Timmay!

I'd say about 2 years. As XP machines start dieing out, and people start looking to upgrade to new computers, Windows 7 will fill in the gap.

The issue I have with Blount's argument is the same one I have with the record industry, if it makes a precedent in the court, it's going to do more harm than good. Here's what I've taken from Blount's argument, "any public reading of a written work is a copyright infringement". This means that teachers reading books to their students could potentially be a copyright infringement, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It also means that, if I'm out in public, reading a book or a magazine, and I happen to say to a friend "hey, listen to this", and read a passage out loud, the copyright policy to smack me around with a lawsuit.

What really worries me about that argument is that recording industries around the world have used the same thing to sue garages and offices for playing music from one of their artists with the doors open. They claim that is a "public performance of a copyrighted work" and slap them with massive lawsuits. Which means that if I happen to have my car or house windows open while blaring a CD, I could get sued in exactly the same way.

I do understand that protecting copyrighted material and revenue streams is very, very important to any business or industry, but it's apparent that they don't consider the consequences of their actions, that overzealous protection does far more harm than good, and can does a lot to drive piracy and boycotts. Just look at the Spore DRM debacle.

This has me thinking Snow Crash

EULA's have become so bloated it's almost impossible to read the entire thing, let alone understand all the legal jargon, so most people will just blow past it. I tried reading the EULA for Google Chrome and got a headache.

At this point I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that some publishers do this on purpose to get people to agree to things they'd never agree to otherwise. It's the new fine print that you need a microscope to read.

"No, I didn't know my warranty expired. No, I didn't buy the extended warranty either. You can't send a technician on site, I have to bring it in to the store? Yes, I'll hold."

Blizz could have put more time into a lot of other things than achievements. Better character customization perhaps? Customizable armor and weapons (choose a color or pattern) anyone? I've seen twins of so many people's toons that it's sad.

Achievements aren't a bad idea, especially if there's a reward for completing them. I like the idea of getting titles, pets, and other cosmetic items. It's just that there's some things that could stand a big improvement or overhaul which could be taken care of first.

2/3 Americans play casual games, but how many Americans PREFER casual games? There's a big, gaping difference between playing a free casual game or two online at work to kill time, and spending money on a game.

Plain and simple, I've stopped buying games from EA. If they keep up the attitude of "buy instead of compete", I'd be really tempted to start a class action lawsuit claiming EA was trying to start a monopoly.

Unless the announcement is that the iPod is going to get a bigger screen, have a much broader list of supported formats than it has now, and an improved UI, I won't be swayed back towards it.

Yeah, the iPod's good, but compared to to the long list of other PMP's out there, it doesn't match up too well.

The Big Daddy is actually your mom