The original "lorem ipsum" was De finibus by Roman philosopher M. T. Cicero. Lipsum.com has a translation of the famous passage into English.

The word "executable" means "able to be executed". On a platform that enforces digital signatures, a computer program is not executable (and therefore not an executable) until it's signed.

You're allowed to register a trademark for a term that is arbitrary in the field of use. For example, "Apple" is an existing English word, but it is arbitrary for phonorecords of musical recordings (Apple Corps) or computers (Apple Inc.) because there is nothing about the products themselves that suggests an apple. But if something is merely descriptive, it's much harder to qualify for a trademark. For example, "Candy" would appear to be descriptive for a computer game in which the player interacts with game pieces that depict sweets. The registrant has to show that the mark has gained a secondary meaning in the field of use.

I thought "candy" would be considered merely descriptive for a video game that depicts pieces of candy as the objects with which the player interacts. For example, in both Yoshi's Cookie and Cookie Clicker, the player interacts with cookies. Unless a merely descriptive term gains a secondary meaning, I don't see how it should be eligible for a trademark.

That depends. Several years ago, Taito published a video game called Bust-A-Move (Puzzle Bobble in some markets). Should Taito (a Square Enix company) take action against the developers of free software such as Frozen Bubble , which has the same rules?

So does this mean the maker of Candy Land and My Little Pony is about to give King.com a My Little Pwning?

Is it harder to get into Steam than into ID@Xbox?

OUYA was supposed to be that, with the same CPU and GPU as the Nexus 7 tablet, but it appears to have fizzled for some reason.

The consolation prize might be useful for single-player and for genres where players tolerate online-only multiplayer, such as first-person shooters. But it's not so useful for genres where players expect to share a screen, such as fighting games. I've been told that not many people are willing to buy a second Windows PC to put next to the TV, to carry a Windows PC back and forth between the PC and the TV, or to plug in two to four USB game controllers and crowd around a desktop monitor, just to play one game that the console makers turned down. If you have evidence to the contrary, I'd like to see it.

Then we differ on how "the executable" is defined. Some platforms sign an installation package containing the executable, some sign the executable itself, and some sign both. For example, under Windows, both the MSI installation package and the EXE inside it can carry an Authenticode signature. Rebuilding "the executable" would require signing it.

When the Wii is powered on or resumed from WC24 sleep (amber power light), Wii Menu displays a health and safety warning screen, directing the player to the console's manual, to cover Nintendo's behind. (When started by closing a game or channel, Wii Menu instead briefly displays a grid of gray rectangles on a black field in the shape of the channel grid.) If the player presses A on that screen, Nintendo has a defense that the player reasonably should have read the warnings in the manual.

If the executable contains a valid signature, and they do not provide a means to add a valid signature, then they do not provide a means to rebuild the executable.

A lot of people who skim Slashdot's front page don't know enough to know whether they need to care about a particular story. People don't know what they don't know.

That won't happen because lawsuits. Several parents didn't discover that their children were photosensitive until they seized while using a Nintendo product, and then the parents lawyered up.

One of the other three (Steam Machine) is a "living room computer", as was the fat PlayStation 3 prior to 3.21. But I don't see how PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are "computers" in any sense that usefully contrasts with a "game console". For example, they can't run word processors or spreadsheets because the console maker chooses not to sign LibreOffice.

Pokemon already has trading and PvP with strangers and friends, even if the game itself is entirely instanced so that it can run locally. I don't see Animal Crossing going MMO, or even letting strangers visit your town, because of the potential for vandalizing another player's town, disclosing PII, or other kinds of griefing. I know certain vocal gamers dislike friend codes, but there's a reason for them.

Nintendo's advantage over emulators on phones and tablets is that apart from Xperia Play and some obscure JXD models, phones and tablets tend not to ship with a directional control and discrete trigger buttons. I have Nesoid on my Nexus 7 tablet, and I've loaded some homebrew NES platformers like STREEMERZ: Super Strength Emergency Squad Zeta, Driar, and I Wanna Flip the Sky onto it. Now these games control wonderfully on my NES when I load them on my PowerPak, but on the flat sheet of glass that is a tablet's input device, the control is anything but precise. Because my thumbs can't feel where the edges of the on-screen buttons are, I tend to keep pressing the wrong button or "whiffing". Playing emulators on Android without carrying around a Bluetooth controller is even worse than trying to play with the much-maligned Triax Turbo Touch 360 controller; at least that one has normal A and B buttons and ridges inside the directional touchpad area to guide the thumbs.