rayzoredge

Bandwidth shouldn't be metered to the degree that it is for the OP, because the fact of the matter is that we're growing to be a tech-savvy society... which would consequently mean more data transferred over our mediums. It's kind of stupid to introduce a cap to limit the amount of data transfered, especially when consumers flock to the company in the first place for increased transfer speeds (to accumulate more data transferred in less amount of time). With companies like Netflix streaming high-definition movies and thus a ton of data through the telecommunications infrastructure, I don't see how it would benefit Comcast to limit the amount of data transferred to any household or company entity. If Comcast was really against illegal downloading of programs, media, and whatnot, it doesn't make sense to punish the legitimate users by introducing a cap. You just create a bad rap for yourself and less people will recommend your services. And why doesn't anyone point out the fact that you can encrypt your data anyway? How would ISPs know whether traffic is from torrenting, streaming, the Internet, or whatever else if routers or even software are able to encrypt the data you send outbound? Are companies like Comcast so virtuous as to cap the transfer limit to disencourage peer-to-peer traffic? Why not put a cap on just outbound traffic? Even then, why even make a cap at all if legitimate users are being affected? It just doesn't make any sense in a business model to lose customers in this manner. Some people are stuck with Comcast, and I can see how the company is not going to care in that regard. Not every community has the privilege in choosing between Comcast and a rival company. But if that customer were to move to another provider as a result of an opportunity springing up (from a move, or an emergence of competition), that customer is lost forever, along with all of the potential customers that the customer talks to.

Stick with CS3 (if you have it already). From what I'm reading about the two, there is nothing ground-breaking about CS4. You're much better off spending much less on CS3 if you won't be utilizing the new features included with CS4. So if you can live with swapping between windows/programs, increased speed with proprietary NVIDIA technology (in which you would have to have a supporting GPU from NVIDIA), increased performance with 64-bit support (which you need a 64-bit system to take advantage of), and increased performance with multi-cores (which anyone can benefit from). If you don't have the hardware to begin with, though, I wouldn't bother forking over much more for a marginal 8-12% in efficiency. There are new features with the programs themselves, but only a professional would actually be looking at what CS4 has to bring to the table. CS4 doesn't put too much to consider the upgrade, unless you absolutely had to have the latest and greatest. Just at a glance: I would look into the programs as to what they offer with the upgrade and determine whether CS4 is actually right for you or not. As of the moment, I would wait until we see what CS5 brings to the table, sticking to CS3 in the meantime (especially if you're an amateur/intermediate on a budget).

If it's truly for everyday use, and judging from the components you selected, I recommend you just go out and get a prefabricated computer from HP or Dell or whoever... unless you really want to build your own machine.If you do, I would go for a decent case with good cooling (look at ThermalTake, Rosewill, and Antec), a decent motherboard, dual core processor (1.2GHz+), 2 GB of DDR2 RAM, two modest hard drives w/ a RAID 1 setup (mirrored backup), and leave onboard sound and onboard integrated graphics. Set it up with a 500W power supply that's efficient. Pick out an optical drive that suits your needs (a regular DVD-RW combo drive works for $20+), modest speakers, a modest monitor, and you'll be all set. One thing to really pay attention to is if your processor actually seats in the motherboard you choose, if the RAM you choose is best paired with what the motherboard supports, and if the motherboard has the connectivity that you need. (In short, the motherboard is one of the most important factors in building that basically limits and chooses what you put into your system... so put emphasis on it.) Don't forget the keyboard and mouse.There's no point in burning money by purchasing insane components for something you're going to browse the Internet with. The graphics card you chose alone costs over $1000 USD... enough to buy TWO pre-fabricated computers with the specifications I recommended above.

Seems like you're missing out on some things... especially asking us to judge how good a build is without telling us what it's for. I'm going to assume gaming.You're missing RAM, hard drive(s), and whatnot. If you're going for gaming with no objection to price, aim for a motherboard that supports DDR3 instead of limiting yourself with DDR2. Then look to throwing even more money at DDR3 RAM pairs... as DDR3 isn't as cost-effective as DDR2 at the moment.If you want to, you can throw even more money towards a sound card like something from Creative's X-Fi series.From what you have at this point, it seems like a dream rig, considering that I haven't even heard of the 290 series... and I am somewhat on top of new technology. Give us more details!

I have to throw some endorsement on this one. I recently used both programs in bold to remove a persistent trojan (Anti-Spyware 2008, known as a number of other things by other antivirus programs) and it worked like a charm. I recommend these two programs highly as good options for anyone else suffering from Trojans or other malware. However, I'm glad that OP actually got around to wiping and reinstallation. It's a pain, but it's a sure way to eliminate any chance of a reoccuring threat (as long as your backups are clean).

I believe Internet Explorer 8 fails miserably with Acid3... I remember seeing preliminary test results with it. Wikipedia's Acid 3 article shows the despairing results for such a promising browser, with Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox leading the pack with scores of 80 up to 100 (as opposed to the measly 20 that IE8RC1 fails with). However, Microsoft in defense had this to say for its low score: It would make sense with that statement why the score is so low, but at the same time, Acid3 checks to see how well a browser adheres to standards. This gets even stranger with compatibility with web pages designed for previous versions... in theory, the concept sounds good, but at the same time, it promotes a bit of "living in the past" for web developers stubborn in not wanting to redesign their work to accomodate the newest release of IE8. Smart, but stupid. You take your pick... my opinion lies with both. - As for my opinion on having so many variants of Windows 7... I think it's just plain dumb, but maybe I'm not seeing it from the deployment level as clearly as the professionals making these kinds of decisions. The starter kit doesn't even make sense... with the limitations imposed on it, why would you even consider purchasing that particular flavor? If the answer to that is economy-friendly, rapid deployment on a fairly considerable amount of systems used for basic needs, why not look to any other Linux distribution that's free? Home Basic seems to make more sense, if the requirement is to have a Windows machine. But then there's Home Premium, which is a whopping 3 features away from Home Basic with Aero, Touch, ability to create Homegroups, and apparently the ability to play "premium games." First off, you can include Aero and never have it enabled because your machine is too crappy. (If you force it, that's on you to deal with the lag and the stutter.) If your machine is crappy, you most likely won't be having multi-touch capability on your monitor (unless you like pairing state-of-the-art visuals with your crappy computer), so including Touch capability isn't going to kill anyone. The ability to make Homegroups apparently is a dealbreaker, but then again, if you're making a Homegroup, you probably have access to other PCs or devices... and since Home Basic is join-only, why would you get, let's say, three PCs with Home Premium when you can just have one and the other two to join with Home Basic? And since we have a crappy PC with no multi-touch capability and no ability to actually utilize Aero effectively, I would also imagine that you won't be playing "premium games" with it either. So including it in the package won't kill anyone. (Users can uninstall things anyway through this thing called Add/Remove Programs, I think.) So bye-bye Starter and Home Basic. Useless. Professional and Enterprise also need to merge to create what we have with XP Professional. Does it make sense for a "professional" to be without encryption, not to mention the extra features that Enterprise brings to the table? Enterprise just seems dumb to have all of this but not be able to create HomeGroups. So heck, let's make Professional/Enterprise, or just call it Professional. Then again, if you merge the two, you get Ultimate. Whoa... wait, what? So from my personal critique, we've brought six flavors of Windows down to two: Home Premium and Professional/Ultimate. You can ship most consumer PCs with Home Premium thanks to the arguments I've provided above, and for those who want to opt for more power, they can go with Professional/Ultimate. Businesses can look to Professional/Ultimate without a second thought as to what flavor of the six that Microsoft gives us they should get: Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate. Wow. Anyone else in agreement here?

Literally, it's just to see what's on your desktop. Clicking on it will actually minimize everything to bring you back to your desktop.

Misanthrope: Awesome. You sound like a firm believer of what was explained in the literature you've been exposed to. I'll have to take a gander at that piece... it probably holds a lot of truth as to what really is going on, but I'm almost sure that the truth is stretched and exaggerated to fit some sort of propagandist scheme or aim that the author was striving for. OP: The military has been slandered with the accusation that they take anyone... from high school dropouts to ex-convicts to anything of the sort. They also preach in their advertisements about schooling its members, enticing them into recruitment with college benefits and other educational incentives. And then there are the officers of the military, where education is a requirement before becoming commissioned. There are all sorts of people in the military... don't be fooled by what people tell you.In my eyes, members of the military are people... just like everyone else. We're smart. We're dumb. We lack common sense. We have the best judgment. You will meet members of the military that are intelligent as well as the not-so-intelligent. And then there are the green boys and the hardened veterans. We have seasoned members in the higher ranks, and ironically enough, our junior commissioned officers that lead our platoons and make the decisions are inexperienced and generally viewed as useless until they can actually prove their worth on the battlefield.You might associate the best and the brightest with the people at NASA, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and whatnot. Anyone can see why... but you also have to take into account the hidden gems all over the world that never make it to being prominent in society because of any number of hindrances, like financial problems, family or social issues that take priority, or whatever you can think of. There is potential in each and every single person... and then there are the extraordinary. Think of August Rush, a movie about a boy from an orphanage who journeys to seek his parents. He was a prodigy, a musical genius, having a talent for music that no one knew about. In the movie, he was living on the streets. During the course of his story, he found his way to Juilliard and became the top of his classes and consequently, of the school. (To put it into perspective, a boy was teaching adults about the sound of music.) But no one would have known about his wonderful gift if the events of his life took another, less-fortunate turn. Catch my drift? I'm a member of the U.S. Army and I've seen quite a variety of folk in my time in the military. There are a ton of good guys out there who you would never think to acknowledge, and there are some brilliant ones, but we're not without our idiots. Just keep in mind that we have for the most part (or at least like to think so) the best and brightest calling the shots, and the best and most seasoned boots on the ground leading our idiots like me.

So there's a ton of hype with few facts in between. I intend on trying to dig up what I can find. We hear about "wonder berries" like acai, dwarfing the goodness of blueberries and other [cheaper, more available, and more abundant] anti-oxidant-rich fruit. We hear about detoxification with herbal supplements and treatments. Assistance in weight loss is one of the largest benefits, and advertisements scream these words when roping in the masses to offer their products. So how do these products actually work out for the consumer? Has anyone fed the craze with their hard-earned dollars and have seen results? What is your lifestyle like? What do you do in conjunction with taking these supplements to achieve your results, if any? I did my research on acai and detoxification. Acai seems to be the real deal, with multitudes of antioxidants over most other sources, with cell-based research on its cancer-fighting properties and its benefit on health. It seems to be what everyone says it is... but the problem lies in the product available with acai's "magical" properties in them. There are tons of products out there like AcaiSupreme and AcaiBurn, but do they actually have an effective amount of the beneficiaries of acai itself? It makes sense that you would want 100% acai juice, or if you can, the pulp of the fruit, but of course, those solutions are pretty expensive for something that you're not sure if it would actually benefit the human body, especially in the case of weight loss (which we're very touchy on). Science shows that the human body actually does absorb and make use of acai's many benefits, but do they actually assist in weight loss to the degree that most people are claiming it does? Detoxification is another good debate. They say that you have tons of toxins in your body that hamper your natural processes, which makes swallowing that detox pill full of herbal goodness so beneficial to your body in cleansing those "harmful toxins." However, medical science dictates that your body already does this detoxification for you: in a slower, but natural method. It also says that unnatural means of detoxification in a rapid manner may cause malaise and other like symptoms (like expelling harmful substances using other means instead of burning fat that contains these substances through exercise). There are also claims that there's a lot of bile in your gastro-intestinal structure that can also hamper the process of losing weight and expelling non-goods... but modern medicine makes sense in that if you were carrying as much as just a pound of poo in your body, you would be in constant pain and bloat. Is detoxification really an appropriate application considering assistance to weight loss? Or is it just a feel-good placebo? Anyone use any of these assisting products for weight loss? Tell us what you use, what your lifestyle is like, and what your results are over a period of time, if you can. I'm sure that everyone here can utilize the information in this thread... by helping debunk or promoting the truths of the matter.

For tax purposes, I am a single person with no dependents, which makes things easy when filing with a 1040A for the annual tax filing in the U.S.I use TaxAct.com, which is completely free (but laden with all those sales pitches for the Deluxe filing option). There are a handful of other free ways to file for your return/payment like TaxSlayer.com, TurboTax Free Edition, and whatever else is out there, and I'm sure it's ideal for people who like to do things for themselves and if their paperwork won't turn out to be horribly complicated (with factors like joint filing, dependents, education credits, self-employment and business ownership, outside assets, etc.). I've been doing it for a few years now and I'm wondering why people (aside from having complicated returns or the factors mentioned above) go to services like H&R Block, Jackson and Hewitt, etc. Do their fees actually pay off in getting a larger return (because people like me would miss little details, like IRA contributions?)? Or is it just a comforting thought to know that someone that KNOWS tax stuff is doing your return?Last year, I got a decent amount that if I had paid $100 for tax filing services, would have been much smaller. Do you think that getting it done that way is worth the price? Or is it still better to do it yourself?

I recommend that anyone looking to pick out a Linux distro take the quiz to see what might suit them. I love "finders," if that's what you call them. It definitely helps when you've got a bajillion choices and want to filter down your selection with key criteria. Major kudos to rvalkass.

Source CNet Article It's completely futuristic... and a reality. I'm actually surprised that no one's mentioned this on Xisto yet. Powermats have been available for a bit now, and I remember them making their debut with the (literal) power mats that you can get to charge your handheld devices. If you watch the video included in the CNet article, you can actually see how amazing this technology is and how adaptive it can be with our high-speed, electronic-ubiquitious lives. I'm sure that we'll be seeing PowerMat'd walls, desktops, and whatnot available to the average consumer in the near future, but I wonder how much it's going to cost? More importantly, will it be economical enough to consider putting into a house by the time I'm able to afford one?

Source From one aspect, it's pretty amazing that you can save your ill-fated laptop from liquid death, but from another standpoint, it's common sense we don't usually think of when it happens. The article states to immediate pull out the battery and disconnect AC power as you tilt the laptop to the side with the most liquid to help drain it off of/from the laptop, take it apart, and clean the computer out (to include drying time) before finally assembling it back together to bring it back to life. What gets me is that they recommend you clean the components with tap water and rinse with distilled (or de-ionized) water... which is kind of a hokey concept at first glance (since we're so used to the idea of keeping water AWAY from our computers), but makes sense if you think about it. Read the comments... and the horror stories. The amount of information about recovering from a disaster like this is valuable in case the situation happens to you. I just recently restored a Dell Inspiron 1501 that my girlfriend consistently and stubbornly kept near a mug of fresh, hot coffee. Needless to say, there was a lot of spillage and one day, after incident #4, the laptop would suffer from irregular and random power downs. After taking the "piece of crap" Dell from her, I opened it up using Dell's awesome repository of laptop disassembly information and wiped down old coffee stains from the aluminum housing and wherever I could without touching the circuitry (since I actually did this before reading the above article). I cleaned out the dust, put everything back together, powered it up, and - yay - I had a 64-bit system in which to test Microsoft's new Windows 7 OS. So if you spill something onto your laptop, just keep in mind that it's NOT always a done deal that your laptop is toast. Try salvaging it. What do you have to lose... a laptop?

So there's a new way to send e-mails to your ex's, prank your friends, or e-threat your enemies anonymously... AKApost gives us that opportunity by allowing this proxy service for free for one registered e-mail address, letting you perform your shenanigans under the stealth of anonymity. Not sure what you would really use this for, but figured I'd share this for you wanna-be stalkers, prankers, and those of you who want to send an e-mail somewhat risk-free. P.S. Don't be me and make your username the same username as you usually use. That username is placed in front of your proxy e-mail, so my rayzoredge@blah.com e-mail will show up as being from username@akapost.com.

Source I think that this new technology would actually make congested city driving much more tolerable in terms of the stress over potential fender-benders and other front-based hazards. Wouldn't work for us New Englanders with the winter driving though... City Safe would not be Winter Safe... not to mention hot-coffee-without-a-lid safe.

I agree with OP that Adobe's applications are bloated beyond comparison. They probably virtually have the monopoly on professional web development, multimedia design, and publishing software, but there's a damn good reason why: the applications are pretty d*mn powerful, however bloated they might be.Along with the advantages of Flash that people have outlined above, you can't view the ActionScript or any source or component code of an SWF document (unless you use Flare or some other third-party program, in which it vomits out all of the code in one humongous mess), whereas anyone can rip your precious JavaScript off of your sites (unless it's contained in a PHP or some other document where it's programmed to output only what's shown and not reveal the inner workings of how it's shown).One problem with Flash, however, is that if you do decide to work with it and go the easy way out with utilizing components and other easy-to-add things, you definitely bloat your own Flash projects, which doesn't make any sense for web application (since viewers of your site will have to wait even longer to load up your Flash apps).

Source So literally, Asus has a "green" notebook. I loved how they described every little environmentally-friendly detail, such as how it will reduce carbon emissions, reduce the amount of waste metal, and how it's stylish and how the bamboo with literally be personalized with your continued usage over time. But there is something that actually caught my eye, which would actually make this unique look and design worth opting for. The feature that I'm raving more about than anything else on this Asus series is the Super Hybrid Engine, reducing power usage with an improvement in efficiency up to 53%... which just revolutionizes mobile computing by a bit more, considering how we grovel over our poor battery life spans. Starting from 35% increased efficiency of power usage notebook-wide, I think it's a good step towards conservation, leading to better battery life, less of a worry of having to look for the nearest outlet, and a lesser energy bill with the cost-of-ownership for this particular notebook. Specs for this laptop aren't too shabby either. Intel duo core support, up to 4GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA 9300 GE video card w/ 256 VRAM is not too bad, considering that you can even play the newer games at lower resolutions without too much stutter. The video chipset also supports HD. It's probably not worth getting right off the back, but with price drops, this might be something worth looking at, if you don't mind the bamboo look.

I thought it was funny that you spelled out the name of the game... if that was your intent. Vista was a huge flop, but I'm sure that Microsoft's other projects are holding up the corporate giant, like the Office suites, other productivity applications, etc. They actually hired a record 11200 in June 2008, so maybe they were a bit ambitious in the hiring department. The cut-backs are from R&D, HR, and other less-vital departments... but it sucks for those affected by the lay-off. Source

LOL @ jhaslipIt's funny that our IT guy JUST disseminated this information down to the company. How is it that I know it before he does... 5 days prior?You wonder why so many people are infected.Read the article that SM provided... it shows you how you are tricked into running the AutoRun executable found on an infected USB stick. Look at the image closely.As far as virus writers go, I believe that there are some that actually experiment with creating virii, but have accidents in releasing it to the public, and you know how that goes. Other virus writers with malicious intents obviously want to live the easy life and feed off of other people's finances... that's why we have so much phishing, spyware, and other malware around. And of course, there are just some sick, demented b-tards out there that find some sort of satisfaction in nuking other PCs. (I personally would find more satisfaction with utilizing a Trojan to nuke a target PC, which, in the grand scheme of things, may be a rather dumb thing to do for vengeance, but if you do much more than just messing around with windows, killing applications, or opening an optical drive, you can potentially ruin someone's day, week, or month. Now how's that for psychological warfare, considering the amount of data and consequently how much of our lives we invest on our personal computers?)Agreement goes with websey... some of these guys have talent, but at the same time, they're wasting that talent with malware when they could be putting that skill to good use working with anti-virus companies, software security, etc.

Link to interesting article and discussion/commentary I've hooked up my laptop to TVs before and for the most part, text is fuzzy and nothing really comes out clearly. But the article I linked above makes sense as to why you would still go for an HDTV as opposed to forking over extra cash for a monitor of the same size... to some extent. There are TVs out there that match or better the response times of similar monitors, and some setups where people have their televisions hooked up to their video game consoles, PCs, AND have them for movies and regular watching seems like a pretty cool gig. It would be kind of neat to be able to have a 30"-42" HDTV to be able to play your games or surf the web using a wireless keyboard and mouse setup and be able to literally kick back and do your work with that much real estate, once you've gotten everything optimally set, of course. The trend I'm seeing with HDTVs, though, is that the resolutions they support are slightly inferior to what video cards can put out, which would be why a PC's output would seem fuzzy with text and whatnot. But I think it could be worth the pros and cons.

I found this awesome, funny, and true. Figured I'd share the ill-mentioned presence that plagues married and hitched guys all over the world. - Source I think it's so true that men are most likely to bite the bullet in order to compromise and keep their relationships going smoothly. (I'm actually doing that right now, but not withholding a purchase of electronics.)

Just wanted to correct you on the fact that the later-generation PS3's do not support backwards-compatibility with PS2 or PSX games anymore, which added to the price drop to make PS3's more consumer-friendly. (Remember when they used to ask for $500 and $600 per console, depending on the 20GB or 40GB variant?) If you wanted one, you should have bit the bullet and forked over the cash in 2007 and 2008, when they still had PS3's with backwards-compatibility using the Emotion engine or emulation software. You might be able to find one on eBay, but good luck with that. Wii's also have "serious" titles too... but I wouldn't blame you by not associating Nintendo with "serious" games. Games like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and what few "serious" titles the Wii has is buried under the Wii Sports giant, Wii Fit, the Mario Bros. games, and all the more-whimsical and kid-like games that the Wii is known for. The XBox 360 is also making headway on having less hardware failures with later-generation consoles. I would still recommend the Elite variant over all else to have confidence in the console's well-being, but I still have my Pro variant, running two years strong. (Before that, I was a victim of the RRoD too... but Microsoft was rather quick with a turnaround repair service on the console: about 2 weeks. It didn't bother me much because I was more of a computer guy then.)

Take into consideration what you plan on using your camera for to save yourself from snagging a very expensive camera and not making the most of it, or getting a bargain and realizing that you short-changed yourself. We can all relate to sheepdog's experiences with dogs... and with kids, too. They only can hold that smile or cute face for so long.Everyone so far has pointed out great factors in choosing a camera. I would like to just stress that you do your research thoroughly... CNet and peer reviews from other sources are very valuable, but just remember to be able to sift through the hogwash and/or the carping.

What Echo was initially talking about was a bug-out bag. The best idea is to pack one with non-perishables and emergency items, preferably in a single backpack that you can just snag and leave immediately in the case of an emergency that warrants your evacuation.There's really not a heck of a lot that makes a bug-out bag necessary anymore... unless you were on the run, or lived in the woods and a bear came in to harass you and you needed to leave for a while, or whatnot. A bug-out bag, depending on how big it is, can last from a day to a few days, for one or more persons.I would just worry about the possible considerations that would be an inconvenience, like having bottled water on hand when running water isn't available anymore, or having a heat source, batteries, candles, or whatever you need in case the power goes out for days (which was an ordeal I actually just went through), a revolution happens, or the war of the worlds occurs. We all usually learn after our first time what we miss, what we need, and what we take for granted when the sh*t hits the fan.

That's going to be an opinion at best. Review all the features of all of the options that are available to you. You can go out with a Wii, play by motion and be off your bum, have access to a library of classic games, but be hampered down by graphical capability, the difficulty of being able to find a Wii at MSRP, and if you're not the sort of person to actually get off the couch and move around to play a video game (or if it just doesn't interest you), it won't work out. You can go out and get an XBox 360, have an enormous selection of games to purchase, utilize the Internet for XBox Live as well as the Marketplace and even download and/or stream Netflix movies, stream media via your home network from your PCs to play on your TV, have amazing graphics as far as next-gen consoles go (complete with HD and digital audio connectivity), and be able to play DVDs on the console, but be downplayed by the fact that it doesn't support BluRay or having the possibility of having a Red Ring of Death (which is less of an issue nowadays). You could go with a PlayStation 3 and get amazing graphics as far as next-gen goes, have free multiplayer over the Internet, utilize a combination of motion and the usual couch-potato play with the SIXAXIS controllers, have the advantage of being able to play DVDs and BluRay discs, and have HD and digital connectivity, yet pay out the wazoo for a console/BR player that doesn't have as much of a valuable game library as the 360 does, not to mention that it doesn't hold as much of a family audience as the Wii does. Personally, I would go for the Elite. They supposedly are designed better internally and have less (if any) of a chance for a "Red Ring of Death" (which is caused by a heat dissipation issue, infamously associated with the first generations of 360's), plus have HDMI support and come with the HDMI cable that you'll need to connect to your HDTV. There are other hardware advantages too, like a motherboard upgrade (Zephyr to Falcon), etc. (I've never heard of an Orange 360, so I can't comment.) Like I said, it's all about what you're looking for. PlayStation 3, in my eyes, is superior because it has some exclusive titles that seem simply awesome (Resistance, Killzone 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, etc.) and it has a BluRay player and free multiplay. Even more cool is the announcement for the support of stereoscopic 3D gameplay and video playback, which means that in the future, you can watch 3D movies and maybe play 3D games on the PS3. However, it is inferior to the 360 because it doesn't have as much of a gaming library available to it as Microsoft's console does (mostly due to the fact that the 360 was released a year earlier than the PS3) and it's expensive. Compared to Nintendo's Wii, it's less easy to pick up and doesn't exactly attract the eyes of a family audience. If you want to compare the graphic capability between consoles, the PS3 truly trumps the Wii, but is comparable with the 360. The slight differences in shading, blooming, and whatnot does not even begin to create a comparable argument against the 360 and PS3 in terms of graphics, but don't tell that to a Microsoft or a Sony fanboy/girl. Just keep in mind that you'll need: * an HDTV with appropriate connnectivity * a sound system with appropriate connectivity * an HDMI cable to connect the console to the HDTV * a digital optical cable to connect the console to a sound system * a surge protector (highly recommended) * any accessories, such as headsets or additional controllers Personally-speaking, I would rather have a table-top version of any steering wheel, but since it has to be a lap version, I would have to say that it's not bad for playing. It depends on how hard the steering wheel resistance is too... I used to play with a Mad Catz steering wheel for the PS2 and that sucker had some resistance to it, which meant that the entire steering device steered a bit off to the sides of my lap at times. If you can, try before you buy. Not sure how many Best Buys or electronics stores will have this available to demo, but if you don't like it, have the receipt handy. (Do your homework too... peer reviews can be nice... and sometimes misleading.) Uh... I'm not too sure about pirating 360 or PS3 discs, which is what it sounds like you're talking about. You can't burn a PC game to play in a console, obviously... but you can burn a 360 or PS3 image onto disc and play it that way. (I don't know how to, nor do I suggest you do it.) Just go out and buy the darn things... if money is no object, might as well, right? As far as "best, most realistic" games go, that's all in a matter of preference. Your friend may be hard to please, considering that there's a Corvette sitting in the garage. (Honestly, I would just look at peer reviews... that's what I'm doing now.) "Best and realistic" might not cut it if the game isn't fun to begin with. So far, games that come to mind for 360 include Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Assassin's Creed, The Orange Box, F.E.A.R., Battlefield: Bad Company, Forza Motorsport, Burnout Paradise, etc. For PS3, I'd look at Resistance, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Killzone 2 (when it comes out). A lot of games came out for multiple ports... look for those too. I'd check out reviews and the common top lists to check out what's out there. The Wii doesn't have a powerhouse of games that look realistic, but there are a ton of fun games out there that compensate for the lack of graphical power with a fun factor you won't get from the PS3 or the 360, like the Rayman: Raving Rabbids games, WarioWare, Super Paper Mario, Super Smash Brawl, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Mario Party 8, etc. Hell, if money is no object, I'd get all three and just have a switchbox to be able to utilize all three consoles. But then again, that's just me.