The first two points are what kept me away. The third one (task bar across both monitors?) I've actually wanted on occasion. Always wished it was an option. If you don't mind my asking, what is the issue with it?

Two things: I wouldn't call GW2 "pvp-based". It's pretty lacking in major features. Secondly, I can't think of anything that pvp-players need to buy from the cash shop. It's the opposite of mandatory

p2w = Pay to Win? If so, I fail to see how anything in the GW2 shop is "pay to win". Yes GW2 has a cash shop, but that is not intrinsically a bad thing. You are not forced to use it. Heck, you can convert the ingame currency to "gems" which is the cash shop currency and never need to spend a dime.

Perhaps I'm being overly pedantic, but how is what he said racist? It's a comment about government in a particular country, I fail to see how racism comes into it. Apologies for zeroing in on this, but I really dislike the "racism" card as it is thrown around in arguments these days.

I've never bought any Humble Bundles, but when people are saying that this has outsold all the previous ones...is that just in numbers of units sold? If so, I would assume its possible for this bundle to outsell all the old ones in terms of quantity, but can you compare how much money was sent to charity between the different bundles? If this one has a significantly higher amount, that could send a pretty strong message about DRM.

Yeah, I suppose that stops him from dialing random numbers and picking up names from answering machines.

There's enough pork in Congress to carry us through these dire times.

I think the Olympics committee did a good job revamping their appeals process to appear more legit and transparent.

Oh wait...

In yesterday's scenario, yes, I would have to agree. You've got a small, very crowded, dark environment mixed with tear gas, a shooter dressed in riot gear (when a lot of the crowd is dressed up for the movie), and mass panic. In this situation, it's hard to say anything short of a full SWAT team on site immediately would have really helped. That's not an argument for tighter gun control.

The notion of disarming a civilian population really does not sit well with me. There are plenty of situations where knowing not only how, but when to use deadly force is appropriate and will save more lives then simply waiting for Uncle Sam to come rescue you (see my above post). He's not always going to come around in a timely fashion.

In a world where criminals are willing to kill, tighter gun laws are not going to be much of a deterrent. Just look at how the "war on drugs" has been working out. If criminals want guns, they will have guns. I at least want to be on equal footing and not a severe disadvantage if there comes a time (rare that I hope it to be) where me being armed could have saved the lives of innocents.

Look at the massacre on UT campus in the 60s. Troubled sniper got up to the bell tower and started firing mostly indiscriminately (1 shot, 1 kill or he left you alone). Once people realized what was going on, many of the students who owned guns got them and started returning fire, severely limiting the number shots the sniper (Whitman) could take as he was forced to take cover. There was even an armed civilian in the group of 4 people who got to the bell tower and ended the killing spree.

Authorities have stated that the large number of armed civilians returning fire was instrumental in keeping Whitman from inflicting further harm

Charles Whitman

Does no one proof read? This is painful to read

To be honest, I'm somewhat sad to see this go as well. It all comes down to management and sacrifice. Playing an Monk in the original Guild Wars, nothing was more exciting then being strained to switch to your high mana set (at the cost of mana regeneration) and having your team just barely survive the encounter. Swapping weapon sets to hide your mana from Energy Burn mesmers, keeping everyone's positioning in mind, knowing who to prot (much more effective then heal), and managing a skill bar of 8 that not only had to be able to deal with the wide variety of enemy compositions while maintaining survivability, mana and cooldown management, and positioning was the majority of the fun playing a support class.

I fully expect GW2 to be a great game, but think they are missing some key things that made the original great. Here's to hoping they bring back actual GvG

Almost true. There is a difference between pre-order (Amazon) and pre-purchase (buy.guildwars2.com). If you pre-purchase the game up front (money is paid), you can play in the next Beta Weekend Event. If you pre-order the game from a retailer like Amazon (who doesn't charge you until the game ships), then you will not have access to the BWE.

What 13 year old actually uses spell check in IM?

I have to shake my head reading that list of 10...Overly idealized, not very well thought out. For instance

1) Students will have automatically updated information
You really think so based on the publishing industry? Expect to pay for each iteration of that constantly updating information. Publishers aren't going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

2) Promotes active, engaging learning
It also promotes an active and engaging distraction. Go to any college campus and watch what students are doing on their laptops.

4) Budget-friendly equals more access
Really? The iPad is suddenly budget friendly? I get that their are cheaper tablets out there, but the fact that this article is touting iPads as being what changes education, it really makes me question the articles validity. Not to mention, you can get a cheap netbook thats not locked down for just as much access.

5) It offers a range of tools without multitasking options
What an argument. Single tasking is a feature as it prevents kids from playing games? A) Kids are going to get around it, B) I'd be surprised if iPads stay single tasking forever...