Having seen the Wii U at E3 last year--it being a "clear failure" is increasingly likely.
I remember when the Wii was shown at E3 2005--lines were HUGE. You had to wait for hours to get a glimpse of it. Whereas, nobody paid much attention to the Wii U.
Combined with Apple (and Facebook) completely disrupting the games business--I don't think it bodes well for Nintendo (or Sony, or Microsoft) in 2013.
Oh my god--I remember this. It's biggest legacy was that a lot of people realized they really liked black backgrounds on their web pages and left the that way. A new era in front end design was born. (But they didn't call it front end back then)
Another team of indies that doesn't understand intellectual property law. Why pour all this effort into something that's going to get shut down by the IP holders? Chris Roberts may be 'cool' with it--but I doubt EA will be. C&D in 1...2...
I personally love the Kindle Fire. I'm an iPad user, but I bought a Fire to check it out. It's surprisingly powerful--and the 7 inch form factor is great for games.
But yeah--the interface is fiddly. I think the only reason why I get so much use out of my Fire is because I'm used to dealing with buggy products. I'd never give one to my parents. Maybe 2.0.
Oh--and the browser is HORRIBLE. Despite Amazon's crowing about their new tech--it seems like Skyfire repackaged. And super hard to use.
One thing I've learned is you need to have a 'mission'. You have to want to do X and describe yourself as someone who does X. If you are just wandering around telling people, "I'm a programmer...and like to do web stuff" etc. it's too vague. Definitely have an idea/project you are working on and present yourself as working on it.
I guess it seems obvious--but for awhile I used to just float around at conferences just looking for interesting opportunities....but people won't really reveal them to you if they don't know what you do.
There was this weird Coleco ADAM homebrew scene well into the mid '90s. I used to get this catalog/newsletter called "Adam's House" I think in the mail back then. (I guess they are still around, called EColeco!?!)
They had some crazy custom enhancements for it, including memory expansions that plugged into that internal bay etc.
With that said, I used to goof on my ADAM owning neighbor from my lofty C64 owning perch.