Yeah, I guess. Keeping people in line using military hardware seems to be a growth industry all over the world. I'm not sure I believe our overlords even see borders any more.

Yeah, I thought that too for a minute. But this part of the summary seems to suggest otherwise:

"Over at the Communications of the ACM, a new article — Computing's Narrow Focus May Hinder Women's Participation — suggests that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs should shoulder some of the blame for the dearth of women at Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter and other tech companies.

Clearly, they're including platforms other than the Microsoft DOS/Windows hegemony. There are lots of ways to compute today that don't involve those platforms.

I suppose maybe it has to do with the platforms these women grew up with, but assuming they're in their 20s, they would have had lots of other choices even then.

Who knows? My wife got a Masters in Computer Science before her PhD in Math, and she doesn't seem to like computers very much. From what I've seen over the past 20+ years, she prefers pencil and paper. She tells me that it's possible to do real Computer Science with paper and pencil, but I never fully understood how that works. She's the smart one in the family.

Think about all the second/third worlders supporting piracy on Slashdot. The hungarians/romanians/russians saying they pirated everything and then complaining about how no one wants to pay for their own software they make so they're thinking about emigrating...but that everyone should pirate Game of Thrones because media companies who want to make a profit are evil.

Forget about their reasons. Is it a problem that would make Sony unprofitable?

We've had the music industry give up on DRM over a decade ago, and they're still in business, doing better than ever. In fact, the Super Bowl is now making half-time acts PAY for the privilege of playing at the half-time of the Superbowl. All that piracy of music and there is still a huge music industry, still musicians making livings all over the world. Maybe some of the power shifted, but do you doubt that there are just as many musicians making livings today as there were in 1980?

The industry wants to say it's a SERIOUS problem, but all we have to go on is their outrageous estimates of lost revenues, and dire warnings. We had the same dire warnings about the music industry and they turned out to be completely false. I don't need a Playstation 4 if I want to play the latest music from my favorite musician. In fact, there are more ways for me to get that music and get it for free than ever before. Movies are pirated left and right and there's still a movie industry, in fact, it's bigger than ever. More independent movies than ever. More people making a living in the movie industry than ever, in more places than ever. The music industry and the movie industry have surrendered to piracy and lived to tell the tale. Yet, you tell me that somehow the game industry is different.

I call BS.

People can go on how Sony or Microsoft and other companies are evil and information wants to be free and all that.....but really it's just a bunch of people who don't want to pay.

And yet, somebody is paying. Here, look for yourself:

Billboard:

Global digital revenues were up 8% to $5.8 billion, climbing from $5.4 billion the previous year. Performance rights revenue was the fastest growing sector in the music industry, rising 9.4% to $943 million, up from $862 million in 2011. Synchronization grew 2.1% and totaled $337 million, up from $330 million. Global revenues from physical was $9.4 billion, a 5% decrease on 2011’s total of $9.9 billion.

And,

Statista:

Filmed entertainment revenue in 2013 was $88billion

That's billion with a "b". And the projections through 2018 are all up up up.

http://www.statista.com/statis...

All in all, the entertainment industry in the US made $632billion in 2013. So somebody is paying. Piracy my ass.

If the only language you have proficiency in is C#, then you have a problem that may very well interfere with your employability.

I am also aware that some think that Sony should split itself up into two separate companies because of that.

Five, at very least.

And 75 percent of newbies were some second or third worlder

So, it's those people with no money in the Third World that are the threat to Sony. How big do you really believe the threat of Playstation piracy could be? Haven't we been over the actual statistics about piracy in the entertainment industry to be able to drop this notion that piracy is some "existential threat" to the industry? Sony makes a device. A different Sony makes a game. So who really is Sony's customer? The person who buys a Playstation or one of their "strategic partners"?

All you're doing is making my case for Sony being a company that is hostile to the people who buy their products. And their corporate structure and philosophy is what makes them evil. Anyone who does not buy the Sony nameplate is well rid of them. A company that deserved a lot of respect in the 60s, 70s and 80s has now lost all claim on respectability.

Free 2 Play is pretty terrifying.

Aren't you glad that you play games that require connection to Playstation Network?

You know this never happened when people were playing Starcraft on dedicated servers. When you let one company be the nexus for your ability to use an expensive piece of equipment like a Playstation, you have to expect that some days you just won't be able to play the games that you bought.

It's very irresponsible for you to ascribe such a reprehensible and homophobic sentiment to the CIO of Sony.

That comment was clearly made by the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Shawn Layden.

In Minnesota, there is plenty of time to get to the basement if there is a tornado warning, and 6 months notice of oncoming -20F temperatures

I'll take my chances with the tsunamis.

I've been to Minnesota.

Maybe, but it came about because Nintendo learned from Atari how not controlling the platform led to the short-lived death of the games industry.

It led to the death of one platform, not the entire industry.

"Valerie Barr, chair of ACM's Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W), believes the retreat [of women from CS programs] was caused partly by the growth of personal computers."

So, it sounds like women don't go into computer science because they don't like computers.

Alright, that makes sense. I don't like pig shit so I didn't become a hog farmer.

I moved to Minnesota so I wouldn't have to worry about earthquakes, or tsunamis

Yeah, but now you're in Minnesota.

Buzzer (in case you are trapped

What kind of buzzer? It's part of the crank radio? I can't read Japanese so can't tell.

With over 70% of Americans opposed to any new foreign military action, the war machine has to do something to gin up the next glorious Middle East AIPAC adventure. Defense spending doesn't grow on trees, you know. Well, it does, but sometimes you have to spread a little fertilizer to make those trees grow.

Programmatic connoisseurs.

I'm with you, brother. And if my wife doesn't like me spending my Sunday afternoon with a controller in my hands then she can just...Oops, here she comes...gotta go.