October 30, 2004
WE NOW DECLARE CIVILIZATION OVER
It is the must-have Christmas gift you can't have (Claire Smith, The Scotsman, October 30th, 2004)
It has been heralded as the "Game Boy for grown-ups" - a must-have gadget that offers a pixilated paradise for gaming addicts, downloads music and even plays movies.Tens of thousands of adults and children are waiting for the arrival of the PlayStation Portable - known as the PSP - in the UK. But it emerged yesterday that the gizmo will not be available in time for Christmas after its manufacturer Sony effectively blocked the import of the machines to Britain following their release in Japan on 12 December. [...]
Retailing at just £100 - an unexpectedly low price - the PSP was certain to be the big Christmas hit in the UK had Sony delivered it to the market in time. Teenagers, the so-called Generation X-box, are a lucrative market but with the average age of a Playstation owner now 28, the adult market is key.
It really isn’t worth getting up some days.
Posted by Peter Burnet at October 30, 2004 6:19 AMComputer games, like lots of other vices, are great fun in moderation. For example, I finally upgraded my computer so that I can run Grand Theft Auto: Vice City reasonably well. It's a powerfully addictive game, but I don't let it interfere with my responsibilities (I'm at work on a Saturday fer cryin' out loud and I'm going home to shovel pig sh*t) or my more useful hobbies, like reading or playing the guitar. So, while I won't own one, I don't see where adults playing a PSP heralds the end times any more playing Solitaire does. Now that I think of it, the rise of the Sony Walkman in the early 1980's was used by the usual society crybabies to demonstrate that our society was collapsing. Hasn't yet, has it? It's funny how you and Paul Ehrlich make the same dour predictions about the death of civilization with the same wrong results.
Posted by: Governor Breck at October 30, 2004 9:43 AMGovernor:
I am mightily offended you would compare me to Paul Ehrlich. While he is forever predicting the collapse of civilization through drought, starvation and barbarian invasions, I hold that it has already collapsed with the arrival of cellphones. We can either step outside to settle this or resolve it with a match of Diddy Kong Racing.
Posted by: Peter B at October 30, 2004 10:02 AMAccept no substitutes. You apprehend criminals by smashing your car into theirs. Along the way you sideswipe other vehicles and run over lamp posts, flower pots and stop signs, sending them flying like ninepins.
The seat bucks like a bronco and collisions are felt with a satisfying crunch.
Posted by: Eugene S. at October 30, 2004 10:06 AMConservatives are always griping about how everything is no longer like it was when the previous generation of conservatives were griping about how everything is no longer like it was when...
You get the picture.
Posted by: Brandon at October 30, 2004 10:11 AMBrandon:
Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.
Ambrose Bierce
Posted by: Peter B at October 30, 2004 10:21 AMBierce also defined "radicalism" as (roughly speaking; I'm going from memory here) as "the conservatism of tomorrow injected into the affairs of today." THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY contains some of the best aphorisms coined in the 20th Century - many of its one-liners are truer than most people would like to admit.
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at October 30, 2004 4:42 PM