Ben

Here are the rules of the new society:

- Unwanted sexual advances on women: Sexual Harassment, the worst thing in world history. Consider yourself sued and headed for jail.

- Unwanted homosexual advances on men: You have a moral duty to welcome such advances. We won't require you to actually have sex with guys if you don't want to, yet. But if you say you don't like the advances, you're a monster.

It's not Bioware's fault. They are just following the rules.

(And if you want a better society than this, they'll say you're a monster and try to shut you up.)

I think it's good that his actual age seems to increase at a regular pace.

If that stops increasing, it will be sad. And if it starts jumping around erratically, it will be a sign of an interesting future for everyone.

If they had a better alternative, they'd go do that. So working at the job is an improvement.

How would I like it? An improvement is an improvement. I guess I'd like it better than all the alternatives or I'd go do one of the alternatives. Maybe I'd be grateful for the improvement and wouldn't want some ignorant juveniles, busybody know-it-alls, or corrupt shakedown artists messing it up.

Apple should tell their critics to shove it. Someone is always going to have some criticism of something because there's no perfect utopia. I don't know why anyone feels the need to respond to "critics" who never produced anything or employed anyone.

Hundreds of thousands of people have jobs -- better jobs than their other alternatives, or they'd quit and take the alternative -- and millions of people have gadgets that provide them value because of Apple. Those are all good things. Meanwhile, critics produce .... ?

If we listened to producers more and critics less, maybe we could produce more and we wouldn't have so much unemployment. But there would still be no perfect utopia, so nevermind. Let them all stay unemployed. Then they won't have to get their hands dirty.

I'd like to see a software upgrade with a better keyboard. The on-screen keyboard is really marginal for text input.

Also, better printing support and a better interface on the app store.

Beer

Those are the true believer arguments. What about the guy would doesn't want to sacrifice thousands of his hard-earned dollars on the altar of hatred for oil? It seems like he should just buy a practical car and save $10,000 and use the money to improve his life or the lives of his family members.

It only saves money for the first forty miles in one day (less if you want heat or AC or headlights). After that, you're just carting around 400 pounds of dead batteries. At $1000 a year, it will take something like 20 years to pay for the difference between a $43k car and a comparable $23k gasoline car. And no one is promising the batteries will last even close to 20 years.

If you want to bet that gas prices will rise, there are lots of different futures contracts or other securities available for that. And if you guess wrong, you can limit your losses by selling them.

Also, there's no conceivable way that reducing oil imports by itself helps the economy. Spending money wisely helps the economy. Buying something that makes economic sense helps the economy. Throwing money away on something of negative value actually hurts the economy: someone worked and produced value, but then that work is partly squandered when you overpay for something. If it hadn't just gone to waste, the extra money could have been spent to make someone's life better. But having a better life isn't what "green" is about.

Wow, $43K for a compact car ($35K after money stolen from your neighbors and other taxpayers). And the only thing you get for compromising your finances, your neighbors' finances, your opportunity to drive a nicer car, and the time it takes to have to recharge it every single day: about $3 savings every 40 miles driven (much less if you need heat or air conditioning).

Sounds like something only a true believer would want.

Metal Gear Solid 3 was the best.