"Blizzard might go tits up!"

Blizzard earn a billion dollars a year from World of Warcraft subscriptions. They have already sold ten million copies of Diablo III from pre-orders. They're going nowhere.

Also, they were bought by Activision before they became so huge.

Re: "Apple, who make Macs"

Does that mean the 17" MacBook Pro is a Big Mac?

Re: @Jedit - "Why can't they buy their own?"

The system already allows for BYOD. I'm a government employee, and at work I use a 23" widescreen monitor that I supplied myself. The sticking point is that if it breaks, my employer has to replace it with another 23".

In and of itself BYOD is a great idea, and in smaller businesses it works a treat. However, when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of employees the effort required to get so many different devices talking to each other is not cost effective. You're also faced with the issue of what to do when someone's personal property breaks in the course of doing their job; they have every right to claim a replacement from their employer, and the employer loses all savings from central procurement contracts because they can't establish a standard device to buy in bulk. It's easier and cheaper just to give everyone the same.

"Why can't they buy their own?"

Because of government procurement regulations. You need special permission to use your own equipment at work - doubly so if it's something unusual - because if it breaks the government have to replace it like for like.

Re: 2/3rd marks

Seems like you took your Maths exam in recent years. According to the original poster a score of roughly 66% was two marks *above* the boundary for A*. So where 20 years ago you needed 70% just for an A, you now get the grade above A for between 60 and 65%. That's not consistent at all.

"No reason other than aesthetic."

The only reason I can think of to use this app certainly ends in "thetic", but it doesn't start with "aes".

"The Stone Age didn't end because the stone ran out"

Well, obviously - if it had, we wouldn't have been able to have a Silicon Age.

I have some bad new for you, Mr Young

It doesn't matter what colour the matter is or how much energy you put into your dick ... it's not going to get excited.

Re: 8 Bit Coders in 2012

A lot of them are still working, mainly for phones as that's where it's still possible for simple, creative games to be made by one person. People who have an interest in the subject could do far worse than read Retro Gamer magazine, which often manages to interview the 8-bit creators and talks about what they're doing now. They even had 3D Monster Maze on the cover a couple of months ago.

Re: ""we just want people to invent their own stuff"

How dare you denigrate the creativity of Apple! Don't you know how long and hard their engineers struggled to perfect the rectangle?

"Nothing warned me that this was going to happen."

I beg to differ. More than adequate warning for the gratuitous nudity in Starship Troopers was provided in the opening credits, where it said "Directed by Paul Verhoeven".

"it's their responsibility to make it fit for purpose"

A laudable goal, but sometimes impractical. I'm astigmatic and need to use a larger font to avoid eyestrain. The 17" screens my workplace supplies can certainly fit this font, but my effective screen real estate is reduced in the process. As I often use multiple windows that need to be cross-referenced, my job becomes harder if I cannot see them all at the same time.

So, I would like to have a larger monitor. However, because the standard monitor is still suitable for purpose, I would have to make a special business case and jump through multiple hoops to get it. This could take months, during which time I'll either get less work done or suffer regular headaches. Or, I could bring in a spare 23" that I had lying around doing nothing at home and use that. Which I am doing, right now. My business case is still processing, but until it gets filled or even if it gets rejected, I'll be able to work properly without hurting myself.

Re: "L-shaped amino acids"?

Good question. It's because "sinister" and "dexter" refer specifically to the left hand and right hand sides of an object, whereas "laevo" and "dextro" refer to the absolute directions. It's the difference between saying "take the road to your left" and "turn left", if you see what I mean.

Re: Transformer...

Because a Transformer is just a netbook, but costs twice as much as one? Not that I'll quibble with your choice, I think it's a fine piece of kit, but you have to be using the Transformer as both tablet and laptop before paying the price premium becomes worthwhile.

Re: This was an epic game

Jazz Jackrabbit is abandonware, I think - certainly there's been no official release since 1996, and an open source recreation project was put online in 2005.

Of course, if someone wants to do an official re-release or mobile recreation, I'm sure there'll be plenty of folks ready to buy it for the nostalgia value.

"If you make a product too cumbersome to use nobody will use it."

What are you talking about? The system he's describing is already in place and plenty of people are using it - it's called Steam. All Steam games are linked to a single account and cannot be transferred or re-sold, and yet somehow we all forgot to protest the inconvenience.

It's symbolic

The idea is that the fake items in this world translate to the real thing in the spirit world. So the luck money becomes legal tender to the gods, and all those paper iPads become fully functional iPads in the afterlife. Of course, they still can't get a 4G signal, but I suppose nothing is perfect.

That's not Herbie

It's one of those horrible Millennium Bugs in disguise.

There's a classic VW Beetle painted as Herbie near me. I know this because the little bastard nearly ran me over one day while I was walking home from work.

"There's nowhere you can drive at that speed"

Of course there is. Speed limits only apply to public thoroughfares.

Also, to be fair to Apple - since they actually aren't in the wrong this time - their in-store advertising for the 4G iPad states clearly and visibly that its 4G functionality will only work on certain US networks. They are not trying to missell it.

Re: If you have a smartphone...

Try reading the post. He has an unlimited data tariff.

"I know someone who would DIE for this."

Literally.

Two buttons?

The Reg article never mentioned two buttons; is it in the Eurogamer article that I can't access from work?

The default WoW UI is capable of displaying upwards of 60 buttons, and while you'd need to scale that back a bit to work on the iPad and further still for the iPhone, it should be possible to have a dozen buttons on the touchscreen.

"Apple prices not overinflated"

Now THAT'S news.

"You're complaining that Apple keep coming up with stuff first"

Apple came up with the optimum solution to two-variable geometric equations before anyone else? It's a technological breakthrough to surround a display with a bezel of approximately even thickness on all sides?

"why waste so much space with a full height picture of a fictional character?"

Well, it's not like they have any actual journalism to put in there, is it?

Selling the minivan at below cost to get you to buy the sports car

A better analogy would be to say that if there existed a car manufacturer that also sold fuel, it would be legal to sell the car at below cost if it would encourage you to buy the fuel. A Kindle without content to read on it is almost as useless as a car without fuel.

"Accessories only compatible with your product"

Just a note on this, but the big producers have been discussing the creation of a universal standard for active 3D glasses. They may want to sell six pairs to everybody with each new set, but they recognise this isn't realistic and so it's better if they have the chance to poach their rival's customers instead of each user being locked into the first manufacturer they bought from.

No FAIL icon for you though, as it hasn't happened yet.

" it's an example of the market overcharging and Apple following market trends."

I would agree with this except for one minor detail: Apple are the trendsetters, and everyone else is following them.

""I have no idea where this meme about the Android Market being "clunky" etc came from"

Apple fanbois. 'Nuff said.

"still clearly a joke article"

I think we worked that out when it got to the bit about Apple fixing the flaws of tablets. The only flaw Apple perceive with tablets is that other companies are allowed to make them.

Passive 3D does not jettison the glasses

It just allows cheaper glasses. I'm not sure it improves the viewing angle, either.

Be glad that Lucas recognised him

McQuarrie probably got paid as much as well as John Howe got paid for his conceptual art for the Lord of the Rings movies. It's a shame artists often don't get the rewards they deserve, but they do get paid - and better than comic artists sometimes get paid for their work.

Re: Digital Divide

But not your fail, don't worry.

Being in Wales and hence unlikely to have the problem, you forgot to mention something else that just struck me while reading your post - monthly download limits. Bad enough that you're restricted by other factors, but when users are also restricted in how much of their own purchased entertainment they are allowed to watch each month the model is completely useless.

"In other words they want you to rent rather than buy"

Not exactly right. They want you to think you're buying something when you're actually only paying for a service.

The cloud is the biggest waste of space and scam in the history of IT. There is no way any of us should be willing to accept a situation where what we have bought can be lost simply because the seller doesn't want to offer it to us any more.

"the USPTO does not have an infinite amount of time to go looking for prior art"

So you're saying that nobody at the USPTO owns a smartphone? It should not be possible to get a patent for a technology that has already been in widespread use for a number of years.