The rumor HardOCP is hearing today is that BFG is going RED! "Totally unconfirmed, but given the history I have heard over the last few years...yes years...this does not sound implausible. I am waiting for a response from BFG's CEO, but none is forthcoming."

Link 

Make sure to check out the comments section.

"BFG will no longer be operating in the European region. I can confirm that 100% now. Warranties will be totally unaffected but you will not be able to purchase a card any longer." -- Slackworth, an OCUK employee

 Thread here: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18088628

My complaints about iPod/iPhone:

1. iTunes.  You MUST use it to transfer files to and from your device.  I should be able to see my device as a drive letter and be able to drag files over to it.  Also, iTunes is very slow and clunky.  It doesn't matter what computer I'm using and how fast that computer is, iTunes just seems to hang for long periods at a time.  You also have to be careful about having iTunes installed on different computers because moving files to and from an iPod or iPhone is done by synchronizing in iTunes.  If some files are on one computer and not another, you could actually wipe files off of your iTunes or iPod when you go to do a synch.

2.  The iPod doesn't have a microphone.  This is particularly annoying on the iPod touch.  The Touch can use all the same programs as an iPhone, as it's essentially an iPhone without a phone, but because there is no microphone, you can't use certain applications that utilize voice recognition and you can do voice recording.  Get with it Apple.  Zune HD has a mic.  Even Creative Zen has a mic.

3.  Titles of movies and songs don't scroll.  This is true even with the Touch and iPhone and is amazingly frustrating.  So if I have something with a long title... say an MP3 with the artist name and song title or a TV program that has the season number, episode number, show name and episode name in the title... you can only read the first few characters of this title if it's longer than what the iPod or iPhone screen allows for.  Dumb. 

4.  Inability to multi-task.  There's no pausing a game on your iPod Touch or iPhone so you can read an email or check on your stocks.  Once you leave that game, you have to restart it when you fire it back up again.

5.  Battery life is horrible.  Of course, this is a relative thing and the battery in an iPod and iPhone are quite small.  Regardless, I feel this is still something that Apple should address.  The fact that the battery can't be (easily) accessed and replaced only doubles this problem.  With other companies' phones and MP3 players, spare batteries can be swapped out if need be when you're running out of juice.

6.  There's no stop.  Only pause.  It sounds like a silly complaint, and on the surface it doesn't sound like a big deal.  But use an iPod or iPhone for a while and you start to wonder why they didn't put a stop button that allows you to stop playing a song or a video and either replay that file or go back to browse for another. 

7.  There's flaky WiFi on the Touch and iPhone. I'm not sure why, but if the device is allowed to fade to a black screen, I will lose my WiFi connection and it takes it forever to make the connection again.

8.  Lack of non-proprietary connector.  I know WHY the iPod has a proprietary connector.  It's because you can actually control an iPod or iPhone through it's interface.  Simple signals through the multi-pin connector can control track navigation, volume, etc.  There's even a video output pin.  But this is no excuse for a complete lack of a standard connector like a mini-USB.  Charging the iPod or iPhone is impossible without having an expensive, proprietary iPod cable.

9.  Spell check.  Yes.  Spell check on the iPod Touch and iPhone will drive you mad.  Unlike most phones that give you spelling correction suggestions, Apple just automatically assumes you're a crappy speller and changes words for you on the fly.  You have to tell it NOT to change words for you as you type, which I feel is completely backwards behavior.  Let me keep typing.  If I want to change the spelling of something I think I might have spelled wrong, I'll tell you.

Yesterday morning I had a hell of a time getting my garage door shut.  Once opened, the automatic garage door wouldn't close.  The light on the motor kept blinking as if there was something blocking the door.  I checked the beam and lubed the chain, rails, wheels and hinges.  Still, the door would not roll down.  I released the chain and pulled the door down manually and it went down without a hitch.

Last night, I went home and my wife had managed to get the garage door down automatically.  I opened the door, then reclosed it myself and, sure enough, the door went down just like it should have.  Weird.  Works perfectly now while in the morning I couldn't get it down to save my own life.

I told my story to a co-worker and he showed me this article on Fudzilla about a guy who has two GTX 295 graphics cards and how his garage door opener remote doesn't work when his computer's on.  Now, I wasn't trying to use the remote to close my garage door, but I find the irony humorous that this article came out the very next day after fighting with my own garage door.

Apparetly, the Circuit City brand and trademarks will go up for auction so other companies will have an opportunity to counter Systemax's 6.5 million dollar bid.  As far as I'm concerned, Systemax has it.  I mean, I can't even understand how it's worth 6.5 million, never mind more.

AP Sotry:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5irmWZmMlki7isG4T9NmoHzSlAMJwD97IAR980

This news just blew me away!  6.5 MILLION bucks?!?!

Systemax isn't buying the chain, because the chain is now long dead.  No, Systemax is buying the brand.  What does that mean?  Well, that means Systemax can run an eCommerce site as Circuit City.  I imagine this will work in very much the same way the new CompUSA website works:   A re-skinned version of the TigerDirect website.  It's not a bad idea, especially if Systemax gets the database of existing customers from the Circuit City website.  But who came up with the 6.5 million dollar price tag?  I mean.. who's job was it to put a monetary value on the Circuit City brand?

Press release can be found here:  http://syx.client.shareholder.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=376853

Fans of jonnyGURU.com are familiar with this label:

You know it's a Cooler Master when "as sealed stick was removed, lost or damaged, it shall be out of warranty validity".

I came across a new one.  Not as wordy... but still good.

Marketing works completely differently in Japan.

From Akiba Keizai Shimbun

Antecco, Antec's "mascot" in Japan, is a 14 year old girl, just under 5' tall, that enjoys surfing and listening to death metal.  Those are cooling fans in her hair and, yes, the TPQ 850 in her right hand has spikes so it can be used as a flail.  Why not?

A couple weeks ago, prices on Asus Eee PC's dropped $50 to $100 at MSRP.  Yesterday, Asus dropped their prices AGAIN!

Below is a spreadsheet showing pricing for 901 and 1000 as of Monday:

Also, Asus will be releasing their 160GB 1000's on October 7th:

But that's ok.  I've learned from my mistakes, recovered using the recovery partition and now my 900 is better than ever.

It turns out that if you change your sources.list to retrieve packages from the 701 repository, you can't properly do updates that actually pertain to the 900.  My Eee was still running, but some how the file that stored my password got corrupted and I couldn't back in to remove or replace my login password.  So I've learned to change the repository listings back and forth accordingly by editing "/etc/apt/sources.list".  Since, I've added a start button to Easy Mode and have gotten a little more daring at editing configuration files.

Just a word of warning before you run out and buy a Linux based Eee PC:  You need to be willing to hack to get the PC just the way you want it.  And you also have to be willing to fail and learn from your mistakes.  If you don't think you'll have fun working with it, you should consider a regular notebook with Windows Vista.