Usually when it comes to the babe du jour, I find them overrated (Megan Fox, for example).  But Kate Upton... yeah.  Wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers.

"Manager, Online Media" for a non-profit, with web dev/design on the side.

Waiting on Half-Life 3 reviews.

I'd love to go to one of those classic gaming expos one of these days... too bad they're always so far away.

LOL.  Surprised it's still live.  I've got most of my old sites archived; I look at them every once in a while for a good laugh.

Ironically, the top posts in my Google Reader today are about Google Reader alternatives.  I'm giving http://feedly.com a whirl at the moment.  Looks like a cross between Reader and Flipboard.  So far, so good.

Yep, total agreement.  My mother in law in particular is bad about this - she thinks anything associated with gaming is childish (yet she sees nothing wrong with passively watching hours upon hours of sports on TV).

Even in interactions with friends and colleagues, it's rare to find someone my age who is into games other than Rock Band or Madden.  A guy at church mentioned X-Com in an off-hand conversation - then we proceeded to jaw about games for a good 20 minutes.  Awesome, but its been the exception, not the rule.

I find it interesting that S-Video has all but disappeared on consumer video equipment (yet component and composite remain).  For a lot of older gear/consoles, it provides the best quality you can pull out of them.  But time marches on, I suppose.

[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood]

I started Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood last summer after finishing AC2, but I was suffering Ezio overload.  Getting back into it now.

There have been brief DLC discounts for ME2, but they really need to package up ME3 with all the DLC.  Then I *might* consider repurchasing.  

Maybe.

Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues

I pledged at the $25 tier, but I would be far more excited if it wasn't going to have MMO elements.  I know a lot of people enjoyed UO, but my love of Ultima was due to the single player games.

Launching it so close to the Torment kickstarter probably wasn't the best move either...

Nice... glad they're finally announcing what will be available throughout the month rather than teasing it out a week at a time.

GiantBomb has a trailer...

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/the-citadel-gets-intriguing-in-mass-effect-3-s-fin/2300-7102/

http://playon.tv - while it doesn't have *everything*, between that and Netflix we have successfully cut the cord (or Dish, as it were).

And these are good through the duration of the promotion:

Dirt 2 - $4.99
GRID - $4.99
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements - $2.99
Rayman Raving Rabbids - $2.99   
TCs. HAWX - $4.99
Rainbow Six Vegas - $4.99
Kane & Lynch Dead Men - $4.99
Call of Juarez - $4.99   
Tomb Raider Legend - $4.99
Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - $4.99
Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 - $4.99
Virtua Fighter 5 - $4.99   
Bioshock - $4.99   
El Shaddai Ascension of the Metatron - $2.99
The Darkness - $4.99

http://majornelson.com/2013/02/26/additional-xbox-live-ultimate-game-sale-items-on-sale

Today's Deals:

Halo 3 - $9.99   
Halo 4 - $39.99   
Halo: Reach    - $9.99   
Halo Wars - $9.99

http://majornelson.com/2013/02/25/xbox-live-ultimate-game-sale-starts-today

I'm sure I've got some ps1 saves from the 90s that have been copied over to my ps3.

I'm admittedly a digital pack rat, my 16gb iPad always feels constrained - even with just apps and ebooks/pdfs.  If I were on the market for a new one, I'd get the most storage I could afford.

Picasa should do the trick - http://picasa.google.com/

FINALLY... The Rock has come back to...

uhh...

...sorry, got my late 90s memories mixed up.

System Shock 2

will be available on GOG tomorrow!

This morning we legally finalized the adoption of our son.  So it's all downhill from here

None of those are as cool as that Jim Lovell story.   

Glad you liked it. I was a huge fan of the space program when I was growing up, and I felt a particular connection to Apollo 13 because the April 13 explosion happened on my 13th birthday. (The launch had been at 1313 hours the previous day, btw.)

I'm a jaded and cynical person and I never really believed in heroes until I spent an afternoon with Jim Lovell. He really is the genuine article.

That's good to hear... he owns a restaurant near my in-laws, and whenever the subject comes up they talk about what a jerk he is.  I didn't want to believe them

When you say "back up" - do you want complete rips (e.g. an ISO file of the entire disc), or convert the feature content into a digital file(s) for media center use or something similar?

- Surviving cancer
- Managing to punch above my weight in marriage
- Building my family in a non-traditional manner (one bio-daughter via IVF, one son via adoption, possibly another via donor embryo)

Congratulations!  I read the life's greatest accomplishment thread, didn't realize you were an IVF survivor; my wife and I went did four rounds, 13 embryos (after several rounds of IUIs).  Of which only one worked (our now-3.5 year old).  Glad it has been more successful for you - the process will suck you dry in more ways than one.

My biggest gripe is the hyperlinking (viglink or whatever)on key words on the forums.  I miss click those obnoxious things all the time and find them incredibly annoying, especially while surfing on my phone.  Why would you want to direct your readers to a different site?  I guess monetary reasons but hot damn I hate those things.

Are you sure that's not something on your end?  'Cause I have no idea what you're referring to.

I'm in wait-and-see mode.  My biggest concerns are a) will preowned games be permitted and b) will digital content purchases from this gen carry over in some form or fashion.   But I don't intend on purchasing all the consoles as I've done for the past three generations.

Hitman Trilogy look interesting...

That's just weird... his dad must know there are other ways to monitor/prevent malware and not kill gaming performance.

A VM is going to incur a performance penalty, full stop.  Things have come a long way in the past couple of years - 3D acceleration was completely off the table until very recently, so that's something.  And As gellar mentioned, the performance hit can be reduced.  But the bottom line is it's never going to be an ideal situation.

If the goal of that teaser was to get me pumped for a game at least two years off, then mission accomplished.

Nipple showing is one such example - That such an uproar could be generated over a wardrobe failure is amazing. As several others have pointed out, a nipple isn't automatically  a sex thing- its just another part of a human being. Hey, we all have them! But that specific part of the human body is prohibited to show? Why? Its not like its sex in any way?

It's all about context.  The Janet Jackson incident was solely about titilation.  And can we stop with "wardrobe failure"?  That was about as planned and blatant as you can get.

Nipples aren't sexual.

May I suggest you're doing it wrong?

I enjoyed the story up until I got to New Vegas itself... then I felt it collapsed under the weight of trying to give you too many options of how the story could resolve.

Hm... I strongly preferred Fallout 3 to New Vegas.  But I played the GOTY edition of FO3 with all the DLC - not sure if that made a difference.

Regardless, MOAR PLEAZ!

If I can install Windows on it, I'm in.

Why would you want to?

So I wouldn't be limited to Steam's paltry Linux offerings.  Sure, more devs would probably start making Linux versions of their new titles, but the hundreds of older titles I already own on steam will probably never see a Linux port.

Edit:  Apparently it won't be locked down...

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/145175-gabe-newell-reveals-juicy-steam-box-details-mobile-gaming-project-distaste-for-windows-8

I've been interested in getting some IT certifications for a while now, and this showed up in my inbox this morning: 

http://www.groupon.com/deals/it-university-online-january-nashville

Worthwhile or no?

It strikes me as a way for the networks to combat time shifting and commercial skipping (unless I'm misunderstanding how this second screen stuff works)

If I can install Windows on it, I'm in.

Also, what is the verdict on Windows 8?  Do I need a touch screen monitor?

Win 8 is fine - a slightly refined version of Win 7 with a new GUI on top (which can be made completely optional with third party Start menu replacements).  You don't need a touch screen monitor at all.  If you really like the Metro concept you might want to investigate touch screens, but they are by no means a requirement.