Monte Carlo

I think it's interesting that my post triggered some WTF-style challenges and hostility. Note that there is no judgement or criticism of Islam. I respect all of the great world religions, even though I am not a believer myself. Put simply, though, Islam is a political religion in a way that Christianity is no longer. Of course Christianity is political, has political views and a political dimension, but in the West it is acknowledged that it is an adjunct to democracy not an integral part of the machine. That isn't to say that it is axiomatic that any government in an Islamic country will be a theocracy, just that (as in Turkey) it will be a dimension more acute than in Western Europe. As for Zoraptor, I have to defer to what is presumably your superior knowledge of the Ottoman Empire, turn-of-the-century Levantine politics, Islamic jurisprudence and the inner workings of the Turkish army.

Limiting choice and recycling assets then selling them as 'innovations' are all part of the EmoWare USP!

:: shrugs :: I liked the first one, I like the campy, uber-macho WH40K setting, I like RTS games. I hated the new Warcraft when it came out, though. I'm fairly conservative about games, I like genres to have certain features as a given. In a RTS an element of resource management is one of them.

^ Yes, I agree an academic Kindle-type device with a browser format for reference must be only a matter of time.

You don't need them, but some of us like them. Is there a DOW2 demo I can try out before I buy?

At the end of the day Israel had two Muslim 'allies' left, and I use the word allies in a regional context - i.e. not actively plotting against her. They were Egypt and Turkey. Turkey got the AK party and Attaturk's secular dream is dead. Then you had the flotilla. So that's Turkey out. Now I agree the MB is a bogeyman, a turnip ghost, but even moderate Arab states are antipathetic to Israel. It's the way it is. Imagine (and I'm being optimistic) that you get a reasonably moderate government where the extent of religious influence is analagous to the AK party in Turkey. That's another tick in the 'Not Very Favourable to Israel' column. What does Israel have to do? Er, spend squillions on restructuring her military and re-defending her Western borders. Israel's numerous enemies are emboldened. And so on. Of course, it doesn't mean that Egyptians must suffer the ignominy of a totalitarian state just so international policy analysts can sleep safely in their beds at night, but in reality that's where we were with Mubarak. As for the Islam / Democracy argument, well hyperoble rules the roost on both sides. But for a Muslim the secular and the divine are indivisible. The Koran is as much a political as religious tract. I've said it before on this forum, the 'Render unto God what is God's and Caesar what is Caesar's' moment never happened in Islam. This isn't pejorative, this is simply the truth. Try and look at it through Muslim eyes, the idea that religion has to have some sort of influence or say in political discourse. Turkey is a relatively stable, democratic country. It has internal tensions that flow from a religious dimension in it's politics. This is probably the best we can hope for in Egypt.

This is the sort of thing I'm talking about, stuff I hadn't thought of. Educationally, the Kindle is revolutionary. In developing countries, for example, you will be able to provide students with a library's worth of books without having to actually build a library and store thousands of copies. I will mourn the passing of the book, personally, then again I'm sure in the 1500s monks mourned the passing of illuminated script.

The problem with Utopians of any stripe or political hue is that they are all, quintessentially, authoritarian. So I say No.

Although I agree with Kaftan that the Kindle is an inferior product to a tablet, the fact is that it is cheap, effective and appealing to non-technically minded early adopters. The people I know who are buying into Kindle are the type of folks who would be unlikely to buy into a relatively complex piece of technology like an ipad. Especially older people. It will get cheaper, more feature-driven and hopefully more aesthetically pleasing. I like the pager v cellphone line, but I think it still misses the point. The popular appeal of this device, along with clever marketing and its ease-of-use means it is a game-changer for the world of books and publishing.

I think you've missed the point. In a couple of years the Kindle will be extremely cheap. ipads etc will not.

A colleague has bought a Kindle. I was playing with it yesterday. Although it's ugly and I don't like the look or feel of it, it is a credible piece of technology. I can absolutely see the benefits of it, for example travelling or commuting sans books is quite appealing. So is the book destined to die, or simply become a niche, prestige item no longer mass-produced (not yet, but in a generation)? What does it mean for publishing as an industry, as a generation who don't see why they need to pay for anything much in terms of entertainment media comes of age? Discuss.

Relic is closing the Company of Heroes Online beta on March 31st. The announcement was cryptic, but it was obvious that they weren't making money, and it's a notoriously tough game to get into as a n00b in competitive play. I'd sunk about

Am thinking of picking up Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising. Any thoughts from RTS fans here?

Monte Carlo approves of this message. I am looking forward to this movie, which looks like it was fashioned from a large block of 22 carat win.

So, what you are saying is that now is the time to invest in hunting rifles, tinned goods and wind-up radios?

Not analogous, but still close enough to be funny in light of your previous statement. I hope the time you fell off wasn't one of the times you'd driven it. No, I was completely sober when I drove it. We displayed it at a show when they were first issued, and it was on a static display after hours. We had a few beers and decided to climb on top of it to see who could get up there fastest. Not a good idea.

By the way, I've driven one of those (and fallen off the top of one having had too much to drink). It's a big metal box on wheels, drives like a skip, the centre of gravity is too high so you wouldn't want to corner too fast in one.

Yeah: (for those lacking appreciation of advanced sarcasm, that's a Saxon APC on patrol in Northern Ireland). That was quite witty, but not analagous. I'd say that Cairo a week ago was more peaceful than West Belfast circa 1984.

^ Absolutely, more power to them. No doubt people will think it's a CIA plot, but they would, wouldn't they? As for the Muslim Brotherhood, of course the risk is you replace one type of tyranny for another but there's nothing to say that the MB has the necessary traction to take as much advantage of this as it might like.

Hey, how about Bioware hiding a decent CRPG inside DA2 as an Easter Egg?

Why do despotic regimes in 'developing' countries always use armoured personnel carriers in public order situations? OK, the obvious answer is because (a) it's a despotic regime and (b) a big tracked vehicle bristling with weapons is really scary and © in most of these places the point where the military ends and the police begins is a little blurred. Anyway, on the front page of the Times is a burning APC, my long-forgotten AFV recognition skillz do not allow me to identify it (except that it looks like it came from an early game of Command and Conquer) but of course it's on fire. Slowly moving tracked vehicles are not optimal against crowds, and let's face it the Egyptian army is unlikely to use the rockets and minigun option on crowds just yet. So why? It's like bringing a baseball bat to a round of golf. These countries need horses and dogs and water cannon. More effective, cheaper, and looks more civilized on the evening news.

Being a gamer is a state of mind. How many games you buy is a bogus metric.

I think you need a haircut.

LOL, I think there was another power failure in magical Volo's lair causing him to cut himself on his tinfoil Tron costume.

Read my post again. You must have sucked at comprehension.