My experience with Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been mixed.  The first few times I tried to run the PC version it crashed to the desktop everytime I died  the first mission.  Then, suddenly, it started working perfectly without any intervention on my part.  Now, just as suddenly, the game has gone dead again.

The best utilities do a useful job, simply. They are nearly transparent; you barely know they are there. Quietly, elegantly, they push ahead of you as you work, making the load lighter. Fences, by Stardock, does its job just this way and is one of my favorite programs I use every day.

Last week I wrote about how Steam's outage killed my plans for an afternoon of gaming.  Today, Joystiq reports that Ubisoft's DRM authentication server went down under the strain of users looking to play and killed the weekend plans of countless gamers.

Over and over, users are reminded that legitimate purchasers of games are often punished by the very programs  they supported because of DRM gone amuck.

It isn't just games either, that are hurt when corporations treat their customers as the enemy.  This week my iPhone crashed.  I called into Apple and was told that I didn't have Apple Care, but I did. I even had the receipt.

From Korea, via the Telegraph, comes this horrible story of gaming gone wrong: a couple so addicted to their on-line life that they neglected their infant.  The truth is that when I worked as an attorney in Family Court I regularly ran into parents who had "ignored" their responsibilities as parents, often to the point of injury or death.  Usually it was crack, sometimes a new lover.   In every tragic case there was a "reason"; though I suspect the "reason" was only the catalyst.  The seeds of abuse and neglect are deeper than the particular vehicle the addict uses to plunge off the cliff.

Even as Steve Ballmer was talking up Cloud Computing today, I fell victim to it.  All I wanted to do was play a little Modern Warfare 2 to blow off a little steam.  Unfortunately, Steam seems to have been down all afternoon.  Their community sections says that they are down for maintenance...but should their janitorial services keep me from playing a game I "own"?

Skinput: resolving the location of finger taps on the arm and hand by analyzing mechanical vibrations that propagate through the body.

This story got my brain moving in all the wrong directions today.

Though the result of research at Microsoft, could this be the future for Palm?

If I let you dial for me, does it mean you press all my buttons the right way?

While I can't tell you (yet) about the coolest, biggest new Star Wars toy that is coming to the 2010 Toy Fair, I'm happy to show you the flying Millenium Falcon that will be hovering about your living room later this year!

Unlike last year's Star Trek flying toys (that didn't really fly) this one looks like it might be air worthy, using the same large fan that powers many 'copter toys.

There is still much to know, much to evaluate, but here is to Apple for thinking dynamically, creatively and outside the box.  Yes, there will be competitors, imitation.  But, they have such a firm grip on the future we want to live in, such an ability to transfer our sci-fi dreams into the present tense, that they inspire admiration.

I appeared on Doctor Radio (Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 114 or XM Radio Channel 119) on December 11, 2009 talking about video games for the holiday season.

Eye-Fi wireless SD cards for your camera are my favorites for all around use because they allow auto-upload to the web while I'm on the road. Google is selling the $70 version of the card for $50.  The catch is that the deal comes with a 200GB of storage online included in the price.  It is a good deal even if you don't want the subscription.  Sign up and then set the subscription to not renew.  You're still getting a bargain on the chip.   Note: this card doesn't handle RAW images...there is a new, more expensive pro version that does. But, if you're shooting jpgs this is a real bargain.