Well, those illegal arcade ROMs are "free" in the sense that you don't have to pay for them, but since they are still under copyright by their creators, who have deemed redistribution of those ROMs illegal, they are not "free" as in speech. Not to mention you're ignoring the fact that those ROMs are illegal, which is a far larger issue...

Who cares if everyone already pirates ROMs? That doesn't make it legal. Freeware ROMs are legal of course, but most of the titles the recipients of this gift have heard of don't fall into this category.

That's certainly possible, but all the programs I listed work on Windows as well, so it's not strictly necessary.

Ooh, I forgot about VLC. Good thinking.

Gaming:

• SuperTuxKart
• SuperTux (SVN trunk)
• Warsow
• Warzone 2100, maybe
• Secret Maryo Chronicles

Graphics:

• Inkscape
• GIMP

Other stuff:

• Python (2.6 or 2.7)
• Transmission (the Bittorrent client)
• Filezilla
• Firefox or Chromium, if they don't use either already

PETA has really outdone themselves this time.

I always wondered if other people read like this. Often, I read multiple paragraphs of, say, a news article before a fellow family member has read a sentence. Consequently, I seem to forget the content of what I read more often (as other ./-ers have stated), but hey, at least I read faster. :)

You don't need to use the official Diaspora server. For example, I use this one.

It's unlikely one will hit Oklahoma, you know. ;)

... Kind of scary if you've never been in an earthquake before. However, I was in a magnitude 6.0 earthquake a while ago in California, so this didn't seem too bad. The really wild thing is, I've now weathered a fire, an earthquake, and a tornado all in the same house. Maybe it's time to consider moving? :)