"Top Gear was a bit more scripted than it seemed" ? The last few seasons it was obviously scripted - I thought the Jerusalem special was too on-script, or the last crazy episode where they built emergency vehicles. The early days - sure it was all a setup - but they genuinely went off script. The script was a framework to help stay on track (like when they built their own caravans and Clarkson's was 3 stories tall and buffeted on the highway....cut to Capt Slow laughing his ass off).
Yeah the in studio stuff was scripted and sometimes it showed. But professional shows and humor needs that to be top quality. Listen to RadioLab - very engineered but considered to be one of the best radio/podcasts.
You're correct. It is a design issue. Lots of people are posting about "Luke: use the parking brake" but are missing the point. Safe by Design ! If you've never experienced this stick shift one doesn't understand how difficult and counterintuitive it is. Use the brake? The car should engage it for you. I rented a Dodge Charger with this stick in it. It's a joystick, a " + / - " to select gears. To select drive you pull , (release) pull, (release) pull. Then reverse is push forward, (release) push. and Park is one more (release) push forward. I remember more than once being confused about what gear I was in. Usually I found neutral when wanting D after backing out of a spot.
A human factors and UX engineer should have seen this. It is too obvious a design flaw. I think everyone saw this coming.
There is no opportunity for memory muscle. In my standard drive cars I can find any gear without looking because it is "right there." Over and up, or push down and forward (reverse) -- quick and easy to learn. Same with a classic Automatic. Whether column shift or on the floor - you can slide the stick to the correct position. And with my current Auto it has special stops to help designate certain gears...pulling back and it hangs up on Drive. Pressing forward and it hangs up on Neutral requiring a special button press/click to make Reverse and then again for Park. Easy to remember (even column shifts had this concept but different).
breaking news "computer geeks don't want to see ads" (says creator of adblock) -- although I think it is a universal sentiment.
You are so right. While the results are probably transitive the percentages might not be accurate.
I think of Netflix like, say HBO. I pay for ad-free content. Although HBO on cable has mini-ads prior to each show - advertising other HBO shows - which could be viewed as a service to customers "hey - check out these other great shows that you are paying for." I know Netflix was testing this out for small populations of users. But in the world of set-top streaming boxes where we view on-demand I'm not sure that model works the same. When the programing is schedule based you do need to let consumers know that Sports is on at 10PM. On-demand you scroll through content looking for Sports (now!).
They need to maintain engagement otherwise consumers believe there's nothing worth watching and discontinue service.
Me too!:-) I buy CDs from bands and the store and also have a small stack of LPs but haven't (re)purchased a turntable. Heck I don't own a CD player anymore - used to have a very high quality model but it died. And I have 4 HA CDs that I've played through the blu-ray player to "just to do it" - but it is a PITA and can only listen on the main stereo so isn't used often. If only I could RIP and place on my NAS for Sonos to pull from in all their HA glory.
But streaming still plays an important role. I use Pandora mostly to expand my collection, I can't afford to buy all known CDs. But it is like Netflix to me - rent what I don't want to own - entertain me now! Usually around Christmas to listen to a wider selection of holiday music or dinner time to listen to Frank Sinatra like music. Or styles of music to inflict taste on my kids as they get older - again to augment my music collection. And I've used the Pandora feature "buy on Amazon" more than once.
Pandora also for finding "new to me" bands when local tour stops are announced. I type in the band name and listen to the first track and whatever music "they" mix in to build a station. Then decide if I like the music before purchasing tickets. I see lots of bands I've never heard of this way - and then buy a Signed CD at the show.
At home my Sonos system plays from the high-quality CD rip - but most of my music listening is compressed on the phone. I ask myself why buy CD when 99% of listening is compressed? Then realize if I switched from say "Apple" to "Google" my music collection is transportable. I own it. Plus having a physical CD is nice just for the joy of sifting through them and looking at the pictures (hence why I still have some favorite LPs - I gave away most of them when CDs became the rage). I plan to let my kids touch them someday - the way I used to sift through my father's giant LP collection. Just pop them in and listen and explore.
Right - I think they got the purpose of the "roof" Snorkel wrong. But these guys are Bloggers and not Journalists.
Years ago I remember hearing a warning from a car manufacturer who stated that customers shouldn't drive through deep water because an Electrical engine component was on the bottom of the car. When this component was submerged it would burn out and shut down the engine - and it wasn't an easy replacement (meaning both the part and labor was expensive).
Most modern vehicles float. The Beetle has been doing it since the 1960's. And most can (obviously) hold water back through the door seals for a short period of time. Certainly vehicles like Jeep and Rover can (although with specific purpose in the design).
Hopefully the Tesla doesn't have any exposed circuitry that could be overwhelmed by submersion.
And boy - once a Tesla starts taking on water I'd imagine it'd sink like a lithum rock.
Unfortunately this type of accident isn't uncommon - it happened locally recently. In that case the car door was open and pushed them back - they caught a leg under the car when falling down and then the door continued to drag them down the driveway into some large immovable object (I think it was another car - can't remember the details). They couldn't get out of the way of the door and moving sideways wasn't an option because of a fence.
As the thread person points out. In the blink of an eye something so simple can cause such devastation. This is an awful tragedy.
I thought I wanted an integrated TV & PVR so that I could record shows from HBO/local-TV/any-cable-channel without having to pickup 3 remotes. Let Sony/Toshiba et al build a smarter ecosystem that competes against the cable box. I don't need to record Netflix.
But wait - do I want this set-top box to be able to play content from the cable companies streaming library (or instance - I can watch sports shows later via the Xfinity app). These too?
Seems that the cable company might be trying to change the request.
Just because I walk into a store doesn't mean I purchased the item in question. Although if the numbers of people entering a store increase one might draw a correlation.
But - they really need is A-B testing. Show a population A an ad, and B sees nothing. Then is there an increase for group A and visits to the store in question.
Someone else made a statement recently that Home Depot could see his purchases made in the real world and sent him a message (although not sure the connection ie "How" between the two was made). So if FB could connect it to sales as well -- then they could prove the ads work.
Compression? why - to compress all of those mp3 and mp4 video files? Or your TXT docs?
I was thinking that a current issue is the crypto-ransom stuff and that a FS needs to version on-demand. Sure everyone is *supposed* to have backups. I don't know what the Mac world is like but most PC folks I know do a file-copy to a USB drive (if they do anything at all). I'm not talking about what smart IT folks do - referring instead to general users.
How many people have a time machine? (and is that good enough?)
Yeah - I don't get it. Hotmail went nowhere. Is this supposed to be a social media "compete with FB" initiative? Rather than be consumer - be business social because that's more MS?
There have been attempts to bring "social media platforms" inside companies so that they can do collaborative work. But LinkedIn feels like Monster.
The one scenario they paint could have been implemented via an Office plugin. Meeting attendees to learn more about each other? There (was) a plugin for that (Xobni - defuncted by Yahoo).
I'd hope that the board made them prove that such a large acquisition makes sense.
Attacker needs to borrow phone, split it open, add a bunch of wires and jumpers, put phone back together -- and then the quality is such that few people understand the words spoken.
Great experiment - but I am missing the point. Sure is neat that this kind of device could be used. Might they instead extend the attack use a doorbell ringer or something?
I thought the world was running out of IPv4 and the internet was in dire straits. We must all move to the IPv6 lifeboats or drown in the sea of no-internet.
Hopefully this is a temporary problem/solution because Netflix is effectively shutting off Potential New Customers. "Thanks for joining the modern internet - sorry we can't service you today"
geolocating IPv6 --- hmmm.... an interesting problem. I guess it was easier when you only had to map 4 billion entries and the address scheme followed a pattern.
A fitness watch that does something useful - I'll call it bare basics -- for $23? That is disturbingly exciting. Hmm.... $300 Apple Watch, $23 generic. Even if they had to double the price before coming to the USA. If it had the basic features that people actually use companies like Apple could be in for a serious run for their money.
Now as others have mentioned apparently the software interface for these things leaves room for improvement (and maybe this is what Apple spends the $300 on). But if the dev world got hold of this and offered interfaces to, say, Under Armor's app (endomondo) - it could be a killer.
Right. What happens when they do manage to keep the candle lit?! Listen people - they have a rocket, and rocket fuel ! And a submarine (man I want one of those).
Give me a budget and a mission statement and I can get'r done. Imagine what a whole country can do?! I recall a few USA rockets failing to achieve orbit.
Of course I also have to wonder about 4 failures. Yes rockets are hard. But might their centrifuges be off balance?:-P
Right - thanks for asking that. I wasn't aware one could buy a non-smart TV. Seems like the OP is asking a strange and non-answerable question.
I already use my TV as a monitor plugged into a cinema system - which chains several devices (AppleTV, BlueRay, XBox etc).
Things is - market probably wants a smart TV. Most people probably don't bother buying these extras. Just take the box home, set it up, and bingo Netflix and/or Xfinity - maybe a Roku. Life is good. Pass the chips & dip.
I find it hard to believe people in the USA will ever get to 22GB / month. It will be a very slow climb - since AT&T and Verizon will slow everyone down - traffic growth will be unable to achieve this rate due to the high-pass filters. They just won't allow it - or will complain that customer use to much data !!!
Let's see - 22GB plan is what.... $2,500 / month? + $45 for each device I want to use.
While I agree with your sentiment - something being overpriced means "I wouldn't pay that much" Just because some "idiot" would pay that much doesn't mean it was a fair price.
I suppose it depends upon how many bidders there are. If there are 20 people who might want to buy it - but only 1 buys it - then it might have been too high a price.
Years ago a friend told me - when discussing setting prices for a tag sale - go on eBay to determine the value of something. It is like a commodities market and shows the price that the market will bear.
Yeah - that's what I came here to ask. I am NOT disclosing this to the 3rd Party. THEY are compiling this data on me.
How would I stop disclosing this information to the 3rd Party?
And is the phone company really a third party in this case? I have purchased a service contract through them - seems they are a First party. It isn't like my phone operates independently and I flip a switch that says "share with phone company." no no - it is all part of the system that they built, a side-effect of their technology.
3rd Party might be Google. Google Search app is Tracking my location and I can turn it off. Google is offering me an extra service that I do control - and compared to the phone company I would consider them 3rd Party. This isn't like the phone towers that are part of the network.
Very true....do we trust Roku/AppleTV/Chromecast to maintain the clean UI we all want? They have access to an ad network behind the scenes and silently suck up the data and put it to use. The world is tipping in the direction of non-stop advertising. There have been lots of crystal-ball fortunes told that ads will be everywhere - on walls, floors, your cellphone will popup locality based ads etc.
We've seen the movies and read the books - will our future really be this abysmal?
I use cash once in awhile hoping to stick it to the man.
I've been using it for a while. Overall a positive experience but with mixed feelings. Like anything - there are somethings to like and dislike. I have an "old" laptop (quad-core i7, 8 GB, ~5 years old). Visual Studio runs really nice (I'm a software developer).
Interestingly - under Windows 7 my machine would randomly reboot - just go black and reboot. For years I thought it was a hardware gone bad (it was fine when I bought it). One day the eSATA port started to report errors after long backups. Wifi throughput was unreliable - I figured the USB had gone bad. I had updated every driver I could find - searched error logs etc. Swapped RAM chips around. Thankfully & strangely - this problem has *not* occurred under Windows 10 (although I haven't tried eSATA yet).
Live Tiles - don't work on a laptop. I find them useless. Great idea for a mobile device - but sucker of pixel space on the big screen. They did solve the problem regarding non-touch UI split-brain that Win8 had. As a mouse/keyboard person Win10 works very similarly to Win7.
The "search" bar - having BING results (or Google) is less than useful. Since Win10 lacks a useful All-Programs menu, search is the only way to find programs (or scroll through 1000 live tiles). I want to launch Calculator... not BUY a calculator.
Overall I have a positive experience --- BUT in the back of my mind I am concerned that this is now an advertising platform. I worry what the future could be - and how to I buy my way out of it? So far it hasn't been a problem - so maybe I'm paranoid.
So while I like it - I have concerns. My next computer might actually be a Mac to go along with my growing iDevice farm. And with "Code" available on MacOS along with Xarmin/MS - my desktop OS may not be important.
The needle has moved too far to one side. MS has entered the era of "consumers are ad consumers" -- Windows 10 "spams" ads in the notification tray all the time. After upgrading to Win10 I was constantly presented with "Get Office365 today - cheap!" - like multiple times. Apparently the same team was in charge of Android platform too.
When I type in the name of a program in the Start-bar - my work computer (Win7) provides results nearly instantaneously. My home PC (similar horsepower) running Win10 balks because it is merging the Bing results with local results.
I just want to run Calculator damit - not Buy one!
I'm having similar experiences with my 5 year old Sony. The Netflix app is lame & slow by today's standards. These days my TV is just a monitor with an AppleTV/Amazon-thingy plugged into it. I'd be pissed if the TV suddenly started showing ads.
I learned this back in the 1970's as a kid watching the Betamax vs VHS wars. Betamax was sweet sounding. But it lost out. Instead buy everything as components (at least things that might last)... and if not a component buy it cheap so it isn't so painful when you throw it away.
Today my Sony has a single HDMI port in use -- all fed from a Cinema system which handles the video inputs from multiple sources. The Sony is used only to watch Rabbit Ear TV (OTA). Plus I've pulled out the USB Wifi adapter so I can use the Port to power the antenna. It hasn't connected to the internet in a year.
Slashdot Mirror
"Top Gear was a bit more scripted than it seemed" ? The last few seasons it was obviously scripted - I thought the Jerusalem special was too on-script, or the last crazy episode where they built emergency vehicles. The early days - sure it was all a setup - but they genuinely went off script. The script was a framework to help stay on track (like when they built their own caravans and Clarkson's was 3 stories tall and buffeted on the highway....cut to Capt Slow laughing his ass off).
Yeah the in studio stuff was scripted and sometimes it showed. But professional shows and humor needs that to be top quality. Listen to RadioLab - very engineered but considered to be one of the best radio/podcasts.
You're correct. It is a design issue. Lots of people are posting about "Luke: use the parking brake" but are missing the point. Safe by Design ! If you've never experienced this stick shift one doesn't understand how difficult and counterintuitive it is. Use the brake? The car should engage it for you. I rented a Dodge Charger with this stick in it. It's a joystick, a " + / - " to select gears. To select drive you pull , (release) pull, (release) pull. Then reverse is push forward, (release) push. and Park is one more (release) push forward. I remember more than once being confused about what gear I was in. Usually I found neutral when wanting D after backing out of a spot.
A human factors and UX engineer should have seen this. It is too obvious a design flaw. I think everyone saw this coming.
There is no opportunity for memory muscle. In my standard drive cars I can find any gear without looking because it is "right there." Over and up, or push down and forward (reverse) -- quick and easy to learn. Same with a classic Automatic. Whether column shift or on the floor - you can slide the stick to the correct position. And with my current Auto it has special stops to help designate certain gears...pulling back and it hangs up on Drive. Pressing forward and it hangs up on Neutral requiring a special button press/click to make Reverse and then again for Park. Easy to remember (even column shifts had this concept but different).
breaking news "computer geeks don't want to see ads" (says creator of adblock) -- although I think it is a universal sentiment.
You are so right. While the results are probably transitive the percentages might not be accurate.
I think of Netflix like, say HBO. I pay for ad-free content. Although HBO on cable has mini-ads prior to each show - advertising other HBO shows - which could be viewed as a service to customers "hey - check out these other great shows that you are paying for." I know Netflix was testing this out for small populations of users. But in the world of set-top streaming boxes where we view on-demand I'm not sure that model works the same. When the programing is schedule based you do need to let consumers know that Sports is on at 10PM. On-demand you scroll through content looking for Sports (now!).
They need to maintain engagement otherwise consumers believe there's nothing worth watching and discontinue service.
okay - you got me :-P
I was of course playing to the notion that Tesla's are said to be very very heavy.
Me too! :-) I buy CDs from bands and the store and also have a small stack of LPs but haven't (re)purchased a turntable. Heck I don't own a CD player anymore - used to have a very high quality model but it died. And I have 4 HA CDs that I've played through the blu-ray player to "just to do it" - but it is a PITA and can only listen on the main stereo so isn't used often. If only I could RIP and place on my NAS for Sonos to pull from in all their HA glory.
But streaming still plays an important role. I use Pandora mostly to expand my collection, I can't afford to buy all known CDs. But it is like Netflix to me - rent what I don't want to own - entertain me now! Usually around Christmas to listen to a wider selection of holiday music or dinner time to listen to Frank Sinatra like music. Or styles of music to inflict taste on my kids as they get older - again to augment my music collection. And I've used the Pandora feature "buy on Amazon" more than once.
Pandora also for finding "new to me" bands when local tour stops are announced. I type in the band name and listen to the first track and whatever music "they" mix in to build a station. Then decide if I like the music before purchasing tickets. I see lots of bands I've never heard of this way - and then buy a Signed CD at the show.
At home my Sonos system plays from the high-quality CD rip - but most of my music listening is compressed on the phone. I ask myself why buy CD when 99% of listening is compressed? Then realize if I switched from say "Apple" to "Google" my music collection is transportable. I own it. Plus having a physical CD is nice just for the joy of sifting through them and looking at the pictures (hence why I still have some favorite LPs - I gave away most of them when CDs became the rage). I plan to let my kids touch them someday - the way I used to sift through my father's giant LP collection. Just pop them in and listen and explore.
Right - I think they got the purpose of the "roof" Snorkel wrong. But these guys are Bloggers and not Journalists.
Years ago I remember hearing a warning from a car manufacturer who stated that customers shouldn't drive through deep water because an Electrical engine component was on the bottom of the car. When this component was submerged it would burn out and shut down the engine - and it wasn't an easy replacement (meaning both the part and labor was expensive).
Most modern vehicles float. The Beetle has been doing it since the 1960's. And most can (obviously) hold water back through the door seals for a short period of time. Certainly vehicles like Jeep and Rover can (although with specific purpose in the design).
Hopefully the Tesla doesn't have any exposed circuitry that could be overwhelmed by submersion.
And boy - once a Tesla starts taking on water I'd imagine it'd sink like a lithum rock.
Unfortunately this type of accident isn't uncommon - it happened locally recently. In that case the car door was open and pushed them back - they caught a leg under the car when falling down and then the door continued to drag them down the driveway into some large immovable object (I think it was another car - can't remember the details). They couldn't get out of the way of the door and moving sideways wasn't an option because of a fence.
As the thread person points out. In the blink of an eye something so simple can cause such devastation. This is an awful tragedy.
the ability to "record" streaming content?
I thought I wanted an integrated TV & PVR so that I could record shows from HBO/local-TV/any-cable-channel without having to pickup 3 remotes. Let Sony/Toshiba et al build a smarter ecosystem that competes against the cable box. I don't need to record Netflix.
But wait - do I want this set-top box to be able to play content from the cable companies streaming library (or instance - I can watch sports shows later via the Xfinity app). These too?
Seems that the cable company might be trying to change the request.
Just because I walk into a store doesn't mean I purchased the item in question. Although if the numbers of people entering a store increase one might draw a correlation.
But - they really need is A-B testing. Show a population A an ad, and B sees nothing. Then is there an increase for group A and visits to the store in question.
Someone else made a statement recently that Home Depot could see his purchases made in the real world and sent him a message (although not sure the connection ie "How" between the two was made). So if FB could connect it to sales as well -- then they could prove the ads work.
Compression? why - to compress all of those mp3 and mp4 video files? Or your TXT docs?
I was thinking that a current issue is the crypto-ransom stuff and that a FS needs to version on-demand. Sure everyone is *supposed* to have backups. I don't know what the Mac world is like but most PC folks I know do a file-copy to a USB drive (if they do anything at all). I'm not talking about what smart IT folks do - referring instead to general users.
How many people have a time machine? (and is that good enough?)
Yeah - I don't get it. Hotmail went nowhere. Is this supposed to be a social media "compete with FB" initiative? Rather than be consumer - be business social because that's more MS?
There have been attempts to bring "social media platforms" inside companies so that they can do collaborative work. But LinkedIn feels like Monster.
The one scenario they paint could have been implemented via an Office plugin. Meeting attendees to learn more about each other? There (was) a plugin for that (Xobni - defuncted by Yahoo).
I'd hope that the board made them prove that such a large acquisition makes sense.
Attacker needs to borrow phone, split it open, add a bunch of wires and jumpers, put phone back together -- and then the quality is such that few people understand the words spoken.
Great experiment - but I am missing the point. Sure is neat that this kind of device could be used. Might they instead extend the attack use a doorbell ringer or something?
I thought the world was running out of IPv4 and the internet was in dire straits. We must all move to the IPv6 lifeboats or drown in the sea of no-internet.
Hopefully this is a temporary problem/solution because Netflix is effectively shutting off Potential New Customers. "Thanks for joining the modern internet - sorry we can't service you today"
geolocating IPv6 --- hmmm.... an interesting problem. I guess it was easier when you only had to map 4 billion entries and the address scheme followed a pattern.
yes and - where was the Collision Avoidance system in all of this? I understand that maybe it can't see the back of a flatbed truck... but a Wall?
But I suggest that these analyses receive independent review. We are all willing to take the Tesla word for it as final.
A fitness watch that does something useful - I'll call it bare basics -- for $23? That is disturbingly exciting. Hmm.... $300 Apple Watch, $23 generic. Even if they had to double the price before coming to the USA. If it had the basic features that people actually use companies like Apple could be in for a serious run for their money.
Now as others have mentioned apparently the software interface for these things leaves room for improvement (and maybe this is what Apple spends the $300 on). But if the dev world got hold of this and offered interfaces to, say, Under Armor's app (endomondo) - it could be a killer.
Right. What happens when they do manage to keep the candle lit?! Listen people - they have a rocket, and rocket fuel ! And a submarine (man I want one of those).
Give me a budget and a mission statement and I can get'r done. Imagine what a whole country can do?! I recall a few USA rockets failing to achieve orbit.
Of course I also have to wonder about 4 failures. Yes rockets are hard. But might their centrifuges be off balance? :-P
Right - thanks for asking that. I wasn't aware one could buy a non-smart TV. Seems like the OP is asking a strange and non-answerable question.
I already use my TV as a monitor plugged into a cinema system - which chains several devices (AppleTV, BlueRay, XBox etc).
Things is - market probably wants a smart TV. Most people probably don't bother buying these extras. Just take the box home, set it up, and bingo Netflix and/or Xfinity - maybe a Roku. Life is good. Pass the chips & dip.
I find it hard to believe people in the USA will ever get to 22GB / month. It will be a very slow climb - since AT&T and Verizon will slow everyone down - traffic growth will be unable to achieve this rate due to the high-pass filters. They just won't allow it - or will complain that customer use to much data !!!
Let's see - 22GB plan is what.... $2,500 / month? + $45 for each device I want to use.
While I agree with your sentiment - something being overpriced means "I wouldn't pay that much" Just because some "idiot" would pay that much doesn't mean it was a fair price.
I suppose it depends upon how many bidders there are. If there are 20 people who might want to buy it - but only 1 buys it - then it might have been too high a price.
Years ago a friend told me - when discussing setting prices for a tag sale - go on eBay to determine the value of something. It is like a commodities market and shows the price that the market will bear.
Yeah - that's what I came here to ask. I am NOT disclosing this to the 3rd Party. THEY are compiling this data on me.
How would I stop disclosing this information to the 3rd Party?
And is the phone company really a third party in this case? I have purchased a service contract through them - seems they are a First party. It isn't like my phone operates independently and I flip a switch that says "share with phone company." no no - it is all part of the system that they built, a side-effect of their technology.
3rd Party might be Google. Google Search app is Tracking my location and I can turn it off. Google is offering me an extra service that I do control - and compared to the phone company I would consider them 3rd Party. This isn't like the phone towers that are part of the network.
oh good - my Tinfoil hat will have a future use !!!!
and my wife keeps telling me to throw it out. I keep saying, "someday you'll see - you'll see I was right!!!"
Very true. ...do we trust Roku/AppleTV/Chromecast to maintain the clean UI we all want? They have access to an ad network behind the scenes and silently suck up the data and put it to use. The world is tipping in the direction of non-stop advertising. There have been lots of crystal-ball fortunes told that ads will be everywhere - on walls, floors, your cellphone will popup locality based ads etc.
We've seen the movies and read the books - will our future really be this abysmal?
I use cash once in awhile hoping to stick it to the man.
I've been using it for a while. Overall a positive experience but with mixed feelings. Like anything - there are somethings to like and dislike. I have an "old" laptop (quad-core i7, 8 GB, ~5 years old). Visual Studio runs really nice (I'm a software developer).
Interestingly - under Windows 7 my machine would randomly reboot - just go black and reboot. For years I thought it was a hardware gone bad (it was fine when I bought it). One day the eSATA port started to report errors after long backups. Wifi throughput was unreliable - I figured the USB had gone bad. I had updated every driver I could find - searched error logs etc. Swapped RAM chips around. Thankfully & strangely - this problem has *not* occurred under Windows 10 (although I haven't tried eSATA yet).
Live Tiles - don't work on a laptop. I find them useless. Great idea for a mobile device - but sucker of pixel space on the big screen. They did solve the problem regarding non-touch UI split-brain that Win8 had. As a mouse/keyboard person Win10 works very similarly to Win7.
The "search" bar - having BING results (or Google) is less than useful. Since Win10 lacks a useful All-Programs menu, search is the only way to find programs (or scroll through 1000 live tiles). I want to launch Calculator... not BUY a calculator.
Overall I have a positive experience --- BUT in the back of my mind I am concerned that this is now an advertising platform. I worry what the future could be - and how to I buy my way out of it? So far it hasn't been a problem - so maybe I'm paranoid.
So while I like it - I have concerns. My next computer might actually be a Mac to go along with my growing iDevice farm. And with "Code" available on MacOS along with Xarmin/MS - my desktop OS may not be important.
The needle has moved too far to one side. MS has entered the era of "consumers are ad consumers" -- Windows 10 "spams" ads in the notification tray all the time. After upgrading to Win10 I was constantly presented with "Get Office365 today - cheap!" - like multiple times. Apparently the same team was in charge of Android platform too.
When I type in the name of a program in the Start-bar - my work computer (Win7) provides results nearly instantaneously. My home PC (similar horsepower) running Win10 balks because it is merging the Bing results with local results.
I just want to run Calculator damit - not Buy one!
I'm having similar experiences with my 5 year old Sony. The Netflix app is lame & slow by today's standards. These days my TV is just a monitor with an AppleTV/Amazon-thingy plugged into it. I'd be pissed if the TV suddenly started showing ads.
I learned this back in the 1970's as a kid watching the Betamax vs VHS wars. Betamax was sweet sounding. But it lost out. Instead buy everything as components (at least things that might last)... and if not a component buy it cheap so it isn't so painful when you throw it away.
Today my Sony has a single HDMI port in use -- all fed from a Cinema system which handles the video inputs from multiple sources. The Sony is used only to watch Rabbit Ear TV (OTA). Plus I've pulled out the USB Wifi adapter so I can use the Port to power the antenna. It hasn't connected to the internet in a year.