I remember "verbal" details, if that makes sense; thoughts I had or other people's descriptions of them. I can tell you Grandpa had white hair, was tall, a friendly face that everyone says was very similar to mine and my mom's, but I can't "picture" him. I can't give you details of *how* his face is similar to mine, his stance, how his hands looked or felt, how he changed as he aged, whatever, because those details aren't things I actively thought about.

Even as I'm actively thinking about him, it's just concepts. I couldn't describe how he wore his hair; the closest I get to anything visual is a fleeting glimpse of a generic white hairstyle, and it's gone so quick I can't even tell you what that generic style looks like.

They make $20,000,000,000 a year BECAUSE they don't self-police.

More importantly, do you care?

The question as framed certainly serves practical purposes. For instance, what are the legal implications of transporter technology? Obviously, Star Trek society has already worked this out, but you assume that at some point someone probably tried to defraud the government by claiming they were a different person because they'd gone through the transporter. "You can't charge me with that crime! I didn't even exist when it was committed!"

That scenario raises lots of conundrums, like how do you define a life? Who gets to claim control of your property after you've gone through? Are your contracts and commitments still binding? The summary mentions anesthetics, but the same questions might apply to an amnesiac. Can you hold a body responsible for actions that body's brain doesn't remember?

"But you die when you transport, man," is a fun debate when you're stoned, but whether or not you care and *why* are the really important bits. Same thing with Beth's dilemma in Rick & Morty. If it's possible to create a truly perfect replica with no interruption in your mental continuity and zero downsides, why do you care if your current body dies? And what happens at a cultural level if we all decide our bodies *are* just interchangeable husks?

I have similar concerns as the OP. I've had days where I've used nothing but my LTE service, including tethering my laptop, and it wasn't terrible. This challenge seems like a good way to confuse the issue, rather than convince people the new standard is unacceptable.

10Mbps might be acceptable for most uses, but all of the bullshit surrounding cellular data is not. A single day won't really reveal the true impact of making LTE the minimum standard.

The mention of RPGs had me thinking Palladium Books (Rifts) or Games Workshop, but they're in Michigan and the UK, respectively. That's probably just a red herring, though.

I graduated as a double major: English with a writing concentration, and Philosophy with a religious concentration. I know, the McDonalds track, right?

It's not that hard to understand how someone can look at an MFA student writing poetry for their degree and scoff. However, "English" covers a ridiculously broad spectrum, especially as the definition of a "text" has been broadened to include any context where meaning is being communicated. Ethnographies focus on culture and the spoken and unspoken messages inherent in both our interactions and our environments. The fundamentals of literary criticism can be used to deconstruct and examine everything from works of art to advertising campaigns.

I picked up Philosophy as a second major because I needed a better grounding in where English-as-a-degree is currently grounded. I learned more grammar from my Philosophy classes, because in the upper-level English classes it's just assumed you know how to write. If you don't, how'd you make it that far?

No, an English major is not immediately useful for developing a piece of software, but an English major is useful if you're having a hard time understanding why releasing a decapitated and bloody bikinied torso might offend a significant segment of humanity. Recognizing that connotations are as important as denotations might help bridge certain contentious issues of race and gender that are making more and more frequent headlines. Skill at reading environmental and interpersonal dynamics can lead to subtle changes with dramatic improvements for development teams.

English majors aren't flashy. Chances are slim we'll create for you the next billion-dollar software idea. We're a long-haul sort of investment, which I can understand is distressing for fast-paced companies like Google. We can make what you do and how you do it better, but not always in easily quantifiable ways. Worse, when those ways are quantifiable, they tend to seem blindingly obvious, never mind that you couldn't see the forest for the trees before we came along.

I don't begrudge anyone dissing on English majors. I do it myself because I think it's fun. But I pursued the degree I loved, knowing full well that it wasn't going to earn me six figures anytime soon, or maybe even at all. I'm still happy where I am and with the education I have. Moreover, someone like Bock who dismisses the skills of an English degree gives me a good idea of where their head's at and what's really important to them. Namely, not aligned with what's important to me, so it's not really an opportunity lost.

Installing Firefox is what... 45 seconds? That's £1300 an hour. Now I know how all those commenters make $86,976 a week working from home! They work for Dell!

Perhaps I misread the poster's intent, but I took the conversation as:

"It's not a choice, so pardon the man."

"What if it were a choice? Then the conviction should stand?"

To be convicted of a crime and chemically castrated for being a homosexual is inhumanly wrong. Whether that homosexuality is a choice or not bears absolutely no weight.

As art, I think it would be far more compelling if the hard drive was online and seeding.

Shadow of the Colossus took the prize in the PS2 category. As I recall, SotC was far more successful than Ico, plus SotC gets brought up constantly in any "Games are art" debate. As such, I'm not surprised that Ico may've been bumped.

I'm not sure how a Tony Hawk game made the honorable mention list, but having not played it, I'll reserve judgement.

I find it hilarious how the post about Billy Mitchell being a douche bag prompted dozens of posts about the editing methods of the film, about how one shouldn't judge a person because of those edits, and how the movie is more fiction than reality. Someone posts that Steve Wiebe is a bad father based on the exact same film, and everyone takes it as rote truth. Love it.

You're absolutely right. It's such a shame that no one has yet determined a way to break the locks that bind the iPhone and the iPod Touch to the App Store. You could even say these devices are imprisoned, jailed. If only some intrepid group of hackers could find a way to break these devices out of jail, allowing those that wish it a way to modify their devices or install "unauthorized" applications onto them. If only there were some way to get the word out, and allow those that wish to make use of this mythical hack to find it. Perhaps some day such technology will exist.

Also of note: Cursor*10. Less direct interaction, but more planning ahead.

But is that going to get us a price drop? When the PS3 first dropped, everyone justified the price of the console because Blu-Ray players were just as expensive, if not more so. Well, I'm seeing hundred dollar Blu-Ray players now, but the PS3 is as expensive as it ever was.