TrueGentleman

As all good Praetorian citizens know, the BAF is "where the unfortunate citizens who have succumbed to the effects of the Hamidon Spore are treated". If the Resistance is plotting to break out these DE-infested patients, then clearly the fanatical Calvin Scott is in league with the ever-lurking Hamidon. Is there no treachery he will not stoop to in his obsessed vendetta against Emperor Cole?

The PC chatter is a bit of a mixed bag...

Yes, a Radeon 4870.

See Steampunkette's PEAT proposal.

I immediately thought of Alan Moore's variation on Captain Britain, Captain Airstrip 1, particularly since Hero 1 distinctly resembles another version of Captain Britain.

True, he (apparently) did save the world. Now who will save the world from him?

Meanwhile I've come up with my most paranoid interpretation of events: Emperor Cole and Praetorian Hamidon have reached a truce in which Tyrant gets Praetoria and Hami gets the outside wasteland. All Tyrant asks is that Hami occasionally wave a few tentacles to keep the citizens properly terrified.

I'm no more suggesting you're a loyalist than you were calling me a nay-sayer. The GR threads on the topic of Praetorian politics are filled with both, so a pre-emptive strike seemed in order.

But by all means, return to your rubbing it in.

At what point did the ash ring get broken - and who broke it - so that the MiB could use it as well? That's a rather crucial plot detail to omit entirely if your hypothesis is correct. Ben took care not to disturb it when he led Locke there in "The Man Behind the Curtain", but it was broken when Ilana visited in "The Incident". On the other hand, as you pointed out, Ilana went there in search of Jacob and explicitly said that he wasn't there and hadn't been using it for a while. Since she'd actually encountered him face to face, unlike Ben, she'd be harder for the MiB to fool like he did Locke. On yet another hand, the ash circle and the cabin aren't always linked - Hurley encountered the cabin without the circle in "The Beginning of the End", and Locke found the circle without the cabin when he searched for it in "The Economist".

I'm going to have to reconsider the whole cabin motif at this rate.

Rereading Noble Savage's post, I take it to be a confirmation that Primal Hamidon is the one menacing Ouroboros - which is a better fit in the lore - and that Praetorian Hamidon is closer to that version (whenever it takes place). One scenario would be that Primal Hamidon takes X years to catch up to an evolutionary stage similar to the Praetorian version's current one. Time will tell...

Loyalists shouldn't start patting themselves on the back just yet. One screenshot of a single tentacle doesn't make for an open-and-shut case in favor of Emperor Cole's regime.

Tyrant's official bio clearly states that he was able to "contain" their Hamidon and that the "Devouring Earth threat {has} ended". Either that account needs to be qualified, or his propaganda department has some explaining to do. Noble Savage admits Praetorian Hamidon is "poorly understood", at least by the general population, and that goes for the players, too. From what we know currently, Praetorian Hamidon may be more of a direct threat to Ouroboros.

In any case, I look forward to more information in upcoming issues.

At the very least, your screenshot is better than a (purported) photo of Emmanuel Goldstein for the Two-Minutes Hate.

"We have always been at war with the Hamidon."

Although we now have some kind of dev confirmation that the alternate Hamidon isn't just a tentacular bogeyman, the phrase "seen only from a distance and poorly understood" precludes unquestioning acceptance of the regime's party line about the DE threat. As usual in Praetoria, there's a lot going on behind the scenes. It will take a great deal of further investigation to find out what.

My own reaction is that Emperor Cole has lost a huge opportunity to recruit heroes from Praetorian and Primal Earth for goldside Hami raids to keep this version in check, but then, running a dictatorship takes up all his time.

I can buy the cabin as a prison for the MiB with its ash ring, but since the Smoke Monster had more or less free run of the Island outside the sonic barriers and could take the (corporeal) form of Christian Shepherd, etc., what kind of half-baked jail was it? The only thing I can think of is that it prevented the MiB from enjoying extended periods of time in corporeal form since that's the chief difference between MiB-as-Christian Shepherd and Smock. (Also, Ben didn't seem to be aware of the existence of the MiB since Smock had to inform him that he, although the Smoke Monster, is a who, not a what.)

And that encapsulates my dissatisfaction with the reveal of the flashsideways arc. It's not as bad as the once-popular theories of the Island being just a dream or a computer simulation, but it's no less unreal. This last-minute thematic reversal of the series' watchwords "Whatever happened, happened." and "Dead is dead" must have been intended to match the rug-pulling "We have to go back!" of Season 3's finale. For some people, this worked. For myself, well, the final shot of Jack's eye closing will have to do.

There are some brave souls who assemble their own Frankenmacs, but those require extra maintenance to stay current with OS X updates. Really, why not build a Linux (or Darwin) box if you're going to go to the effort?

Apple's implicit marketing message is that their products "just work", and "right out of the box" at that. The iPad is the natural extension of this: an unmatched, utterly self-contained computing device that requires minimal setup and maintenance. Even as it pushes the boundaries of existing tablets, it shouldn't be mistaken for a notebook or a smartphone.

The so-called Apple Tax is a holdover from the 90s OS Holy Wars, back when Macs ran a different operating system on a different chipset. Even if people insist on trying to compare systems, the actual price difference is negligible - and when total cost of ownership is factored in, Macs are the better bet. Really, most of the debate comes down to consumer preference. Some people want to get a bargain personal computer, and that's just not a market Apple targets.

While CoH is known to recycle artwork, I'm hoping instead for Praetorian-based endgame content in later issues, i.e. Hami raids for Incarnates.

Thanks for adding to the pool of knowledge about Praetorian Earth.

Whoah, that's the antihistamines talking. At the risk of posting further while dealing with a cold, I didn't mean to imply that the discount is the only reason (other computer manufacturers offer student discounts, too). Nor for that matter is the average college student's susceptibility to trendiness, just to get that out of the way. The consensus among those who work on both OS X and Windows is that the former* is a better overall experience - and Apple hardware is much more reliable than the average computer manufacturer's.

As for the OP's question, although many students have adopted the iPad - Stanford Medical School has issued them to all incoming students this year, to name only one example - it is still regarded as a complement to a laptop or desktop computer, not a substitute.

* Edit: I mean former, not latter. (I really shouldn't attempt computer advocacy while zoned on Theraflu.)

Particularly since you probably qualify for a nice educational discount. (There's a reason Mac laptops are the #1 favorite on US campuses.)

More a "hail and farewell" than "doom and gloom". Your legacy as the bridge between the community and the game's inner workings will be hard to match. Here's to Synapse and Black Scorpion meeting the challenge.

In the meantime, many thanks for everything you've done for/to the game, and best of luck in your next project.