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Man, I didn't come anywhere NEAR close to stating my point properly... I completely understand the comments about it, so let me try and explain myself better...

Before I even do that, let me just say that I had an aunt that died in a car crash some years ago as the direct result of a drunk driver on the road with her, so I am quite sympathetic to anyone that has experinced any sort of auto-related tragedy.

What I should have said originally is that I don't want to live in a world where freedom is traded for safety. For instance, if you could tell me that you have a device that when embedded in a car would make it absolutely impossible for anyone to ever die on the road, and to do so all I have to do is allow the government to track my every move, I would absolutely be against that. I would not want the possibility of being killed on the road (or of my children being killed on the road, to bring the point home more) to be removed IF the price was my (or their) freedom.

In retrospect, this may have not been the best case to make this point with because we're really not talking about something like that. As another poster pointed out, we're talking about something that can determine what happened AFTER the fact with a high degree of accuracy, higher than would be possible without it certainly. I don't have a problem with that at all. Those that do wrong and harm others should be punished in a very stringent manner, I completely agree with that.

But, I do think things like this quickly and easily become the proverbial slippery slope leading to tracking our every move in the name of public safety. This is the inevitability (I believe that's what it is) that I want to avoid, NOT being able to punish those that do wrong, that I am all for 100%.

When I said I should be allowed to kill someone, I didn't mean literally that society any government should have no problem with me killing someone. What I meant was that I want the freedom to make mistakes, even those that lead to the death of myself or, God forbid, others. I ABSOLUTELY want there to be punishment for such things, and very harsh punishments in some cases. The only way to remove the possibility of such mistakes is to curtail personal freedoms to the point that such mistakes are impossible to make, and that's giving up too much in my opinion.

This argument comes up a great deal with regard to terrorism as well. Some people are quite willing to trade civil liberties if they believe the government can then protect them from harm. I am not willing to make such a trade. Believe me, I don't want to die, and I most certainly do not want my children to die. But if the price of freedom is the threat of death, whether from terrorists or idiot drivers on the road, I take the threat over the loss of freedom without hesitation.

"Give me liberty or give me death". I didn't make it up, but I can't think of truer words.

That's the point I was trying to make originally. I did a poor job, but I hope this clears up my position a bit.

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

Now no guys will try the old extend-the-arm-over-the-girl trick for fear of being seen by the projectionist as the girl slaps him for trying it.

Man, if I had a quarter for every time that happened... Uh, that is, uh, that's what I've HEARD can happen sometimes. :)

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

Part of me is perfectly happy to cage someone that drives like that much of an asshole, and kills someone to boot.

Then part of me is scared to death of such an invasion of privacy and curtailing of personal liberties.

I mean, I SHOULD be able to drive like that and I SHOULD be able to kill someone and I shouldn't have to worry about Big Brother knowing about it.

But that doesn't exactly take into consideration the poor soul that was run down by this idiot, does it?

I don't really have a point except to answer the comments that will inevitably be made here about freedoms and government encroachment of our civil liberties... There is always a balance between complete freedom and the public good, and it's never an easy line to draw. I'm generally for letting people do whatever the hell they want until their actions hurt someone. In this instance, they clearly have, so it becomes a difficult topic.

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

That's all this is. Real has been slowly pissing off whatever customers it ever had by it's borderline spyware coding practices, and then not even giving better performance than the competition (not consistently and not by any appreciable amounts anyway).

QuickTime is far superior. Hell, even WindowsMedia is superior. Real knows their only real hope (pun intended!) is to hitch their wagon to a winning team and ride those coattails until the cows come home.

I personally hope Apple bitch-slaps them back to their hole in the wall, and I hope Microsoft just outright buys them to shut them up (in this singular case I'd be all for that tactic from MS!).

Real just annoys me to no end, and their demise, bu whatever means, can't come soon enough for me.

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

... that every alien spaceship/moonbase/post-WWIII Earth is devoid of the technology to do LIGHTS?!?

I am impressed by anyone that can get a 3D engine into that small a piece of code. You can make the argument that because it's linked to DX that it's actually hundreds of megs large. I don't agree... I could then make the claim that EVERY piece of software that makes use of an OS's API calls is really hundreds of megs big. That's clearly a bogus argument, and I don't think linking to a given library nullifies this achievement.

But still... Can we get some LIGHTING in that thing?!? Doesn't even have to be dynamic, I'd be perfectly happy if you increased the overall gamma a bit. I mean, the graphics, what I can see of them, look excellent, Why not bring them out in the light more?!?

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

You would think something with so many buttons would be a geek's dream, but this just falls flat. The first one was ugly, but at least it was black (black makes any piece of tech look cooler!), but this time, ugh, ugh, and ugh again.

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC

Now, if they could just find a way through some sort of bizarre gene therapy maybe to make male ejaculation fluids based on this stuff, my bed sheets would thank the scientific community!

(Stop looking so disgusted, you were thinking it too!)

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Omnytex Technologies - Where dreams and software unite

K&G Arcade - 26 games in one, a unique blend of action, adventure and humor
Invasion: Trivia! - Trivia, with a very sick twist!
Electro - The premiere electronics tool for PocketPC