I don't know about Canada, but in the U.S. a townhouse is one of a row of houses next to each other. Each house has its own door directly to the outside. Whether you rent or own the townhouse, you generally pay a fee for someone else to do lawn and driveway maintenance. No elevators or parking garages. Your garage is accessed via the back, and the townhouse is usually a split-level.

Xeriscaping. The house I'm renting now has no lawn, just paving stones and lots of decorative gravel and shrubbery beds. The sprinklers are on automatic, so all I have to do is sweep the tree debris off the front path (which reminds me...). My parents' place is on half an acre, and guess who got to mow all of that with a push mower? As soon as I moved out, Dad got a ride-on. And an automatic door opener (prior to that, Mum would just pull into the driveway and honk the horn until I came and opened the garage door for her).

I should also figure out how to turn on the fountain in the back yard.

The other thing houses have going for them is the lack of noisy neighbours on the other side of a thin wall (or, conversely, a lack of people to annoy by being noisy).

Oh, I missed where you said townhouses. I lived in one in Waterloo. Never had to mow our little patch of lawn, although shoveling was occasionally needed.

Returning to WMP for a sec, have you tried some of the free alternatives? Media Player Classic is a good one; I use GOM Player and SMPlayer myself. They all have customizable hotkeys.

Sa'ar: I hear mowing builds character.

I've got enough character. In fact, I've got several characters. And hayfever.

PNQ: What do you call the decade from 2000-2009?

An episode of Mythbusters called it "the naughties." A local radio station calls it "2K" as in "music from the 90's, 2K, and today."

I was just curious.

"The noughties" is probably my favorite. There's also "The aughts" or whatever.

"The 2000s." It doesn't work for older century years -- "the 1600s" means that whole century, for instance -- but nobody will be using "the 2000s" to refer to a century or millennium until we're farther into it!

So Stuart Ashen keeps using the word "lanyard" to refer to what Americans call a "wrist strap." To Americans a "lanyard" is something that goes around your neck, not your wrist (besides the flag-related definition, of course).

PNQ: Is this just another example of British/American definition drift, or is Stuart just confused?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peyoj...&feature=g-u-u

This guy comments on the possibility of Sony and Microsoft joining forces on the next generation of consoles. That is, instead of PS4 and X-Box 720 fighting between themselves, they'll just have one console to battle Wii-U and the emerging casual phone game market.

PNQ1: Opinions?
PNQ2: How many essential exclusives do the PS3 and X-Box 360 have?

Seriously, I keep seeing games that are released for both, with both being essentially identical. In the old days of Genesis vs. Super Nintendo, there were many subtle differences between the variants of a game to justify taking a stand as a Sega guy or a Nintendo guy, but does that principle still stand?

I've seen one or two man-on-the-street opinions that Nintendo's next console could make or break its hardware division -- if the Wii U (or whatever) fails, they may have to just focus on making games for others' consoles. This may reflect that possibility.

Consoles are expensive and, I guess, sometimes have to be sold at a loss to get a big enough market for the games. And if you don't devote enough resources to developing a console, it can have nasty shortcomings (such as those leading to a Red Ring Of Doom) that lead to bad publicity for your entire company. Nintendo and Sony may think it's better to join forces in that regard.

I have a PS3 and a Wii, so the choice is fairly simple for me: PS3 if I want to admire the graphics, Wii if it has better gameplay and extras. Sometimes both if they're cheap. (I like to replay games, and it's fun to try a different system at the same time.) I have no idea how I would choose between PS3 and XBox if I had both. For some time now, I've wished there were a site just for this -- WhichVersionShouldIBuy.com or something -- where the different versions of games would be compared and the differences explained. That information is generally out there, but not always easy to find.

Nowadays, even handhelds are worth comparing. GBA versions of console games were usually pared down to sidescrollers. (That didn't make them bad necessarily -- the GBA <i>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time</i> is great. Playable Farah!) But with the PSP and DS lines, they've been trying, with gradually increasing success, to just slap the whole game on a cart. I have <i>Spider-Man: Edge of Time</i> for 3DS; it's almost exactly the same experience as the console versions, just delivered differently. I intend to get it for PS3 eventually just to enjoy the hi-def, but playing as Spider-Man <i>in 3D</i> is well worth owning a second copy.

I don't want to get into handheld vs. stationary variant comparison. Naturally a handheld has different capabilities than the stationary counterpart.

I was just wondering about the PS3 vs the X-Box 360. In terms of graphics I have yet to see or hear about a significant difference in gameplay between the two. I see no reason why the successor couldn't be a unification of the best qualities of the proposed PS4 and 720.

I try to follow the latest iDevice news (who knows, maybe one of these days I can actually afford one of them) (rimshot), so I'm looking at this smaller dock on the upcoming iPhone 5 with some concern...

PNQ1: Couldn't they fit the headphone jack on the side of the device, near the bottom, and still keep the old dock?
PNQ2: Could they make a set of official Apple headphones (with inline controls, Siri, and all that), that attach directly to the dock (instead of the headphone jack) to accommodate those who want base-mounted headphones?

So I'm a huge garage saling nut...

PNQ: Why do so many sales operate on the "make us an offer" system?

Look, some people like to haggle and some don't. I don't. I want prices on the item or on a master price sheet. Having to make an offer means that one of the two scenarios will occur...

1. You offered too much, and you feel ripped off.
2. You offered too little, and you feel guilty; like you're taking advantage of the people running the sale.

I don't like feeling either of these two things.

So I just watched another review bashing New Super Mario Bros. 2 because it doesn't bring anything new...

PNQ: Shouldn't all games be held to one rule above all others? Namely "is this game fun to play?"

I mean, messing with a formula that works just because it's been done a million times before is something they tried with Sonic, and failed at. Over and over again.

Well, to be fair, if it says New in the title then the game should bring something new to the table. Otherwise just continue numbering with the old system . . . ;)

Okay, I'll give you that. But I'm one of those freaks who thinks that once you start numbering sequels, you shouldn't stop unless the formula radically changes.

PNQ: Other than the Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women, what Western books have been turned into anime?

I know of other English-language novels that have been converted, but a complete list would quickly become tedious. The three above are the most common, so I didn't want to waste people's time in suggesting them.

PNQ2: I've read rumors of a Harry Potter anime. Opinions of whether or not this could work?

The most nonsensical literary thing I have ever seen is a The Little Prince graphic novel. Why? Why do you want to lose the charm and simplicity of the original prose (translated or not) and the original pictures? The pictures are part of the story. Just . . . why?