Wow. I so agree.

When people comment on this stuff and say things like "8GB is ludicrously small" what they really mean is "8GB is ludricously small for me, so everyone who needs only 8BG should stop being content." :)

I am very confused.

Skullfighter, while I think your points, overall, are good ones, it is kind of rediculous to say Microsoft has taken the lead. You may just as well say, "the PS3 is leading in console sales (excluding the Wii and 360)." See what I mean? Still, I think your points are good.

Competition is great! One really neat thing is that is appears the market may be able to support 3 systems. One of the things the Dreamcast had against it was simply the size of the market: it was only big enough to viably support 2 consoles. But 3 consoles duking it out really changes the dynamics!

For a long time I have wondered if Nintendo was planning on a shorter-than-normal console life-span. Just the price alone would help make this an acceptable plan. It seems to me Nintendo's primary goal with the Wii was to get back in the game strong. Release an innovative, inexpensive system. Then how about UPGRADING it after a few years! That would be an interesting route; not replace it with a new system, instead replace it with a significantly upgraded Wii. Hmmm...

Also keep in mind by 2010, the Wii and PS3 will be 4 years old, the 360 5 yrs. Far from new by then.

I had a very similar and yet drastically different experience with police in Santa Barbara, California. It was late one night and I was walking around with a pellet rifle. Very understandibly, someone called the police ("someone is walking around my neighborhood with a gun!") Suddenly police cars were surrounding me and here is where I got super stupid. I began APPROACHING the first police car with my rifle! I was thinking, "oh they want the rifle, I better give it to them immediately." The officer jumped out of his car, pulling his gun, and demanding, "drop your weapon!" I realized what I was doing appeared VERY VERY BAD, stopped, and proceeded to do exactly what they said ("on the ground, hands behind you, etc.). Considering the circumstances, it would have been reasonable for the officer to have shot me.

My point is, thank God it was not law enforcement like those in this story! Undoubtably, I would have been shot many times, very dead. But I was not even arrested! They listened to my pitiful explanation and apology, affirmed my stupidity, warned me, and even let me keep my pellet rifle! Talk about insanely different experiences with law enforcement. Wow.

Nitin, actually YOU can do absolutely nothing on it (since it is not YOURS)! :)

Many of you miss the point here: it is a hobby! This guy obviously enjoys it and is good at it and that is what matters. It also happens to be a hobby that this guy learns and uses some pretty impressive skills that can be applied to other "useful" applications. The only thing your judgment-of-irrelevancy means is that you should have simply skipped the story and moved on to something that interests you.

Everyone, it is just the bulb that is getting really hot. Obviously hot enough to be a hazard (primarily to the person holding it) but the actual light coming from the bulb is only enough to mildly warm sufaces up. This is similar to how an ordinary household light bulb can start a fire if it is touching the wrong materials at the wrong time.

However, this is still an insane flashlight (assuming 4100 lumens is for real).

Yeah, that L1 Lumamax is one very awesome flashlight.

Actually the explanation as to how this light ignites these materials is much simpler. It does NOT have to do with the heat produced when light hits surfaces. It has to do with the heat that is a generated in order to produce the light. Basically, an incandescent light bulb works by heating up a little piece of metal so hot that it glows very bright. Really, the light is the by-product. You can tell by how close they are holding the light to the materials that they are simply using the heat of the bulb. The same way an ordinary 100 watt household light bulb can start a fire.

Still, 4100 lumens is a crazy amount of light for a flashlight, just not nearly enough to IGNITE anything.