I looked in to this last year, and at that point it had all ready seemed like the ship had sailed
for regular joes to do some mining on their home pcs.

Do a google image search for bitcoin mining, and check out some of the rigs people have setup.  It's crazy.

The best feature is how most of their features just allow you to make a connection to another service
that you all ready pay for.  Hello hulu plus, netflix, etc

Now if Gold included access to all that stuff without having to pay yet again, it would have some value.  To me. 

I had an ipad 1 and an asus transformer, and I used the transformer a ton more than I ever used the ipad.
Mostly because all of the information I wished to consume at a glance I placed as widgets on one page, and wouldn't
even have to open any apps.  On the ipad i'd have to go through 5-6 different apps to get all that information.

My best friend has the latest gen Ipad, and it's certainly nice, feels snappy, runs everything well.  Wish I knew someone with a nexus 10 I could play with, so I could compare them.

I have an android phone and I've played with my friends iphones.  At this point in the game, for what I use them for, they're about the same.
I'm overly sick of the android vs ios debates, and tend to shy away from them.

I have a galaxy S3 these days, and it's a very nice phone.  It is bigger than I wish it was, though being winter, it hasn't bothered me much, because my winter coat has a nice big pocket perfect for a cell phone.  Come summer, and shorts, I may feel a bit differently.  Picked up a friends iphone 5 the other day, and it was so much smaller in my hand, it felt like a toy.  But in another way, it actually felt kind of good.

Really, feeling old, wishing a phone was still just a phone.  I miss my a900 flip phone!  

The thing about apple, in my eyes, that if you are going to go in...you need to go all in.  macbook, ipad, iphone.

I'm tempted...sometimes

I live in Chicago, so I've currently don't have anything.   Waiting to see how everything plays out here before I make a decision. 
Spent time in the USMC, have fired a ton of different weapons, and am looking forward to someday arming myself.

Does anyone have any recommended gun forums that they browse?  Just looking for more focused conversation

Considering the government can pretty much do what it wants, when it wants these days, and they didn't block the sales of the book...makes me think they want us all to read it, regardless of what they are actually saying.

thanks for the heads up.  really want to play this on 360 instead, but for $5 it's tempting...

I'm a fan of the dell inspiron 14z.  

Really, since you aren't gaming, any modern laptop is going to serve your needs just fine.  So, it all comes down to how much you want to spend.

Are dells the best laptops ever?  No, but they are certainly good enough, and are on the cheaper side of things.

Always dell coupons and deals floating around as well.

Dell outlet also gets some good deals, and different coupons offers also.  Currently have 25% off a bunch of laptop models.

As someone who doesn't have cable, I'm really happy they didn't win last night, as all the rest
of the games will be on NBC.

Other than that...go kings!

It must just be me because I haven't seen many people complaining about it...

But I'm in act two, and I'm becoming very frustrated trying to navigate around using the map, or the minimap. 
Trying to figure out how to get to my various quest markers, and it's driving me crazy.

I'm about to give up

I live in chicago, so often times they use the local courier option.

It's the worst, ever.  Huge thread on amazon boards about all the problems people experience
with these local couriers.

after reading everyones lukewarm to negative reviews here and on another site, i almost
didn't get around to watching the first 3 episodes.

I did the other night...I'm in!  Was in the best show ever?  No, but I find alcatraz fascinating, and
I'm certainly willing to give the show a shot

Eh, I like my widgets

Tablet comes out of sleep, can see at a glance my emails, the weather, some news, stock ticker, and a few other things.

On my ipad, I get to open 8 different apps for all of that

I also am a big android fan, and own both the original transformer, and an original ipad.

I never use the ipad, I enjoy my transformer much more.  Most of my friends/family who have had the opportunity
to use both always ask me for the transformer when they come over.

The new transformer looks pretty sweet. 

That being said, you can't go wrong with either I think.  Guess it depends if you buy into the apple/ios world or not.

Let us know what you get, and how you like it

I've seen a lot of movies with subtitles in my time (used to date someone who was big into foreign films)

I'm split on subtitles.  On the one hand, it was kind of fun to be able to talk to people about the movie we were watching,
without having to "listen" to what was going on.

On the other, if you're busy reading subtitles, you're actually missing a lot of the movie.  Well, at least I am. 
I find it pretty hard to concentrate and read words while trying to follow facial expressions and action in the background.

Ah, hockey fan here myself, which is very rarely on broadcast tv here, which sucks.

I looked in to the NHL center ice thing, since I could stream it over my ps3, but you can't get home market games, which was the whole reason I wanted it.

I also gave up my cable years ago.

I've got a series 3 tivo, and an antennae, so I get the broadcast channels in high def along with ease of recording.

In the beginning I missed sports a bit, but as time went on I just didn't care anymore.

All in all, it's been a fairly liberating experience, and the money savings is pretty nice!

It's actually been kind of nice not being a slave/zombie to tv.  I go over to friends houses and flip through their 200+ channels,
and can't find anything I want to watch anyway.

PM sent

are you a member of playstation network?

perhaps its this

Automatic content downloads and updates

PS3 will automatically download and install designated game demos and game updates and also download the system software update data*6. PS3 will automatically start up at a designated time to download content and will turn off after the download has completed.

The whole wishing for an easy mode thing reminds me of Ninja Gaiden 2.

I loved that game, the setting, the controls, everything...but I really sucked at it.
Always wished they had an easy mode so I could just play through the whole game.

I didn't even get half way before I quit in frustration.  It made me sad.

Thats for the idea about LED.  Seems fairly cheap, yet will get the job done.

I'm looking at this one:
http://amzn.com/B0033QJLQW

most negatives seem to complain about not being bright enough, and needing a really dark room.
Seeing as we are in the middle of nowhere, that isn't a problem. 

While I would absolutely love to be able to spring for a 1080p projector, it's just not in the budget.  Heck,
my tv at home is only 720p 

Brief background....every year a good friend and I go to a cabin in the woods with our dogs.  We spend the days doing outdoor stuff, but
at night we play video games.  These days its xbox 360.

The last few years we've been using a pretty old projector I got used from work, its prob 6-8 years old:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sharp-Notevision_PG-A20X.htm

I'm thinking I should be able to get a better projector new for a reasonable cost (it only gets used once a year)

Two that I'm checking out currently at amazon (reviews are kinda all over the place)

http://amzn.com/B000FVUK90
http://amzn.com/B003NMW1HC

Might anyone here have any personal experience with either?  Or have something else in that price range that they would recommend?

Obviously, I don't expect to be able to get anything 1080p or the best display ever at that price point.  But I don't want to buy
something that isn't going to be an upgrade from what we are using now.

The display specs seem about the same, the newer ones have hdmi which would be useful.  At the very least I'm assuming
a new light bulb would be an improvement over what we are using now

Any feedback appreciated.

It will be a few years before apple starts to decline, once all of the future stuff steve had a hand in is done.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. 

I guess I just need to not be so discouraged, and keep practicing.

Speaking of which, I've read that its not a good idea to play too much boot camp, as it will lead to bad habits, and of course computer
players are not the same as humans.  Good idea?

I need to come to terms with the fact that I will never be 1/2 as good as a teenager who's been sitting at home
all summer playing ten hours a day

I just picked this game up a few weeks ago, at the urging of some friends who want to kill me, I guess. 
It's a fun game, but I really am horrible.

Maybe its because I'm over 40, or maybe its because I just suck at FPS on consoles in general, but I am getting
my ass handed to me left and right.

I usually play team deathmatch, because I don't feel quite as guilty sucking playing that version, as opposed to playing
games are more teamwork and objective orientated. 

I've read faqs and guides about the game, I know the various killstreaks, perks, and weapons.

I still don't think I've learned any of the maps very well, perhaps that is part of my problem.

Anyway, wish I was at home and could give actual stats, but most games I'm finishing like 2-8, or 2-12.  My ratio
tends to be around .11.  Yes, you are reading that right.

I don't mind the deaths, but I can't seem to get many kills at all.

No other game in memory has left me wanting to smash things so bad.  I think the last game was ninja gaiden.

On the positive side, nobody has talked any crap to me for sucking so bad.  As someone earlier in this post said, there
certainly is a sense of guilt of letting your team down by being so horrible.

i've been trying these out to make playlists

http://www.spotiseek.com/

http://spotibot.com/

Blackhawk fan here, so I'm loving the way this is going. 

Canucks barely win game 1 & 2, and get absolutely destroyed the last two games.
I think we can see how this is going to end up 

I did end up going with the full go with the full 1GB card, thanks. 

any video card advice?

i prefer nvidia...and I'm leaning towards just going with the cheapest option

$130 GTX 460 768 meg
$140 GTX 460 SE 1 Gig
$180 GTX 460 1 Gig

My current pc is about 3 years old.

2.4GHZ quad core q6600
4 gig ram
535W power supply
GEFORCE 8800GT
WD RAPTOR 150GB 10,000 RPM
some large secondary media drive

Seems to run pretty well for everything I'm currently doing.  I was just looking at a cpu chart, and the q6600 still
seems respectable. 

At this point, I'm thinking of perhaps just doing a video card upgrade, and putting off a major pc upgrade/purchase for another year or two.
Does that seem reasonable?  Or am I missing out on anything?  Sure, I'd like 8 gig of ram, an SSD, a larger monitor...but its not killing me.

On the video card front, I'm looking at the geoforce GTX 460.  I see there is a 768 meg version that is cheaper than the 1 gig version.  There is also a gimped 1 gig version.  Atm, I play on a 22" monitor, 1680x1050.  Am I good just going with the 768 meg version?

Thanks for any feedback

maybe this will help

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-geforce-gtx-560-ti-gaming-graphics-card,2857.html

it's buy.com though, not like its joe smith from kansas

Something I was curious about and was able to look up:

Apple's IPO price was $22.
Apple has split 3 times, so an initial share would now be 8 shares.
Apple's current price is $339.

So if you kept the stock all the way through, your initial investment of $22 would be worth $2712.
That's an annualized return of 17.32%. You had to be really patient, though.

one original share of microsoft, purchased for $22, would be worth over $6000 today

I'm just saying...

*sigh* and Gamestop, despite all the signage for the game, only ordered Pre-orders in the first wave.  Cant get a copy til tomorrow (that's when they'll sell the pre-orders that didn't pick up yet.)

so you might as well wait and get it at kmart for 40 bucks on sunday

2006 subaru outback here...and i love love love it!

though i sometimes wish i'd have gotten the forester so the dogs would have a bit more head room in the back.
ah well

thanks for the suggestions, i'll check them out.

I all ready had Alien Swarm, but haven't played it.

i also have borderlands on xbox, so not sure i'd want to revisit that on pc

just wanted to see if anyone had some good co-op recommendations.

co-op campaign would be nice, but even skirmish vs cpu would work.

we usually play rts, but perhaps would be looking for a decent fps this time around.

last game that we completed together was red alert 3, and we had a great time.  have played lots of skirmish aoe2 in the past.

we also did l4d, which we enjoyed, and moved on to l4d2, which we didn't really get in to.

we've been seduced by the black op commercials we've seen, but fear that at our advanced age, and lack of solid gaming
time, we'd end up more frustrated and annoyed than anything

any older really good fps that still have servers running that are worthwhile?

not really restricted to any genre.  we're pretty flexible, as long as we can play together instead of against each other

the giantbombcast from this week states how terrible kinect is and it is not worth purchasing right now

i don't read that site, but i decided to give the bombcast a listen...could only stomach them for about 5 mins before i had to turn it off.
pretty much bitching about how he had to move some furniture, and it had no games that HE is interested in.

i've only played with kinect for one night, because i purchased it for my friends family, thinking the kids would love it.  
instead, my friend and her husband ended up playing it for hours, and they were having an absolute blast.

they aren't gamers, and don't have a wii...so maybe they are the target audience

They made a lot of valid points. First off, the space requirements are somewhat ridiculous. I certainly don't have room for it and I'm not moving coffee tables out of the way or rearranging any furniture. Second, most of the launch games suck but they gave good scores to the few that don't. Lastly, just because your friends had a blast for a few hours doesn't mean the rest of us should invest in something we want regular use out of.

I thought GB's coverage was extremely comprehensive and a good indication of what to expect. They said that down the line there could be some potential which I believe is the stance most of us are taking anyhow.

Oh, i'm not not disputing their points.    I have no plans or desire to purchase one for my own home.  I couldn't listen to it because i couldn't stand THEM, not what they were saying.  I'm old enough that i'm not their target audience anyway.  get off my lawn!  

the point of mentioning my friends having a good time wasn't to say that everyone should run off and buy one.  i was just sharing my experience that the non gamers really seem to enjoy it, which could be a good thing for those with wives/girlfriends/kids who don't understand our passion for video games.  

the giantbombcast from this week states how terrible kinect is and it is not worth purchasing right now

i don't read that site, but i decided to give the bombcast a listen...could only stomach them for about 5 mins before i had to turn it off.
pretty much bitching about how he had to move some furniture, and it had no games that HE is interested in.

i've only played with kinect for one night, because i purchased it for my friends family, thinking the kids would love it.  
instead, my friend and her husband ended up playing it for hours, and they were having an absolute blast.

they aren't gamers, and don't have a wii...so maybe they are the target audience

yeah, originally it was going to be a 12 month delay, and sanderson emailed the widow, and got her to change it to three months.

not quite sure if its a money grab, or a NYT best seller list thing, or a technophobe thing on her part, but it still leaves
me pretty bitter and disappointed

no ebook, no sale.  getting a bit old to be carrying around 1000 page books