I agree with this, but would also add to it that a good driver doesn't cause others to collide with things either. For instance, I may be able to handle my car perfectly well at 80mph on the highway, but if I can't do it without adversely affecting the other drivers on the road, then I am not a "good" driver. However, if I can zoom down the highway at 80mph, not cause people to panic, swerve out of my way, not hit anything, and still be courteous to others who wish to drive the speed limit, then one might consider me to be a "good" driver.

The other problem I've found with NFS is that in a lot of them, the rubberbanding turns into physics defying cheating by the computer at some point, like being able to take a hairpin turn at 190 MPH in a Honda Civic, without hitting any walls, skidding, or even slowing down. The computer should not be able to break the limits of the game in order to catch back up. Sure, let them drive a perfect lap, but the limits of their car shouldn't be increased. If my car is fully upgraded, and I'm hitting max speed on a straightaway, the computer shouldn't be able to pass me driving the same car like I'm sitting still.

The title is "Choosing a Personal Printer For the Long Haul", so I assume he's wanting a consumer level printer, not a workhorse intended for an office setting. I do agree, though, that HP's business level printers are some of the better ones you can get.

I've had terrible luck with HP printers. It seems like they're only recognized properly about 1/3 of the time, and if I do get a computer to recognize it, it will randomly stop recognizing it at some point in the future. Not to mention the terrible software that it seems is pretty much required in order for the damn things to work. I don't think I should have to install software at this day and age to be able to use a damn printer.

I'll second this. They generally don't require any software to work properly either. Just plug it in, and it's good to go.

I second this. I hate programmers that use inheritance and polymorphism simply for the sake of using it. For the love of God, if you don't actually need it, or if it doesn't make everything simpler, don't use it!

However, depending on how the spaghetti code has been done, it can be just as annoying. If they're using GOTOs at all, or returning from functions in odd places that aren't obvious, it's not fun to debug, but I'd still prefer this to overengineering.

If they've combined overengineering with spaghetti code, it takes all my strength to keep from stabbing them in the face.

I also love people that use clever ways of causing functions to get called automagically. Like using the get/set of a property to call some method that's only slightly related to that property, but also does something incredibly important for the functionality of whatever class that property is in.

This place: http://focusdesigns.com/ has a working version that you can buy today, apparently. It's also more than twice as fast at 10 MPH.

Actually, a lot of people have done this before. Just google "self balancing unicycle" or "powered unicycle".

I see a lot of people commenting on how this is a bad idea because the case is the most reusable piece of a computer. While that may be true, how many people do you think actually reuse the case of their computer when they upgrade? I'd be willing to bet that most Joe Sixpack type consumers simply replace the entire machine when they're ready to upgrade. Sure, the /. crowd may upgrade parts until they can upgrade no more, and finally replace the entire guts, but do we realistically think that grandma is going to do the same? No, she'll buy an entirely new computer, and throw her current one out.

Don't get me wrong, I think a cardboard case is a terrible idea. There are just so many things that can go wrong (fire, water, instability due to vibrations, etc, etc). I just think that saying it's a terrible idea because a normal case can be reused isn't an entirely realistic argument.

Too bad that extension doesn't work for FF3.x

It didn't happen to be the Boost Ball Guardian in MP2: Echoes, did it? That thing was insanely hard for being that early on in the game, and if you didn't do it exactly right and move around fast enough, you'd die pretty quick. Not to mention you were pretty well constantly losing health due to being in the Dark atmosphere. And I do remember there being quite a bit of running through the level and cutscenes to get to it from the nearest save point.

I can't think of any in the first game that were that hard. Corruption had some that were hard, but none of them were overly ridiculous until the end. Well, as long as you were playing on the easiest difficulty that is. On the medium and hard difficulties, they got a lot tougher, and the final boss was largely an exercise in luck and endurance on the hardest difficulty.

I expect nothing less from them, actually. They have certified Panasonic electronics repair locations, after all. There's only one repair shop in my area that is certified. However, I do tend to like their products, and I've had very few issues or complaints with the ones I have. I would gladly pay the premium for their certified products/services, and have in the past, and have been very satisfied.

Could it be possible that they are doing this as a reaction to the laptop battery recalls? Perhaps they don't want to have to suffer the repercussions of a battery catching on fire or exploding in someone's hands or even face. If they limit the batteries that can be used to Panasonic certified ones, then this becomes less of an issue for them. If someone uses a non-certified battery, and it explodes in their face, Panasonic can try to dodge the litigation.

Replying to myself instead of each one individually...

I agree with most of your points, the classics do generally contain intriguing story lines, are thought provoking, etc. I was commenting mostly on the style in which they are written. I love to read, and enjoy many different genres. But a lot of the books that are labeled as classics are very difficult reads. Most of them, if I were not forced in some way to read them from beginning to end, I would have put them down after the first few chapters and never picked them up again. Dickens in particular has wonderful multi-leveled plots, but the style in which it he writes is simply intolerable to me.

As for the one who compared classic novels to Britney Spears... please. We all know she is the crowning singer of our time. /sarcasm

That whole bit was just something I've been toying with in my mind lately. Classics are supposed to be those books that withstand the test of time, those whose themes and ideas are still valid and intriguing decades after they had been written. Granted, that's true of most of the books I mention (no matter how painful to read). However, I simply wonder what percentage of total sales of those books are because students are required to read them for their schooling. Would they still be considered classics without those sales? Clearly, /. is not the place to ask these sorts of questions since most of us are the types who enjoy a good read, and many of us would pick those up and read them simply for the sake of having done so. But the general populace? Especially the general USA populace? I doubt many would pick up Moby Dick to read one rainy evening. I just wonder how the landscape of classics would change if students were allowed to choose the books they read for their schooling (of course only allowing books on the same reading level, of suitable subject matter, etc) instead of being forced to read the same classics year after year.