Seriously, is Sci-Fi trying to kill the Stargate franchise off? The middle of Season 10 of SG-1, if I remember correctly, ended right before the end of the September; and then they wait 8 months and then air the final 10 episodes!! Same thing for Atlantis. Does this make any sort of sense whatsoever?

I'll admit that, yes, I am watching the new Atlantis eps courtesy of that wonderful protocol known as BitTorrent. SG-1 will be finishing up the final 10 episodes on SkyOne starting the second week of January, and Skyone is running the full Season 10 nonstop.

And November release is for Japan! The states and Europe won't see PS3 until middle 2007 at the earliest.

5 and 6 - Both formats will fail, and fail hard. This will be worse than that Circuit City and Divx fiasco of yesteryear.

For starters, people are starting to find out and realize that if you want to enjoy the Hi-Def-ness of these formats you have to have a TV with HDMI inputs that support HDCP. Anything less, and the movie dowgrades to 780p or less because you aren't following the MPAA's rules for enjoying your purchased content.

Next, okay so you bought a TV last year with HDMI and HDCP capabilities. It should work, right? Wrong, Intel changed the HDCP specs. So, you still can't enjoy Hi-Def on your HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray discs unless you go out and buy a brnad new TV along with that player on the same day (and don't forget the $100 2 meter long HDMI cable!).

Next, regular DVDs are still making sales and look pretty damn good on current and even 1st generation DVD players. I bought a 60in Toshiba HDTV 4 years ago, and DVDs still look great. I plan on getting a up converting DVD player soon as well.

These next generation formats have nothing to do with improving picture or sound quality; it has to do with a new encryption scheme and protecting the studios pockets from the evil bane of file sharing (yeah, your falling tickets sales have nothing to with with crappy movies - it's all the file sharers fault!)

I've compared; side by side; a DVD player using HDMI and component on the same flat screen. Not a difference in quality at all. It's all a scheme to rip consumers off.

Okay, I'm done ranting and raving. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will fail miserably and I wonder who they'll blame it on?

Not too sure if these would be that great for law enforcement work. Ideally, quite a few departments in the country (or world for that matter) alread have some kind of detachable computer in squad cars that can be used for recording a traffic stop, incident and arrest reports, so on and so forth. Why go to a completely new platform?

I'm curious though. Why is Microsoft pushing these now when Vista is due in November?

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I really do thinkg that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will fail.
Watching both camps duke it out over data storage, DRM (or as ZDNet calls it CRAP - or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection), encryption, and how people should enjoy the content they paid for is akin to watching two monkeys fucking a football.

I keep remembering back to the Circuit City Divx fiasco of a few years ago. Remember that load of C.R.A.P. ? It tanked hard and circuit city lost a large amount of money on that.

The same thing will happen here. Look at the PS3. HDMI only outputs there folks; no DVI, no VGA, only content restrictive HDMI. Great job Sony, and most normal Joes who buy will take it home only to discover they can't plug it into their TV.

I bought a 60 inch Toshiba HDTV 2 years ago. My DVDs and various video files look gorgeous on it. I have no intention of buying something new just to satisfy the MPAA's greed machine.

Let�s sum it up. The Chinese are stealing from Koreans, and the real money the Chinese make from the theft, in turn, is used to buy real world goods, and thus is helping the Chinese economy grow even larger. However, given the recent Chinese crackdown on online gaming, you�d think officials would put a stop to this. But then again, this is more money for the Chinese economy and thus more money in the commie�s pockets. The Chinese officials probably shrug it off as a victimless crime.

What am I getting to? Well, there�s an old saying, �It�s the little things that count.�

How prevalent do you think this type of small time behavior among Chinese citizens and the blas?ttitude officials have towards this behavior really is? And how does it translate into the greater scheme of things? If Chinese gamers steals a virtual item and sells it for cash; he now has extra money in his pocket to buy a Starbucks coffee and a new cell phone. More coffee is sold, more phones are sold, and then more companies build more manufacturing plants or bring another Starbucks over; more Chinese people have jobs and more money and the economy keeps humming along.

We know the Chinese are manipulating the Yuan by hoarding billions of U.S dollars and Euros in their banks (and who knows where else?). They keep their products and services artificially cheap and U.S. products and services artificially high; in effect they are nickel and dime-ing the U.S. economy into a ditch a bottle rocket at a time. The Chinese know what they are doing is wrong and illegal, yet they don�t care, just as long as their economy keeps growing and they keep getting richer.

But as they also say, karma can bite you in the ass big time.

The WTO is reluctant to force China to stop manipulating the Yuan. If the Chinese are forced to let the Yuan rise and fall due to market conditions as opposed to them propping it up with foreign or U.S. dollars; how hard with the Chinese economy fall and how badly will the aftershocks be felt globally?

It might get pretty bad. The majority of U.S. and Asian retail firms base their supply and manufacturing in China because of the cheap labor that can be had there. And, no, it�s not because of Chinese people will work for anything; it�s because the Yuan is so damn cheap compared to the dollar, these firms are hoarding all sorts of profits just from savings alone. What would happen if the Yuan became more expensive? Who would lose; who would benefit?

Amazing how such a seemingly little thing such as stealing online game items could conceivably snowball into economic chaos

A firm release date as opposed to 'When it's done.' Having a release date forces you to work towards that goal.

Stacy "I want to be her elf" Kiebler

Well b-tooth itself drinks battery juice worse than an SUV guzzle gas, and the fact that you just may be locked into whatever Apple chooses for headphones/earbuds.

Honestly, WiFi might be it, streaming your iPod content from your iPod to your WiFi MCPC, the Xbox360, or the Apple Media Center.