Christopher Bowen

That isn't even the right box art. This version of Cho Aniki is NOT the ones we all know and loathe. This one's basically a straight-up shooter that is more weird than gay. Samson and Adon are just options (in the Gradius sense) in this game.

But hey, that bit of fact could stop us from posting gay jokes. So carry on.

Blaming P2P and Bittorrent is a lazy argument that you're supposed to be above, Mark.

While I do advocate a cap of some sort against the really heavy downloaders, I do not have any trust in any ISP out there - especially the big guns like Comcast - to not turn the screws against the consumer and bring things completely the other way. People don't have the speed they want because these companies horribly oversell their speeds, and I'm sorry, but as someone that's in a one ISP area (it's Comcast or fuck off), I want nothing to do with a tiered internet where I don't know I went over until the bill comes in, especially with the premium I'm going to be paying for their heaviest service as it is.

I download a LOT of data. I stream baseball over MLB.tv, and I routinely download large ISOs of various Linux distributions and programs. I do not believe in illegal downloads, or pirating music or television shows, but to blame them for why the screws are getting turned on me... no, that's not acceptable.

Oh, GOD no! NOT Bloomberg! He's running a virtually fascist government in New York, doesn't pay attention to anything that doesn't get the Daily News stirring while wasting resources on worthless shit (seriously... trans fats?), and he's a sullen prick to boot; I can imagine him in negotiations with hostile countries.

As a registered Libertarian, I agree Ron Paul is not the answer. Personally, the best candidates on both sides of the Liberal/Conservative fence - Joe Biden, Bill Richardson on the left, Fred Thompson on the right - are out, and that's left us with a zealot (Huckabee), a nutball (Paul), a geriatric (McCain), a phony (Obama), and I don't even know what to call Clinton. Honestly, my whole vote, I'm fairly sure, will end up depending on whoever McCain's running mate is.

If he picks someone like Condi Rice or Fred Thompson, I'll not only vote for him but seriously think of becoming a member of his campaign.

If he picks someone like Rudy Guiliani, I'll have to seriously consider who comes out of the Republican side.

If he picks Mike Huckabee, I'm on the first damned plane back to Canada.

The thought of Microsoft getting bigger makes me sick to my stomach. Right now, there are three consumer based IT companies that matter: Google, Microsoft and Apple. They're no longer just "IT" companies, either; they're forcing their ways into every facet of the lives of anyone in a developed country. That's three companies, and now Microsoft wants to get bigger?

No. We need a lot more smaller pieces, not two big behemoths slamming it out, because when that happens, the losers are the consumers. We don't have any choices at that point; the only question is just a matter of the size of the phallus that's screwing you. This wouldn't be a problem if Americans would educate themselves better than what large corporate entities throw at them, but since everyone feeds from the trough like good little pigs, it's hard to get anyone smaller.

There is nothing good that can come out of Microsoft buying Yahoo for the consumer. The shareholders are geeked, but the consumers are screwed.

He's an author, so I don't think it's a matter of someone being naive. So therefore... no, he should be blackballed. He's lost the trust of anyone he interviews. That was classless.

Basically, I moderate two types of comments:

1) Bots (and there are WP plugins that fix that), and
2) Anything illegal (including someone leaving a link to something P2P based).

I believe in freedom of speech, and have defended said right... even if all I really did was defend the right of the mouth breathers to be retarded.

I'm disappointed that you fell into the "P2P IS BAD!" trap, Mark; been talking to Gene Simmons lately?

P2P isn't just anime otaku downloading entire seasons of their favourite shows. There are too many legitimate uses for the protocols that have been already mentioned - Skype (and it's open source cousin Gizmo), Bittorrent, etc. - to just blame it on the pirates. Last I checked, "TEH PIRATEZ OH NOES" was the excuse that the MAFIAA was using to put the clamps down on legitimate users, and you KNOW this.

I'm interested, Mark... are you a fan of Net Neutrality? I honestly don't know the answer to this question, and your answer would be interesting. Considering this post, I certainly hope you're against it, as if you're for it, then you're making your entire point moot.

(full disclosure: I'm against it, half because if I want a faster internet connection I expect to pay for it, and half because if they force a Socialist environment with everyone's internet connection, ISPs will just over-throttle everyone, and still charge a premium, blaming it all on Big Bad Congress. They hold us by the balls either way)

OK, now here's a REAL challenge:

Get the 11 best FIFA players in any country, hand them Pro Evolution, and watch FIFA disappear into irrelevancy.

And this is coming from someone that reviewed FIFA '07 well. It's good, but it's no Pro Evo.

I don't think it's so much a respect for certain products. Rather, it's a pack mentality. Much in the same way, in high school, that kids divided themselves into the Jocks, Nerds, Preps, etc., they further sub-divide themselves into sub-groups. Google vs. Yahoo, Sony vs. Microsoft vs. Nintendo, Windows vs. Linux vs. Macintosh, half the time, I don't think these kids really know what they're fighting for, they just know they're fighting against SOMETHING! And they have other people on their side! FIGHT THE POWER!

Do they understand what they're fighting for? No, of course not. But when we were teenagers... did we have a clue of what we were doing with anything?