And it was Phoenix before that.

Having been through those early name changes, one of my favorite early extensions was "Firesomething" ... it changed the name of Firefox on every launch.

Do lay it all on the hardware side. We'll continue to see speed gains in interpreter output too. Java, for example, was dog slow when it started; it's speed has improved significantly since then, and not solely due to processor improvements.

Or was this just an opportunity to troll?

At least then the interface might work properly.

Which, of course, is not at all true if one is pursuing a career in academia...

Did I say anything about streaming? I purchase digital copies that I can store (and backup) locally.

(To some extent, I agree with you, although personal cloud-based storage can be "local" enough.)

Absolutely.

In my case, I stopped buying physical disks several years ago with the expectation a common digital standard would emerge and I could just start buying things digitally.

I'm still waiting for the common standard (read: DRM-freee) plus cloud storage, but the handful of movies I've purchased ("just had to have") in the recent past have all been digital, even if DRM-encumbered.

Wait ... you're saying their new OS will allow you to write code once for both desktops AND laptops if both run Windows? No way! That would be so cool .....

[/snark]

Why don't we start with something as simple as the time it takes to wake from sleep? I can cook a meal and do the dishes in the amount of time it takes my Windows 7 desktop to wake up. Compare that with the almost instant on of my four-year-old MacBook and my iDevice. It's frustrating as hell.

Once that's figured out, how 'bout boot time and shutdown time?

Yes, Windows 7 is better at this than its predecessors, but it's still got a ways to go.

To be worthwhile, I assert religion does too.

It's the process of facing it, not succumbing to it that's important.

GP didn't make a qualitative categorization of the rightness or wrongness of either position. You did that.

Been there. Done that. It's more (IMNSHO) about whether you subscribe to ultra-right-wing ideology (outside of Salt Lake Valley, that is, although it helps there too). Heck, there is an openly gay member of the state legislature (from Salt Lake)--he's clearly not a member of "the dominant religion," so your generalization is inaccurate and unhelpful.

Having met many of these legislators (indeed, having previously been in a position where I would headdesk regularly at their antics), even if the article doesn't say it, I can vouch for the fact that those pushing the bill are in the ultra-conservative wing of Utah's already conservative (and controlling) Republican party.

Pretty much anyone from Utah County, including Sen Madsen (R-Eagle Mountain), Sen Dayton (R-Orem) and Sen Stephensen (sp?; who sits just across the north border of the county) are at the extreme conservative end of the political spectrum, and regularly introduce legislation designed to disrupt public education. For example, a couple of years ago, Sen Dayton (on the word of a single constituent who thought alike, and despite resistance from every education-saavy person I know) went on a crusade against the International Baccalaureate program, decrying it as a socialist takeover of state's rights (never mind that each school, and thus each locally elected school board, must choose to opt in).

The representatives from the same area (unsurprisingly) act similarly, and most of them would like to see a complete dismantling of public education in favor of a completely market-based approach. Now that's a whole different kettle of fish, but it provides some insight into why they are so consistently disruptive--and I don't mean in the positive innovation-friendly sort of way, but rather the time-consuming, prevent-actual-innovation-because-of-extra-work sort of way.

No doubt some of those small start ups will soon become^W be bought by big defense contractors!"

Fixed that for you.

I think you're confusing "server" with "stone carvings".

Part of the trouble is that the summary is poorly attempting to espouse a position on the matter.

Even with no causal link between video games and violence there are parents who may choose for moral or spiritual reasons to keep violent video games out of the home. (It's that parental involvement arguement that Slashdotters put forward every time an internet filter is discussed.) Violence aside, surely there are other "adult themes" that might contribute to the proposed R+18 rating. Thus, the link between a study of games as antecedents to violence is really somewhat superfluous to the issue of an additional rating category.

And a rating, in the end, is primarily a heuristic for buyers (and parents) regarding the intensity of content one might expect.