Ganryu

+1 from another parent scratching his head at giving a child an itunes account password

Same story in Japan: most SACD releases are classical, piano, jazz, etc.

Highly relevant topic for me here. I was looking to spend about $1500 or so on a 52", and the first decision was whether or not to pay extra for 120hz. I decided to pay the extra $200....

...and last week I settled on a Sharp Aquos LC52D85U (52", 120hz) for $1,550 shipped free, though the price on Amazon fluctuates and is now about $1,674. I considered the Sammy LN52A630, but it still had more glare than I liked. Meanwhile, Sony, the only other brand I was considering, was just too expensive, and I don't think they do colors quite as well as Sharp or Samsung.

If reflections were never any problem for me, ever, and I desired a "soap opera effect" option that I'd ultimately leave turned off 100% of the time, then I might've gotten the 630.

At any rate, my final thought would be that with a $2,000 budget, there's no reason to settle for any non-Sony/Sharp/Samsung brand, at least until a LED-backlit model comes out for that price point. LED is hotter than a set of twin babies, but still too pricey.

Warning to users who ever use the Japanese keyboard workaround: 1.1.2 REMOVES the workaround, and you will no longer be able to input in Japanese if you upgrade to 1.1.2. Take it from me :(

MD's problems in America were pretty complex... Mainly
1. Botched marketing -- hardly anybody even knew what the word "MD" meant
2. Americans don't ride buses are trains, outside of our 5 or so the biggest cities... They just drive, and in a car stereo MD didn't have as much of an edge over CD's and tapes.
3. The whole thing was more fiddly than Americans were prepared to deal with in the 90's -- you needed an optical cable, a special recordable MD player, and your own CD player ideally with an optical-out port -- tons of gadgets, all just to listen to stuff you already own. Fiddliness doesn't much phase people these days, but in the 90's people really couldn't be bothered.
4. Sony is jinxed.

argh, why do all of you keep needing to be reminded?!

minidisc was a huge success in Japan and much of the rest of East Asia in the 90's, when most of us were still listening to cassette tapes and trying our hand with our fancy 4x CD-RW drives.

(I'm not a Sony fanboy, they sure did fail in all the other formats, soon to be joined by Blu-Ray, but just setting the record straight)

@14:
>So I make $$$ playing Civ4, do i get taxed on a >coloseum, hanging gardens, pyramids, eiffel tower??

If and when you get cash flow in US Dollars out of the deal, then YES, that's probably taxable income. The real question is whether you should bother to report it, and the answer is, probably not.

>And most of all can I deduct my WoW subcription from >my tax return?

As a business expense, YES, assuming you're subscribing to WoW in order to produce income.

>This is getting ludicrous, only tax when those >objects turn into REAL money.

That's a sound tax law analysis, to the extent that tax law has any rhyme or reason. And by the same token, if you *lose*, say, $3,000 on a virtual investment, then you're entitled to a $3,000 deduction when you cash out and realize the loss.

The thing to understand, folks, is that taxation of online earnings is very feasible, has a sound legal basis, and that's why it will probably happen.

The easiest analogy to virtual dollars is buying, and then cashing in, chips at a casino. So the taxes won't apply from "tracking your every move" so to speak. It's taxable when you convert your virtual dollars back into actual US dollars and realize a profit. Profit from gambling is subject to taxation as ordinary income, which your salary and ebay profits are taxed at. An alternative argument would be that virtual dollars are like investing in the stock market, which would make profits subject to taxation as capital gains. The question isn't *if* lawmakers can produce a convincing argument to tax virtual dollars. They can and will. The more relevant question is *which one* of the ones I've just laid out will they use.

>those waiting for the Okami price drop

I pre-ordered my Okami from Amazon over a week ago, and it still hasn't shipped. I'm a bit bummed not to have gotten it...

..but I gotta ask, if y'all are so psyched about Okami, why wait for the price drop? Okami is a unique endeavor that I want to support and encourage. I only buy a few new games a year, but I happily pay full price for the things I want to support.