The reason you have to have an approved CableCard PC isn't because the cable operators are jerks. It is because the content providers (ABC, NBC, HBO, other 3-letter acronyms) won't allow them to send out their copyrighted shows to someone who might be able to strip the CA or recorded it digitally after descrambling. The cable operators are really at the mercy of the content providers for most of the hassles we bitch about like this. Now crappy service and ignorant techs ... well, that's their own fault.

Ok, pre-emptive strike. I meant the lines on the background look like an inversion. The offset ("ghosted") lines around the girl are obviously due to tearing during motion, something you can't avoid with interlacing. But I assumed the backgound was fairly static.

Or it could be that it's just a bug that certain games (in certain scenarios) expose. The picture kinda looks like a scanline inversion to me, something I have seen in the past in video devices I have worked on. In all cases, it was something that would only occur in the right circumstances and in all cases it was a software bug.

Wow, Josh. Finally putting that journalism degree to good use, huh? Although it does read a bit like the Book of Genesis:
In the beginning, the world was dark --- blue, as in BSOD. Then Jobs said "let there be Mac". And the PowerBook begat the MacBook, and the MacBook begat the MacBook Pro, and the MacBook Pro begat the MacBook Air, and the MacBooks Air and Pro got it on and begat the New MacBook Pro, and then everyone got really freaking full of themselves and decided that what in any other company would have been a normal product upgrade cycle worthy of a single mention on Engadget should be worthy of hyperventilation and prose like this.

It's not a typo. Notice he says "in November" it will be $199 ... which is worth $340 today. It's called deflation. :-p

Maybe I'm an atypical American, but this laptop is a bit large for my lap. Maybe "sofa" top is more appropriate. Or "desk" top .... wait ...

Wow. That has to be the first reference to Ghostbusters 2 that I have ever heard. Now if I can just hear a quote from Police Academy 7, my life will be complete.

I'm not sure I'd like a nav that keeps calling me Michael.

I just like that they call themselves "Agents." I think they're taking this Chuck show a little too seriously.

So you have a choice between a "one of a kind" design ... or a custom design ...

errr .... so does that mean the custom designs aren't "one of a kind", or does it mean they have a giant database of "one of a kind" drawings and they only use each once?