Awesome to hear Dell and Alienware getting behind linux gaming... I love my dell u2311h monitor, but there's no way in hell I'd buy an alienware system, I'll just build my own. As for Slashdot not covering it... well they have lagged behind getting tech news out for quite a while now.

I read those tweets and felt the sheer contempt burning through the internet, as did many other people.

If the always-on thing is required for the Xbox720, effectively Microsoft are saying "we don't care if you can't use your product you purchased from us because of a hundred possible reasons". Moving house can mean a month of downtime to get internet connectivity back up, nope, can't play games during that month. Recently an Australian telephone exchange burned down in Warrnambool - the entire area had no internet connectivity for a few weeks - yep, no gaming during that time either. A tree took out my phone line and Telstra took 2 weeks to get it repaired - yep, no gaming during that time. These are just the examples I can quickly think of.

We currently own 67 Xbox 360 games in this house, and have two of the consoles (one for my wife and I and one for our kids). If having the internet permanently connected for the purposes of DRM is a requirement of the Xbox 720, I guarantee we will purchase exactly zero consoles and games for that generation.

I'm thinking about getting one just to see what android games are like with a decent controller that isn't touch based. Should be fun!

Did you ever consider that it's not just one corrupt moderator, it's a bunch of regular slashdot users who infrequently get mod points who think you are totally full of shit? Stop posting as an AC, and then no one is impersonating you. Stop posting annoying off topic irrelevant bullshit, and people won't mod you down. Contribute positively and get modded up - what a novel concept!

Yes it's probably one person posting the similar drivel to you. On everything. You have the power to stop this - create an account, and no one else can impersonate you. I'm seriously sick of reading your posts about someone impersonating you, and their posts of shit - if you refuse to create an account you're only perpetuating this problem.

Simple solution. GET A FUCKING ACCOUNT and stop posting as anonymous coward.

Even with the GST and import taxes, if you're working for an Australian business who needs 2 (or more) copies of Adobe CS6, you're still well ahead by flying over to the US and buying them and paying the GST and import tax. At $3879 for the CS6 master collection, your $1600 flight and $1200 software purchase, plus say $300 salary and $100 hotel room for one night still comes out ahead - and for multiple copies, you're laughing.

I hope you get herpes, chlamydia, genital warts and crabs, and then they refuse to give you your medical records afterwards.

... would mean that there are less things which need cutting from the federal budget.

This.

He'll try to convince them to can this stupid idea of linking all game purchases with a single xbox live account, and getting rid of the stupid "always-on" DRM requirement.

Curious which network provider you're using... here in Australia on Optus we have to reboot the iphone's regularly to get 3G access back... has occurred on the 3g, 3gs, 4 and 4s - as well as on my dad's blackberry. Takes all of 2 mins, and no, setting airplane mode doesn't always work.

Except that "transfer purchases" doesn't actually work, I've done that before every reinstall/upgrade and without fail, I get a message after the process saying at least 5 apps couldn't be found to be restored, and I've had to re-download them from the (cr)app store.

Am I clicking "transfer purchases" wrong? ;)

I'm pretty sure that Apple haven't done a x.3 version since IOS 4...

I have noticed my 4S has less battery life since "upgrading" to 6.1. Went through 80% in an entire day with about 30 mins of tethering and a few phone calls, as well as listening to music for 6 hrs. On 5.1 it would last about 2 days with that kind of activity.

Actually here in Australia quite often the local store is cheaper. Current example - Far Cry 3 - $69.99 for digital download only Steam, vs $59.99 in the local store for the Insane Edition with the survival kit and bobble-head figurine... Assassins Creed 3 - $45 at the store, $69.99 on Steam.

John Scalzi has pretty much nailed it in his blog about his new Dell XPS touchscreen Win8 machine: