I wonder if this was ever said about the Atmel AVR chips before they became synonymous with Arduino; "Who needs Arduino boards and bootloaders when you can flash a bare Amega with SPI? Who needs their libraries when you can easily read the datasheet and prod at registers in AVR C? It's not like you have to be a god to read."

Either way, its roaring success shows us that Arduino was clearly a worthwhile endeavour. Why can't the same be done for FPGAs? You don't know how far Joe Average will go with something if you never give them a chance.

Accessible technology is stupendously important. Not everyone has the time or inclination to overcome the challenges of working with a new device, even if the likes of you or me are capable of doing so.

Learning VHDL might not be a daunting task for an accomplished programmer, but not everyone is an accomplished programmer. And not everyone wants to learn VHDL just to play with an FPGA. I've actually used the Xilinx IDE and, when I've found the time, experimented in VHDL. I'll check out Altera Quartus, does it have a decent support community and learning resources to back it up? You've also reminded me that MyHDL is on my to-look-at list. There's always merit in having a combination of software, device and community which is tightly knit.

Of course anyone can download the Xilinx IDE and program a variety of FPGA boards, but it's not exactly easy or accessible to the vast majority of hobbyists who might otherwise find it interesting, useful or educational. I think the value proposition here, aside from a really nice FPGA/Arduino hybrid board, is in the support, tutorials, software and guidance that I've seen both Jack and other members of the community deliver to budding FPGA programmers. Anything that gives them more opportunity to do this is good in my books, and if you'd care to look at the resources already surrounding the Papilio boards you might appreciate what I mean. Yes, either way you need the Xilinx IDE, but at least they're trying to make the platform approachable by mere mortals.

Am I missing something here?
1) Sell all apps as demos.
2) Serve full game content via in-app purchases.
3) ???
4) Profit!
Sorry, I hadn't seen this meme for a while, I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms and accidentally esploded.

I'm disappointed that there's nothing on the SteelSeries 7G in the article. It's a behemoth of a gaming keyboard, so much so that it still opts for a freaking PS/2 connector over USB... but comes with an adaptor anyway, I'm not sure what that's all about. I've not used a Model M for comparison, but the key feel blows away that of the Saitek Eclipse I normally use (and everything else I've laid hands upon) and I'm pretty sure it would hold up against the M in some sort of keyboard-wielding pseudo sword fight- now that would make some good television... or youtubevision anyway.

Yeah! Damn all those people slowing down *my* internet by using the bandwidth that they paid for! Damn them for cutting into ISPs profit margins. People who expect to get what was advertised to them and what they paid for are nothing but dirty rotten thieves, stealing from the pockets of poor, disadvantaged company directors the world over!