Matt Hayes

It will be a dj mixing "MMORPG." Millions of songs created by thousands of users all sharing and tweaking each other's creations/mashups. Remember these words.

We're all gonna need bigger harddrives.

The Beta has pushed me over the edge from a "perhaps" to a solid "definitely" purchase.

How's about a Kingdom Hearts MMORPG?

Because I used to work in public health for one of the world's most prestigious cancer epidemiologists, I ought to step in and make a few clarifications regarding this post.

ELF - Electromagnetic Low Frequency radiation *does cause* cancer in a *small* number of the human population. This is a fact. Once the first 20-year cluster population studies are published regarding head and neck tumors caused by cell phone usage, this will be an *undeniable* fact by you, me or even the most stupid people in congressional office (i.e. the next Bill Frists and Rick Santorums of the US political scene). The fact that Wi-Fi is merely a variation in frequency of other ELFs would seem to imply that in fact Wi-Fi may not be as safe as some people would simply assume.

That doesn't mean that anyone using a Blackberry, PSP, DS or any other Wi-Fi enabled device will become ill even from the highest amount of usage. An example: alcohol causes cancer. This is scientific fact. Certain people will acquire certain types of cancers from alcohol exposure (in this case ingesting it). That does not mean that you are going to die from cancer because of the one, three or eight beers you consumed last night. But some people *do* get cancer in their lives from drinking alcohol, just as some get cancer from smoking and some from eating salty and arguably delicious meat products. It is merely medical fact that certain people are more genetically predisposed to mutagenesis (cell mutation resulting in tumor formation) than others and by varying types of exposure (some people are susceptible to air pollutants, others pesticides). The chances of mass illness being caused by cell-tech or wi-fi devices is very, very small. But before you dismiss any public health issues from said radiation exposure to the population you really ought to know what you're talking about.

Just to add a little regional context to this little thread I live in Portland, and Portland rookie cops manage to kill unarmed suspects *all the time.* It's kind of a pastime here. So the irony is at least doubled.

If you don't believe me our local paper even has its own police shootings section, I kid you not:
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/policeshootings/ .

We would be Ken, but we work.

They have logitech USB 2.0 keyboards at Gamestop knocked down to a measly $10.00 which are perfectly compatible with the 360 (and good quality and small and great looking and...well, perfect).

saboola:

You do not require any kind of host-connection or authentication to enable a downloaded XBLA game. It resides on the hard drive once you've purchased it and is a stand alone piece of functioning software. Disconnect your 360, turn it on and you'll see. Of course if you delete it and want to download it again and there's no one to download it from ... well there you go.

"Weren't home consoles intended to be cheaper gaming alternatives to begin with for home consumers in lieu of several thousand dollar PCs of the late 70s and early 80s?"

Otaki241 and Rootbeer are both right.

Consoles were far, far less expensive than their pre-PC counterparts. And the gap has since nearly been eclipsed (granted a high-end Alienware rig is still a good three times the price of a PS3 with all the trimmings, but my brand new emachines is on par with a PS3 out of the box for price).

But the notion that people purchased consoles as a cheap gaming alternative to home computers is ridiculous and flawed. My family and 99 per cent of the other US families that say owned Atari consoles didn't own them because they were cheaper than Apples or Trash 80s. Neither we nor our parents even knew what the hell a home computer would be any good for by and large. Home computers were such a tiny niche market that Apple was still virtually building them on a order-by-order basis. Game consoles were purchased for the sheer purpose of entertainment, not to save pocket on dough. The Atari was the next-gen of the Telstar/Pong set; it was not the inexpensive competitor to the computing industry.

Hey aZn_1080p: that would be because it's in San Francisco, which is easily one of the most ethnically diverse places on the entire planet. At least 112 languages spoken in a city that's only 50 square miles.

God how I miss the Mission. But I sure don't miss MUNI.