#2 is kind of weird in this context though. It's not like Slashdot is a closed community. Anybody can join at any time, and you don't even have to create an account to post. Slashdot could only be defined as a "community" in the same respects as "people who visit the mall" could be called a "community".
Any PC version would be easily susceptible to the print screen button. At least on Android (earlier versions anyway, not sure about new ones) they made it extremely difficult to get a screenshot, even if the phone was rooted. I can understand why they wouldn't want apps collecting screenshots, but as a general system function, I can't see how it's survived so long without being there.
Yeah, for viewing videos at home, a simple file share would work just fine. As far as files that are supposed to remain at work, accessing them remotely from his android device would probably go against the entire policy. If you can't bring them out on a USB drive, there's no way they're going to set you install a custom server on your work machine. Anything that doesn't require a custom server like DropBox would be out of the question as well.
Sure certain formats have fallen out of use, but many haven't. I can still read BMP files I created 20 years ago on my first computer. My first digital camera from 12 years ago used JPG, and so does my new one. Almost invariably, even when a technically superior format exists, the more popular format will continue to be used. OGG never took over MP3 even though some would say it sounded better at the same bitrate. JPEG2000 never got off the ground because JPG was already good enough. As for physical interfaces we are seeing the same as well. A lot of stuff from the early days cannot be connected to new equipment, but anything from the past 15 years is pretty much directly connectable to a new machine, or can be easily connected with a cheap dongle.
I'm not arguing one way or the other, but does date of publishing actually correspond to the order they were actually written in? Maybe it was just much easier to find a publisher for a short book, then it was to find a publisher for a long trilogy. With such a gap between releases, I would say this isn't the case, but it's entirely possible to have a a book written before another book, but be published after.
Well, to be honest the command prompt is not something I'd use daily, but I did find use it once or twice. it's just nice to know its there if I need it. Some things simply cannot be easily accomplished with a GUI. Especially when it has a real file system. Also the full USB and HDMI are also great features.
Personally, I think this goes for all electronics. The number of people who seem to think it's required to video record or take hundreds of photos (using camcorder, tablet, phone, digi-cam, or Google glass) every single thing that happens is kind of bothersome. My wife gets annoyed because I don't take enough photos of the kids when we're doing things, but personally I just try to enjoy the moment, and not let electronics get in the way. I'd rather just truly enjoy the moment then not really enjoy the moment because I was futzing with the camera and be able to see the moment later.
Then again, I imagine the number of people who want to run it with the lid closed are quite few and far between. There is something to be said for esthetics. Especially on a portable machine. Being light and thin are things that some people don't quite get. Even though both my laptop and my tablet can access Netflix, I choose my tablet almost every time for this task (and just about any other task a tablet does well), even though the screen is significantly smaller because having a light compact device makes up for the difference in screen size.
Only because SSDs are designed with the limitations of SATA in mind. The fastest SATA SSDs by themselves are only as fast as SATA because it makes little sense to make them faster. PCIe based SSD drives (cards?) are often faster than the SATA standard allows simply because the limitation isn't there.
I think that the "decline of quality in movie audiences" is either non-existent, because movies for the most part, have been one of the cheaper forms of entertainment, at least when compared to live performances so you end up with a good cross section of the public at the movies, or the problem could easily be solved with assigned seating, which is already provided in some theaters anyway. Every time there's an option, I'll easily pay the few extra dollars for the show that offers assigned seating, because I don't have to show up ridiculously early to get a good seat, and the seats and theater itself are usually of better quality anyway. If theaters want to survive in the age where people have 7.1 setups with 60+ inch screens at home, they are going to have to offer a very good experience, something that's worth paying the extra money for. Getting to see the movie before it's available for rental, by itself, isn't enough incentive.
On the other hand, in the old days, copyrighted works would basically disappear after a certain period of time. Without a way to flawlessly record and maintain books, music, and movies, works would inevitably be lost, or of poor quality, so people needed new works to be produced, or there would be no copyrighted works. Now that all copyrighted works are able to be stored in a way that stops any of their original quality from being lost, things have changed a bit. the original copyright terms were 14 (17??) years. Having everything from the year 2000 and previous in the public domain would leave a whole lot of content out there that's in pristine condition, that people could use without paying anyone. I'm thinking that 75 years (or whatever it's at now) is probably too high, but if the number was set too low, then we'd have a similar problem that we now have with piracy, where there's so much work freely available, that people don't bother paying for the new stuff.
Don't have this experience at all. Running win 8.1 on my Surface 2. I do have a 4 digit pin set up for minimal security, and that's all that's required for me to access my tablet, even after a full reboot. I didn't enable Bitlocker, so I have no idea if it's using it by default or not.
I don't use bitlocker, So I haven't experienced that problem. I'm not sure what the alternative is though. Definitely can't have the system storing the key on the permanent storage. Isn't that the whole point of bitlocker? Accessing the data requires entering the password.
I don't know why this is marked as flamebait. I have a Surface 2 (they dropped RT from the official name), and I have to say that I love it. Even as a programmer. It's the only tablet that supports SD cards and dropping to a bringing up a command prompt (cmd/powershell) out of the box. The browser is capable enough that you don't need website apps that basically mirror website functionality. There is a lack of apps, but that's probably my only complaint. Also, from a development point of view, I'm working on my first app, and I have to say that I enjoy the experience much more than my experiences with Android or IOS.
I think the issue is that nobody is perfect. There is no single "ideal" person, male or female. Somebody who comes from a society with arranged marriages explained this to me, and why those relationships often end up working out better. Because both people going into it know that it is something they are going to have to work on, and that not everything about their relationship will be perfect. I'm not saying that arranged marriages are the right answer, but going into a relationship with the expectation that you'll have to work through difficulties can help a lot. So many people give up at the first sign of a problem. They want everything to come easy, be it with relationships, school, jobs, and any other aspect of life.
Whatever happened to putting an "intermission" in long movies? Would it really be that bad? The Cinemas would probably make a few extra dollars. People could get up, stretch their legs, use the bathroom, buy some more snacks and drinks. It's not needed for 1.5-2 hour films, but for movies pushing 3 hours it would definitely be an advantage is some respects.
Seriously, I made it about 30-45 minutes into the first hobbit movie before turning it off. Basically same opinion as yours. I found the first installment of LOTR was too slow for my tastes, so taking the smallest book and chopping it into 3 parts is just kind of ludicrous.
Then again, I know plenty of "first worlders" who have ample ability to access the content, but still feel quite entitled to download stuff. There's people who will use an app every single day, yet would rather pirate it than pay 99 cents. People who will play an entire game that they pirated, and go way past the "I'm just trying it out" phase. Sure there are people with more legitimate reasons for pirating content, but there's a very sizable portion of people who just pirate because they are cheap. Also, I'd like to point out that not there's no show/movie/game/other-entertainment-thing that you just have to have. If they don't release the movie where you live, then just watch some other movie, or play some other game. Downloading it just gives the entertainment industry more reason (flawed reasoning or not) to tighten restrictions on content, or not sell it in the country where everyone is pirating it anyway.
I have a surface 2 and find IE superior to the other mobile browsers I've used. There is very little need for "website apps" on the surface. No YouTube app is no problem for me.
Exactly. I just got the surface 2 tablet for Christmas, and as a geek, I love it. Its a really well built tablet, and has some really nice features. You can still drop to the command prompt, or powershell if you want, which I haven't seen stock on any other tablet. Office lets you do some real work if you need to. The only downside I see is the lack of apps, but its sufficient and a lot of the "apps" that's its missing can just be replaced by going to websites. For instance there's no YouTube app, but the website works flawlessly. As far as the UI goes, it's different, but I haven't found any real pain points. People complain about the jarring experience when you go to the desktop, but i'd rather have that than not being able to see a command prompt. Oh, and two apps at the same time, that's something that you really don't think you is that important on a small device until you start using it. And it's supported by pretty much all apps, a small few, games mostly insist on full screen.
Warzone 2100 was one of my favourite RTS games back in the day. I don't think there's anything like it to this day. I like that it has been brought back to life. I remember really liking the fact that there wasn't so much micromanagement going on like in the other RTS games. You could, for instance, tell your factory to make 2 jeeps, 3 tanks, and 3 APCs (can't remember the real units, haven't played in a while), and tell it to just keep repeating that as long as you had resources. I still don't know if there are any other RTS games that don't require you to click every time you want to create 1 more unit. Having a second screen would fit right into this game, where the idea of the game is that you're in charge of the army, giving out orders, rather than having to control every single character in the game.
I really don't think that browsing the web on a mobile phone is all that popular, or even something that people want to do. And this comes from someone with unlimited data and a phone with a 4 inch screen. I rarely feel the need to just browse the web on my phone. I do lots of online things like read RSS feeds, listen to podcasts, read my email, look up maps, and lots of other stuff, but none of this requires a web browser. Just about anything that I'd want to do with my phone is much better done by an app, even if the site has a good mobile version. I'm getting a tablet this year for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to never having to use my phone for the web ever again. It's not because the sites are bad, but just that the kind of browsing I want to do requires more reading than I want to do on a cell phone.
Personally, I agree, 1366x768 is enough for a 15 inch or smaller display. When I was looking at tablets, I've seen people complain about 10 inch tablets that only have 1280x800 or 1366x768 resolution. While at the same time people were complaining that the ultra high res (2560xwhatever) ones were too slow for games, even with much higher specs. Well, guess what happens when a tablet has to render 4 times as many pixels?
My only complaint is that all monitors are 16:9 or 16:10 resolution, when it would be really nice if they offered more 4:3 options, or in the case of desktop monitors, allowed then to be easily rotated. The number of monitors that can't be rotated is depressing.
Yes, but then you're just making the game easier for those with better specced machines. Sure, all games do this to some degree, but for RTS Games, allowing one player to see more of the playing field without scroll as compared to other players gets to the point of really just being completely unfair. Imagine being able to use a small second monitor as a "rear view mirror" is FPS Games. Would probably give an extremely unfair advantage. Getting better framerates is one thing, but giving one player a wider field of view because they can afford better hardware seems to take the spirit out of the game.
IP is only valuable if you can afford to protect it in court. I think that's the big problem here. If you own Quickie Laundromat, and another guy opens Quicky Laundromat across the street, you can either spend tons of money on lawyers trying to defend your business, or spend tons of money on better machines, or just try to keep prices low. Or try to compete on things that actually matter to customers, Maybe add free Wifi. If you make your business good enough, eventually people will figure out that the they Quickie Laundromat on the North side of the street is the good one. For businesses like this, it isn't the name that matters anyway, but the quality of service. You could call it "Don't Come To This Laundromat", but if you had better machines, cheaper rates, and better overall services, people will visit your business. For most businesses, defending IP would cost more than any profit it could possibly bring in, so it's just not worth worrying about it.
Slashdot Mirror
#2 is kind of weird in this context though. It's not like Slashdot is a closed community. Anybody can join at any time, and you don't even have to create an account to post. Slashdot could only be defined as a "community" in the same respects as "people who visit the mall" could be called a "community".
Any PC version would be easily susceptible to the print screen button. At least on Android (earlier versions anyway, not sure about new ones) they made it extremely difficult to get a screenshot, even if the phone was rooted. I can understand why they wouldn't want apps collecting screenshots, but as a general system function, I can't see how it's survived so long without being there.
Yeah, for viewing videos at home, a simple file share would work just fine. As far as files that are supposed to remain at work, accessing them remotely from his android device would probably go against the entire policy. If you can't bring them out on a USB drive, there's no way they're going to set you install a custom server on your work machine. Anything that doesn't require a custom server like DropBox would be out of the question as well.
Sure certain formats have fallen out of use, but many haven't. I can still read BMP files I created 20 years ago on my first computer. My first digital camera from 12 years ago used JPG, and so does my new one. Almost invariably, even when a technically superior format exists, the more popular format will continue to be used. OGG never took over MP3 even though some would say it sounded better at the same bitrate. JPEG2000 never got off the ground because JPG was already good enough. As for physical interfaces we are seeing the same as well. A lot of stuff from the early days cannot be connected to new equipment, but anything from the past 15 years is pretty much directly connectable to a new machine, or can be easily connected with a cheap dongle.
I'm not arguing one way or the other, but does date of publishing actually correspond to the order they were actually written in? Maybe it was just much easier to find a publisher for a short book, then it was to find a publisher for a long trilogy. With such a gap between releases, I would say this isn't the case, but it's entirely possible to have a a book written before another book, but be published after.
Well, to be honest the command prompt is not something I'd use daily, but I did find use it once or twice. it's just nice to know its there if I need it. Some things simply cannot be easily accomplished with a GUI. Especially when it has a real file system. Also the full USB and HDMI are also great features.
Personally, I think this goes for all electronics. The number of people who seem to think it's required to video record or take hundreds of photos (using camcorder, tablet, phone, digi-cam, or Google glass) every single thing that happens is kind of bothersome. My wife gets annoyed because I don't take enough photos of the kids when we're doing things, but personally I just try to enjoy the moment, and not let electronics get in the way. I'd rather just truly enjoy the moment then not really enjoy the moment because I was futzing with the camera and be able to see the moment later.
Then again, I imagine the number of people who want to run it with the lid closed are quite few and far between. There is something to be said for esthetics. Especially on a portable machine. Being light and thin are things that some people don't quite get. Even though both my laptop and my tablet can access Netflix, I choose my tablet almost every time for this task (and just about any other task a tablet does well), even though the screen is significantly smaller because having a light compact device makes up for the difference in screen size.
Only because SSDs are designed with the limitations of SATA in mind. The fastest SATA SSDs by themselves are only as fast as SATA because it makes little sense to make them faster. PCIe based SSD drives (cards?) are often faster than the SATA standard allows simply because the limitation isn't there.
I think that the "decline of quality in movie audiences" is either non-existent, because movies for the most part, have been one of the cheaper forms of entertainment, at least when compared to live performances so you end up with a good cross section of the public at the movies, or the problem could easily be solved with assigned seating, which is already provided in some theaters anyway. Every time there's an option, I'll easily pay the few extra dollars for the show that offers assigned seating, because I don't have to show up ridiculously early to get a good seat, and the seats and theater itself are usually of better quality anyway. If theaters want to survive in the age where people have 7.1 setups with 60+ inch screens at home, they are going to have to offer a very good experience, something that's worth paying the extra money for. Getting to see the movie before it's available for rental, by itself, isn't enough incentive.
On the other hand, in the old days, copyrighted works would basically disappear after a certain period of time. Without a way to flawlessly record and maintain books, music, and movies, works would inevitably be lost, or of poor quality, so people needed new works to be produced, or there would be no copyrighted works. Now that all copyrighted works are able to be stored in a way that stops any of their original quality from being lost, things have changed a bit. the original copyright terms were 14 (17??) years. Having everything from the year 2000 and previous in the public domain would leave a whole lot of content out there that's in pristine condition, that people could use without paying anyone. I'm thinking that 75 years (or whatever it's at now) is probably too high, but if the number was set too low, then we'd have a similar problem that we now have with piracy, where there's so much work freely available, that people don't bother paying for the new stuff.
Don't have this experience at all. Running win 8.1 on my Surface 2. I do have a 4 digit pin set up for minimal security, and that's all that's required for me to access my tablet, even after a full reboot. I didn't enable Bitlocker, so I have no idea if it's using it by default or not.
I don't use bitlocker, So I haven't experienced that problem. I'm not sure what the alternative is though. Definitely can't have the system storing the key on the permanent storage. Isn't that the whole point of bitlocker? Accessing the data requires entering the password.
I don't know why this is marked as flamebait. I have a Surface 2 (they dropped RT from the official name), and I have to say that I love it. Even as a programmer. It's the only tablet that supports SD cards and dropping to a bringing up a command prompt (cmd/powershell) out of the box. The browser is capable enough that you don't need website apps that basically mirror website functionality. There is a lack of apps, but that's probably my only complaint. Also, from a development point of view, I'm working on my first app, and I have to say that I enjoy the experience much more than my experiences with Android or IOS.
I think the issue is that nobody is perfect. There is no single "ideal" person, male or female. Somebody who comes from a society with arranged marriages explained this to me, and why those relationships often end up working out better. Because both people going into it know that it is something they are going to have to work on, and that not everything about their relationship will be perfect. I'm not saying that arranged marriages are the right answer, but going into a relationship with the expectation that you'll have to work through difficulties can help a lot. So many people give up at the first sign of a problem. They want everything to come easy, be it with relationships, school, jobs, and any other aspect of life.
Whatever happened to putting an "intermission" in long movies? Would it really be that bad? The Cinemas would probably make a few extra dollars. People could get up, stretch their legs, use the bathroom, buy some more snacks and drinks. It's not needed for 1.5-2 hour films, but for movies pushing 3 hours it would definitely be an advantage is some respects.
Seriously, I made it about 30-45 minutes into the first hobbit movie before turning it off. Basically same opinion as yours. I found the first installment of LOTR was too slow for my tastes, so taking the smallest book and chopping it into 3 parts is just kind of ludicrous.
Then again, I know plenty of "first worlders" who have ample ability to access the content, but still feel quite entitled to download stuff. There's people who will use an app every single day, yet would rather pirate it than pay 99 cents. People who will play an entire game that they pirated, and go way past the "I'm just trying it out" phase. Sure there are people with more legitimate reasons for pirating content, but there's a very sizable portion of people who just pirate because they are cheap. Also, I'd like to point out that not there's no show/movie/game/other-entertainment-thing that you just have to have. If they don't release the movie where you live, then just watch some other movie, or play some other game. Downloading it just gives the entertainment industry more reason (flawed reasoning or not) to tighten restrictions on content, or not sell it in the country where everyone is pirating it anyway.
I have a surface 2 and find IE superior to the other mobile browsers I've used. There is very little need for "website apps" on the surface. No YouTube app is no problem for me.
Exactly. I just got the surface 2 tablet for Christmas, and as a geek, I love it. Its a really well built tablet, and has some really nice features. You can still drop to the command prompt, or powershell if you want, which I haven't seen stock on any other tablet. Office lets you do some real work if you need to. The only downside I see is the lack of apps, but its sufficient and a lot of the "apps" that's its missing can just be replaced by going to websites. For instance there's no YouTube app, but the website works flawlessly. As far as the UI goes, it's different, but I haven't found any real pain points. People complain about the jarring experience when you go to the desktop, but i'd rather have that than not being able to see a command prompt. Oh, and two apps at the same time, that's something that you really don't think you is that important on a small device until you start using it. And it's supported by pretty much all apps, a small few, games mostly insist on full screen.
Warzone 2100 was one of my favourite RTS games back in the day. I don't think there's anything like it to this day. I like that it has been brought back to life. I remember really liking the fact that there wasn't so much micromanagement going on like in the other RTS games. You could, for instance, tell your factory to make 2 jeeps, 3 tanks, and 3 APCs (can't remember the real units, haven't played in a while), and tell it to just keep repeating that as long as you had resources. I still don't know if there are any other RTS games that don't require you to click every time you want to create 1 more unit. Having a second screen would fit right into this game, where the idea of the game is that you're in charge of the army, giving out orders, rather than having to control every single character in the game.
I really don't think that browsing the web on a mobile phone is all that popular, or even something that people want to do. And this comes from someone with unlimited data and a phone with a 4 inch screen. I rarely feel the need to just browse the web on my phone. I do lots of online things like read RSS feeds, listen to podcasts, read my email, look up maps, and lots of other stuff, but none of this requires a web browser. Just about anything that I'd want to do with my phone is much better done by an app, even if the site has a good mobile version. I'm getting a tablet this year for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to never having to use my phone for the web ever again. It's not because the sites are bad, but just that the kind of browsing I want to do requires more reading than I want to do on a cell phone.
Personally, I agree, 1366x768 is enough for a 15 inch or smaller display. When I was looking at tablets, I've seen people complain about 10 inch tablets that only have 1280x800 or 1366x768 resolution. While at the same time people were complaining that the ultra high res (2560xwhatever) ones were too slow for games, even with much higher specs. Well, guess what happens when a tablet has to render 4 times as many pixels?
My only complaint is that all monitors are 16:9 or 16:10 resolution, when it would be really nice if they offered more 4:3 options, or in the case of desktop monitors, allowed then to be easily rotated. The number of monitors that can't be rotated is depressing.
Yes, but then you're just making the game easier for those with better specced machines. Sure, all games do this to some degree, but for RTS Games, allowing one player to see more of the playing field without scroll as compared to other players gets to the point of really just being completely unfair. Imagine being able to use a small second monitor as a "rear view mirror" is FPS Games. Would probably give an extremely unfair advantage. Getting better framerates is one thing, but giving one player a wider field of view because they can afford better hardware seems to take the spirit out of the game.
IP is only valuable if you can afford to protect it in court. I think that's the big problem here. If you own Quickie Laundromat, and another guy opens Quicky Laundromat across the street, you can either spend tons of money on lawyers trying to defend your business, or spend tons of money on better machines, or just try to keep prices low. Or try to compete on things that actually matter to customers, Maybe add free Wifi. If you make your business good enough, eventually people will figure out that the they Quickie Laundromat on the North side of the street is the good one. For businesses like this, it isn't the name that matters anyway, but the quality of service. You could call it "Don't Come To This Laundromat", but if you had better machines, cheaper rates, and better overall services, people will visit your business. For most businesses, defending IP would cost more than any profit it could possibly bring in, so it's just not worth worrying about it.