Microsoft purchased the Gears of War IP from Epic in 2014. The game is being developed by an in-house Microsoft studio, now called The Coalition. So yeah, super surprising that Microsoft are only releasing it on platforms they control.

It's accurate. The GPUs in the discrete Maxwell family are, from lowest to highest performing; GM107, GM206, GM204 and GM200. The GTX 980 uses the GM204 part.

Nope. The design of the door lock switch precludes its accidental activation in the manner you suggest. You must lift the switch and move it to the desired position.

Your other suggestion that he tried to manipulate the switch while passing out and locked the door accidentally also is so unlikely that it borders on fantastical delusion. The default setting for the switch is a mode that magnetically locks the door when it closes, just like a door on a latch. In this mode, anyone entering their valid access code from outside, will gain entry in a few seconds if no action is taken from inside the cockpit. In other words, the default setting of the switch would have been enough to allow the pilot or crew to gain access in plenty of time to save the plane.

If that weren't enough, ADS-B data shows the co-pilot also reset the auto-pilot to 100 feet. An action that requires several very deliberate steps. It's very much looking like this guy just wanted to crash the plane.

You only don't know what the fuss is about because you've not tried to develop a game for the platform. There was even a post about it on /. last week.

This game has almost nothing to do with id. It's developed by Machine Games. Even with Steam being available on Linux, the terrible state of Linux GPU drivers and small audience mean porting would not be worth the time for most developers.

What drivel. No wonder you ACd. Microsoft sell a platform, Valve had a enterprising idea 10 years ago that used the platform and it's been a success. Now Microsoft want to get into Appstores, in typical "me too" Microsoft fashion. This is a threat to Valve's business and so like a responsible company head, Newell is working on a plan B, in case MS decide to make it much harder for Steam to exist on Windows.

Microsoft got paid through Windows sales, it is in their interests to make that platform appealing. They even took the piss by forcing newer Windows releases on gamers using arbitrary restrictions. Do Adobe pay Microsoft every time someone buys Photoshop?

I don't think you know what irony means. And what's the RRP on SteamOS?

Rush? You've had an SDK for "iOS" since 2008. If a version of MS Office ever appeared, I think you could call MS' reaction positively glacial.

Xscope is a surprisingly great Android browser, considering I never hear anyone mention it. It has a great feature that renders all white page space in black and text in grey to prolong your battery life.

Supports flash, if that's your sort of thing (with push to load), adblock and has an incognito mode.

It wipes the floor with chrome, Firefox and opera for gestures and full-screen browsing. Really, do we have to stare at an address bar all the time on a mobile device?

Union flag, unless Apple's web server is hosted in a floating datacentre somewhere in the Atlantic.

Then you have a problem with the configuration of your laptop. I play back 20-50Mbps 1080p video everyday, on a system with an Atom CPU and ION 2 GPU. I've thrown a few 60fps files at it too and it never drops frames.

The PS3 is nothing special in this regards and it's actually a terrible choice as a general video player because Sony have abitrarily limited its container and codec support.

Is this a joke post?
We have just changed it. We got a conservative government in all but name, even though only 36% of voters wanted them.
Before that we had a Prime Minister that no-one voted for and before that, well, Tony Blair.
Voting doesn't matter now. All you have to do is make sure all your pals in corporatown, your lackies and whatever poor saps who believe what they hear in an election campaign, vote your way.
Then it's 4 years of pretending you give a shit, while changing the legal landscape in favour of said private business pals, then off to your cushy consultancy job and your multi-million pound homes in Surrey.

Correct. The copyright holders do not want this to happen, or precedent will be set and the law will be reviewed. Far better to scare the common folk into compliance with "You wouldn't steal a car" and important-sounding legalese messages every 30 seconds, reminding you you're probably a criminal for ripping that Pingu DVD.

I posted this above, but depending on your requirements, Blu-Ray on Linux may not be that tedious.

MakeMKV will take care of ripping the stream for you and Handbrake will transcode from the mkv. Personally, I prefer to not transcode, which means I have the Blu-Ray title in my XBMC library and ready to watch in 30 mins or so. I don't have a huge Blu-Ray library, but I've yet to come across a title it cannot decrypt.

Mostly, I don't need subs, but if you want to transcode and need subtitles, there are methods that aren't painful. Because XBMC is so flexible, it can support a myriad of subtitle formats. If the subtitles add-on for XBMC cannot locate a suitable sub from one of the many online sources (which is rare in my experience), there are several tools that can export the subtitle stream from the mkv into a format XBMC is happy with.
Basically, there are no barriers for me now and although it's not perfect (I'd prefer to be able to buy my media in an open format to begin with), at least I can now enjoy the brilliant high-bitrate video streams of Blu-Ray format in a way that's extremely convenient to me.

I use the same setup and until fairly recently was in the same boat regarding Blu-Ray. Have you tried MakeMKV? Granted you'll have to invest in a BR drive for your PC, but they are not expensive. Now I can enjoy the product I want (the content), in an un-encumbered, transferrable format that's a bit-perfect reproduction of the feature. Also, if I want, I can transcode it to whatever format I feel like.

When I see news about services like Paramount's new online store, I have to shake my head and wonder what on earth the content providers are smoking.

PC gamer here, I'm ready for it, as is my modest-spec PC.

100GB of storage has an equivalent cost of, what, 5 dollars/pounds/euros?
Please stop shafting the customers that have been your bread and butter for over a decade.