Fast Forward, Rewind, Slow Motion, are these not basic functionality of any playback device?

I was thinking this exact same thing when I read the synopsis. Despite the illusion of being instant, no message is truly instant. There is always some sort of lag, even when we speak face to face. It takes time to compose a thought and then speak it. It then takes additional time for that sound to travel to your ears and for you to comprehend what was said. The fact that we can see when a message is delivered and read just exacerbates the problem when you don't respond. I have always used the rule of thumb, if it is an e-mail, Instant Message or Text Message I wait about 24 hours before I wonder if someone got my message. This is especially true if I am initiating the conversation and not already communicating with the individual(s).

"and wonder if users that are left in the lurch when it folds will ever want to pay $9 (the average price in the U.S.) per ticket again" We don't want to pay $9 in the first place! In my area the average movie price is $13 so we are above average. I would gladly pay $9 instead of $13 but I still didn't like the price increase in my area. We went from $5 to $7 to $9 to $13 over the last 10 years or so. Also, how can a subscription service cheapen the "movie experience"? For me the movie experience is linked to the quality of the theater not the cost of a ticket or even how I acquired the ticket, unless of course the movie sucked, then the cost of the ticket weighs quite heavily in my mind. For the most part the only movies I go see in theaters any more are those that benefit from a large screen. Sweeping epics (Dunkirk), Science Fiction (Star Wars, Star Trek), Action Movies (MCU). Most everything else I wait for DVD and Netflix.

I am by far much better on the console than on the PC. This is probably because my introduction to gaming was a NES and not a PC. I have been playing consoles since then. Don't get me wrong I play games on PC too just usually not FPSes. In fact until Halo came out for Xbox I was mostly a RTS on PC and console for everything else. Until recently, I could never get used to the speed of the mouse and my left fingers just could not hit WASD correctly so FPSes on PC were incredibly frustrating. My Logitech G11 Keyboard has programmable keys to the left. I set up the bottom 6 to be WASDQE and that seems to work for me but at the same time I have to concur with those who claim that the gamepad is much easier to use. When I started playing Halo, I had the game pad mastered in no time. It took me years and the right hardware to get used to the keyboard-mouse combo. I usually play games for enjoyment so if I had to choose a place to play a new FPS, I would choose console because it would be much easier for me to master than the PC. Alright that is my two cents on my console vs. pc gaming experience. As for the article, my response is that this is not at all surprising. It has to do with the target audience of each platform. PC gaming is marketed to those who spend their free time at a PC doing just about everything from email to gaming. PC gaming has always been about being the best and is far more competitive. Console gaming, while there are some out there that are more hardcore, is usually marketed for the casual gamer. These gamers aren't at their console all the time and maybe at their PC even less. Usually the console gamer will play several games and won't play the same game for long stretches of time. I have tons of games for my X360 and have played most of them at least a little. So thinking about casual vs hardcore, it is not surprising that the PC gamers accomplished the tasks faster. They are just more dedicated than console gamers. This is not a slight against console gamers it is just that they are not playing the game as often as PC gamers.

Well it came down to Firefly or the Grandfather Paradox and as much as I would have loved to see Firefly continue forever, a chance to prove a theory of physics is just to much. Not sure if I could actually pull the trigger though. Might have to do it by proxy.

I use adblock so many of these are blocked for me but I still think they are all annoying.

This is an interesting observation. It parallels something I have been considering in regards to the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series, in fact anything which fundamentally is not different from it's predecessor but which is continuously released. For example, the Rock Band franchise illustrates my point nicely. The fundamental game from RB to RB2 to RB:Beatles has not changed. Sure they updated the software with some tweaks (isn't that really just a patch) but the way the game is played stayed pretty much the same. The only thing that has changed is the music available. For those of us that play any of the music based games this is what really maters. I could care less if I am playing RB or GH, I just want to play the songs. I look at this observation about Steam in a similar way, all we really want to do is play the games. We could care less if it is Steam, XBLA, or any other service (as long as it works of course). Why not treat Steam (or the RB or GH franchise) more like a piece of hardware than software or service. Also, if Steam is just the most popular, and by that I mean most user friendly, way to distribute games digitally why not license the technology out to other companies which can then offer their own service with their own selection of games. Personally I used to do a lot of gaming on PC but not much ever online so maybe I am a little out of touch with the online gaming community but when I look around the gaming business, as well as the entire business world for that mater, I see old business models and outdated technology. Isn't it time for us to embrace these new technologies and start thinking outside of the box again? Digital distribution is the wave of the future and just as Netflix is streaming movies directly to a TV set with a little box, Steam will be doing the same eventually (PC or otherwise). In response to another point that someone made about conflict of interest, the conflict of interest is a good reason to spin off Steam into it's own company.

This is ridiculous. This is the same thing as a story i once heard. If someone can tell me where it came from I would appreciate it. Anyway, there was a lawsuit in the future about a person who wanted to play baseball. The only problem was that he had ocular implants that gave him incredible vision (think Jordi LeForge). MLB was trying to say that he couldn't play because he had an unfair advantage. The catch was however that without the implants he was almost blind. This is of course an extreme case and is more superficial than Caster Semenya's but the concept is the same. Should we ban everyone from playing a sport on medical conditions. "Oh, I'm sorry you had the cold once so you can't ski." Just because this woman may have a medical condition that gives her improved athleticism doesn't mean she should compete. Take any major sports star that hasn't admitted to using steroids and see if any of them were tested for being abnormal. Nope. I think we look too much at making the games fair that we forget that they are supposed to be fun as well. As for determination of whether she is or is not a female, I think it is pretty much linked to the genitalia. Chromosomes only tell you so much.

Just got an e-mail from Comcast that it is currently implementing the exact same thing. Here is the email: "Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer , At Comcast, we're constantly looking to deliver the best online and search experience. That's why we're introducing a new feature called 'Domain Helper' to help you find the sites you want when you mistype a Web site address in your Web browser. You'll notice this service if you mistype a Web site address, for example "http://www.comtcas.com" instead of "http://www.comcast.com." Instead of receiving an error page that the Web site does not exist, this new service will provide you with a Web page of suggestions and links to get you back on track quickly and help you find what you need faster. We also understand that sometimes customers want to surf their own way, without the assistance of Domain Helper, so we also offer an easy way to opt-out when you receive the suggestion Web page. You can also opt out by visiting the opt-out page now. We hope you find this to be a valuable tool to help you surf the web even faster. Sincerely, Comcast"

Not just that but Blockbuster also participates in Trade In's as well as Previous Played Games which come straight from the rental shelves and are almost 100% profit for the company. I worked there when the first Xbox came out and you should have seen how quickly my collection of Xbox games grew just because I could get them for half what a new one costs and that was before my employee discount. Should developers be compensated on the sale of a traded game? Might not be a bad idea. Might solve this issue all together. Will Blockbuster ever give up there 99.9% profit margin? Probably not.

This is all well and good but why should we have to shell out sixty dollars a game for each artist especially when the basic game already exists? Sure following in a band's footsteps might be nice but it is really a once and done thing whereas the general game (GH or RB) has much better replay value. Also, if one version of the game has certain songs and the next one doesn't, then you have to switch discs just to play certain songs. Rock Band did well when it allowed gamers to transfer RB1 songs to RB2 and for that and many other reasons RB will have my loyalty for a long time. What I would like to see is all the songs on this new game as DLC. That way I can still play the songs without having to switch discs in between. Why can't we just have one game that plays all the songs?

New slashdot poll: UAC ___ On ___ Off It was one of the first things I did after installing Vista, I turned the UAC off completely. One thought to make it less annoying is to have it sense if someone clicked on something or not. It seems to me that if the user clicked on something that was already on their computer chances are they wanted to do that no matter the consequences. I find myself in situations like this because I tend to download a lot of my software (and yes it is all legal) and install it from my hard drive. If I were to leave UAC on it would prompt me 100 times in a week maybe more depending on the week. An adaptive type of UAC could be helpful too. One that learns your tendencies and adjusts itself accordingly.