good for nerds, good for employment and great for the economy in the short and longer term.

Screw the filter concerns. Conroy's got egg on his face and he's not popular with anyone lately. The internet filter's already being no-dealed by big ISP's, too; and ditching the filter is an ace-in-the-hole as far as election promises go if it ever gets to that.

God sues people for breathing His air.