Before last weekend, I would say it's a fad and will eventually die out within a few years. Then I saw my grandfather using a iPad, that was eye opening. He's 90, been partial paralyzed for 15 years after a stroke so he can only use his left hand. He's never really use a computer and doesn't understand the concept of the Internet. My uncle had brought the iPad to show my cousin's white coat ceremony photos. After showing my grandfather how to open the Photo App (it's the sunflower icon), selecting which album he wanted to see (Graduation, Family Photos, etc.), moving the next picture by swiping your finger, and zooming in and out with pinching, under 5 minutes he was able to do all that and had a blast. I haven't seen him amazed by technology, ever. We've try to get him to use a computer, that didn't work.
There's something here in tablets, not as a computing platform. It's a communication medium for the other 5 billion unconnected humans. It should be a seamless experience with the absolutely the lowest learning curve possible.
I don't want to switch to a Mac or Linux, but if this goes through I might just have to. MSFT is killing whatever reasons I have for staying with Windows. They did the quarter-assed attempt with Games for Windows and Games for Windows Marketplace, if it was half-assed I wouldn't be complaining. All those "Genuine Advantage" crap, I've had Thinkpads where WGA said the serial was invalid then I have to call up MSFT and go through the 45 minutes of interrogation before they gave me an activation code.
I really don't want to go to Mac OS X, but it does have Steam.
The lose absolutely nothing from digital packrats. They only use the it from the paying customer that don't want to deal with crap like it. DRM is acceptable to me if it doesn't treat me like a pirate if I'm the one buying it. If it's going to treat like a pirate then I might as well pirate it and save the money.
Microsoft giving up on copy protection???? You don't use Windows Vista/7, Office, Games for Windows, or any Microsoft product? I can't think of a MS product that doesn't have "xxxxx Genuine Advantage" or some sort of authentication.
It's been successful in keeping me from buying their games. I think the last Ubisoft game I bought was FarCry 2 and that was at Christmas when it was on sale on Steam.
I pirated Wing Commander I. I ended up buying WC2-5, Privateer 1 and even Privateer: The Darkening (not a good game). For me, piracy made me a customer of the Wing Commander games.
And let's not talk about Civilization. I've should have never pirated that game, so many sleepless nights because I just had to play "one more turn." I just bought Civ 5 and haven't even loaded up the game.
Is there some sort of back licensing of the graphics tech and patents from HTC to VIA? I thought the future is all about integration of CPU with GPU. VIA already had the graphics backend, not the greatest but it was there. Or are they slimming down to sell to someone like nvidia?
The VIA Nano CPU wasn't bad, it was sufficient for most workloads. The weakness of the VIA solutions have been the graphics drivers, they're ancient implementation. You can feel the late 90s in them from limited resolution support to constant crashes (at least on XP). I think I was trying to get a Nano ITX solution to run at 1280 x 720, but it just wouldn't do it. Had to run it at 1280 x 1024 or 1024 x 768. Tried using Powerstrip but still didn't get me the resolution I wanted.
Sorry, I meant my statement along the line of "if you expect your customers to trust a 3rd party, then you should also trust a 3rd party." If Google thinks that location doesn't matter than they should store it with their competitors.
If that's the case why doesn't Google store its data with Amazon or Microsoft? I'm sure both Amazon and Microsoft will give Google a deal on data storage.
I'm not exactly holding off playing it. I just don't have the time to play games anymore. I just finished Bad Company 2. I still haven't finish Mass Effect 1.
Maybe it's time for MSFT to pay regular dividend. There's only so much growth possible given their size and they generate plenty of cash from Windows and Office. What's the saying from Buffet; "grow the company or give the money back to investors."
My girlfriend thinks I'm paranoid because I use cash just about everywhere except at Costco and online. The less "they" know about me the less likely they are to put in "nerd re-education camp." Or because "they" have so little information on me, I'm sticking out. hmmm... tough position.
It's how you spent it not how much you can buy with it. Skype was probably only worth $3B. Microsoft is acting like a newly rich basketball player by overpaying for needless stuff. Just because you can pay for something doesn't mean you should.
Charging their plug-ins? AC on 24/7 in hot states? I have friends in TX that leave their AC on pretty much throughout the summer. Or the obvious answer, lots of pot growing operations.
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Before last weekend, I would say it's a fad and will eventually die out within a few years. Then I saw my grandfather using a iPad, that was eye opening. He's 90, been partial paralyzed for 15 years after a stroke so he can only use his left hand. He's never really use a computer and doesn't understand the concept of the Internet. My uncle had brought the iPad to show my cousin's white coat ceremony photos. After showing my grandfather how to open the Photo App (it's the sunflower icon), selecting which album he wanted to see (Graduation, Family Photos, etc.), moving the next picture by swiping your finger, and zooming in and out with pinching, under 5 minutes he was able to do all that and had a blast. I haven't seen him amazed by technology, ever. We've try to get him to use a computer, that didn't work.
There's something here in tablets, not as a computing platform. It's a communication medium for the other 5 billion unconnected humans. It should be a seamless experience with the absolutely the lowest learning curve possible.
I don't want to switch to a Mac or Linux, but if this goes through I might just have to. MSFT is killing whatever reasons I have for staying with Windows. They did the quarter-assed attempt with Games for Windows and Games for Windows Marketplace, if it was half-assed I wouldn't be complaining. All those "Genuine Advantage" crap, I've had Thinkpads where WGA said the serial was invalid then I have to call up MSFT and go through the 45 minutes of interrogation before they gave me an activation code.
I really don't want to go to Mac OS X, but it does have Steam.
Does it run like I run with QWOP?
The lose absolutely nothing from digital packrats. They only use the it from the paying customer that don't want to deal with crap like it. DRM is acceptable to me if it doesn't treat me like a pirate if I'm the one buying it. If it's going to treat like a pirate then I might as well pirate it and save the money.
Microsoft giving up on copy protection???? You don't use Windows Vista/7, Office, Games for Windows, or any Microsoft product? I can't think of a MS product that doesn't have "xxxxx Genuine Advantage" or some sort of authentication.
It's been successful in keeping me from buying their games. I think the last Ubisoft game I bought was FarCry 2 and that was at Christmas when it was on sale on Steam.
Then I shouldn't need to install Java for the Android SDK.
I'm already boycotting ebay and paypal.
I pirated Wing Commander I. I ended up buying WC2-5, Privateer 1 and even Privateer: The Darkening (not a good game). For me, piracy made me a customer of the Wing Commander games.
And let's not talk about Civilization. I've should have never pirated that game, so many sleepless nights because I just had to play "one more turn." I just bought Civ 5 and haven't even loaded up the game.
ahhh.... sure dude. I think I'll take the official explanation of lousy engineering/planning for the Apollo 1 death over any conspiracy theory.
When choosing between human stupidity and an elaborate conspiracy theory, I'll go with human stupidity every time.
Is there some sort of back licensing of the graphics tech and patents from HTC to VIA? I thought the future is all about integration of CPU with GPU. VIA already had the graphics backend, not the greatest but it was there. Or are they slimming down to sell to someone like nvidia?
The VIA Nano CPU wasn't bad, it was sufficient for most workloads. The weakness of the VIA solutions have been the graphics drivers, they're ancient implementation. You can feel the late 90s in them from limited resolution support to constant crashes (at least on XP). I think I was trying to get a Nano ITX solution to run at 1280 x 720, but it just wouldn't do it. Had to run it at 1280 x 1024 or 1024 x 768. Tried using Powerstrip but still didn't get me the resolution I wanted.
I had the Trio64 on VLB with a 486 DX4-120. I could actually play Wing Commander 3/4 (except for the ground missions) at a decent framerate.
S3 ViRGE the world's first graphics decelerator.
At least, it had its own version of MDK.
You're still safe with that pin since the movie is a flop and it's definitely not going mainstream.
The only mutant powers I really want is the one from Philip K. Dick's "The Golden Man". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Man
I've been having problems with Dropbox using only the original uploaded TrueCrypt files and not any updates that I've made to it.
Sorry, I meant my statement along the line of "if you expect your customers to trust a 3rd party, then you should also trust a 3rd party." If Google thinks that location doesn't matter than they should store it with their competitors.
If that's the case why doesn't Google store its data with Amazon or Microsoft? I'm sure both Amazon and Microsoft will give Google a deal on data storage.
I'm not exactly holding off playing it. I just don't have the time to play games anymore. I just finished Bad Company 2. I still haven't finish Mass Effect 1.
Maybe it's time for MSFT to pay regular dividend. There's only so much growth possible given their size and they generate plenty of cash from Windows and Office. What's the saying from Buffet; "grow the company or give the money back to investors."
Nice try. Not a real name, randomly generated generic name :)
My girlfriend thinks I'm paranoid because I use cash just about everywhere except at Costco and online. The less "they" know about me the less likely they are to put in "nerd re-education camp." Or because "they" have so little information on me, I'm sticking out. hmmm... tough position.
It's how you spent it not how much you can buy with it. Skype was probably only worth $3B. Microsoft is acting like a newly rich basketball player by overpaying for needless stuff. Just because you can pay for something doesn't mean you should.
Charging their plug-ins? AC on 24/7 in hot states? I have friends in TX that leave their AC on pretty much throughout the summer. Or the obvious answer, lots of pot growing operations.
I'm going to call my girlfriend to tell her I love her because the world is definitely ending.