If you look at most computer or home electronic prices, the trend has been downwards over the past twenty years. Not only downwards when adjusted for inflation, downwards when adjusted for performance, but downwards in absolute prices. I wish I had stronger memories and figures to back this up, but I do remember as a child, (I was born in 1979), people just had a wildly different attitude towards electronics. A VCR, cable television, a microwave oven, color TVs...all of these were important luxury items. This could be just a artifact of me growing up, but a color television set was on par with say, a grand piano as far as how expensive it seemed. I do have better data for computers. I have a 1994 price guide to computers when bottom line computers, 386s cost around 1500 dollars, twice as much as a midrange new desktop would today. All of this is stuff most readers here know. (Although I am expecting at least a few people will correct my specifics.) What I have noticed, however, is that many people have not psychologically adjusted to this, even when they intellectually know it is the case. I have noticed this most at my work at Free Geek, where often people come in, with a Packard-Bell Pentium, and explain at some detail that the quad speed CD Drive works, if you just wiggle it around first. Or that their 14 inch monitor still works, but it might blink off every few minutes. Meanwhile, we get truckloads of P-4 systems every few days. The point is, I think many people (often older people, but not always that much older), still have a mindset that computer and electronics are rare and valuable, instead of being the mass-produced, quickly obsolete, pieces of junk they are. And I think that many of these people are honestly confused about how valuable their product is. Of course, the RIAA people know that AOL mails out millions of CDs a month (do they still do that?), and that CDs cost "under 1 dollar to make" ( wikipedia on CD manufacturing). Of course they know these things intellectually, but I really do think they have a mindset that they are producing a rare and valuable resource, and that they aren't asking for much in that they haven't raised their prices with inflation.
Post-scarcity takes some getting used to. I consider the entertainment industries inability to come up with a more financing method that doesn't involve creating false scarcity to be one of the less harmful inabilities to adjust to a new paradigm. I consider the fact that the US political and industrial leaders really don't understand (even though they know) that the US has lost textiles 50 years ago, consumer items 40 years ago, vehicle manufacturing 30 years ago, electronic manufacturing 20 years ago and computer manufacturing 10 years ago (numbers somewhat generalized), and that all of those things are now produced overseas for a fraction of a US worker's hourly minimum wage, to be a much more dangerous symptom of the same disease.
In all of my Linux vs. Windows discussions, I've noticed a pattern: I usually end up arguing legitimate use of Linux vs. illegitimate use of Windows. Many people don't even know that they are using Windows' illegally. Many people have no idea that having the CD does not mean you are allowed to install it on as many computers as possible. This is something people should learn as they step up from using Windows to play games to using it in business, is that their are rules you have to follow. You are probably not going to get caught for using your brother-in-laws copy of Windows to play games. But people who go into businesses often are totally unaware of that.
A few times at Free Geek, people have asked me why we don't use Windows. After all, these computers coming in have Windows on them, right? So we can just pass it on to another person, right? And none of these people have bothered to read the EULA, which states:
The initial user of the Software may make a one-time permanent transfer of this EULA and Software to another end user, provided the initial user retains no copies of the Software. This transfer must include all of the Software (including all component parts, the media and printed materials, any upgrades, this EULA, and, if applicable, the Certificate of Authenticity). The transfer may not be an indirect transfer, such as a consignment. Prior to the transfer, the end user receiving the Software must agree to all the EULA terms.
(Point 13 of the Windows XP Home EULA)
People who talk about how "easy" Windows is are not looking at the fact that Windows is more than just the software you use..."Windows" is also the legal terms of ownership. And those often, especially when you are working in a business, get very far from easy. If Microsoft was really auditing the usage of their software, it would get next to impossible. But often people don't know, or just don't care about this. If they were, they would have to factor it into their calculations of "ease".
But she was misled! That is why she voted for the war. No one told her that the war might have had a downside! There were no resources like history books or the like that she could have consulted that would tell her that starting a war might not be the best idea ever. So we can forgive her for being misled.
I am not making this up. I did say, most of these health dangers have been dealt with. But the point is, if you had a Cathode Ray Tube without all the safety features that were later built in, such as leaded glass, seals to protect the vacuum for imploding, and ways to protect the high voltage cathode, it would be a very dangerous thing. It is now a protected danger, but still not the most elegantly put together technology ever, since some of the remedies (such as leading the glass) themselves present hazards.
There is a big difference between a monitor and a microwave. Microwaves, strangely enough, don't actually produce ionizing radiation, at least not directly. Microwaves produce radiation that is, IIRC, on the order of 12 cm long, which is extremely low energy for EMS. Monitors, on the other hand, are producing light with a wavelength as small as 380 nm (violet light). X-Rays start at 10 nm. Ultraviolet starts around 300 nm. So while it doesn't make much sense for a microwave to do much to you directly, since the radiation it puts off is some 10 to 100 million times less intense than an X-Ray. On the other hand, CRTs are putting off radiation that is only a few dozen times less intense than X-Rays, and is only marginally less intense than ultraviolet. So there is more reason to suspect them then microwave ovens. It should also be pointed out that you probably don't spend hours at a time six inches in from of a microwave.
Anyway, in past times, I would have probably said something sarcastic. But, I will say this directly: you said I used pseudo science and yet your arguments seem to not address what the stated information. Of course, neither of us is using science at all, since we are quoting authority and reasoning, instead of doing experiments (such as putting an X-Ray detector in front of my monitor). But my reasoning is more explained than your straw man attacks.(connecting me with other health scares) and vague political allusions (that my belief that a specific technology is harmful somehow connects me with 'empire builders regulating as much as possible to get more staff') So, in other words, explain what is non-hazardous about a 32,000 volt anode (which is how energetic they can be) shooting radiation (light, UV and X-Rays) through a vacuum tube that naturally is an implosion hazard. If you can't explain this, you lose.
That and all the health and environmental hazards associated with CRTs.
Cathode= Very high voltage at the back of your computer
Ray= Stream of electrons hitting the phosphor, producing visible light and also ultraviolet and higher light that is shielded from french frying your face by the three or so kilos of lead inside your monitor
Tube= Vacuum Tube that is just itching to implode
Not that these are things to absolutely alarmist about, but if CRTs were being developed as a new technology, with our health, safety and environmental concerns we have now, noone would ever go for it.
I don't think that the net is going to crash. Or even slow down for everyone. I do think, however, that cable ISPs might have big problems administering networks. The local cable ISP where I live sends me flyers in the mail every week, at least, explaining how I can get my entire home entertainment needs packaged up. They seem to be doing a gigantic sale to a wide market, and I have for a long time suspected that they are not putting as much work into the technical side of running an ISP (and a massive one), as convincing people that they can get teh television and teh pr0n and teh cellphonez with ringtonez cheaply. This might be just a prejudice of mine, but I think a lot of these "entertainment ISPs" and their customers are going to realize that its not as easy as the smiling glossy people in the ads have it.
But I don't think it will crash the net. I think a few markets will have slow down, a few class action lawsuits, people realizing that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and then their will be some reinvestment in infrastructure and everything will be back to normal fairly quickly.
Re:Don't get me wrong-But you are.
on
Free Geek Robbed
·
· Score: 1
Linux does not do accounting. We do not have to report to any central authority how many boxes we have installed Linux on. If we install Linux on a box, and the box turns out to be ugly, and we chop it up into bits, we do not need to prove that the operating system is no longer in use, and that it did not go to someone's brother in law out the back door.
Luckily, Free Geek still has our Kay-Pro! At least, I don't think they were taken!
Re:Don't get me wrong-But you are.
on
Free Geek Robbed
·
· Score: 1
I was referring to a retail license, which I don't know the specific prices on, but I do know that a retail license for Windows XP and Office is going to be expensive. And, if we did get a non-profit license, we would have to do extensive accounting. We might have to curtail some programs. For example, I imagine we couldn't sell systems in our thrift store.
I imagined (but didn't know for certain) that it would be technically possible to install over a network. I meant that installing off of a CD would probably be required for licensing reasons, because otherwise, anyone anywhere in the Free Geek building (which is a lot bigger than most people would think) could hook into the Free Geek network and sit and install Windows on as many computers as they want. Unless, of course, we had a staff person (as opposed to a volunteer) on hand to key in some serial key to install. Or something. The logistics of installing over a network or a CD, when the amount of computers cloned has to be accounted for, is, as you can believe, complicated, and would get even more complicated for those who have had experience with the pace of Free Geek.
I've often wondered about that, actually. At Free Geek Portland, it is 24 hours of time, for a computer that we would retail for around a hundred dollars. Which means that Free Geek "pays" less than minimum wage. But most people really aren't at Free Geek to get a computer...out of the hundreds of volunteers at Free Geek in an average week, only a few are primarily interested in getting a computer. Most people just come to Free Geek because it is fun and educational to work there. Also, there is often free food, and music. And you get to break stuff!
I wouldn't say that there are no well designed zines, but yeah, they do tend to be crowded and not get to the point. Also, self-indulgent. Just like myspace!
Re:Don't get me wrong
on
Free Geek Robbed
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It is too bad you got graded a troll, but this is an honest question:
First off, we use Linux because it is the only possibility. Free Geek distributes over 100 computers a month. All of these have Ubuntu and Open Office (and many other programs) on them. How much would Windows XP and Microsoft Office cost to license for each computer? 500 dollars each? That would add up to 50,000 dollars a month. Free Geek doesn't have 50,000 dollars a month, period, and if we did, we probably wouldn't choose to spend it on software license fees. It could also be possible, I suppose, to beg for some sort of non-profit site license, but that would require a very strict accounting procedure. At Free Geek, the operating system is installed over the network. To install Windows, we would have to move to installing from master CDs, which we would then have to keep under lock and key, and keep a strict tallying of where systems were going. In addition, while the situation with hardware at Free Geek isn't what it used to be (the original system specs were for medium range Pentium-Is, which could only support Debian), it is also true that Ubuntu runs on our available hardware the way any Windows Operating System couldn't. Next year, we will probably be sending out systems around a Gigahertz with 256 Megs of RAM...something that Windows Vista will almost certainly not run well on.
Second, even if somehow Microsoft said we could put out as many computers as we wanted for free, I have never seen evidence that Windows is intrinsically simpler than Linux. Yes, people are used to it. But it is not like there is some awesomely hard concepts that Ubuntu Linux throws on the average user that Windows does not. Yes, working in command line is hard (but not something that I haven't taught dozens of people to do in a half hour or so), but on a modern distribution, you are only working on the command line for certain special uses. The things that you are going to fix on the command line are not things you are going to easily fix in Windows, either. Anyway, I have seen many people, many of them quite marginal in terms of education and past experience, pick up the simpler side of Linux in a few hours. I have also taught dozens or hundreds of people,from the age of 12 to the age of 82, many with no computer experience, how to take apart and rebuild computers, and how to install and use Linux on it. Yes, some people still prefer Windows afterwards, but I have yet to see a gigantic reaction of shocked incomprehensibility to Linux. It does take some effort to learn, but it isn't impossible.
Basically, the only real reason people change over to Windows from a Free Geek computer is to play games.
And we use Dapper Drake, too! So I bet they will feel double cheated when they realize that after all that theft, they still don't have access to cutting edge Feisty Fawn!
Re:Applying logic seen on Slashdot
on
Free Geek Robbed
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It should be noted that Free Geek does have pretty tight security, to an extant that most people, even most people who spend lots of time there, don't know about.
Two points: first, in five years, large scale breaches of security have not been common.
Second, as much as there was stuff taken, there was a lot more valuable stuff not taken, due to security measures that you will have to guess at.
"biggest" could mean several things, none of them very accurate or measurable
It could just mean that the end result is going to be the most shipped or most revenue creating software ever...which doesn't actually mean that it is inherently a complicated process. It could mean that it has cost the most money to do, or has the most people working on it. There are many ways to judge the "biggest"ness of something.
That being said, yes, meglomania seems to be the way to judge the bigness of this project.
"good for Wal-Mart". I know that lots of people are going to give theories about what nefarious motivations Wal-Mart might have for doing this. (and then a lot of people are going to fire back saying 'this is how the market works, pinko!) But I see this as just trying to create a new market for something that people might want. It is weird that we don't have more computer parts stores: after all, it is easy to find mass-marketed auto parts stores, and working on a computer is a lot easier than working on a car. This is just giving people a chance to be able to practice some new technical skills themselves. Its weird that this hasn't caught on before. When I was in Taiwan, two years ago, I visited the computer market in Tainan, and in most of the stores, including some major ones, they had about as much DIY stuff (that was labelled DIY), as they had pre-made stuff. I feel Americans should be at the front of the world in gear-headism.
And, just on the subject of the various literary references that you can find in Final Fantasy, and why the game does indeed have a lot of substance, read these:
Slashdot Mirror
And even though the computers get smaller, they take up more and more room? :)
If you look at most computer or home electronic prices, the trend has been downwards over the past twenty years. Not only downwards when adjusted for inflation, downwards when adjusted for performance, but downwards in absolute prices. I wish I had stronger memories and figures to back this up, but I do remember as a child, (I was born in 1979), people just had a wildly different attitude towards electronics. A VCR, cable television, a microwave oven, color TVs...all of these were important luxury items. This could be just a artifact of me growing up, but a color television set was on par with say, a grand piano as far as how expensive it seemed.
I do have better data for computers. I have a 1994 price guide to computers when bottom line computers, 386s cost around 1500 dollars, twice as much as a midrange new desktop would today.
All of this is stuff most readers here know. (Although I am expecting at least a few people will correct my specifics.)
What I have noticed, however, is that many people have not psychologically adjusted to this, even when they intellectually know it is the case. I have noticed this most at my work at Free Geek, where often people come in, with a Packard-Bell Pentium, and explain at some detail that the quad speed CD Drive works, if you just wiggle it around first. Or that their 14 inch monitor still works, but it might blink off every few minutes. Meanwhile, we get truckloads of P-4 systems every few days.
The point is, I think many people (often older people, but not always that much older), still have a mindset that computer and electronics are rare and valuable, instead of being the mass-produced, quickly obsolete, pieces of junk they are. And I think that many of these people are honestly confused about how valuable their product is. Of course, the RIAA people know that AOL mails out millions of CDs a month (do they still do that?), and that CDs cost "under 1 dollar to make" ( wikipedia on CD manufacturing). Of course they know these things intellectually, but I really do think they have a mindset that they are producing a rare and valuable resource, and that they aren't asking for much in that they haven't raised their prices with inflation.
Post-scarcity takes some getting used to. I consider the entertainment industries inability to come up with a more financing method that doesn't involve creating false scarcity to be one of the less harmful inabilities to adjust to a new paradigm. I consider the fact that the US political and industrial leaders really don't understand (even though they know) that the US has lost textiles 50 years ago, consumer items 40 years ago, vehicle manufacturing 30 years ago, electronic manufacturing 20 years ago and computer manufacturing 10 years ago (numbers somewhat generalized), and that all of those things are now produced overseas for a fraction of a US worker's hourly minimum wage, to be a much more dangerous symptom of the same disease.
A few times at Free Geek, people have asked me why we don't use Windows. After all, these computers coming in have Windows on them, right? So we can just pass it on to another person, right? And none of these people have bothered to read the EULA, which states: (Point 13 of the Windows XP Home EULA)
People who talk about how "easy" Windows is are not looking at the fact that Windows is more than just the software you use..."Windows" is also the legal terms of ownership. And those often, especially when you are working in a business, get very far from easy. If Microsoft was really auditing the usage of their software, it would get next to impossible. But often people don't know, or just don't care about this. If they were, they would have to factor it into their calculations of "ease".
But she was misled! That is why she voted for the war. No one told her that the war might have had a downside! There were no resources like history books or the like that she could have consulted that would tell her that starting a war might not be the best idea ever. So we can forgive her for being misled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_Ray_Tube#Heal th_danger
I am not making this up. I did say, most of these health dangers have been dealt with. But the point is, if you had a Cathode Ray Tube without all the safety features that were later built in, such as leaded glass, seals to protect the vacuum for imploding, and ways to protect the high voltage cathode, it would be a very dangerous thing. It is now a protected danger, but still not the most elegantly put together technology ever, since some of the remedies (such as leading the glass) themselves present hazards.
There is a big difference between a monitor and a microwave. Microwaves, strangely enough, don't actually produce ionizing radiation, at least not directly. Microwaves produce radiation that is, IIRC, on the order of 12 cm long, which is extremely low energy for EMS. Monitors, on the other hand, are producing light with a wavelength as small as 380 nm (violet light). X-Rays start at 10 nm. Ultraviolet starts around 300 nm. So while it doesn't make much sense for a microwave to do much to you directly, since the radiation it puts off is some 10 to 100 million times less intense than an X-Ray. On the other hand, CRTs are putting off radiation that is only a few dozen times less intense than X-Rays, and is only marginally less intense than ultraviolet. So there is more reason to suspect them then microwave ovens. It should also be pointed out that you probably don't spend hours at a time six inches in from of a microwave.
Anyway, in past times, I would have probably said something sarcastic. But, I will say this directly: you said I used pseudo science and yet your arguments seem to not address what the stated information. Of course, neither of us is using science at all, since we are quoting authority and reasoning, instead of doing experiments (such as putting an X-Ray detector in front of my monitor). But my reasoning is more explained than your straw man attacks.(connecting me with other health scares) and vague political allusions (that my belief that a specific technology is harmful somehow connects me with 'empire builders regulating as much as possible to get more staff') So, in other words, explain what is non-hazardous about a 32,000 volt anode (which is how energetic they can be) shooting radiation (light, UV and X-Rays) through a vacuum tube that naturally is an implosion hazard. If you can't explain this, you lose.
That and all the health and environmental hazards associated with CRTs.
Cathode= Very high voltage at the back of your computer
Ray= Stream of electrons hitting the phosphor, producing visible light and also ultraviolet and higher light that is shielded from french frying your face by the three or so kilos of lead inside your monitor
Tube= Vacuum Tube that is just itching to implode
Not that these are things to absolutely alarmist about, but if CRTs were being developed as a new technology, with our health, safety and environmental concerns we have now, noone would ever go for it.
"Sephiroth jumps out of nowhere and stabs one of your party to death. He also breaks your wagon axle and spoils 254 pounds of food."
The year the net crashed (in the USA).
I don't think that the net is going to crash. Or even slow down for everyone. I do think, however, that cable ISPs might have big problems administering networks. The local cable ISP where I live sends me flyers in the mail every week, at least, explaining how I can get my entire home entertainment needs packaged up. They seem to be doing a gigantic sale to a wide market, and I have for a long time suspected that they are not putting as much work into the technical side of running an ISP (and a massive one), as convincing people that they can get teh television and teh pr0n and teh cellphonez with ringtonez cheaply. This might be just a prejudice of mine, but I think a lot of these "entertainment ISPs" and their customers are going to realize that its not as easy as the smiling glossy people in the ads have it.
But I don't think it will crash the net. I think a few markets will have slow down, a few class action lawsuits, people realizing that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and then their will be some reinvestment in infrastructure and everything will be back to normal fairly quickly.
Linux does not do accounting. We do not have to report to any central authority how many boxes we have installed Linux on. If we install Linux on a box, and the box turns out to be ugly, and we chop it up into bits, we do not need to prove that the operating system is no longer in use, and that it did not go to someone's brother in law out the back door.
Luckily, Free Geek still has our Kay-Pro! At least, I don't think they were taken!
I was referring to a retail license, which I don't know the specific prices on, but I do know that a retail license for Windows XP and Office is going to be expensive. And, if we did get a non-profit license, we would have to do extensive accounting. We might have to curtail some programs. For example, I imagine we couldn't sell systems in our thrift store.
I imagined (but didn't know for certain) that it would be technically possible to install over a network. I meant that installing off of a CD would probably be required for licensing reasons, because otherwise, anyone anywhere in the Free Geek building (which is a lot bigger than most people would think) could hook into the Free Geek network and sit and install Windows on as many computers as they want. Unless, of course, we had a staff person (as opposed to a volunteer) on hand to key in some serial key to install. Or something. The logistics of installing over a network or a CD, when the amount of computers cloned has to be accounted for, is, as you can believe, complicated, and would get even more complicated for those who have had experience with the pace of Free Geek.
I've often wondered about that, actually. At Free Geek Portland, it is 24 hours of time, for a computer that we would retail for around a hundred dollars. Which means that Free Geek "pays" less than minimum wage. But most people really aren't at Free Geek to get a computer...out of the hundreds of volunteers at Free Geek in an average week, only a few are primarily interested in getting a computer. Most people just come to Free Geek because it is fun and educational to work there. Also, there is often free food, and music. And you get to break stuff!
I wouldn't say that there are no well designed zines, but yeah, they do tend to be crowded and not get to the point. Also, self-indulgent. Just like myspace!
It is too bad you got graded a troll, but this is an honest question:
First off, we use Linux because it is the only possibility. Free Geek distributes over 100 computers a month. All of these have Ubuntu and Open Office (and many other programs) on them. How much would Windows XP and Microsoft Office cost to license for each computer? 500 dollars each? That would add up to 50,000 dollars a month. Free Geek doesn't have 50,000 dollars a month, period, and if we did, we probably wouldn't choose to spend it on software license fees. It could also be possible, I suppose, to beg for some sort of non-profit site license, but that would require a very strict accounting procedure. At Free Geek, the operating system is installed over the network. To install Windows, we would have to move to installing from master CDs, which we would then have to keep under lock and key, and keep a strict tallying of where systems were going. In addition, while the situation with hardware at Free Geek isn't what it used to be (the original system specs were for medium range Pentium-Is, which could only support Debian), it is also true that Ubuntu runs on our available hardware the way any Windows Operating System couldn't. Next year, we will probably be sending out systems around a Gigahertz with 256 Megs of RAM...something that Windows Vista will almost certainly not run well on.
Second, even if somehow Microsoft said we could put out as many computers as we wanted for free, I have never seen evidence that Windows is intrinsically simpler than Linux. Yes, people are used to it. But it is not like there is some awesomely hard concepts that Ubuntu Linux throws on the average user that Windows does not. Yes, working in command line is hard (but not something that I haven't taught dozens of people to do in a half hour or so), but on a modern distribution, you are only working on the command line for certain special uses. The things that you are going to fix on the command line are not things you are going to easily fix in Windows, either. Anyway, I have seen many people, many of them quite marginal in terms of education and past experience, pick up the simpler side of Linux in a few hours. I have also taught dozens or hundreds of people,from the age of 12 to the age of 82, many with no computer experience, how to take apart and rebuild computers, and how to install and use Linux on it. Yes, some people still prefer Windows afterwards, but I have yet to see a gigantic reaction of shocked incomprehensibility to Linux. It does take some effort to learn, but it isn't impossible.
Basically, the only real reason people change over to Windows from a Free Geek computer is to play games.
And we use Dapper Drake, too! So I bet they will feel double cheated when they realize that after all that theft, they still don't have access to cutting edge Feisty Fawn!
It should be noted that Free Geek does have pretty tight security, to an extant that most people, even most people who spend lots of time there, don't know about.
Two points: first, in five years, large scale breaches of security have not been common.
Second, as much as there was stuff taken, there was a lot more valuable stuff not taken, due to security measures that you will have to guess at.
Every week besides when you get distracted, and I have to cover you! :)
She should do what other old people on the internet do.
Claim to be Tina,14/f/cali!
There seems to be a lot of concern about how much trouble this is when your computer boots.
But, right now, I haven't rebooted my computer for four months.
But then, of course, I am using Linux.
You don't really need to make posts on craigslist! You can just go back to scrawling offers on bathroom walls.
"biggest" could mean several things, none of them very accurate or measurable
It could just mean that the end result is going to be the most shipped or most revenue creating software ever...which doesn't actually mean that it is inherently a complicated process. It could mean that it has cost the most money to do, or has the most people working on it. There are many ways to judge the "biggest"ness of something.
That being said, yes, meglomania seems to be the way to judge the bigness of this project.
"good for Wal-Mart".
I know that lots of people are going to give theories about what nefarious motivations Wal-Mart might have for doing this. (and then a lot of people are going to fire back saying 'this is how the market works, pinko!)
But I see this as just trying to create a new market for something that people might want. It is weird that we don't have more computer parts stores: after all, it is easy to find mass-marketed auto parts stores, and working on a computer is a lot easier than working on a car. This is just giving people a chance to be able to practice some new technical skills themselves.
Its weird that this hasn't caught on before. When I was in Taiwan, two years ago, I visited the computer market in Tainan, and in most of the stores, including some major ones, they had about as much DIY stuff (that was labelled DIY), as they had pre-made stuff. I feel Americans should be at the front of the world in gear-headism.
God will forgive you, but I won't...
The lack of realism in Final Fantasy VII
Although perhaps after reading these, a case could be made that I am a fanboy who reads too much into the game...