I think you need to take a closer look at the latest generation of CULV ultra-portables. I get 8 hours of battery life out of my Core2, which means most days I simply take the laptop and a bluetooth mouse in a neoprine bag. If you want a larger laptop (10"-12") you can stretch the battery life out to 10-12 hours.
Longer battery life does indeed completely change usage, but this is not limited to the iPad.
Boost is an absolutely incredible library, and any C++ programmer who doesn't use it is probably missing out. That being said, if you know ACE (i.e. have made it past the pretty steep learning curve) then ACE gives you more options. Boost's thread library is pretty great, but they simply don't have as fine control over primitives. There are also many things that you can do in ACE that you simply can't do in boost easily -- such as non-static pooled allocators.
Unless I am completely missing something, there is also no equivalent to the TAO in Boost.
I work on performance critical C++ code (yes, there really is such a thing) and we pretty much use ACE for anything involving IPC, sockets, or Threading -- and boost for everything else. That being said, the boost ASIO, thread, IPC, and Intrusive libraries are so easy to use compared to their ACE counterparts that unless performance is critical or boost simply isn't enough -- there isn't much use in learning ACE from scratch.
Sins of a Solar Empire by Stardock. DRM free, doesn't even nag you for a CD.
This is a spiritual successor to Homeworld. It's a 3D space RTS where the scale is truly epic, the largest battlefields involve dozens of solar systems with hundreds of planets and thousands of ships. The UI has been tweaked and polished to let you easily manage fleets and planet resources on this scale. It's incredibly impressive.
If you loved the Homeworld series you should check it out. RTS fans would love it as well.
The only downside, at least for me, is there is no campaign. Instead you have a series of scenarios. There is a vibrant multilayer community, which plays something like a very aggressive variant of Civilization, since infrastructure is incredibly important but unlike Civ the attacker is almost always at the advantage.
I wasn't too surprised to read this thread, but coke and weed? Come on . . .
There are a lot of pro poker players who are known to pop Ritalin before big tournaments to keep their focus, most of the time gotten perfectly legally.
I could assume it would also help a lot with computer gamers, especially RTS players.
While it's nice to know the technical reasons for problem, it still does not answer why they failed to take note of this problem when it was originally reported and discussed on the beta server's message board two days before the expansion hit the live servers.
First, for those that don't know how testing in EVE works, every build of the game first goes up on "SiSi," which is a test server completely open to any subscriber. Because of the brutal nature of the game SiSi is a vital resource, because not knowing precisely how new game mechanics work combined with EVE's brutal nature can lead to losses of virtual assets worth several thousand real life dollars.
Apparently, this bug was first reported by SiSi users on Monday, or two days before the patch went live. The post is the 8th reply in this thread. The response is pretty amusing.
Second, the official CCP responses are out. First, we have the company's release:
UPDATE ON BOOT.INI PREMIUM UPGRADE ISSUE
reported by CCP kieron | 2007.12.06 18:48:22 | NEW
Shortly after the Trinity upgrade went public, an issue was discovered concerning the premium graphics update, an optional feature available to those with compatible hardware and software. Apparently this resulted in a number of users experienced difficulty loading some programs on their PCs.
We immediately took action to prevent this problem from spreading and took every measure available to ensure that all users became aware of the issue and the simple steps needed to correct it.
Despite the actions taken on our part to guarantee a playable experience for all users, certain individuals began posting thousands of complaints on the official Eve Online discussion board. This deluge also happened to coincide with the December 6th holiday, ensuring minimal presence of an already overworked staff that looked forward to a well-earned break. I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to all CCP employees who spent their morning dealing with these complaints, whatever their merit.
In addition to the software complaints, many players have unfortunately made statements regarding the necessity of disciplinary action toward the developers responsible for the boot.ini oversight. I want to make one thing clear. No one is going to be fired in response to these glitches. The developer who signed off on the premium upgrade installer received a stern talking-to in the summer of 2006, and it has always been our policy not to punish an employee more than once. However, he has asked me to allow him to directly address the concerned customers and will do so in the devblog here: http://myeve.eve-online.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1689&tid=1&sid=1059215547
Pretty standard PR speak, however the dev responsible, T20, posted a response which in many ways is downright scary in its hubris. For those who don't know, this is the same dev that was caught cheating and set off the huge scandal a couple months ago.
AN APOLOGY CONCERNING THE BOOT.INI CONFUSION
reported by CCP t20 | 2007.12.06 19:01:08 | NEW
The last several hours have been difficult for me, as I was required at the last moment to cancel a vacation that I have been planning for several weeks. But I feel it is important to address the problems that have arisen, regardless of whose fault they may ultimately turn out to be.
I also want to express my sincerest regrets for the inconvenience associated with these events, although the glitch only affected a small minority of systems and even those which were affected could be fixed with no permanent damage in a matter of minutes with a quick fix familiar to all those who routinely maintain their systems. I am particularly disappointed by the effect this has had on users who, for reasons of their own, neglected to keep their Windows XP recovery CD with their equipment. I know that there are many of you who did not purchase a pirated copy of Windows but still had trouble of this nature. It is unfortunate that all of these factors combined to form a "perfect storm" of difficulties.
Most of all, I want
I would do better research if you would provide complete information.
Robert Piece is not president of Shell USA as you claimed, he is president of Shell Trading, which appears to be a division of Shell USA. Shell USA's president is John Hofmeister according to their site, not your father. Robert Pierce isn't listed as a "senior leader" on their investor relation page.
As for Shell Intl., Robert Piece doesn't appear to be on their board of directors according to their investor relation site. If I am wrong, please provide a link.
It should also be noted, that in the real, world, they did agree to pay thirty million dollars. I don't see how anything after that first sentance you wrote changes the fact that they are now liable for quite a bit of money.
Some interesting precident. International patent applications can be filed in the US under the PCT -- Patent Cooperation Treaty. On aspect of patent law is that a patent can be divided up into multiple patents by the examiner if it is found to violate certain rules. The US follows a standard described as "independent and distinct," the EPO (and the wording in the PCT) follows a standard called "unity of invention." They are very different.
The USPTO used to restrict applications filed under the PCT using their own "independent and distinct" standard, until an international applicant appealed. It went up to the federal circuit, where it was ruled that it must be restircted under the "unity of invention" standard. The Supreme Court refused to review.
The unity standard is a *MUCH* looser standard then ours. As an interesting consequence, many companies now file Patent Applications via the PCT in the United States even if they reside in the US to get the less strict standard (as well as some other legal loopholes that exist in PCT-land). Essentially they chose to be held to international law because they find it favorable to domestic law in specific cases.
I've always wondered how many other areas people can pick-and-choose what standard to be held to like this.
>> You also didn't answer my questions. Why aren't you playing a paladin? You obviously think highly of their abilities.
Reread my post -- I've tried paladins, I found them boring.
>> Have you heard from any alliance raiding guilds? They say the exact opposite.
I play Alliance.
>> It's undisputed on the alliance side that shamans are better than paladins.
I have yet to find a serious alliance raiding guild that would rather have Shaman then Paladins. In fact, in our own guild when were discussion how many slots we would give to shaman if we had 60 shaman right now -- the general consensus was two -- one warlock and one hunter.
As for Undisputed, here is a quote From Klean of "Death & Taxes," currently the guild that has progressed the furthest in Naxx:
I'm pretty sure a majority of us agree that Pallies > Shamans in PvE by far. In PvP, it's debatable. The problem with paladins in PvP is all of their spells are holy. If you counterspell during a cast, you are looking at a useless paladin for the next 10 secs.
Unlike Shaman, where you CS a lightning, you can still cast heals (dunno why, since they both nature, unless they fixed that).
Also, Shaman purge is one of the strongest skills in the game imo.
I'm sure a lot of us would change factions if they let us keep our gear:P. Just because horde is fun and we've been playing Alli forever.
>>I'll ask you what I've asked others in the past: If [insert class here] is overpowered, then why don't you play one?
Where did I ever say overpowered? Paladins are flat out better then Shaman for Raid PVE, if you disagree post a counterargument instead of a taunt.
As for why I don't play one -- it's because I've tried and found them boring.
>>If you're so knowledgable about WoW class balance, then how come what is obvious to you isn't obvious to the developers? Shouldn't the people who created the game (and know it better than you or I) be able to tell which class needs to be upgraded/downgraded?
Because class balance is hard. It's almost undisputed in raiding guilds that Paladin are much more powerful then Shaman. How to fix this without fundementally changing either class is very hard. Blessings are just flat out better then Totems in their current incarnation and it would be hard to fix without fundemntally changing the classes.
I play WoW a lot more then I care to admit, and am in a fairly high level raiding guild and keep up with the others.
At this level, it's pretty much a given that Paladins are overpowered. Let me try to explain:
1. PvE
Paladins completly skew almost every raid encounter to the game to the alliance because Blessings are ridicluous compared to totems. 10% Buff to every stat of every player. 30% reduction of threat. Savaltion's 30% to raid compared to Tranquil Air's 20% to party is no contest, ignoring the fact you must give up windfury to get it. Blessing of Kings just flat out makes things easier. An extra 1200 health to your MT, an extra 1K mana to your healers, and in addition it stacks with consumables.
Blessing of Wisdom also is just flat out Superior to Mana Spring Totem. Not only does it hit everyone (which is much more important then people think -- 40/5 on your DPS mana classes significantly increases raid DPS) but it's flat out more mana.
Now add the fact Paladin heals are more mana efficent and cause less threat. Also the fact horde have no equivalent to Blessing of Protection which is *HUGE* in Naxx.
Noone in their right mind argues that Shaman can touch Paladins in PvE.
PvP (Group):
Paladins are healers in plate that can make themselves and their friends invincible. I've played Battlegrounds on both sides and there is nothing more frustrating in the game then seeing a Paladin + Warrior combo coming at your team.
PvP (Individual):
This is the only place where Shaman have any advantage over Paladins.
WoW right now is a PvE game -- Matrix and DKs have take any incentive out of world PvP on PvP servers, and I have no idea what it's like on PvE but it can't be better. In PvE Paladins are king, and at this point that is pretty much undesputed by raiding guilds.
I think I would argue Photoshop is a lot more intuitive then GIMP.
One of the very first things I learned to do in Photoshop was to draw a line? How did I figure this out? Clicked on the button that looked like a line, clicked, oh wow look, a line!
How did I figure out this same procedure in GIMP? By looking it up. There was no intuitive way to create a simple line.
I personally love the google ads, I'll give you a quick example on how I use them.
I am currently moving from DC to Chicago, and need some moving boxes. The local moving places want $3-$5 per box, which is insane. I just tossed "moving boxes" into google, perused the adds, and got a much better deal then I could locally with 1-day shipping.
If the companies are willing to buy a google ad I assume the relevancy is extreemly high, and acts as a natural filter for the search results. I've done this with many other generic items that arn't worth too much of my time to bargin-find and it works extreemly well.
A common misconception about the USPTO -- they don't get money from the government, they make money FOR the government. Maybe is the full application fee went to the USPTO instead of appropriations raiding it for other stuff examanations would be better.
Their hourly quota is 10g by the way, about $0.88 for the end user to buy, and at those wages they appear to have a decent life. They work either 3 or 2 shift schedules (12/8 hour days), and some of them actuially bust their ass to earn 160g in 8 hours and spend the rest of the time actuially playing if they can find a guild to take them. Two farmers I'm aware that do this are Moong on Kel'Thuzald who groups with goons (Banana Syndicate, The Goon Squad, old school Pacifist) and ChuiChiu, who I really don't know much about but apparently is some kind of legend on the server he's on.
These farmers have a huge effect on the game though. They are unavoidable, and because of the language barrier they completly ignore many social constructs of MMRPG's and annoy players greatly. If your a 60 Mage in WoW, and anywhere near EPL or get unlucky in IF, a chinese farmer will literally latch on to you and won't go away until you provide him food (for non wow players, these allow them to farm MUCH more efficently). Others take more drastic approaches. Some people "adopt" farmers, try to teach them how to behave, and deck them out in set pieces and take them on runs. Others, at least on PvP servers, get in touch with the opposite faction and lead them to where the farmers are to exterminte them.
Like many around here, I have stacks and stacks of RPG's that I've played through (and still playing, just picked up Dragon Quarter) through my life, but I just cannot understand why people put this guy on a pedestal. While a lot of his music is good, a lot of it is essentially elevator music. Also, have you heard some of the stuff that he has put out seperate from video games? I once gave a listen to his album 'Phantasmagoria,' and it was quite awful . . .
You know what, I am sick of people quoting dictionary or webster or whatever every time the word hacker is used by someone in a way they deem inapproiate. Do you really think the general public thinks (2) when they hear the word hacker, or something more like what the parent describes? Guess what, if you answered correct, then the dictionary needs to be changed, not the general public view. That's the way the english language works. Get over it already.
About the tablet PC, every CS professor at Purdue University got a free tablet PC from microsoft, as well as a donation of enough for a class dedicated to table pc applications (more info : http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/cmh/490T/). I believe microsoft also donated a couple hundred (!) PocketPC's for Purdue's e-stadium project. I wouldn't read too much into the fact he owns a tablet.
Think back to around 1994/95... It wasn't unusual to have an unfirewalled computer with a static IP address sitting on the net. We used to ping-flood people we didn't like while playing Quake. Maybe even throw a WinNuke their way if they got nasty. Whatever, it was the Wild West, no laws, no morality, everything was free and fun. Looking back on that behavior, it was pretty immature and irresponsible, but we were just playing with the new technology.
Ok, intersting premise . ..
Fast forward almost a decade to now, and computers sit behind hardware firewalls with dynamic IP addresses, are assigned rotating NAT internal addresses, run virus protection and spyware removal softwares, must be constantly patched to fix security holes, and people are innundated with corporate media and SPAM.
OK who could have predicted all this back then? Sure some had the ideas that it was coming, but not like this. We lost what was the Original Internet, a thing of innocence and freedom. Much of what bound it together was trust. That's gone.
You know what? We didn't lose our innocence and freedom. It's just people are a lot more aware of people like you, and now are better able to defend themselves. If you jump to cira 1994, your going to get some old fogie giving you the exact same schpiel "Oh, back in the old days we used to go around and check out boxes and it was all good fun, but now all these damn script kiddies with their ping of deaths and icmp flood tools are ruining everything." You know what? I bet in 10 years all the owners of the zombie nets going around now are going to be going on about their whistful but inconsequential attacks while now "those evil hackers in XXX ruined everything by doing XXX." You remember the internet as more innocent because you were more innocent, not because it necessarly was.
I know that you did mention they are cheaper elsewhere, but does anyone else find it almost criminal to sell a standard keyboard with the only modificaiton being REALLY LARGE LETTERS at a $100 premium, especially consdering the market?
Slashdot Mirror
I think you need to take a closer look at the latest generation of CULV ultra-portables. I get 8 hours of battery life out of my Core2, which means most days I simply take the laptop and a bluetooth mouse in a neoprine bag. If you want a larger laptop (10"-12") you can stretch the battery life out to 10-12 hours.
Longer battery life does indeed completely change usage, but this is not limited to the iPad.
Boost is an absolutely incredible library, and any C++ programmer who doesn't use it is probably missing out. That being said, if you know ACE (i.e. have made it past the pretty steep learning curve) then ACE gives you more options. Boost's thread library is pretty great, but they simply don't have as fine control over primitives. There are also many things that you can do in ACE that you simply can't do in boost easily -- such as non-static pooled allocators.
Unless I am completely missing something, there is also no equivalent to the TAO in Boost.
I work on performance critical C++ code (yes, there really is such a thing) and we pretty much use ACE for anything involving IPC, sockets, or Threading -- and boost for everything else. That being said, the boost ASIO, thread, IPC, and Intrusive libraries are so easy to use compared to their ACE counterparts that unless performance is critical or boost simply isn't enough -- there isn't much use in learning ACE from scratch.
Sins of a Solar Empire by Stardock. DRM free, doesn't even nag you for a CD.
This is a spiritual successor to Homeworld. It's a 3D space RTS where the scale is truly epic, the largest battlefields involve dozens of solar systems with hundreds of planets and thousands of ships. The UI has been tweaked and polished to let you easily manage fleets and planet resources on this scale. It's incredibly impressive.
If you loved the Homeworld series you should check it out. RTS fans would love it as well.
The only downside, at least for me, is there is no campaign. Instead you have a series of scenarios. There is a vibrant multilayer community, which plays something like a very aggressive variant of Civilization, since infrastructure is incredibly important but unlike Civ the attacker is almost always at the advantage.
link
I wasn't too surprised to read this thread, but coke and weed? Come on . . .
There are a lot of pro poker players who are known to pop Ritalin before big tournaments to keep their focus, most of the time gotten perfectly legally.
I could assume it would also help a lot with computer gamers, especially RTS players.
While it's nice to know the technical reasons for problem, it still does not answer why they failed to take note of this problem when it was originally reported and discussed on the beta server's message board two days before the expansion hit the live servers.
It's in the eight post of this thread.
Second, the official CCP responses are out. First, we have the company's release:
Pretty standard PR speak, however the dev responsible, T20, posted a response which in many ways is downright scary in its hubris. For those who don't know, this is the same dev that was caught cheating and set off the huge scandal a couple months ago.
For a long time if I saw an interesting Slashdot story, I knew it was inevitable that it would end up on the frontpage of Digg.
This is the first time I've seen it in reverse.
Regarding #8, I would actually be curious to see that list. It's also measurable, unlike the rest of the above.
I would do better research if you would provide complete information.
Robert Piece is not president of Shell USA as you claimed, he is president of Shell Trading, which appears to be a division of Shell USA. Shell USA's president is John Hofmeister according to their site, not your father. Robert Pierce isn't listed as a "senior leader" on their investor relation page.
As for Shell Intl., Robert Piece doesn't appear to be on their board of directors according to their investor relation site. If I am wrong, please provide a link.
That's nice, except neither position exists.
o r-en&FC2=/investor-en/html/iwgen/company_informati on/group_managing_directors/zzz_lhn.html&FC3=/inve stor-en/html/iwgen/company_information/group_manag ing_directors/dir_group_managing_directors_2609200 3.html
Link to the board of directors :
http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=invest
It should also be noted, that in the real, world, they did agree to pay thirty million dollars. I don't see how anything after that first sentance you wrote changes the fact that they are now liable for quite a bit of money.
Or . . . you could be playing WoW!
Seriously, entertainment is entertainment. The grouping of it into "Good" and "Bad" categories is pointless.
Some interesting precident. International patent applications can be filed in the US under the PCT -- Patent Cooperation Treaty. On aspect of patent law is that a patent can be divided up into multiple patents by the examiner if it is found to violate certain rules. The US follows a standard described as "independent and distinct," the EPO (and the wording in the PCT) follows a standard called "unity of invention." They are very different.
The USPTO used to restrict applications filed under the PCT using their own "independent and distinct" standard, until an international applicant appealed. It went up to the federal circuit, where it was ruled that it must be restircted under the "unity of invention" standard. The Supreme Court refused to review.
The unity standard is a *MUCH* looser standard then ours. As an interesting consequence, many companies now file Patent Applications via the PCT in the United States even if they reside in the US to get the less strict standard (as well as some other legal loopholes that exist in PCT-land). Essentially they chose to be held to international law because they find it favorable to domestic law in specific cases.
I've always wondered how many other areas people can pick-and-choose what standard to be held to like this.
Reread my post -- I've tried paladins, I found them boring.
>> Have you heard from any alliance raiding guilds? They say the exact opposite.
I play Alliance.
>> It's undisputed on the alliance side that shamans are better than paladins.
I have yet to find a serious alliance raiding guild that would rather have Shaman then Paladins. In fact, in our own guild when were discussion how many slots we would give to shaman if we had 60 shaman right now -- the general consensus was two -- one warlock and one hunter.
As for Undisputed, here is a quote From Klean of "Death & Taxes," currently the guild that has progressed the furthest in Naxx:
>>I'll ask you what I've asked others in the past: If [insert class here] is overpowered, then why don't you play one?
Where did I ever say overpowered? Paladins are flat out better then Shaman for Raid PVE, if you disagree post a counterargument instead of a taunt.
As for why I don't play one -- it's because I've tried and found them boring.
>>If you're so knowledgable about WoW class balance, then how come what is obvious to you isn't obvious to the developers? Shouldn't the people who created the game (and know it better than you or I) be able to tell which class needs to be upgraded/downgraded?
Because class balance is hard. It's almost undisputed in raiding guilds that Paladin are much more powerful then Shaman. How to fix this without fundementally changing either class is very hard. Blessings are just flat out better then Totems in their current incarnation and it would be hard to fix without fundemntally changing the classes.
I play WoW a lot more then I care to admit, and am in a fairly high level raiding guild and keep up with the others.
At this level, it's pretty much a given that Paladins are overpowered. Let me try to explain:
1. PvE
Paladins completly skew almost every raid encounter to the game to the alliance because Blessings are ridicluous compared to totems. 10% Buff to every stat of every player. 30% reduction of threat. Savaltion's 30% to raid compared to Tranquil Air's 20% to party is no contest, ignoring the fact you must give up windfury to get it. Blessing of Kings just flat out makes things easier. An extra 1200 health to your MT, an extra 1K mana to your healers, and in addition it stacks with consumables.
Blessing of Wisdom also is just flat out Superior to Mana Spring Totem. Not only does it hit everyone (which is much more important then people think -- 40/5 on your DPS mana classes significantly increases raid DPS) but it's flat out more mana.
Now add the fact Paladin heals are more mana efficent and cause less threat. Also the fact horde have no equivalent to Blessing of Protection which is *HUGE* in Naxx.
Noone in their right mind argues that Shaman can touch Paladins in PvE.
PvP (Group):
Paladins are healers in plate that can make themselves and their friends invincible. I've played Battlegrounds on both sides and there is nothing more frustrating in the game then seeing a Paladin + Warrior combo coming at your team.
PvP (Individual):
This is the only place where Shaman have any advantage over Paladins.
WoW right now is a PvE game -- Matrix and DKs have take any incentive out of world PvP on PvP servers, and I have no idea what it's like on PvE but it can't be better. In PvE Paladins are king, and at this point that is pretty much undesputed by raiding guilds.
I think I would argue Photoshop is a lot more intuitive then GIMP.
One of the very first things I learned to do in Photoshop was to draw a line? How did I figure this out? Clicked on the button that looked like a line, clicked, oh wow look, a line!
How did I figure out this same procedure in GIMP? By looking it up. There was no intuitive way to create a simple line.
I personally love the google ads, I'll give you a quick example on how I use them.
I am currently moving from DC to Chicago, and need some moving boxes. The local moving places want $3-$5 per box, which is insane. I just tossed "moving boxes" into google, perused the adds, and got a much better deal then I could locally with 1-day shipping.
If the companies are willing to buy a google ad I assume the relevancy is extreemly high, and acts as a natural filter for the search results. I've done this with many other generic items that arn't worth too much of my time to bargin-find and it works extreemly well.
A common misconception about the USPTO -- they don't get money from the government, they make money FOR the government. Maybe is the full application fee went to the USPTO instead of appropriations raiding it for other stuff examanations would be better.
There are several companies out there, as the op aluded to, that sell gold. Here's an interesting story about them :
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815
Their hourly quota is 10g by the way, about $0.88 for the end user to buy, and at those wages they appear to have a decent life. They work either 3 or 2 shift schedules (12/8 hour days), and some of them actuially bust their ass to earn 160g in 8 hours and spend the rest of the time actuially playing if they can find a guild to take them. Two farmers I'm aware that do this are Moong on Kel'Thuzald who groups with goons (Banana Syndicate, The Goon Squad, old school Pacifist) and ChuiChiu, who I really don't know much about but apparently is some kind of legend on the server he's on.
These farmers have a huge effect on the game though. They are unavoidable, and because of the language barrier they completly ignore many social constructs of MMRPG's and annoy players greatly. If your a 60 Mage in WoW, and anywhere near EPL or get unlucky in IF, a chinese farmer will literally latch on to you and won't go away until you provide him food (for non wow players, these allow them to farm MUCH more efficently). Others take more drastic approaches. Some people "adopt" farmers, try to teach them how to behave, and deck them out in set pieces and take them on runs. Others, at least on PvP servers, get in touch with the opposite faction and lead them to where the farmers are to exterminte them.
Like many around here, I have stacks and stacks of RPG's that I've played through (and still playing, just picked up Dragon Quarter) through my life, but I just cannot understand why people put this guy on a pedestal. While a lot of his music is good, a lot of it is essentially elevator music. Also, have you heard some of the stuff that he has put out seperate from video games? I once gave a listen to his album 'Phantasmagoria,' and it was quite awful . . .
You know what, I am sick of people quoting dictionary or webster or whatever every time the word hacker is used by someone in a way they deem inapproiate. Do you really think the general public thinks (2) when they hear the word hacker, or something more like what the parent describes? Guess what, if you answered correct, then the dictionary needs to be changed, not the general public view. That's the way the english language works. Get over it already.
About the tablet PC, every CS professor at Purdue University got a free tablet PC from microsoft, as well as a donation of enough for a class dedicated to table pc applications (more info : http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/cmh/490T/). I believe microsoft also donated a couple hundred (!) PocketPC's for Purdue's e-stadium project. I wouldn't read too much into the fact he owns a tablet.
Ok, intersting premise . . .
Fast forward almost a decade to now, and computers sit behind hardware firewalls with dynamic IP addresses, are assigned rotating NAT internal addresses, run virus protection and spyware removal softwares, must be constantly patched to fix security holes, and people are innundated with corporate media and SPAM.
OK who could have predicted all this back then? Sure some had the ideas that it was coming, but not like this. We lost what was the Original Internet, a thing of innocence and freedom. Much of what bound it together was trust. That's gone.
You know what? We didn't lose our innocence and freedom. It's just people are a lot more aware of people like you, and now are better able to defend themselves. If you jump to cira 1994, your going to get some old fogie giving you the exact same schpiel "Oh, back in the old days we used to go around and check out boxes and it was all good fun, but now all these damn script kiddies with their ping of deaths and icmp flood tools are ruining everything." You know what? I bet in 10 years all the owners of the zombie nets going around now are going to be going on about their whistful but inconsequential attacks while now "those evil hackers in XXX ruined everything by doing XXX." You remember the internet as more innocent because you were more innocent, not because it necessarly was.
I know that you did mention they are cheaper elsewhere, but does anyone else find it almost criminal to sell a standard keyboard with the only modificaiton being REALLY LARGE LETTERS at a $100 premium, especially consdering the market?
-Chu