But I can tell you that there have been at least 5 times when I was sure the lane next to me was empty but the blind spot light was on. 4 times, somebody had legitimately come into my blind spot from an unseen angle.
Are you sure you have your mirrors adjusted correctly? Many (most?) people adjust their side mirrors so they can see the rear end of their car, but better method is to adjust them so the images slightly overlap with the center mirror - as described here or here or here. (or Google: adjust car side mirror) This method eliminates all of the blind spots.
To adjust mine, I simply park on a long straight road and adjust each side mirror until the image on the inside edge just overlaps the image on the outside edge of the center mirror.
I just buy the little convex mirrors and stick them on my side mirrors. This way I can see anything to either side of me no matter where they are. I primarily got them for towing my boat but they work great for everyday driving.
My POTS line works great, works in power outages, and sounds way better than any other phone service I've had the misfortune of being exposed to. Of course the FCC wants to screw it up.
I was home for the holidays over Christmas and the power went out at my parents place during an ice storm. The battery backup for the IP phone started beeping. They asked what it was for and I had to explain to them that they had signed up for VoIP service and that it needed power to the internet router to keep the phones working. The battery lasted about 8 hours.
So, while VoIP works quite well, POTS has the advantage of pretty much always having a dial tone, even when the power is out.
If they do decide to get rid of analog lines and go to VoIP, then they are going to have to figure out how to keep it powered. Of course, POE has been around for a long while. I'm guessing, though, that the phone companies can't just hook up the VoIP phones to the analog battery banks due to differences in power requirements.
Its the same reason that we should be increasing our ability to hunt down hobbits. If they get control of that ring again it could be the end for us all!
Don't you know anything, the ring was melted down to nothing in the fires of Mt. Doom. It's no longer a threat.
It's magic, ESP powers, aliens, Time Lords, Daleks, and robots that we need to defend against according to such reliable TV and movie series as "A Certain Magical Index", "Warehouse 13", "Aliens" 1 through 4, "Dr. Who", etc.
After all, how can we puny humans stand up to an alien with magic and ESP powers that can travel through time without having the ability to snoop on their communications?
Eh, it depends. I've had plenty of bad luck with Seagate's consumer drives dying pretty quickly. On the other hand, I've yet to have to replace a single enterprise ES (or ES2) series drive. We use Seagate's ES series drives in the arrays we depend on and Western Digital black drives in the arrays we don't care too much about (video editing rigs). Though I said, "Don't care too much about", I at least expected them to last more than a few months. Unfortunately, a few months is a tall order for Western Digital. The black drives die so often that their entire warranty department probably knows me by name...
I've had enterprise Seagate drives die on me before. The failure rate is definitely much lower though. One of the reasons, but not he only one, that enterprise drives last is because they are in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Just remember, though, if you ever have a cooling failure in your server room, expect to replace a bunch of drives over the next year.
PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.
Nope, a step down...
The Aztek was just ugly, much like the Nissan Cube, but was fairly reliable. The PT Cruiser, on the other hand, was the cheapest piece-o-cr4p. Shortly after they first came out, I rented one while in Florida for a day before we went on a cruise. It was like riding in a tin can.
Not for me, dam it... My lease finally ran out on my old XP work laptop and I got a new one with a corporate Windows 7 image last week.
However, I'm happy to finally be running a modern 64bit OS with 12GB of RAM. My only complaints are that there were no SSD options and that it took me about 4 hours to get patches, fixes, and drivers loaded to fix some issues with the corporate image.
Learning and memorization is like any other skill, you need to practice it. Through High School I had to constantly go over material multiple times (up to 10) before I could remember what I needed for tests. In University, I got it down to a science. I needed three days of study for each course to prepare for exams. I needed to go over the material three times on three different days before it would finally sink in. Of course, having good notes makes a big difference too.
Personally, I found that I took in more material if I am slightly drowsy when I was in class (i.e. almost napping). I find that if I am fully awake, my brain is too busy thinking about other things which gets in the way of learning. Fortunately, I am at the point in my career and education where memorization isn't as important as being able to apply the knowledge.
BTW, you might want to try taking an online course. I took several when finishing up my Masters degree. They require less memorization and more practical skills and the exams/tests tend to be open book timed. However, if you take online courses there is less socialization. So, if you want to meet people, make sure that you also take some campus courses.
I agree. The lights are on cars for 2 reasons: 1) for other cars to see each other at night - 2) for the driver to see the edge of the road a certain distance ahead.
Back in the day when these things were being developed, they didn't have the technology invested in that white paint that's on the side of the road (many roads didn't even have a line at all). And now that white line is very reflective on almost all roads (speaking from the US at least), it seems that, if anything, we can tone down the headlights. I know that cars drive a lot faster than they used to, but most of the speed limits are the same as they've been for many years.
Um, no.... I think that you forget that there are locations in the US that get this stuff called snow and that said snow, and the dirt & salt they spread to melt the snow, tends to cover lines on the road. Then there is fog, for which brighter lights do not help, and dark rainy nights, where brighter lights do help.
In addition, much of the US has reduced their spending on repainting lines leaving areas with poor markings as the paint is quite expensive.
My old car had HIDs. I didn't get them with my new car because they were only included with a $5K luxury package. However, after driving through the recent snow storms in the the North East over the Christmas holidays, I would now gladly pay the extra money to get them installed.
I agree that some lights appear to be too bright on the road. However, the problem isn't the lights, it's the fact that they are not adjusted or installed correctly. There are laws on the books that cover headlights, however, most police do not enforce them as it's a relatively minor fine.
I can take the bus for a fraction of the cost of owning a car. I dont care if it takes 45 minutes because I have a smart phone, or tablet. im connected to all my friends, including the one im going to meet up with for drinks and dinner. my phone will warn me about making my stop, and let me recharge the fare on my card while i leave the driving to a competent, qualified and much more seasoned bus driver. i dont have to pay insurance, worry about parking, fret about the cost of gas, or earn a ticket for speeding
to put it quite simply: stop trying to sell me a $30,000 iphone case with wheels.
They obviously aren't trying to sell a "$30,000 iphone case with wheels" to you because you, obviously, are not their target market. Either you are not interested in owning a car, based on your post, or you do want to own a car but are just annoyed that you haven't reached the point where you can afford a moderately priced new car (i.e. $30K).
As for the rest of your screed, all of these things are just part of owning a car, much like house taxes are part of owning a house. You do realize that you can get used cars for well under $20K (you don't HAVE to buy new), that you don't need an SUV but there are some people who do (i.e. towing, large number of kids, live in an area with a lot of snow, etc.), that you usually only get speeding tickets if you speed, that insurance is necessary because people make mistakes but it can be kept relatively low by not speeding, that large cities do have traffic congestion but that the tradeoff is that they usually have better public transportation (which you are taking advantage of), and most bus drivers are indeed competent drivers but not much more than that (bus driving doesn't exactly attract the best and the brightest).
I'm happy that you've been able to make public transportation to work for you. It just doesn't work for me and, as a result, I accept all of the expenses, annoyances, and, yes, fun that comes with owning a car.
As for Windows, the main reason people use it is applications. When I talk to people about why they don't use Linux or Mac on the desktop there are largely viable replacements for the apps they use (especially true with the Mac) but games always come up as the main reason. Take that away and Windows is severely weakened in the market.
I agree that the creation of a gaming eco-system for Macs would make the choice between Windows and OSX much more even. However, there are still a number of apps, especially for tracking finances and stocks, that are not available for OSX. Granted, you can run parallels or VMs (like you do), but your average computer user wouldn't know that. Also, while Steam may work to create a gaming device infrastructure, there is no guarantee that Apple would provide support. After all, they do try to keep their eco-system relatively closed.
Sure, it will hang on for a long time especially in corporate environments but these days home users have very little need for a PC when a tablet can do their social communications and a games console can do the gaming.
If that's all a user does, then I would agree with you. However, a lot of people do use their PC's for more than just social communication.
I have a Mac and a PC (Win 7) at home and I barely use either because I have to actually go over and sit in front of them. Sure, I use my work Mac in the office all day but in my off time I don't want to sit at a desk. Steam on any computer is OK but it still can't be totally driven without a keyboard and mouse so maybe Valve's new controller can fix that (I hope so) in which case I'll leave my Windows box in Big Picture mode all the time and enjoy my games from the couch in full 1080p or more when I next upgrade and I won't lose my library. With SteamOS taking on more of the games I already own, a wipe to that is in the future for my PC and I'll keep the Mac for the boring stuff like work.
MS is desperately trying to remain relevant but they're bouncing around taking shots at everyone in sight because all these little devices are pulling the eyes away from their platform. Windows 8 has done little to improve things because it looks and works so badly unless you tweak the hell out of it with Classic Shell to get rid of the nightmare modern interface and restore it to something that looks and behaves more like Windows used to.
Sitting here at my Mac I have VMs for many different Linux distros, various versions of Windows too but I run OS X because I can run everything on it either native or via some form of emulation. Games aren't really the Mac's forte but that's OK as I don't want to sit in front of a keyboard to play games and I want a viable replacement for my current Xbox 360 (which I dislike more with every update) and MS just burned the Xbox platform by releasing the One without any backwards compatibility. Similarly, Sony's PS4 has no library and the price of games have gone up another 15-20% over the already outrageous prices so no sale there either as I can't pick up cheap back catalogue stuff to fill out the collection. Pity, I had hoped to play many of the PS3 exclusives and as it stands I'll likely buy a PS3 cheap at some point soonish to do that. I also just bought a WiiU because Nintendo is still innovating and it plays my current Wii games so we already have stuff to play along with the couple of WiiU games we got and you can pop them off the TV onto the controller screen. That's cool. PS4 and Xbox One? No back catalogue, expensive games, sub-PC graphics and all that lovely DRM. Nope, don't think so.
The reasons that you stated are why I prefer PC gaming to the consoles, though I have the WII, XBox 360, and PS3. With the PC I do not lose my gaming library. As for gaming in front of the TV, I bought the Microsoft PC wireless gamepad controller adapter for my desktop. This allows me to sit on the couch and game using my PC.
I haven't made up my mind about getting the new consoles yet. It'll depend on what my brother-in-law decides to do as we share video games. Today, he has the PS3 and is planning on sticking with it.
Maybe we can completely get rid of windows in the future if all games are playable on GNU/Linux.
The answer is: No...
As I see it, the Steam eco-system will be no different than the current consoles (XBox, PS4). The Steam boxes will have the advantage over the consoles of higher-end graphics, game controllers, etc. Windows boxes not only support higher-end gaming but also a wide variety of applications. A gaming rig can, and usually is, also used for gaming, photo editing, finances, and many other applications. Much like tablets, it's all about the apps...
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see the expansion of gaming. However, Steam is not the savior of the Linux desktop. In my opinion, It will be just another console...
I simply cannot accept the proposition that people are -- willingly -- going to accept a future of either creation or consuption on these restricted devices. Even if the whole industry collectively decides to abandon PCs, in a decade or so the current infants playing with iDinks will manage to "rediscover tactile touch based text input devices once called 'keyboards' " as a faster, better method of interfacing with their computers.
Eventually, some of them will even rediscover the command line as well.
I agree with you. However, there are, as always, exceptions. A tablet, for me, is the perfect vacation computer. I have an Asus TF700T which has a microSD slot and I bought a USB adapter. I use it primarily to consume content (watch movies on the plane, check on flight times, look up local attractions, etc.), backup content (copy photos to microSD cards and USB thumb drives), and upload content (post photos on Facebook). The virtual keyboard is enough for what I need to type when on vacation. So, for me, a tablet works well as a second computer for when I travel. The point is that there are usage scenarios where a tablet is all you need.
As for the future, tablets are really just smaller, less powerful laptops. Give it 5 years and they will merge.
Sounds like what everyone else is saying, that current hardware is good enough and they have no reason to update.
That was true in the seventh generation when PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were stuck on tech that was high-end in 2005. But now, the latest consoles are up to 2013 tech (AMD Jaguar, do the math), and PC games' system requirements are likely to rise to meet PlayStation 4 and Xbox One specs.
If you bought or built a PC in the last couple of years it is already more powerful than the new consoles. To bring it up to par you may have to add RAM (about $65 worth) and a video card (about $150). PCs will continue to have an advantage over consoles as it takes time for console development.
Two people who googled the term 'BP.' One received links to investment news about BP while the other received links to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, presumably as a result of some recommendation algorithm.
So I tried this, I wanted to see if the Internet thought I was a democrat or a republican but it just came up with a bunch of links to "Big Penises" I was outraged, and after 15 to 30 min or so of confirming the content I switched search engines. The algorithms are clearly out of control!
I just tried this and got... financial news, info about the oil spill on both sides of the coin (i.e. How BP got screwed, What BP doesn't want you to know), and local gas stations. I guess this means that I'm interested in the stock market (which I am, though I don't own BP stock), I'm open to understanding the facts on both sides (i.e. a balanced viewpoint), and I recently searched for gas stations (which I did, but for the local Shell stations not BP).
If a corporation can be a person, why can't a chimp?
Step 1: Create a corporation called Chimp Inc. and make its owner a chimp named Bonzo. (People can leave their fortunes to a pet cat, they should be able to leave controlling interest of a corporation to a chimp.)
Step 2: Once Bonzo the chimp has control of the Chimp Inc. corporation, have Chimp Inc. buy Bonzo the chimp.
Step 3: Bonzo is the sole owner of Chimp Inc.
and the only property of Chimp Inc. is Bonzo.
Chimp Inc. is a legal corporate person. Chimp Inc. = Bonzo the chimp. Therefore Bonzo the chimp is a legal person.
The owner/CEO is not the corporation, the corporation is a separate legal entity. As such, the rights of a corporation cannot be transferred to the owner/CEO.
Besides, Bonzo would just get indicted for embezzling bananas...
As soon as animals can be reasonably expected to understand a contract and uphold their side of it, I'll care about whether they have the legal grounds to enter into them.
I really doubt you are a have not. Funny how most people want to claim (and take pride in announcing) to be part of this non-exclusive club.
I could be completely wrong, but I'm guessing that most people who hang out on this board would not qualify as true Have-Nots. I took it to mean people who are working for a living and who haven't gotten a decent raise in a few years. Otherwise, we are talking about the truly poor and, for them, what the stock market does is inconsequential. It's more important to them to feed and cloth their family and try to get a better job.
Only if you put some skin into the game. You did invest in the stock market after the real estate crash, right?
I was fortunate enough to have some spare cash to invest. My only regret is that I didn't put more in over the last two years. It's my opinion, though, that we are near the end of the bull market. I'm thinking that interest rates will go up and the shift will be to the bond market once Quantitative Easing ends. But, I am not a professional analyst, it's just my personal opinion...
I'm a network architect so I tend to check out more enterprise related sites such as Network Computing, Network World, and Infoworld. That being said, most vendors are willing to send you a demo unit to play with and most software vendors have VM copies of their demo software. Also, don't underestimate the advice of other professionals in your field. If you don't have any contacts, there are usually local professional groups that you can join.
Asus still makes some great laptops but I still miss 1200P res!
I too like Asus laptops and tablets and have had a good experience and good reliability with them.
However, every time that I post about how good Asus laptops are today, there tend to be a number of post saying just how bad they are. I can only guess that most of those who hate Asus had older models. Asus had a lot of crap in the past, but they have improved the quality of their products by quite a bit.
Says who? When people tell you that 300 PPI is the most that the human eye can resolve at 12 inches do you just accept it or do you question whether it is based on scientific fact? Some quick research indicates that this oft quoted "fact" is actually incorrect. It's closer to 1000 PPI.
Anyhow, ppi relates more to visual acuity which is a function of distance and density - and unless you're holding your phone to your nose, there aren't very many people complaining that a "retina" display has very noticeable pixels. Hell, the most common "retina" display one has is the humble HDTV - most people sit way too far back that 20/20 vision cannot resolve individual pixels, making even the low-dpi 1080p screen "retina" by definition. (Of course there are eagle eyes out there with 20/40+ vision who can benefit from being able to buy a cheaper smaller HDTV and still enjoy the high-resolution image).
Yes, the resolution of our eyes depends on distance. Most people hold their phones about 12 inches away from their faces, which is why Apple uses this measure. The rest of the comment is interesting, but has no bearing on how we look at phones nor does it invalidate any of the conclusions reached by the linked articles that around 1000 PPI is the physical limit of our eyes at, or around, 12 inches.
Above 300 PPI, you are just wasting battery life and hurting performance to display pixels the human eye can't even resolve. I wish more android manufactures had the guts to follow Apple's engineering wisdom here.
Says who? When people tell you that 300 PPI is the most that the human eye can resolve at 12 inches do you just accept it or do you question whether it is based on scientific fact? Some quick research indicates that this oft quoted "fact" is actually incorrect. It's closer to 1000 PPI.
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But I can tell you that there have been at least 5 times when I was sure the lane next to me was empty but the blind spot light was on. 4 times, somebody had legitimately come into my blind spot from an unseen angle.
Are you sure you have your mirrors adjusted correctly? Many (most?) people adjust their side mirrors so they can see the rear end of their car, but better method is to adjust them so the images slightly overlap with the center mirror - as described here or here or here. (or Google: adjust car side mirror) This method eliminates all of the blind spots.
To adjust mine, I simply park on a long straight road and adjust each side mirror until the image on the inside edge just overlaps the image on the outside edge of the center mirror.
I just buy the little convex mirrors and stick them on my side mirrors. This way I can see anything to either side of me no matter where they are. I primarily got them for towing my boat but they work great for everyday driving.
My POTS line works great, works in power outages, and sounds way better than any other phone service I've had the misfortune of being exposed to. Of course the FCC wants to screw it up.
I was home for the holidays over Christmas and the power went out at my parents place during an ice storm. The battery backup for the IP phone started beeping. They asked what it was for and I had to explain to them that they had signed up for VoIP service and that it needed power to the internet router to keep the phones working. The battery lasted about 8 hours.
So, while VoIP works quite well, POTS has the advantage of pretty much always having a dial tone, even when the power is out.
If they do decide to get rid of analog lines and go to VoIP, then they are going to have to figure out how to keep it powered. Of course, POE has been around for a long while. I'm guessing, though, that the phone companies can't just hook up the VoIP phones to the analog battery banks due to differences in power requirements.
Its the same reason that we should be increasing our ability to hunt down hobbits. If they get control of that ring again it could be the end for us all!
Don't you know anything, the ring was melted down to nothing in the fires of Mt. Doom. It's no longer a threat.
It's magic, ESP powers, aliens, Time Lords, Daleks, and robots that we need to defend against according to such reliable TV and movie series as "A Certain Magical Index", "Warehouse 13", "Aliens" 1 through 4, "Dr. Who", etc.
After all, how can we puny humans stand up to an alien with magic and ESP powers that can travel through time without having the ability to snoop on their communications?
How many times have you asked a user to do something, but they end up doing something completely different?
Obviously, they can't hear you because of the CPU fans...
Eh, it depends. I've had plenty of bad luck with Seagate's consumer drives dying pretty quickly. On the other hand, I've yet to have to replace a single enterprise ES (or ES2) series drive. We use Seagate's ES series drives in the arrays we depend on and Western Digital black drives in the arrays we don't care too much about (video editing rigs). Though I said, "Don't care too much about", I at least expected them to last more than a few months. Unfortunately, a few months is a tall order for Western Digital. The black drives die so often that their entire warranty department probably knows me by name...
I've had enterprise Seagate drives die on me before. The failure rate is definitely much lower though. One of the reasons, but not he only one, that enterprise drives last is because they are in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. Just remember, though, if you ever have a cooling failure in your server room, expect to replace a bunch of drives over the next year.
PT Cruiser... that's one step up from the Pontiac Aztek at least.
Nope, a step down...
The Aztek was just ugly, much like the Nissan Cube, but was fairly reliable. The PT Cruiser, on the other hand, was the cheapest piece-o-cr4p. Shortly after they first came out, I rented one while in Florida for a day before we went on a cruise. It was like riding in a tin can.
Not for me, dam it... My lease finally ran out on my old XP work laptop and I got a new one with a corporate Windows 7 image last week.
However, I'm happy to finally be running a modern 64bit OS with 12GB of RAM. My only complaints are that there were no SSD options and that it took me about 4 hours to get patches, fixes, and drivers loaded to fix some issues with the corporate image.
Learning and memorization is like any other skill, you need to practice it. Through High School I had to constantly go over material multiple times (up to 10) before I could remember what I needed for tests. In University, I got it down to a science. I needed three days of study for each course to prepare for exams. I needed to go over the material three times on three different days before it would finally sink in. Of course, having good notes makes a big difference too.
Personally, I found that I took in more material if I am slightly drowsy when I was in class (i.e. almost napping). I find that if I am fully awake, my brain is too busy thinking about other things which gets in the way of learning. Fortunately, I am at the point in my career and education where memorization isn't as important as being able to apply the knowledge.
BTW, you might want to try taking an online course. I took several when finishing up my Masters degree. They require less memorization and more practical skills and the exams/tests tend to be open book timed. However, if you take online courses there is less socialization. So, if you want to meet people, make sure that you also take some campus courses.
I agree. The lights are on cars for 2 reasons: 1) for other cars to see each other at night - 2) for the driver to see the edge of the road a certain distance ahead.
Back in the day when these things were being developed, they didn't have the technology invested in that white paint that's on the side of the road (many roads didn't even have a line at all). And now that white line is very reflective on almost all roads (speaking from the US at least), it seems that, if anything, we can tone down the headlights. I know that cars drive a lot faster than they used to, but most of the speed limits are the same as they've been for many years.
Um, no.... I think that you forget that there are locations in the US that get this stuff called snow and that said snow, and the dirt & salt they spread to melt the snow, tends to cover lines on the road. Then there is fog, for which brighter lights do not help, and dark rainy nights, where brighter lights do help.
In addition, much of the US has reduced their spending on repainting lines leaving areas with poor markings as the paint is quite expensive.
My old car had HIDs. I didn't get them with my new car because they were only included with a $5K luxury package. However, after driving through the recent snow storms in the the North East over the Christmas holidays, I would now gladly pay the extra money to get them installed.
I agree that some lights appear to be too bright on the road. However, the problem isn't the lights, it's the fact that they are not adjusted or installed correctly. There are laws on the books that cover headlights, however, most police do not enforce them as it's a relatively minor fine.
I can take the bus for a fraction of the cost of owning a car. I dont care if it takes 45 minutes because I have a smart phone, or tablet. im connected to all my friends, including the one im going to meet up with for drinks and dinner. my phone will warn me about making my stop, and let me recharge the fare on my card while i leave the driving to a competent, qualified and much more seasoned bus driver. i dont have to pay insurance, worry about parking, fret about the cost of gas, or earn a ticket for speeding
to put it quite simply: stop trying to sell me a $30,000 iphone case with wheels.
They obviously aren't trying to sell a "$30,000 iphone case with wheels" to you because you, obviously, are not their target market. Either you are not interested in owning a car, based on your post, or you do want to own a car but are just annoyed that you haven't reached the point where you can afford a moderately priced new car (i.e. $30K).
As for the rest of your screed, all of these things are just part of owning a car, much like house taxes are part of owning a house. You do realize that you can get used cars for well under $20K (you don't HAVE to buy new), that you don't need an SUV but there are some people who do (i.e. towing, large number of kids, live in an area with a lot of snow, etc.), that you usually only get speeding tickets if you speed, that insurance is necessary because people make mistakes but it can be kept relatively low by not speeding, that large cities do have traffic congestion but that the tradeoff is that they usually have better public transportation (which you are taking advantage of), and most bus drivers are indeed competent drivers but not much more than that (bus driving doesn't exactly attract the best and the brightest).
I'm happy that you've been able to make public transportation to work for you. It just doesn't work for me and, as a result, I accept all of the expenses, annoyances, and, yes, fun that comes with owning a car.
I thought file formats were not patentable anyway. And why hasn't this expired yet?
According to the article it expires next year.
As for Windows, the main reason people use it is applications. When I talk to people about why they don't use Linux or Mac on the desktop there are largely viable replacements for the apps they use (especially true with the Mac) but games always come up as the main reason. Take that away and Windows is severely weakened in the market.
I agree that the creation of a gaming eco-system for Macs would make the choice between Windows and OSX much more even. However, there are still a number of apps, especially for tracking finances and stocks, that are not available for OSX. Granted, you can run parallels or VMs (like you do), but your average computer user wouldn't know that. Also, while Steam may work to create a gaming device infrastructure, there is no guarantee that Apple would provide support. After all, they do try to keep their eco-system relatively closed.
Sure, it will hang on for a long time especially in corporate environments but these days home users have very little need for a PC when a tablet can do their social communications and a games console can do the gaming.
If that's all a user does, then I would agree with you. However, a lot of people do use their PC's for more than just social communication.
I have a Mac and a PC (Win 7) at home and I barely use either because I have to actually go over and sit in front of them. Sure, I use my work Mac in the office all day but in my off time I don't want to sit at a desk. Steam on any computer is OK but it still can't be totally driven without a keyboard and mouse so maybe Valve's new controller can fix that (I hope so) in which case I'll leave my Windows box in Big Picture mode all the time and enjoy my games from the couch in full 1080p or more when I next upgrade and I won't lose my library. With SteamOS taking on more of the games I already own, a wipe to that is in the future for my PC and I'll keep the Mac for the boring stuff like work.
MS is desperately trying to remain relevant but they're bouncing around taking shots at everyone in sight because all these little devices are pulling the eyes away from their platform. Windows 8 has done little to improve things because it looks and works so badly unless you tweak the hell out of it with Classic Shell to get rid of the nightmare modern interface and restore it to something that looks and behaves more like Windows used to.
Sitting here at my Mac I have VMs for many different Linux distros, various versions of Windows too but I run OS X because I can run everything on it either native or via some form of emulation. Games aren't really the Mac's forte but that's OK as I don't want to sit in front of a keyboard to play games and I want a viable replacement for my current Xbox 360 (which I dislike more with every update) and MS just burned the Xbox platform by releasing the One without any backwards compatibility. Similarly, Sony's PS4 has no library and the price of games have gone up another 15-20% over the already outrageous prices so no sale there either as I can't pick up cheap back catalogue stuff to fill out the collection. Pity, I had hoped to play many of the PS3 exclusives and as it stands I'll likely buy a PS3 cheap at some point soonish to do that. I also just bought a WiiU because Nintendo is still innovating and it plays my current Wii games so we already have stuff to play along with the couple of WiiU games we got and you can pop them off the TV onto the controller screen. That's cool. PS4 and Xbox One? No back catalogue, expensive games, sub-PC graphics and all that lovely DRM. Nope, don't think so.
The reasons that you stated are why I prefer PC gaming to the consoles, though I have the WII, XBox 360, and PS3. With the PC I do not lose my gaming library. As for gaming in front of the TV, I bought the Microsoft PC wireless gamepad controller adapter for my desktop. This allows me to sit on the couch and game using my PC.
I haven't made up my mind about getting the new consoles yet. It'll depend on what my brother-in-law decides to do as we share video games. Today, he has the PS3 and is planning on sticking with it.
Maybe we can completely get rid of windows in the future if all games are playable on GNU/Linux.
The answer is: No...
As I see it, the Steam eco-system will be no different than the current consoles (XBox, PS4). The Steam boxes will have the advantage over the consoles of higher-end graphics, game controllers, etc. Windows boxes not only support higher-end gaming but also a wide variety of applications. A gaming rig can, and usually is, also used for gaming, photo editing, finances, and many other applications. Much like tablets, it's all about the apps...
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see the expansion of gaming. However, Steam is not the savior of the Linux desktop. In my opinion, It will be just another console...
I simply cannot accept the proposition that people are -- willingly -- going to accept a future of either creation or consuption on these restricted devices. Even if the whole industry collectively decides to abandon PCs, in a decade or so the current infants playing with iDinks will manage to "rediscover tactile touch based text input devices once called 'keyboards' " as a faster, better method of interfacing with their computers.
Eventually, some of them will even rediscover the command line as well.
I agree with you. However, there are, as always, exceptions. A tablet, for me, is the perfect vacation computer. I have an Asus TF700T which has a microSD slot and I bought a USB adapter. I use it primarily to consume content (watch movies on the plane, check on flight times, look up local attractions, etc.), backup content (copy photos to microSD cards and USB thumb drives), and upload content (post photos on Facebook). The virtual keyboard is enough for what I need to type when on vacation. So, for me, a tablet works well as a second computer for when I travel. The point is that there are usage scenarios where a tablet is all you need.
As for the future, tablets are really just smaller, less powerful laptops. Give it 5 years and they will merge.
Sounds like what everyone else is saying, that current hardware is good enough and they have no reason to update.
That was true in the seventh generation when PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were stuck on tech that was high-end in 2005. But now, the latest consoles are up to 2013 tech (AMD Jaguar, do the math), and PC games' system requirements are likely to rise to meet PlayStation 4 and Xbox One specs.
If you bought or built a PC in the last couple of years it is already more powerful than the new consoles. To bring it up to par you may have to add RAM (about $65 worth) and a video card (about $150). PCs will continue to have an advantage over consoles as it takes time for console development.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/pc-vs-ps4-xbox-one-how-to-upgrade-pc/
Two people who googled the term 'BP.' One received links to investment news about BP while the other received links to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, presumably as a result of some recommendation algorithm.
So I tried this, I wanted to see if the Internet thought I was a democrat or a republican but it just came up with a bunch of links to "Big Penises" I was outraged, and after 15 to 30 min or so of confirming the content I switched search engines. The algorithms are clearly out of control!
I just tried this and got... financial news, info about the oil spill on both sides of the coin (i.e. How BP got screwed, What BP doesn't want you to know), and local gas stations. I guess this means that I'm interested in the stock market (which I am, though I don't own BP stock), I'm open to understanding the facts on both sides (i.e. a balanced viewpoint), and I recently searched for gas stations (which I did, but for the local Shell stations not BP).
If a corporation can be a person, why can't a chimp?
Step 1: Create a corporation called Chimp Inc. and make its owner a chimp named Bonzo. (People can leave their fortunes to a pet cat, they should be able to leave controlling interest of a corporation to a chimp.)
Step 2: Once Bonzo the chimp has control of the Chimp Inc. corporation, have Chimp Inc. buy Bonzo the chimp.
Step 3: Bonzo is the sole owner of Chimp Inc.
and the only property of Chimp Inc. is Bonzo.
Chimp Inc. is a legal corporate person.
Chimp Inc. = Bonzo the chimp.
Therefore Bonzo the chimp is a legal person.
The owner/CEO is not the corporation, the corporation is a separate legal entity. As such, the rights of a corporation cannot be transferred to the owner/CEO.
Besides, Bonzo would just get indicted for embezzling bananas...
As soon as animals can be reasonably expected to understand a contract and uphold their side of it, I'll care about whether they have the legal grounds to enter into them.
Well that rules out corporations....
ok ill bite, what did they do 6 years ago that was solid? ;)
Vista... oh, wait....
I really doubt you are a have not. Funny how most people want to claim (and take pride in announcing) to be part of this non-exclusive club.
I could be completely wrong, but I'm guessing that most people who hang out on this board would not qualify as true Have-Nots. I took it to mean people who are working for a living and who haven't gotten a decent raise in a few years. Otherwise, we are talking about the truly poor and, for them, what the stock market does is inconsequential. It's more important to them to feed and cloth their family and try to get a better job.
Now it's bound to trickle down to us, right?
Only if you put some skin into the game. You did invest in the stock market after the real estate crash, right?
I was fortunate enough to have some spare cash to invest. My only regret is that I didn't put more in over the last two years. It's my opinion, though, that we are near the end of the bull market. I'm thinking that interest rates will go up and the shift will be to the bond market once Quantitative Easing ends. But, I am not a professional analyst, it's just my personal opinion...
I'm a network architect so I tend to check out more enterprise related sites such as Network Computing, Network World, and Infoworld. That being said, most vendors are willing to send you a demo unit to play with and most software vendors have VM copies of their demo software. Also, don't underestimate the advice of other professionals in your field. If you don't have any contacts, there are usually local professional groups that you can join.
Asus still makes some great laptops but I still miss 1200P res!
I too like Asus laptops and tablets and have had a good experience and good reliability with them.
However, every time that I post about how good Asus laptops are today, there tend to be a number of post saying just how bad they are. I can only guess that most of those who hate Asus had older models. Asus had a lot of crap in the past, but they have improved the quality of their products by quite a bit.
Anyhow, ppi relates more to visual acuity which is a function of distance and density - and unless you're holding your phone to your nose, there aren't very many people complaining that a "retina" display has very noticeable pixels. Hell, the most common "retina" display one has is the humble HDTV - most people sit way too far back that 20/20 vision cannot resolve individual pixels, making even the low-dpi 1080p screen "retina" by definition. (Of course there are eagle eyes out there with 20/40+ vision who can benefit from being able to buy a cheaper smaller HDTV and still enjoy the high-resolution image).
Yes, the resolution of our eyes depends on distance. Most people hold their phones about 12 inches away from their faces, which is why Apple uses this measure. The rest of the comment is interesting, but has no bearing on how we look at phones nor does it invalidate any of the conclusions reached by the linked articles that around 1000 PPI is the physical limit of our eyes at, or around, 12 inches.
Above 300 PPI, you are just wasting battery life and hurting performance to display pixels the human eye can't even resolve. I wish more android manufactures had the guts to follow Apple's engineering wisdom here.
Says who? When people tell you that 300 PPI is the most that the human eye can resolve at 12 inches do you just accept it or do you question whether it is based on scientific fact? Some quick research indicates that this oft quoted "fact" is actually incorrect. It's closer to 1000 PPI.
http://www.cultofmac.com/173702/why-retina-isnt-enough-feature/
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/notes-by-dr-optoglass-the-resolution-of-the-human-eye/