Thursday Next

Presumably a "theory" in the same way that evolution is a theory.

Most games can be moved to SD. Google music has a slightly bigger problem for me. The way it handles external storage is retarded. For some reason it creates a virtual drive so when you navigate your files you will see something like Ext_SD and Ext_SD_0 (something to do with the way the file system in Jelly Bean works or some nonsense). This is fine mostly except that when the SD card is unmounted and then remounted a new virtual drive is created that is slightly different. As a result your playlist gets emptied because none of the songs are where they are supposed to be. Very frustrating. Especially when it happened to me before a run and I had only 3 songs playing for an entire hour.

At least they are trying I guess..?

As anyone who follows me on twitter will know, I'm up to 10k these days. Every day, Monday to Friday before work. I've never felt so good. Lost over 2 stone in 6 months. That meal generator thing is a bit... random? A coconut smoothie for breakfast? Who has coconuts lying around ready to be smoothed?

Agreed! *doffs cap*.

Being forced to sell assets by your creditors to raise cash to pay off your loans isn't a takeover of any kind. You could, I suppose give an ultimatum of "Pay off your debt in shares or we will force you into bankruptcy." But I'm not 100% on the legality of such a move. All of this is a little off topic though as Ninty are nowhere near that. It does however explain how and why they are beholden to their shareholders and that they can't just ignore this stuff and make smaller profits and cooler games or whatever. They have to be commercially successful and they have to do it in a predictable, repeatable fashion.

Depends what you mean by "doesn't want to be bought". No one is forced to sell their shares at gunpoint. In a normal take over a business will go to the management of the company, make and offer and the management will accept or reject that offer on behalf of the shareholders. If the offer is rejected then the potential purchaser can go directly to shareholders and directly offer to buy their shares. The hostility of the takeover is directed at the managing board, not the company or the shareholders. As to why a falling stock is bad, it's basically because as others have stated, your company doesn't belong to you. Valve belongs to Gabe. He can do what he likes. As long as he is happy with what is going on, he can keep doing it. Take this line from Citizen Kane: "You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years." EA belongs to a bunch of anonymous shareholders. They won't let a company lose money for sixty years because they believe in it. Instead they will sack whoever is in charge and find someone else who promises they can fix it overnight.

Like door handle static shock mild. Happens randomly, but with increasing frequency until you connect. It will also have biometric stuff to stop you playing in marigolds.

Yup. Being publicly traded is about the worst thing you can do to a creative industry. You no longer just have to make a profit this year. You have to prove that you will make a bigger profit next year than you did this, and keep doing it each year after that for at least the next five years.

I own a Vita and got two other people to buy one. Does this mean I should get some AA quality games?

Ok so it would have been uploaded anyway. The guy is just making the point that people will pirate a game and then when they are told that piracy is affecting their in game game sales they will moan about piracy.

The way the rumour mill is churning at the moment I would not be surprised to hear that the console will deliver a mild electric shock through the controller if you are not online.

I think you're missing the point that it would have been cracked and uploaded anyway.

Cloning Game Dev Story is a bit distasteful. I don't see what else you think is wrong with this. It's a social experiment, there would have been a cracked version anyway and the guy is obviously not pursuing the people who downloaded the cracked version. It just helps to illustrate how many people will pirate where there is an option to, with a humorous little lesson thrown in.

"Xbox FIVEever (cos five is more than four)" - Full title.

Firstly, EA doesn't manipulate coverage, they pander to customers. See Mass Effect ending and SimCity freebies. Nintendo's risks are 1. They almost entirely reliant in the videogame business on their own hardware and their own software. 2. They don't have any other business to support them if the gaming thing has a stumble. 3. They suck donkey dick when it comes to online. Every time they release unsuccessful hardware it means that they have less cash to invest in the next round of hardware which decreases the chance of that hardware being successful. As Dean pointed out, that was the pattern Ninty were in before they gambled on the Wii, but there's only so many times you can get that lucky.

Regarding Jon Snow's heritage: I think it's made pretty clear that Lyanna Stark loved Rhaegar Targaryen and vice versa. Robert Baratheon's war was not one of vengeance for a wife kidnapped and raped but for jealousy over being jilted. ADWD Spoiler:

Pretty sure that Ethan's point is that the prices they advertise on their site will stay the same so they won't be as pressured to reduce prices as in the UK where a VAT increases means that you have to increase the sticker price or eat the VAT yourself.

Is "Basic" American for "Alkaline"? Found the pH water puzzle in Virtues Last Reward very confusing when I had to get "Basic", "Neutral" and "Acidic" water. Thought that Basic would be pH 7 till I saw there was a Neutral box too.

How could you hear it when I said it behind your back?!?

Is that why it is called a "tacks"?

I'm a bit conflicted about White Knighting (though I think we are talking about different definitions. If you leave it to minorities to stand up for their rights, then it will always be a minority of people who are complaining and minorities are easy to ignore. For stuff to change you often need the silent majority to get involved. What I have more of an issue with is that White Knighting is almost always negative. Deriding Dead or Alive for having bikini clad girls etc. It's rarely done in a positive way for example people talking about how good the new Lara Croft is, or how people are looking forward to playing as Nilin in Remember Me. The Scottish independence debate is similar in this respect. Salmond and co were very quick to jump on a "Vote Yes for Independence" campaign and immediately characterised the unionist vote as a "No" vote. Rather than voting "Yes" to stay part of the UK you are voting "No" to an independent Scotland. Negative campaigns are, generally speaking harder to win. I fully support anyone who wants more of new Lara, more of Chell, and Faith, and Nilin (had to look that one up). All those characters, whether they are silent protagonist or fully acted out roles are characters that I enjoyed or look forward to playing as. People who say "Oh great, this game has boobs in it, how sexist!" is an idiot. "Less games with boobs" means less games overall. That's not what I want. I don't care if those games exist, if I don't like them, I won't buy them. What I want is *more* variety. More games with well written characters that are all races, genders and ages. That's how you effect positve change. Not by bleating about what has already been done, but by demanding more from the future. *Gets off of soapbox*

People who say that "Godwins Law" means you lose an argument if you make a Nazi / Hitler comparison. (I'm sure we've mentioned that before but W&S reminded me how much I hate it).

Oh my goodness. That Spongebob video... I just... wow. Why would you put this on the actual internet? The internet that the rest of the world can see. The rest of the world including the people you go to school with... Madness.

Same here, I like the interactive movie thing that Cage does. But it's understandable that not everyone feels the same way.