Yes - Because the NetBook App Store is wide open!

Uh, what?

Exactly

Other than flash - I can go to the same internet as everyone else.

Yeah but, for right now, that's a big "other than".  Can't do Hulu (for now), can't do Netflix streaming (which is huge for me), can't play the millions of flash games that threaten to occupy my sons' every moment of free time.

iPad's fine if you're okay with Apple's ecosystem.  You basically have to do things their way and they (of course) know what's best.  They're successful so obviously they've hit on something that works for a lot of people.

All of which people said about AOL back when it ruled the world.

Yes - Because the NetBook App Store is wide open!

Uh, what?

Did your wife ever like AOL?  If so, then I think the iPad would be perfect for her.

Uh, what?

Remember AOL back in the day?  When they had the big, bad internet fenced out and AOL provided a relatively safe, screened, easy-to-use internet experience?  That's kinda how I see Apple with the iPad.  Apple's very careful to provide an approved selection of applications for the iPhone/iPad.  There's a lot of other stuff out there in the wild - some better than Apple's and some is worse.  But the main thing about the iPad is you only get to choose among the stuff that Apple approves.

That can make a great experience for someone who is relatively inexperienced with computers and just kinda wants stuff handed to them.  It also has it's limitations.  AOL eventually sunk.

Did your wife ever like AOL?  If so, then I think the iPad would be perfect for her.

It was a difficult game.  It got even more difficult once you get to the 2nd type of enemy (not spoiling anything here).  I stopped around that part and felt pretty good about being done with it.

It was also difficult because it didn't have regular saves or even quicksaves without entering console commands.  So you had this amazing, wide-open island with lots of possibilities for trying out different strategies but the lack of normal saves meant that was pretty much wasted for me.

Far Cry 2, though it also has its faults, is a much better game.

The PSP had a couple of strikes against it from the start.

#1 I think was using optical media.  Not only does it result in diminished battery life but it caused loading... and loading.  I'm guessing it's not as big of a problem now but after release and probably for a year or two it was a major drag on the system.  There were plenty of Youtube videos making fun of how long it took certain games to load.  The DS never had this problem.

#2 is the cost of development.  Because the system is capable of so much more than the DS, the expectation was for PS2-quality graphics.  This was an issue because it cost more to create a top-tier PSP title compared to the DS.  Therefore, the games needed to sell more to make up for the development cost.  It became prohibitive to spend a lot of development money on the PSP when the payoff wasn't that great.

#3 was the lack of a second analog stick.  It wasn't a big deal for me but it was for a lot of people.  The kind of games the system was capable of (racing, 3rd person action games, etc) would really benefit from a 2nd analog stick/nub.

#4 is the ease of piracy.  It was mind-bogglingly simple to mod the early PSP's and once modded could run pirated software very easily.

All these combined to create major problems for the platform's future.  Also, Sony's decision to not provide a viable upgrade to the PSP Go for former PSP owners with a lot of games on UMD.  And the failure of UMD movies negatively affected perception of the system.  And the lack of touch screen controls which Nintendo either created a market for or accurately predicted their popularity (see iPod games now).  And the fact that a lot of people just didn't want to play involved, PS2-type games on a handheld but preferred simpler, more casual games.

looks like they've got a subtitle:

Human Revolution.

Subtitles suck.  Pretty much all of them.  Just call it Deus Ex 3.

I finally get to see Avatar on Saturday.  I was initially pretty skeptical (didn't care for the trailers), but am excited to give it a look.

Unhook your brain, forget about the plot of Dances With Wolves and just enjoy the visuals.  It's really well-done and absolutely worth seeing in the theater.

It was a Diablo-clone but I remember it being relatively story-heavy as well.  I never got out of Vienna to the modern setting.

What do you mean i asked for info?I phrased it as a question but meant it more as a statement. Sorry that confused you.

Without reading the whole thread....isn't there a mod to play BG1 in the BG2 engine?

You had to read the title of the thread ("Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod, ANYONE?") in order to click on it and post in it, right?  The title didn't give it away?  So yeah, I'm actually feeling quite confused.

[reading]

So it's difficult to read the (fairly short) thread because of your eyes going bad.  Okay.  Not sure an internet forum is going to work out for you since it's mostly text and reading but whatever.

But then you create a new post asking for information that was already contained in the thread you didn't read.  In order to give you that information it would require someone to type it out for you and it would require you reading it.  But you've already said it's difficult to read the posts here and elsewhere so there's a good chance you wouldn't read their response either.

Can you see at all why this might be frustrating for other people?  Why not just man up and apologize ("Sorry guys - that was dumb of me.") instead of the "my eyes are going bad so you need to not criticize me and put up with my random nonsense" maneuver.

Feedbooks is your friend.

Anyone else go through phones like candy? In the last 6 months alone I've been through an iPhone 3G, Blackberry Tour, Samsung Instinct, Samsung moment, HTC Hero, HTC Touch Pro 2, and just picked up a used Palm Pre the other day.

Wow.  Are you not signing a contract through your carrier?

It's pretty painless.  I use it with my plain Jane old cellphone and it works great.  I like the voicemail and the fact that it's one number that won't change and can ring home, my cell or work.  Pretty cool stuff.

Want an invite?


Edit:  I'm talking about Google Voice.  I don't have a Nexus One.

Since when are Kenyans called for jury duty?

And there's the winner.  Thanks everybody and good night.  I'll turn off the lights on the way out.

So when I sent mine in I got a replacement that said it was "Serviced 12/09".  Does that mean that they basically fixed my old one and gave it to someone else and I got someone else's problem 360 that was fixed?  I'm guessing I don't have the new Jasper chipset in my 360 now, right?

[hugely derrogatory label]

Swing and a miss.  I've said nothing about gay this or that. At all. Ale called Mith a homophobe. I think that's a hugely derrogatory label that people throw down against anyone who disagrees with the gay agenda or lobby and it simply isn't true.    

Seems you're on a roll.  Hypocrite.

Gay agenda is a derrogatory label?  Like Conservative Agenda. Or Liberal Agenda? Or meeting agenda?  Maybe you don't understand the word derrogatory?

Yeah I just got mine repaired for the E74 error at no charge.

SWEET!!!

I'm pretty good at this (or so I've been told) so any GTers wanna get in line?    

Yes, we know you are gay.  Congrats.  Why does it seem like you have to include that in every post?

Dude.  You're going to make Billy and Alex cry.

The opposition to this decision is about citizens being stupid sheep, right?

They're not?  I mean not us rare few who are self-actualized and therefore immune to advertising by Michelin because so much is riding on your tires but people in general?  The whole point of advertising is to influence people and usually it works.

25 days, 16 hours and 17 minutes

But I never just leave my browser open or a tab with GT open if I'm not surfing.  That figure is actual miles baby!

I've never played PvP in an MMO.  Why would I want to play with annoying teenagers when I'm a grown man?

/rimshot

I don't mind a difficult RPG like Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, System Shock 2 or SMT: Nocturne.  If a game relies exclusively on my reflexes then I'll usually go with Normal. 

And the ability to change difficulty levels should be standard at this point.

Is there a game other than something like Pac-Man that has been remade more than Lunar?  Sega CD, Playstation, Gameboy Advance and now PSP.  That's gotta be some kinda record, especially for a RPG.

What's even more odd is there's never been a proper Lunar 3 sequel to these 16-bit games.  Weird.

Nicely done!  I've been through it twice now and I think I enjoyed it more the 2nd time.

FF8 is fine and worth playing just to say you've done it but never came close to FF7.

I have no idea what this is but I'm filled with unexplainable manlove for Lockdown.

I've had that happen 4-5 times in about 6 years of Netflix.  Not a big deal but certainly annoying.

I've actually taken the problem disc and ripped it to my computer's hard drive and watched it that way.  My computers DVD drive seems more tolerant of errors.

I personally like the booklight that comes free with a snuggie.

I don't know if the thought of jblank in a Snuggie is frightening or laughable.

But the book light seems pretty good..

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/technology/companies/13netflix.html

Seems much like the PS3 implementation with a disc that Netflix sends you that you need to "play" the Netflix application.  Of course the Wii can't do HD videos but (for now) most of Netflix's streaming isn't HD.

Boughtened.

Since the Xbox 360 has now been out for just over 4 years I thought we needed another dead 360 thread.  How many times have you had an Xbox 360 die on you?

I just sent mine out for the 3rd repair job today with the fabulous E74 error.

You mean Epitaph One right?  Epitaph Two hasn't aired.  Unless you're from... the future?

Yeah Crack the Skye by Mastodon should really be on that list.  It's a great and relatively accesible metal album.

I just got my 3rd RROD today so I'm not too excited by anything Microsoft right now.

I think every Radiohead album after OK Computer is vastly overrated.  And I think they are all on that list.

I love Kid A and Amnesiac but not quite as much as OK Computer.  The last two albums don't do it for me.

I'm very interested to see how they do on their 2nd album.  I loved the first.

What you want is a program called Mp3tag.  It's free and very fast.  It can look up the album, download the song titles and artists and even album art.  I've used it for years.

I bought Resident Evil 4, played it for an hour or two and hated it.  I sold it.

I then bought it again as everyone else seemed to love it and I figured I must be missing something.  I played it for an hour or two and still hated it and sold it again.

I keep looking at the Wii remake and thinking I might give it a try but I've got so many other good games I know I'll love that I'm passing.

There are similar improvements out there for Doom and Quake II.  Pretty cool what people do.