VetleNM

" Everything we do as individuals effects society as a whole. Having ugly tattoos effects society, it bothers a lot of people. Smoking cigarettes effects society, people hate the smell. Drinking alcohol effects society. Taking antidepressants effects society, they change how people act.    And no, gay rights is not any different. Don't kid yourself. This is the same fight that's been going for a very long time: Do we allow individuals to live the lives they choose or should the government choose how people live? You are asking me where I would draw the line? I wanted to ask you that. Literally everything that we do effects society as a whole.   Should we outlaw driving vehicles, since they can easily cause death? Should we outlaw unhealthy food, since it makes health care costs increase? Should we outlaw cigarettes, since they are bad for you? Should we outlaw video games, since they are a distraction that can cause grades to drop? Should we outlaw television, since it causes us to be less productive? Should we outlaw alcohol, since it can cause reckless behavior?  Seriously, what could possibly be going through people's heads like yours? Do you really want to outlaw anything that may effect 'society' as a whole? You know what would make this easier? Just tell me exactly what you think the criterion should be for something to be outlawed? We'll see what kind fucked up conclusions that would entail.  "

Alright, maybe I'm not very good at explaining my views. I'll try again:

The difference between gay rights and cannabis legalization is that using cannabis is a choice; being gay is not. That's why gay rights are a no brainer, while cannabis legalization is something one can discuss.

Cigarette smoke is bad for you and probably should have been banned a long time ago. It constitutes an ENORMOUS cost to society, and is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the world, according to WHO. Of course, since so many people are addicted to them, we can't ban them outright, but we can (and should! and do!) work to reduce the incidence of smoking, because the rewards of doing so are so huge. Alcohol is also a huge problem for our society, and we can (and should! and do!) try to reduce the abuse of alcohol by various measures. Same when it comes to unhealthy food. Vehicles are another category altogether. The benefits of using vehicles far outweighs any downsides in the form of accidents and so on. Of course, we should (and do) work to reduce the dangers of driving, by for example having speed limits, laws against not using seatbelts and so on. Or are you against them as well?

I guess we have just very opposite views on how society can function. If you think all drugs should be legal, well, I don't even know what to say. I think it's really naive to think that that would work out in the end, but hey, I may be wrong. (EDIT: Just realized that was @ape_dosmil's reply and not yours. Sorry. I'm not trying to put words into your mouth.)

I mean, people are really responsible when it comes to drinking alcohol, right?

" @VetleNM said:

"Dude, gay rights and pot legalization are two entirely different subjects and can't be compared like that, I hope you get why. Besides, pot legalization is something that goes beyond individual freedom; it's something that effects the society as a whole. That's why it can (and, in my opinion, should) be mandated by law. Are you also for legalizing heavier drugs, such as, for example, heroin? What about ecstasy? Where would you draw the line?"

MDMA (ecstasy) is one of the least harmful drugs available. It is far less harmful than heroin, crack, tobacco, alcohol, even cannabis. This issue is 100% about individual freedom. Do you believe in individual freedom or not? Apparently not. "

Yeah, I am well aware of the studies that show the relative risks of the various drugs. The problem is where you draw the line when it comes to legalizing other drugs. If cannabis is legalized, surely ecstasy should follow? And then what about LSD? Khat? I think it's a slippery slope, and that's one of the reasons why I'm strongly against legalizing any new drugs. We have more than enough problems with the drugs that are already legal, namely alcohol and tobacco, and should try to control those issues before introducing any new ones.

And once again, the way I see it, this isn't really an issue of individual freedom. It seems I probably believe less in individual freedom than most of you in here, but I do believe a person should be able to do whatever he or she pleases, as long as it doesn't impact anyone else or the society as a whole. I think pot legalization would lead to more problems than good for the society for a number of reasons, one of them as described in the paragraph above, and I strongly believe that we should at the very least wait for better and more definitive studies regarding the long term effects of cannabis before making a decision like this.

" @natetodamax said:

" @lilburtonboy7489 said:

" @natetodamax said:

" @lilburtonboy7489 said:

" Idiots in this thread remind me of why democracy is so terrible. I don't like something, therefore, it should be illegal. Leave people the fuck alone.  "

How about you try respecting other people's opinions? Jesus christ. "

Ha, that's hilarious coming from the person who wants to make something illegal due to himself not liking it. How about you respect people's opinions by letting people make their own choices rather than trying to criminalize things they want. Idiot.  "

It is my opinion that it should be illegal. I'm sorry my views on the world don't perfectly align with yours. You have no reason to call people idiots just because they don't think you should be able to smoke your fucking marijuana. "

I do have a reason to call people like you idiots. Just like I call people idiots who vote against gay right because they don't like homosexuality. It's not like we have equal opinions here. Your opinion is that your beliefs should be mandated by law. That's fucked up. And I don't know why people think that everyone passionate about legalizing pot smoke it themselves. I don't. And stoners already get as much pot as they want. It's easier to get in high school than alcohol. "

Dude, gay rights and pot legalization are two entirely different subjects and can't be compared like that, I hope you get why. Besides, pot legalization is something that goes beyond individual freedom; it's something that effects the society as a whole. That's why it can (and, in my opinion, should) be mandated by law. Are you also for legalizing heavier drugs, such as, for example, heroin? What about ecstasy? Where would you draw the line?

Fully support marijuana for medical use, but I'm against its use as a drug. It should be classified as a low-risk drug by all means, but I don't think legalizing it (because alcohol is more dangerous, for example) is the right path to take. I'd rather raise the taxes and become more strict regarding alcohol rather than legalizing another drug.

My old wreck of a car has nowhere near the performance of  the supercars I can drive in this game... and I can't drive at 300 km/h in real life anyway, without losing my license and probably my life. :P

After playing a crapload of Forza 3, I can't wait for this to come out. Finally! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a worldwide release before Christmas.

I find many of the so called 'mature' games (such as Gears of War, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, etc) are really childish. Nothing wrong with that of course, but they are really, really immature.

I think the Wii has by far the best games of this generation, and SD graphics on my HDTV doesn't bother me one bit.

I think the old Xbox 360 looked a lot better, design wise, than the 360 S, even though the 360 S is a far superior product because of noise reduction.

I found Mass Effect 2 to be vastly superior to Mass Effect 1.

The Xbox 360 controller is superior to the DualShock 3 in every conceivable way.

And although Super Meat Boy was a fun distraction, all I really got from that game was that I hate so-called 'hardcore' games with a frustrating difficulty, and that I really like the trend of games becoming more streamlined and easier experiences.

" @Gap said:

" Late to the party as always Sony. "

Its fake. Was disprove all ready.  
 

@MattBodega

said:

" @umdesch4: Good to know! That is a valid response to the question. "

Its fake dude. Look at the  grim around the edges. And another photo of it shows a " Press A " button and "Press B" button.  "

Engadget keep insisting that their sources are trustworthy, and Engadget is pretty credible when it comes to stuff like this. If they say it's real, I'm willing to believe it until proven otherwise. The A and B button on the software don't really mean anything, they could just be placeholders. The grime around the screen could mean that they were hand assembled in an unclean environment (you know, for testing purposes only; if this is the prototype, it was certainly not intended to reach the public's eye). I wouldn't call this one disproved yet.

And besides, like Kessler said, the fact that Sony went from "those images are fake!" to "we do not comment on rumors and speculation" is rather telling, even if it's definitely not any definitive proof.

But personally, I really don't see the appeal here. I guess I'll wait and see if it turns out to be a real product. If it is, then it all comes down to the games. And the price.

I almost exclusively use my 10.1 inch netbook, which has all the features I need to be comfortable. It's almost always with me, and it's powerful enough to do the tasks I need it to do (the web, taking notes, watching SD video, playing retro games...).

I also have my desktop computer hooked up to the TV in the living room, but it's mainly a media center and not really anything else. Not a huge fan of the computer as a gaming platform, although I do play some Starcraft II and Civilization V from time to time...

" I honestly don't get why geeks hate iTunes so much. There is literally almost nothing wrong with it. It plays music fine, it has great MP3 player support and if you do choose to download torrented music, it loads to iTunes fine. "

It's the same reason why geeks often dislike using office suites (MS Office, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc) for text editing, for example. They introduce so much bloat and what geeks (and indeed, I would think, most people) consider "unnecessary" features that it drastically impacts their performance when all they really want is to make a decent looking document.

I only use iTunes on my Windows PC when I absolutely need to (for instance, when I have to update my iPhone). I find it to be a bloated piece of crap that runs like shit, especially in Windows. Oh, and the updater tries to push Safari and Quicktime on me as well, so I've disabled any form of automatic updating. In my eyes, iTunes is the absolutely worst piece of software I have installed on my Windows PC. On my netbook with Ubuntu, I don't use any music management programs (though I do have Rythmbox installed just in case, but it doesn't seem to be any better than iTunes, so...).

For my music, I just use Spotify. It's free! It's lightweight! It's fantastic.