Actually, the RPi is single-core, and thus you would have to bolt FOUR of them (at $35/ea) together with an Arduino DUE (at $50) to have something comparable to the $130 UDOO Quad, (board-only -- the board packaged with power supply, 2 preloaded SDCards, and HDMI cable is $160) and that mess wouldn't get you the SATA port that's on the UDOO Quad. -- The dual-core UDOO doesn't have SATA.

It's also only a single-core A9. Not dual or quad. And it lacks a SATA port.

Except that when you're trying to emulate processors and hardware, trying to spread that across multiple threads makes trying to get clock-cycle-perfect synchronization between the different parts of the emulated hardware gets really freaking hard. And since MAME is all about emulating the hardware as perfectly as possible, that's not gonna happen.It's been discussed at length in the various MAME mailing lists and FAQs.

MAME does use multithreading for graphics rendering, but all of the hardware emulation is single-threaded.

Now, if you were to build an arcade cabinet around this thing, connect the arcade controls to the board's Arduino, and load a sketch that emulates either a keyboard or multiple gamepads.

Take the ODroid and bolt an Arduino DUE onto the same PCB. That's pretty much exactly what this is.

Oh, and the pcDuino is "close to" this in so far as a board with only a single-core ARM Cortex-A8 can be considered "close to" a board with a dual (or quad) ARM Cortex-A9 *AND* the same Cortex-M3 that's on the Arduino DUE.

Which is to say, not very.

It won't be.... "a work-a-like", that is. The UDOO board is, quite literally, what you get if you take an Arduino DUE and bolt it onto the same PCB as a quad-core ARM system with a SATA port(*), instead of using a USB cable to connect the two. The Arduino code runs directly on the ATSAM3U, just as it would on a "real" Arduino DUE.

(*) The dual-core board will *NOT* have a SATA port.

I think you missed the point. He wants other people to do the work of porting the games. He just wants to be able to play them on an FPGA.

Netflix wants to switch not because they're looking for DRM. They want to switch because they're looking for a better platform that also supports adequate DRM. Sure, no matter what they come up with, somebody's going to find a way to circumvent it. But the majority of people aren't going to put that amount of effort into it.

Besides, from all signs, not even Microsoft takes Silverlight seriously anymore. ( http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-windows/microsoft-shuns-its-own-silverlight-while-embracing-flash-214335 )

Switching to HTML5 will allow them to build a user interface that will work on any system that'll run a modern web browser and stream video content as long as a supported DRM module is available.THAT is the reason that, as of now, the only way to stream content from Netflix on linux involves using WINE. They climbed into bed with Microsoft and moved their platform to be 100% Silverlight, and Microsoft absolutely refuses to allow their DRM interface to be ported to Mono, which means that any system that isn't Windows or MacOS is SOL.

DRM support in HTML5 allows Netflix to be in control of which platforms are going to be able to play their content.

It's not all sadism, although a little of that certainly helps.

As is pointed out in some books, part of the "Hacker Mindset" involves identifying and questioning assumptions. ( eg: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/networking/security/9781593273422 )

Screwing around with the UI and diving the code to figure out where the assumptions are, whether or not they're valid, how the assumptions can be invalidated, and what unexpected things happen when the unexpected occurs -- For some people, that's the very definition of "a good time."

Goddamnit.

Paste buffer fail.
THIS is the link I thought I was posting -- https://play.google.com/store/search?q=repligo+reader&c=apps

Sorry, all.

I see that several people have suggested the iPad, but I'm astonished that I'm the first to suggest RepliGo Reader. It's pretty damn awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guF533z4bdM

I highly recommend watching the demo video

I'm kinda okay with that. Normally, when I go to bed is when I plug my phone in.... If I remember to plug my phone in. I've got an extended battery installed so I don't absolutely HAVE to charge my phone every night. If they get things set so every device uses the same charging standard and you can have one mat charge all your devices simultaneously, that would be killer for convenience. Get the XXL-sized charging mat and put it on the floor next to the bed. Get undressed, drop your pants on the mat, and when you wake up the next day, your phone (and any other digital device in your pants) is fully charged.

Maybe in a country with a sane patent system, but in the US, an estimated 30% of granted patents are duplicates.

Source: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack

While I thought the program was extremely interesting and a good listen, if that sort of thing isn't for you, you can read the transcript. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/sites/default/files/TAL441_transcript.pdf -- the statistic is near the top of page 10.

You're right that patents and copyrights are completely different.

That said, tell me, honestly, that you don't think patents are a way to make an idea "less than free"

Not quite. Recipes are sets of instructions on how to combine and process ingredients into a finished product.

That makes a recipe a description of a description of a METHOD, which is patentable in the United States.