You are 'mad' if you don't think that Jackson and crew did a fucking phenomenal job with the LOTR trilogy. One doesn't just walk into a multimillion dollar movie with a book written 50 years ago, which is sometimes terribly depressing and obtuse, and faithfully recreate every scene to placate a select few who only take gospel from the original creator of the yarn. Middle-earth belongs to all of us now, not just Tolkien. He had to throw in some comic relief, a more explicit and passionate love story, and some teen-appeal to add some lightheartedness to the yarn. It's just too depressing and dry most of the time to be a good movie. There's a reason screenwriters have a job. Most books are pure crap when interpreted directly as scripts. In summary, if you think that he did an "ok" job, I expect that you are massively disappointed with all modern cinema, including independent films. The only thing I would expect you to enjoy are documentaries, and only when "that bugger with the voice-overs isn't talking".

I agree. What if "It just works!" became "It just works and costs nearly nothing!"? Sure the 2% market-share PC literate crowd is not going to buy it. But Google's not shooting for them.

I don't like this because colons are not valid filename characters in a windows system.

Civil unions are for financial purposes. Would we then create tax/inheritance tables for each variation of possible adult unions. That could be a little tricky.

Like most memes that are factually incorrect, that "puritan founding of America" idea is based on a perceptable trend in American thought. These sexually repressed, "rejection-of-self", rigid, religiously informed cultural traits seem highly correlated to puritan values.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/26/ahmadinejad/index.html He did call for Israel to be wiped off the map. He's a bad, bad guy. We both know he's not talking about supporting peaceful regime change in Israel. He means bombing them into the fucking stone age.

I learned to type quickly in MMOs. True story.

Maybe to a certain extent. But I think that compared to all our recent presidential candidates (and presidents) he just has a higher raw charisma (that CHA for some of you out there). It's like the Morgan Freeman effect...

"Wake up! I need brainz and r hungry!" - Your friendly neighborhood botnet zombie

Do you have any other suggestions for good non-fiction books?

Solid gold advice.

One could very well make a point that we are as you educated us to be. Generations don't just change attitudes radically from the previous generations without any change in upbringing. Maybe at some point our hugely empowered American middle class decided that their children could be princesses and a rock stars without instilling a core work ethic. So they told them that: "You can be anything you want" and racked up huge debts sending children to college, buying SUVs and million dollar homes. They set the example that you don't need to actually earn what you consume. We, as dutiful children, learned what you taught us. I don't mean me or you specifically, as I'm happily and successfully employed right out of college, and you likely aren't the cause personally.

Planescape: Torment 2 would be probably my top choice. Putting together something within the NWN engine, but allowing a lot more customization so everyone can create their own areas and link them together through complex portals... Fallout 3 would be nice... :D Deux Ex is an obvious choice.

I don't see what's wrong with "playing god." I know for a fact that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (may his appendages always remain noodly) doesn't care if we mess around with DNA. I think in fact he likes to "play god" right along with us. Essentially, people are uncomfortable with change. The people who would believe this is wrong are those who draw some sort of murky line between radiological, chemical and surgical medicine we have now, and the genetic medicine proposed here. Unfortunately for them, that's a rather indefensible position in the long term. If we could make everyone live to 300 years old, there would be people who would draw the line at what a "natural" life is supposed to be and argue that it's "playing god." Never mind that with medicine basically everyone's trying to live as long as they can. It's like: "Oh, I wanted to be successful, but not THAT successful!" However, asked how long they want to live exactly... they probably couldn't give you a consistent answer as they progress to that age...

Just wait till we start throwing chairs...