HTC(8.13B) is considerably larger than Palm (1.05B), but are both dwarfed by RIM (39.42B). Apple's market cap is 190.34B.

Yes, daily...Eeebuntu and Debian, with several others tried inbetween. I find Debian-based+Gnome to produce the fewest headaches. Still, every other fucking apt-get install or deb package says "Oh, you're missing this dependency". Which is why Linux stays on my netbook and a 'server', and not my primary workstation.

Then there are all sorts of fun little headaches, like getting certain programs to recognize mounted network shares, or the WLAN deciding it can only connect at 1Mbps despite being right next to a WAP...I could go on but I stopped keeping track of the little stuff long ago.

I'm a Windows sysadmin by day, and a complete hardware junkie, so I'm far from a novice with computers, and no stranger to a command line environment (We run an Openfiler iSCSI box which I setup, and our primary mail server is CentOS/Qmail which someone else maintains primarily and I administer almost every day). The problem is Linux as a whole is so damn fragmented between distros and application libraries the interoperability is an absolute nightmare. I'm sure if I grew up on years of primarily Linux, it would seem like things have improved greatly and are 'so easy' now...but comparatively, for people looking to make the switch, it's not.

With that said, if I ever run into a person who has never used a computer and does not plan to install any additional software, I would definitely give good consideration to a distro like Ubuntu...I'll never have to worry about them getting hit with spyware or a virus. However, I have yet to meet that person. I'd rather clean up the occasional infection than deal with lots of compatibility issues.

Agreed. Ask first, and ESPECIALLY keep in mind the 'LOT of questions' part. I've figured out the hard way that this is a bad idea. Unless you enjoy being unpaid tech support. I find it easier to go with Vista/7 and switch it to classic appearance mode. Far fewer headaches from end users.

I know, it's great to promote OSS...but desktop Linux is still a ways off from being ready to replace Windows or OSX (psst..this is where you start flaming me). It works great out of the box, but as soon as you want to do much tweaking aside from desktop backgrounds and install some additional software, you will run into headaches. "I can't install X without Y and Z dependencies?" And then it's off to google to find out how to get them...in a way that works with the current version of said dependency on your distro...

Agreed. I stop into Suncoast or whatever the heck it's called now equivalent each time I make it to a bigger mall (I live in BFE and have to drive 60 mins to a decent city) because they often have half off or buy one get one sales, and that is the only time anime seems reasonably priced to me. And 2 out of 3 times I walk out empty handed because the selection is already picked over (usually it's a sale for a specific publisher). All the other publishers still have their good titles in stock.

What does that show you? At the right price, anime sells like hotcakes. Maybe they should do a little experimentation with prices on 'new' releases and see what happens. I use new loosely here, because often these are things that were released in Japan years ago. Didn't they already pay for themselves? As someone else said, piracy created an international market. Learn how to utilize it. $50-$60 for a 25 episode box set? Awesome. $25 for a 4-episode DVD? Fail.

Why do my mod points expire right before I finally find a post I want to mod as insightful?

I did some quick googling to be sure, but it's not even SecuROM. Just a plain ol' DVD check.

$72? Where are you getting that figure from? Are you outside the US and have ugly exchange rates or something?

Also, there is the standard edition that is $10 cheaper:
http://www.impulsedriven.com/masseffect2

Exactly, but they're largely going after Gamestop et. al., and they don't have systems in place to handle stuff like that. But if this crap becomes common, then maybe...

That's because other than a simple DVD check, there is no DRM. EA actually learned their lesson, believe it or not.

Now the included 'free' DLC to inhibit used game sales is another story...

I used my Visa instead of my usual MC on Newegg for a Christmas gift and it came up for the first time ever. I closed the widow intending to buy it on my MC instead, but the payment still went through. 2 days later I got a call from the Visa fraud department...haha. I told the lady the verified thing was a bullshit pain in the ass and she let me on my way. Haven't used my Visa since.

I bought the physical copy like I always do...even better there was a midnight launch, so I got to play it before it went live on Steam (5PM EST was the active time, wtf?). No activation required, just a DVD check, which I cracked anyway because swapping disks is annoying.

The only pain was downloading the parts of the game they didn't include in their attempt to bypass the first sale doctrine. AKA the 'free' launch DLC that is basically content ripped from the base game to inhibit used game sales. I just wish the game had been out a bit longer so I could have downloaded the cracked versions of those...although they don't appear offhand to need any actual cracking...just simple .exe files. I'm really just thankful they didn't make me download them with the EA Spyware...err Download Manager.

I'm also happy they learned their lesson from Spore and ME1 and no longer require online activation for boxed copies. Now they just need to get over their digital distribution paranoia and make it more consumer-friendly, too.

That sounds like my games. Except it's not planned. And it's more bumping, not jumping. Into enemies. Or pits. Or spiky things.

Basically, we're a team of assisted suicide experts.

I would mod you higher if possible.

This is exactly the case. Most places don't need encryption. I read a cleverly worded quote once that said something to the effect that security should serve business goals, and not just be there for security's sake. This is one of those cases. Encryption is a pain in the ass and not usually necessary.

The only data virtually every company needs to protect is their employees' personal info, generally in HR. SSN's, any Medical info from insurance claims, etc.

I wish everyone would get along in the world so we didn't have to put any money into the military.

Reality sucks.

As others mentioned, there are legitimate and illegitimate means to exchange the virtual currency of Eve, ISK, to US Dollars. Going by the legitimate route of Game Time Codes/Cards, the ISK value of the ships lost would allow you to purchase thousands of dollars worth of game time. Illegitimately, you can sell your ISK directly for cash, but I do not know if that exchange rate would number in the thousands.

So yes, they are quite obviously not real ships, and as they were they had no direct value, but had those players desired, they could have exchanged their ships for thousands of REAL US Dollars. So whether or not you want to believe it, "thousands of dollars" worth of ships were indeed lost.

Hey, it's Engadget, give them a break. They only used four Apple products on that list, it could have been MUCH worse.