Try uninstalling 9.2 and then installing 9.3 :P 9.2 breaks itself somewhere along the line, making it impossible to entirely uninstall it. Scouring the registry for entries doesn't help either. Im sure there is a workaround, but so far it's easier to just reimage your Windows box :/

Just 2 cents: Depending on the application, you can get away with quite a few alternatives. Tatouk isn't too bad, it's been in used for nearly a decade in one of our GIS applications. I've investigated SharpMap, which (if you're looking for a barebones mapping app in C#) is great for simple mapping applications/components. A few of our new applications have been using the Google API, which has gone over well for their purposes. I personally don't feel you can suggest a software which is "better" without qualifying what one is desiring to do. Arc does literally everything; though I'd likely guess most developers don't really need this. My issues with ArcGIS would likely be that it's proprietary; during my investigation of SharpMap, when I needed full colour Geotiff and raster support, I built it myself. There was quite a bit of user supplied documentation, and the freedom to open up what I needed should I run into my own road block. It may be rather infantile compared to Arc, but as a developer I much rather open source alternatives. Still, can't fault ESRI for dominating the professional market; no one else was really doing anything with GIS for a good portion of time.

Sadly; some of us are stuck using ArcEngine 9.2 for gov't projects; we don't have the benefit of the recent developments and actually intelligible documentation. Oddly, I work a mere stones throw from the ESRI offices in Ottawa; I should raid their offices for free documentation.

About the only reviews I've given credit to in the last few years have been satirical reviews from people like Spoony or some of the other YouTube vloggers. However, even these can be hard to detect as fake (such as the e-cigarette reviewers who genuinely seem legit - Actors, they make all the difference).

You'd be surprised how often it happens for novels as well. "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez is a fairly well known example of review poisoning. Hundreds of reviews, "Best of Lists" on Amazon, etc; all fabricated by the author and his friends. Review Journalism is often questionable, regardless of the medium being reviewed; it's just more visible with video games at the moment. 10 years ago it was PC Mag.

It's generally easy to pick out the fake reviews posted by either one of these companies or by over zealous users. However, how can the FTC differentiate the two? It's not like they can just walk up and demand a list of IP's whenever a product gets strangely glowing reviews. Sometimes people really do absolutely love utter crap (Dan Brown anyone?). It sounds like they just told Reverb to fess up when doing these reviews, but thats hardly a solution.

If I had mod points, I'd mod you up for mentioning Yelp being sued. I was totally unaware of that.

I'm guessing you've never seen a review written by rabid fans; even before release...

These fake reviews are common for businesses as well. Take a look at restaurants on Yelp sometime; many "boost" their review status by posting fakes. How is the FTC actually able to deduce which are from a firm and which are legit anyway?

Valve has explicitly stated that if Steam/they were to tank, they would provide a means you could play your games without steam. Second, most developers don't do much support of their games via Steam, thats mostly left up to Valve.

Should a developer go down, you arn't going to loose the game or no longer have the ability to re-download it; people will simply be no longer to purchase it.

Well, Steams made it clear that should it ever die, they will provide a means to have the games operate without Steam (or at least signing into Steam).

And it is a form of DRM, but one that semi-works. I have the same games installed on different machines in my home. I can play on each and every one of them, I simply can't play them at the same time.

Valve gets to have their anti-piracy (somewhat) and I don't have to have Secure-Rom, Sony root kits, etc installed on my machine. It's still far from perfect, but they allow me to download my games as many times as I please. ITunes won't let me re-download tracks I've already purchased from them (except if I whine). Not bad from my point of view.

Note though: Apparently Bioshock still game with some form of Secure-Rom or something of the like.

Or that Windows Update only worked through Internet Explorer?
While the "spiffy" ActiveX features will only work in Internet Explorer, one *can* download everything they need without using IE.
A companies update tool which only works in said companies software? My god, who'd ever expect such a thing. (Bear in mind, I too would rather windows update work in Opera, but their move isn't surprising in the least).

Agreed. I was out of PC gaming for a few years simply due to the price of many new games. It wasn't until I picked up the Orange Box (which I thought was a great price point at full price mind you), that I started to get back in. For example: I had played the Doom 3 demo a couple years back, and just wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it. The reviews were good, but damn, it just didn't have much to grab me. A couple months ago, it was on Steam for next to nothing so I gave it a whirl for a day or two. Needless to say Im glad I spent next to nothing on it. Steams weekend sales are something I look forward to and checkout every Friday night. Honestly, if a company or retail marketplace can entice me to regularly check their site for "great deals", they are doing something right. I wonder what the sale will be tonight; though at this point, I'd like to own a legit copy of Homeworld....