g.Park

Emotional Arousal is Thoughtcrime.

@Crono-

We have a 2-party system and a three-branch government exactly for this purpose. If no one was allowed to disagree with the president it would be a dictatorship, see: China, Cuba.

The American government is built around argument and debate, not submission. A rebuttal is part of the formal debate system, and in that regard, it's not at all disrespectful.

For historical reference, Republican responses have been presented by such noted Repub's as Bob Dole, Chrstine Todd Whitman, Trent Lott, and Gerald Ford.

First of all, WASP's are not only partaking in, but producing Heavy Metal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsoLb-E7oy8 (couldn't resist). Blackie Lawless ftl.

"not sure where this ball was dropped."

PC has been doing the same thing for the last 10 years, that's where they dropped the ball. The market is shifting, and the PC gaming industry doesn't seem to notice.

"Tell that to the 360 vs PS3 threads."

Games sell consoles, not graphics. More people bought a 360 for Halo 3 than bought it because they thought it outperforms the PS3. Consoles are outselling PC's because they offer everything the average gamer wants from the PC experience at a lower cost of entry and with less maintenance- and they can get most of the same games.

"English"

When you compare PC's to consoles, the 2 strongest arguments for PC are 1. better graphics and 2. better (and more complex) controls. If these were every consumer's top 2 priorities, no one would have bought a Wii.

@jynxycat: "PCs can do other things as well!"

Apparently "other things" are just about all they're being used for these days.

The PC games industry dropped the ball on this one. They decided to focus on graphics, because they thought that they could always compete with consoles when it came to graphics. This assumption is correct- consoles can't compete on graphics- but it's turning out that this clearly doesn't matter to the average game buyer- the success of the DS and Wii should be proof enough.

Another PC gaming differentiator, complex controls, are not a value-add for today's game buyer (again, look to the DS and the Wii). In today's market, PC's big selling points are moot.

The internet is not for children.

"view your shared pictures, videos, etc., For $14.99/mo with the 360 you can also stream your entire * downloaded * catalog of songs available from the Zune pass subscription as well as your personal media (.mp3, .wma collection). Apple doesn't have anything that touches that."

Actually, the AppleTV does those things and more. You should probably research it a little bit before you start in with the hating.
Pictures & Video - You can stream all of your pictures from your computer, as well as all your Videos. It also does YouTube on your TV.
Music - AppleTV streams up to 36,000 songs from your iTunes library- so that's anything you purchased, downloaded, ripped from a CD, or made yourself. And you don't have to pay $15/month for that.

The whole thing is stupid... run out and spend $349 on XBOX 360 so you can pay more money to buy games from them!!!

The AppleTV does offer things that cable On-Demand services don't, like a better-designed search & browse functionality, and the ability to watch your rental on multiple devices.

Arise, Zombie Frank Zappa, and set this world right again.