Interesting point. I much prefer the keyboard on my old T40p to the one on my new T60. The newer one is definitely softer-feeling, yet stiffer somehow. I have been meaning to see if they were compatible so I could swap them out...
Not a big fan of the nipple though. I love me some touchpad, and I tend to crank up the speed as well. Nobody at work likes using my laptop, which is the way I likes it.
Network TV is slowly dying, no doubt. We're going to see some interesting scenarios play out as everyone makes the jump to digital broadcast first, and then ultimately web streaming (maybe 5-10 years from now). Right now we are still in the infancy of web streaming but if you look at how much content was available a year ago verses how much is available today, I bet it's a change on the order of several magnitudes. I mean, even channels like CW and TNT are offering their shows online. The winners in this evolution are going to be the ones who are proactive and not reactive; so far the major networks are in the "putting out fires" mode rather than "planning for the future" mode.
There is a caveat that goes with this inevitable march towards online programming, and that is the current state of affairs with our internet infrastructure. It's too early in the game for the networks to make major inroads into web broadcasting, but you just wait until everyone has FIOS. I know, I probably won't see it in my lifetime--I'm talking EVERYONE, like the phone system. Internet access will eventually become either a utility or something available to everyone for virtually nothing (Wimax), and the networks will need to invest in new ways to make revenue in that world. The ones who are doing it now will reap the rewards later; the companies that just don't get it, and who continue to insist on further hindering their end-user experience will just fade out of existence, wondering what happened and why their models did not work. DRM isn't dead yet, but hopefully soon.
In the here and now though, I hate commercials as much as the next guy, but I would much rather watch an online show with one commercial per break than the same show on TV with 5-6 commercials every 10 minutes. I think this is the most favored model that the networks are employing and that they will continue to do so as long as the current internet era lasts. I fear this will change in the future as the market swings towards the 'net, but I'm enjoying it right now at least. (Oh, and on the d/l, Adblock+ for FF actually blocks some commercials from showing at all. Go ahead, surf over to the Jericho on CBS with IE and then compare it to FF with Adblock+. You're welcome. )
I live roughly 5 miles from where the Alum Rock quake struck, and it was about 30 seconds of moderate shaking. My wife and I braced ourselves in the doorway to our hall and watched as our 30 gallon fish tank in the living room swayed back and forth; maybe a quart of water sloshed out.
I cannot even begin to contemplate how awful a 7.8 quake that lasts more than two minutes would be. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the survivors and to the friends and families of those who were lost.
I used a Steel Series frosted glass mouse pad for a while, but I had to stop because if even the most tiniest particle settles on the surface, my mouse made this horrible scratching sound. Even worse, I could feel it as well, so I was constantly wiping down the surface and also rubbing the mouse on my pants leg. Needless to say, this detracted from my overall gaming experience.
I'm sure their other pads are fine, and maybe I'm one of the unlucky few who works/plays in a somewhat dusty area. I'm just putting this out there.
Now that keyboard, otoh, I like. I have yet to find a decent keyboard that passes what I call my "Ctrl finger" test. Due to my prefered gaming style, when I press the left control key with my left pinky, it doesn't push straight down but sort off at an angle. In cheapie, plasticy boards, eventually this causes the key to stick and it becomes problematic as Ctrl is my primary crouching key in FPS games. I usually guage this by pushing on the far bottom left corner of the left control key and seeing how free the action is. Since store display boards get tons of abuse, this test works quite well.
There are many uses for such a service. Here's just a few off the top of my head:
-Under-water cable management
-Shipwreck locator
-Points of interest for study (black smokers, volcanoes, rifts)
-Biologic tracking data (in 3D)
-Current tracking data (in 3D)
-The aforementioned oil industry uses
I'm guessing Google would release a lo-rez free version to the general public and then license a high-rez version to corporations (and government) like it does with Google Earth. I didn't really RTFA--you don't really have to with a title like that--so I apologize if any of this was mentioned there. It just seemed like there were a lot of "What is this good for?" posts. I, for one, am looking forward to such a service.
My gaming sessions typically don't last longer than a few hours, so if I find myself wanting to come back to a game, then I know I'm going to buy it so I can have a serial number and support and not have to mess with keeping track of cracks and blacklists and such. However, I can usually tell within the first half-hour or so if I'm going to want to continue to play a particular title. The last game I bought in this way was Sims2; and the last one I rejected was FlatOut 2 (got kinda boring pretty quick). It is also important to keep in mind that whether or not I like a game usually bears no relation to the quality of said game, so if I like it, I buy it, and if I don't like it, I delete it and go on my merry way.
One more thing I forgot to add: If a demo is available I'll try that first because it's the easiest way to get a taste, but so few developers put out the demo at the same time the game goes gold. And also I've been a beta tester for certain games and my experiences during beta have goverend whether or not I would buy the game: WoW = yes, Quake Wars: ET = no.
I don't subscribe to any gaming magazine anymore. I don't like to think of myself as being easily manipulated, but I used to buy 2-3 PC games a month, based on glowing reviews telling me that such-and such game is the end-all and be-all of gaming. I own UT3, Crysis, Frontlines:FOW, and HL2 (Orange Box). Out of ALL of them, Portal is the only one I actually enjoyed so much that I couldn't wait to get back to it and replay it--and it was thrown in as almost an afterthought. HL2 was interesting but became too much of a grind, and the others simply lack depth, no matter how pretty they are.
Other games that were overhyped and failed to satisfy me: Oblivion, World in Conflict, SupCom, Prey... Oh sure, I was stoked to be playing the latest and greatest on really good hardware, but after a couple of hours the shine starts to wear off and then it becomes a job. I have tried to play these games, really tried to finish them, but I just can't. And then, buyer's remorse sets in--it's a viscious cycle because you feel like you have to play all the way through regardless of enjoyment because it cost 50 damned dollars and you have to get your money's worth, right? I mean, come on, what's wrong with me? Why aren't I shivering in adulation of these gods of the gaming universe? Everyone tells me and I keep hearing how awesomely, Earth-shatteringly, mind-blowing these games are. I've got plenty of horsepower in my rig to run them, so it's not that; I know the developers worked their collective asses off making them, so quality isn't an issue either. I guess I just finally learned to stop buying games based on the "objective" reviews, and once I realized that is when I let my magazine subs lapse.
xx01dk's law: All. Game. Reviews. Are. CRAP.
-and its corollary-
Thank goodness for BitTorrent and leaked/pirated releases.
Do not misunderstand me here; if I like a game that I download, I will go out and buy it. If I do not, it gets deleted and I save my money. In addition, just like my favorite musicians, I will buy outright almost any game that is made by my short list of trusted companies/developers. (i.e.: Frank Delise, Sid Meyers, Stardock, Valve, and Rockstar)
Where was I. Oh yes, the hype machine for GTA4. I'm going to buy it but not because of any stupid review. I own GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas and have played them all through because they were fun. I don't even care that GTA4 won't be out for PC anytime soon because the content is what matters here, and it will still be fresh (to me). I like what Rockstar does, so I will support them by buying their product sans reviews (I actually liked Postal, I think PCG gave it a 0 out of 10 rating...).
It's sorta funny, but two nights ago I had my first ever real problem with Comcast in about 2 years. I spent 22 minutes on hold and another half-hour talking to a somewhat competent Indian lady (who would nevertheless get flustered if I tried to "fast forward" her script lol). Since I had already "power cycled" my modem twice before I called with no effect, I'm slightly mystified as to what, if anything, she did on her end, but my connection isn't dropping packets anymore...
Has anyone else seen that commercial where the guy "clicks" on his stereo and the "drags" it to overlay his car, sitting outside? How cool would that be. I want what I'm hearing on the radio to be saved in my car's stereo, so I "cut and paste" it to my car in 3-D space (maybe with a souped-up wii-mote?). I want that picture on my wall to be my new desktop background, so I do the same thing. I want what I'm seeing to play via webcast so I draw a "box" around whatever my point of focus is, "lock" it in place somehow, and then drag that box onto my web page. I want to search for DIY articles on my keg fridge, so I click it and drag it into a search. I then take any results I like and drag them over to my printer, which then spits out a hard copy...
I've been thoroughly entertaining myself trying to think of new possibilities for this kind of real-time, hyper-spatial ability...
Sooooo... a thought occurred to me. What's a massive backlash against Creative going to do in the long run? It's not as if they are a cruel dictatorship bent on taking over the world--no, they are simply a hardware vendor.
I partially agree that perhaps their time has come and gone, after all there are more and more options out there for computer audio than there has been in quite a few years. Like it's been said, most mobo audio is "good enough" for your average computer user, and the argument that a discrete audio solution frees up cpu cycles quite frankly doesn't hold water anymore. There is no point for me to upgrade my ZS 2 until it either dies from old age or the PCI slot is entirely phased out (in which case I hope there's an adapter).
So be angry at Creative, but leave the pitchforks and torches at home. Boycotting them serves absolutely no purpose other then feeding our own primeval lust for revenge. They hurt you, so naturally you want to hurt them back but in reality it's not like they will all of a sudden go "We're sorry, here's a free audio card for everyone. Please buy more of our stuff." They will get the message, and if they change their ways, buy their stuff again. If not, then don't.
"Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut. "
Just how much of a geek this makes me, I don't know. But my USB keyboard has suffered the ultimate ignominy of being covered in recycled Mountain Dew as a result. Slut.
"they weren't customers, they might never be customers, so spending money to try to stop them serves no purpose" really hits home. Case in point, I am a NIN fan, one who is willing to buy the latest album even if have not previewed it. Same thing with Stardock. I own GalCiv, GalCiv2, and SINS (and also a copy of Windowblinds). Sure I could have pirated these and used them for free, but why bother? It's easier for me to justify spending my hard earned cash on worthwhile products that I enjoy while at the same time supporting the developers who make the products that I enjoy. Wins all around...
Now. about that copy of CS3 that I downloaded... I'm at odds with this because I've grown accustomed to all the great features Adobe has provided. I can rationalize it by saying that if Adobe doesn't make a profit from me then I will not make a profit from Adobe's software, but this is still wrong and vexes me so. Not everyone that buys Photoshop is looking to make a profit from it and can justify it thusly, so I am still in the wrong.
And now to my point. I would some day like to be able to afford a fully licensed copy of Photoshop. If Adobe were to employ the tactics used by the RIAA and MPAA I don't think I would be inclined to buy anything from them and would instead seek out alternatives to support. However, since I have not been subjected to any raids or subpoenas, I do not feel threatened, and it is merely my moral fiber that keeps me in line. It is that same moral fiber that says "I shouldn't be using this, but I will, humbly, so that some day I may be able to afford it" rather than "Oh yeah. CS3 is MINE, bitches. Suck it, 'The Man'."
No it's not right, but it will do for me thinking that I'm morally superior to all the other pirates out there.
Meh, humility... Sometimes it's for me, other times it's not.
NM, I simply dragged it from that customize box to it's rightful place. The only reason this is an issue is because I have about 30 Favicon links and the home button displaced two of them. Thanks again.
So far with the beta. It may be purely subjective, but when I click the task bar icon, FF3 opens _instantly_ or near enough as I can tell. And I've been using FF2 since it's release.
I also left a couple of browser windows open all night last night and was able to navigate pretty well this morning; if I'd done that with FF2 it would have been like viewing the web over dial-up again.
I think what impressed me the most was the hassle-free install. I uninstalled FF2, thinking I was ready to start with a fresh browser, and to my complete surprise, FF3 installed with nearly the exact same settings as I had been using in FF2. With the exception of that pesky "home" button that I can't seem to get rid of (What, no right-click > delete option?) everything is exactly the same. I'm still trying to get used to the address bar that tries to predict what site you're looking for as well; I suspect that with some tweaking I'll be able to dial it in pretty well.
I know, why doesn't the RIAA and the MPAA offer a P2P service with their catalogs online and charge $5/month to access it? What's this BS in applying a blacket surcharge to all ISP accounts? Stupid.
If Wikipedia wants to be the authoritative source of knowledge of everything, what's the harm in letting the bullshit in? It's still the user's choice which rabbit hole they follow when killing time at work. Personally, I'm not above clicking that "vodak" hyperlink while I'm trying to learn more about Russian diplomacy, but that's just me.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting point. I much prefer the keyboard on my old T40p to the one on my new T60. The newer one is definitely softer-feeling, yet stiffer somehow. I have been meaning to see if they were compatible so I could swap them out...
Not a big fan of the nipple though. I love me some touchpad, and I tend to crank up the speed as well. Nobody at work likes using my laptop, which is the way I likes it.
Cheers~
Network TV is slowly dying, no doubt. We're going to see some interesting scenarios play out as everyone makes the jump to digital broadcast first, and then ultimately web streaming (maybe 5-10 years from now). Right now we are still in the infancy of web streaming but if you look at how much content was available a year ago verses how much is available today, I bet it's a change on the order of several magnitudes. I mean, even channels like CW and TNT are offering their shows online. The winners in this evolution are going to be the ones who are proactive and not reactive; so far the major networks are in the "putting out fires" mode rather than "planning for the future" mode.
There is a caveat that goes with this inevitable march towards online programming, and that is the current state of affairs with our internet infrastructure. It's too early in the game for the networks to make major inroads into web broadcasting, but you just wait until everyone has FIOS. I know, I probably won't see it in my lifetime--I'm talking EVERYONE, like the phone system. Internet access will eventually become either a utility or something available to everyone for virtually nothing (Wimax), and the networks will need to invest in new ways to make revenue in that world. The ones who are doing it now will reap the rewards later; the companies that just don't get it, and who continue to insist on further hindering their end-user experience will just fade out of existence, wondering what happened and why their models did not work. DRM isn't dead yet, but hopefully soon.
In the here and now though, I hate commercials as much as the next guy, but I would much rather watch an online show with one commercial per break than the same show on TV with 5-6 commercials every 10 minutes. I think this is the most favored model that the networks are employing and that they will continue to do so as long as the current internet era lasts. I fear this will change in the future as the market swings towards the 'net, but I'm enjoying it right now at least. (Oh, and on the d/l, Adblock+ for FF actually blocks some commercials from showing at all. Go ahead, surf over to the Jericho on CBS with IE and then compare it to FF with Adblock+. You're welcome. )
I live roughly 5 miles from where the Alum Rock quake struck, and it was about 30 seconds of moderate shaking. My wife and I braced ourselves in the doorway to our hall and watched as our 30 gallon fish tank in the living room swayed back and forth; maybe a quart of water sloshed out.
I cannot even begin to contemplate how awful a 7.8 quake that lasts more than two minutes would be. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the survivors and to the friends and families of those who were lost.
I used a Steel Series frosted glass mouse pad for a while, but I had to stop because if even the most tiniest particle settles on the surface, my mouse made this horrible scratching sound. Even worse, I could feel it as well, so I was constantly wiping down the surface and also rubbing the mouse on my pants leg. Needless to say, this detracted from my overall gaming experience.
I'm sure their other pads are fine, and maybe I'm one of the unlucky few who works/plays in a somewhat dusty area. I'm just putting this out there.
Now that keyboard, otoh, I like. I have yet to find a decent keyboard that passes what I call my "Ctrl finger" test. Due to my prefered gaming style, when I press the left control key with my left pinky, it doesn't push straight down but sort off at an angle. In cheapie, plasticy boards, eventually this causes the key to stick and it becomes problematic as Ctrl is my primary crouching key in FPS games. I usually guage this by pushing on the far bottom left corner of the left control key and seeing how free the action is. Since store display boards get tons of abuse, this test works quite well.
Just my 2c, and as always, ymmv. Cheers~
Nope! Like I said, I am eagerly awaiting this product.
There are many uses for such a service. Here's just a few off the top of my head:
-Under-water cable management
-Shipwreck locator
-Points of interest for study (black smokers, volcanoes, rifts)
-Biologic tracking data (in 3D)
-Current tracking data (in 3D)
-The aforementioned oil industry uses
I'm guessing Google would release a lo-rez free version to the general public and then license a high-rez version to corporations (and government) like it does with Google Earth. I didn't really RTFA--you don't really have to with a title like that--so I apologize if any of this was mentioned there. It just seemed like there were a lot of "What is this good for?" posts. I, for one, am looking forward to such a service.
Cheers~
Total agreement here, well said. Cheers~
I'll answer this one:
My gaming sessions typically don't last longer than a few hours, so if I find myself wanting to come back to a game, then I know I'm going to buy it so I can have a serial number and support and not have to mess with keeping track of cracks and blacklists and such. However, I can usually tell within the first half-hour or so if I'm going to want to continue to play a particular title. The last game I bought in this way was Sims2; and the last one I rejected was FlatOut 2 (got kinda boring pretty quick). It is also important to keep in mind that whether or not I like a game usually bears no relation to the quality of said game, so if I like it, I buy it, and if I don't like it, I delete it and go on my merry way.
One more thing I forgot to add: If a demo is available I'll try that first because it's the easiest way to get a taste, but so few developers put out the demo at the same time the game goes gold. And also I've been a beta tester for certain games and my experiences during beta have goverend whether or not I would buy the game: WoW = yes, Quake Wars: ET = no.
Hope this answers your questions. Cheers~
I don't subscribe to any gaming magazine anymore. I don't like to think of myself as being easily manipulated, but I used to buy 2-3 PC games a month, based on glowing reviews telling me that such-and such game is the end-all and be-all of gaming. I own UT3, Crysis, Frontlines:FOW, and HL2 (Orange Box). Out of ALL of them, Portal is the only one I actually enjoyed so much that I couldn't wait to get back to it and replay it--and it was thrown in as almost an afterthought. HL2 was interesting but became too much of a grind, and the others simply lack depth, no matter how pretty they are.
Other games that were overhyped and failed to satisfy me: Oblivion, World in Conflict, SupCom, Prey... Oh sure, I was stoked to be playing the latest and greatest on really good hardware, but after a couple of hours the shine starts to wear off and then it becomes a job. I have tried to play these games, really tried to finish them, but I just can't. And then, buyer's remorse sets in--it's a viscious cycle because you feel like you have to play all the way through regardless of enjoyment because it cost 50 damned dollars and you have to get your money's worth, right? I mean, come on, what's wrong with me? Why aren't I shivering in adulation of these gods of the gaming universe? Everyone tells me and I keep hearing how awesomely, Earth-shatteringly, mind-blowing these games are. I've got plenty of horsepower in my rig to run them, so it's not that; I know the developers worked their collective asses off making them, so quality isn't an issue either. I guess I just finally learned to stop buying games based on the "objective" reviews, and once I realized that is when I let my magazine subs lapse.
xx01dk's law: All. Game. Reviews. Are. CRAP.
-and its corollary-
Thank goodness for BitTorrent and leaked/pirated releases.
Do not misunderstand me here; if I like a game that I download, I will go out and buy it. If I do not, it gets deleted and I save my money. In addition, just like my favorite musicians, I will buy outright almost any game that is made by my short list of trusted companies/developers. (i.e.: Frank Delise, Sid Meyers, Stardock, Valve, and Rockstar)
Where was I. Oh yes, the hype machine for GTA4. I'm going to buy it but not because of any stupid review. I own GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas and have played them all through because they were fun. I don't even care that GTA4 won't be out for PC anytime soon because the content is what matters here, and it will still be fresh (to me). I like what Rockstar does, so I will support them by buying their product sans reviews (I actually liked Postal, I think PCG gave it a 0 out of 10 rating...).
Queue fanboy flame wars in 3... 2...
Big deal, we've got a huge, untapped reserve under the northern Midwest. Too bad we haven't built any new refineries in the past 30 years.
It's sorta funny, but two nights ago I had my first ever real problem with Comcast in about 2 years. I spent 22 minutes on hold and another half-hour talking to a somewhat competent Indian lady (who would nevertheless get flustered if I tried to "fast forward" her script lol). Since I had already "power cycled" my modem twice before I called with no effect, I'm slightly mystified as to what, if anything, she did on her end, but my connection isn't dropping packets anymore...
Sure. I "opt" out of purchasing games that include advertising all the time. Oh, wait...
Has anyone else seen that commercial where the guy "clicks" on his stereo and the "drags" it to overlay his car, sitting outside? How cool would that be. I want what I'm hearing on the radio to be saved in my car's stereo, so I "cut and paste" it to my car in 3-D space (maybe with a souped-up wii-mote?). I want that picture on my wall to be my new desktop background, so I do the same thing. I want what I'm seeing to play via webcast so I draw a "box" around whatever my point of focus is, "lock" it in place somehow, and then drag that box onto my web page. I want to search for DIY articles on my keg fridge, so I click it and drag it into a search. I then take any results I like and drag them over to my printer, which then spits out a hard copy...
I've been thoroughly entertaining myself trying to think of new possibilities for this kind of real-time, hyper-spatial ability...
No no, by all means do so; I was simply positing that all this "down with Creative" backlash is a waste of time.
Sooooo... a thought occurred to me. What's a massive backlash against Creative going to do in the long run? It's not as if they are a cruel dictatorship bent on taking over the world--no, they are simply a hardware vendor.
I partially agree that perhaps their time has come and gone, after all there are more and more options out there for computer audio than there has been in quite a few years. Like it's been said, most mobo audio is "good enough" for your average computer user, and the argument that a discrete audio solution frees up cpu cycles quite frankly doesn't hold water anymore. There is no point for me to upgrade my ZS 2 until it either dies from old age or the PCI slot is entirely phased out (in which case I hope there's an adapter).
So be angry at Creative, but leave the pitchforks and torches at home. Boycotting them serves absolutely no purpose other then feeding our own primeval lust for revenge. They hurt you, so naturally you want to hurt them back but in reality it's not like they will all of a sudden go "We're sorry, here's a free audio card for everyone. Please buy more of our stuff." They will get the message, and if they change their ways, buy their stuff again. If not, then don't.
"Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut. "
Just how much of a geek this makes me, I don't know. But my USB keyboard has suffered the ultimate ignominy of being covered in recycled Mountain Dew as a result. Slut.
"they weren't customers, they might never be customers, so spending money to try to stop them serves no purpose" really hits home. Case in point, I am a NIN fan, one who is willing to buy the latest album even if have not previewed it. Same thing with Stardock. I own GalCiv, GalCiv2, and SINS (and also a copy of Windowblinds). Sure I could have pirated these and used them for free, but why bother? It's easier for me to justify spending my hard earned cash on worthwhile products that I enjoy while at the same time supporting the developers who make the products that I enjoy. Wins all around...
Now. about that copy of CS3 that I downloaded... I'm at odds with this because I've grown accustomed to all the great features Adobe has provided. I can rationalize it by saying that if Adobe doesn't make a profit from me then I will not make a profit from Adobe's software, but this is still wrong and vexes me so. Not everyone that buys Photoshop is looking to make a profit from it and can justify it thusly, so I am still in the wrong.
And now to my point. I would some day like to be able to afford a fully licensed copy of Photoshop. If Adobe were to employ the tactics used by the RIAA and MPAA I don't think I would be inclined to buy anything from them and would instead seek out alternatives to support. However, since I have not been subjected to any raids or subpoenas, I do not feel threatened, and it is merely my moral fiber that keeps me in line. It is that same moral fiber that says "I shouldn't be using this, but I will, humbly, so that some day I may be able to afford it" rather than "Oh yeah. CS3 is MINE, bitches. Suck it, 'The Man'."
No it's not right, but it will do for me thinking that I'm morally superior to all the other pirates out there.
Meh, humility... Sometimes it's for me, other times it's not.
Oh I know, it just struck me as funny. BTW +1 for "lusers" haven't heard that in years :)
NM, I simply dragged it from that customize box to it's rightful place. The only reason this is an issue is because I have about 30 Favicon links and the home button displaced two of them. Thanks again.
Thanks for that! Now I just need to know how to add the home button back to where it should be...
Ummm if you use it at work, don't you sorta already need to know how to use it?
I see your point--I tend to use a lot of extensions.
So far with the beta. It may be purely subjective, but when I click the task bar icon, FF3 opens _instantly_ or near enough as I can tell. And I've been using FF2 since it's release.
I also left a couple of browser windows open all night last night and was able to navigate pretty well this morning; if I'd done that with FF2 it would have been like viewing the web over dial-up again.
I think what impressed me the most was the hassle-free install. I uninstalled FF2, thinking I was ready to start with a fresh browser, and to my complete surprise, FF3 installed with nearly the exact same settings as I had been using in FF2. With the exception of that pesky "home" button that I can't seem to get rid of (What, no right-click > delete option?) everything is exactly the same. I'm still trying to get used to the address bar that tries to predict what site you're looking for as well; I suspect that with some tweaking I'll be able to dial it in pretty well.
Cheers~
I know, why doesn't the RIAA and the MPAA offer a P2P service with their catalogs online and charge $5/month to access it? What's this BS in applying a blacket surcharge to all ISP accounts? Stupid.
If Wikipedia wants to be the authoritative source of knowledge of everything, what's the harm in letting the bullshit in? It's still the user's choice which rabbit hole they follow when killing time at work. Personally, I'm not above clicking that "vodak" hyperlink while I'm trying to learn more about Russian diplomacy, but that's just me.