Newer cars have suffered problems due to ethanol. In cases of engine failure where people thought to test the fuel they found much higher concentrations of ethanol than the fuel was supposed to have. And in addition to worse mileage it's also more polluting than straight gasoline.
It's not for nothing that some lawn equipment, like my lawn more, has a warning that specifically states not to use gasoline with more than 10% ethanol. And to think my state was trying to push for higher concentrations.
Has process become the new megahertz? I can appreciate the advantage 45nm might allow, but on it's own it's meaningless.
And Intel already offers i3s and i5s with 32nm process. So what's the big deal?
As it stands 45nm means nothing to me.
As is the case with every console introduction, a few numbers are thrown around in an attempt to impress us. They show us a few impressive looking demos where the consoles are doing nothing but rendering a scene. Then the console hits the market and it turns out to not be as impressive as promised, from a graphical standpoint anyway.
I'm impressed by their ingenuity. American hardware of this type is, without question, overpriced. A special effects company out of Hollywood could probably build the same thing for far less than some government contractor.
That said, you're seriously overestimating the reliability of that Libyan platform and underestimating the effectiveness of the American versions.
Have you ever seen Power Wheels in action? They run at 5mph, a more expensive model might approach 10mph. An adult can outrun these things. Not that it's necessary given that it's a slow moving target. Battery life on these things is maybe 30-60 minutes. They're really only good for getting across fairly flat terrain. And from the video I've seen it looks like it operated via a cable, not wireless.
Again, I don't want to discount the ingenuity of those Libyans. Aware that the US uses these things and appreciating their value, a couple of guys probably thought they could replicate it on the cheap. And they more or less pulled it off. But I don't see this particular concept being all that effective.
They would have been better off strapping explosives to RC cars. Cheaper and far more effective.
Most reviews I've seen are generally bad. Given how hard the publisher was pushing the lewd aspect of the game is it really any surprise it turned out to be crap. They were hoping to lure in a few suckers with the "mature" content before they figured out how bad the game actually was.
I also tend to think the intervening years colored memories of Duke Nukem 3D. I personally don't think it was nearly as good as some people remember. I recall it being entertaining, finding some of the subject matter amusing, but generally as an FPS it didn't stand out. For the time it was fine, but then the bar was a lot lower then. It's no wonder DNF would disappoint even if the level of quality is comparable to the original. Of course the mess that was it's development certainly didn't help matters.
This is a good object lesson. When a company plays a sleight of hand trick, trying to sell you on some aspect other than gameplay, it's a near certainty the game won't be any good. And they sure played that angle pretty hard with Duke Nukem Forever.
As others must have already pointed out, there's a PDF download button right on the page. And I can copy and paste text from that PDF.
Granted, this is not the way I like to read documents and it's totally superfluous, but from a design standpoint it's kind of cool. It's actually easier to read through the book in this than it would be in Acrobat. But I realize some people are Luddites when it comes to how information is presented.
Every so often someone has to come along with doom and gloom predictions.
The developed world, especially Europe and some Asian nations have been suffering population decline for quite some time. Some nations have avoided it because of relatively open immigration policies. Even China is starting to see a marked decline in population growth. They're feeling the consequences of both their one-child policy and reduced birth rates that always come with an improved standard of living. The expectation is that over the next few decades India will surpass them as the world's most populous nation.
I forget the exact details but I recall hearing some time ago that enough food is produced to feel the world several times over. There are countless reasons, global food shortage not being one of them, why we still have people in starvation. There are many other factors contributing to the price of food.
I'd say a more realistic threat is the potential for energy shortages. But even then, we already have numerous alternatives for fossil fuels. There may currently be a shift away from nuclear, but if we run out of coal or oil I'm sure it will start looking quite attractive. And discounting that there are quite a few other energy sources.
If we ran out of oil the one mode of transportation that would be hit hardest is air travel. We currently have no viable alternative for powering aircraft. We'll be faced with going back to international travel times of a few weeks. Of course, this may also result in the resurgence of domestic manufacturing which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Reality is always far more complex and less extreme than some would like to believe.
Actually, if it goes through it might be a good test bed. We'll get to see the implications of such a law, positive or negative. Although, the implementation may vary in the States and there may be different social and economic forces in play. Still, could be informative.
I was initially concerned about this until I read up on what it does. Honestly, in the scheme of things this feature is fairly benign. Anyone who who recognizes you won't need this feature to tell them who you are. You can't control what photos others are posting and what are people doing to do with this anyway, especially if you've got other privacy settings locked down.
The fact is, if you're concerned about privacy you shouldn't be on Facebook to begin with.
And from what I've been told it's quite impressive, being able to pick out people fairly accurately even from grainy and dark photos.
I'm nearing that age group, and although it doesn't entirely surprise me I would have expected it to skew younger. I'm curious to know if playtime were taking into account if the numbers wouldn't go much younger. A 37-year-old guy might call himself a gamer, but he's lucky to squeeze in an hour a night during the week, most of his time being reserved for the weekend. A young gamer has far more time to devote to playing. Certainly an older gamer has a lot more disposable income but they might be more careful about their purchases. And nowadays I don't see many kids earning income to buy their own games, with the way parents are constantly spending on their children.
I do have a console myself and roughly 10 games. But I haven't purchased anything in about a year now. I still follow what's out there, but I've been finding myself increasingly disinterested in gaming. I don't have the time for it and for some time now I've been finding it to be a waste of my time. Granted, I don't watch many movies either. But a movie only occupies 2 hours of my time and it's done. I don't have time to devote to the amount of time most games require, particularly those I'd be most interested in playing.
I fully expect Macs to move in this direction. This is something both Apple and many, if not most, consumers want. Apple wants the added level of control and profitability this model offers. Consumers evidently find the app model very appealing. No thought required on their part. And even if overall productivity suffers most wont care because of the gimmick of a new way of interacting with your computer
Of any industry I can think of the design industry is the most entrenched in the Apple world. Despite that designers will eat all this right up. The design industry is probably one of the most predictably industries out there for consumption. They eagerly lap up whatever is shiny and new with little regard for whatever it's the right decision. The constant fear of falling out of touch is what keeps them on the Adobe upgrade treadmill. Most never touch the additional functionality the new versions offer, but they've got to get it the day it's released. So if Apple tells them there's a new way of doing things they're going to buy right into it. And unfortunately, anyone in the industry who doesn't buy into it is inevitably dragged along kicking and screaming.
I really wouldn't be surprised if they abandon any OSX variant altogether. Apple is not the type to support multiple platforms and they absolutely have a penchant for forcing sudden change on everybody.
And the sad thing here is that the classic windowed-OS is probably the most efficient out there, well, second to a command prompt. But a windowed environment provides the most flexibility. Everything else I've used adds a layer of complexity. Smartphone and tablet interfaces are great, but for that particular form-factor. Tying to do on-screen precision work via gestures all day long does not make for a particularly productive or comfortable experience. Like anything new, people have to wear themselves out on a new concept before it starts being used more sensibly.
I can understand the physical technology that enables touchscreen technology being patentable. How the hell is it that finger gestures can be patented?
Couldn't prior art be argued given that many of these movements are performed on a regular basis in real life? Just because it's a virtual interpretation of that action shouldn't make it patentable. Apple's slide patent, for example, should automatically be invalided for this reason. Aren't these all things that could be copyrighted instead?
The problem with the American comic book industry is that it's stuck in the persistent now. That means that history irrelevant. We've got these characters and stories that span decades but no one ever ages. The world changes around them to fit with the times and we're expected to accept that everything just happens in the present. The industry, like American entertainment in general, is afraid to let go. They desperately cling to the same never-ending stories because if they let go they're then forced to come up with something new.
Japanese manga produces and endless amount of crap, but this one area in which they're far superior to American comics. Japanese comics routinely feature a finite storyline. There's a definite beginning and end. Some have a tendency to stretch out a particular storyline to an absurd length, but at least there's the satisfaction that there will eventually be a true conclusion and that major characters could actually die.
However, I wonder if readers are still obsessed with certain characters like I remember growing up. Whenever a character did die it would spark outrage amongst fans. Evidently American readers have as much trouble letting go as do the writers.
So this who DC reboot strikes me as lame. It leaves me with this extremely unsatisfying sense that there will never be any resolution. But then I've stopped reading this sort of thing long go. The superhero archetype has gotten a bit too quaint for my taste. They haven't even done anything to modernize the costumes, instead continuing to stick with tights that looks like they've been painted on. I've always wondered if they go with this look because it's easier than drawing clothing and other accoutrements. I don't have an inherent problem with them theme, but they keep perpetuating tired old ideas. How many superheroes do we need?
In my experience every single show that runs too long ends up turning into a caricature of itself. The writers get fixated on certain distinguishing character traits and exaggerate those. They default to the predictable. It's not surprise to see this happening with Dr. Who.
I believe it. I've got friends working as programmers for financial companies. Their salaries aren't in the $300k - $400k range but they're all earning $150k and above. But they easily earn double what someone would earn doing roughly the same thing in any industry. And the nature of the work isn't anything particularly sophisticated. But then that's the nature of the financial industry. Even secretaries earn fairly outrageous salaries. Those companies earn so much money that they can afford to be generous. And from what I've seen, with the occasional exception of course, job security is generally quite good.
Anyone who lives in a region with a lot of finance, and doing work that they might need, would be a fool not to seek employment at one of these companies. At least if your motivation is to earn a healthy income and have some job security.
Our current civilization is pretty much undetectable beyond the orbit of Pluto, and is probably already past its peak.
You consider present-day civilization to be past it's peak? I'm really having a hard time comprehending why anyone would think this. I guess I don't understand what you mean by a self-destructed civilization. For me the collapse of human civilization means humans go extinct, or at least human population shrinks to such an extent that all progress comes to a halt and humanity reverts to a hunter-gatherer existence.
There was a time where people considered humanity and the world to be the center of the universe. People have managed to swing to the other, equally absurd, extreme that humans are the nadir of the universe.
I've worked in the design industry for well over a decade now. Nearly everyone I've worked with is a Mac user, and a die hard at that. Nearly every last one of them was not the kind of power user you imagine they are, although a good number of them did fancy themselves to be one. I think this is reflected online where the perennial solution to every last problem is the utterly ineffective "delete your preferences".
The ones I currently work with continue to consider themselves immune malware.
The US government doesn't ban the use of embryonic stem cells, they simply aren't providing the funding for it. Other organizations are free to do so. In addition, a ton of research is being done with adult stem cells and if I'm not mistaken, the government does fund that kind of research. And the fact is that this country throws far, far more money at medical research than pretty much any other country on Earth. So either way the breakthroughs are inevitable.
The nice thing about Gibson's cyberpunk novels is that the plot is generally compact enough that it should be relatively easy to fit it into a 2 hour movie.
I don't think the subject matter is nearly as dated as some are suggesting. Certainly, it's no more quaint than the junk Hollywood movies constantly put out. But really, a writer with a reasonable amount of talent and sense would update and improve any those elements. The problem, of course, is that good writing seems to be a scarce resource in Hollywood.
While this news has me excited I'm not confident that they wont just botch the whole thing. I can think of quite a few near-future sci-fi movies which have been terrible and have placed far too much emphasis on action.
The idea is appealing, but in this day of high resolution screens it's largely irrelevant. Years ago, when I was browsing in 640x480 and then 800x600 trying to fit as much content on the screen as I could was important. Back then I browsed with the window maximized. Nowadays my browsers are windowed. Sites are so much longer than the vertical height of the window that an extra 40-50 pixels is irrelevant. The vertical orientation of tablets also makes this pointless.
The one environment where this helps is on laptops. So many laptops today are equipped with excessively wide screens that offer little vertical resolution.
But then, I'm sure that the real motivation for this is to make the browser more transparent and enhance the whole "app" experience.
Over the years I've personally seen Mac users praise the wonder that is Apple and mock the ignorance of Windows users. I've been in meetings where someone starts making offhand remarks about the superiority of their Mac. Outside of very particular circles Windows users don't care. Their computer is merely a tool. They're not compelled to comment.
A lot of the anti-Apple commentary is a direct response to the zealotry exhibited by the fanboys.
It's not that dissimilar to what atheists do. A lot of it probably stems from a similar reaction to religion. But I still find them exceedingly obnoxious in their compulsion to share how enlightened they supposedly are. You're no smarter than anyone else merely because you don't believe in a god just like you're no better than anyone else merely because you own a piece of electronics made by Apple.
I think it's simply human nature. An individual who doesn't have religion inevitably creates something to fill that space. So you get celebrity and idol worship and the adulation of lifestyle brands.
Having worked in design for well over a decade I've come across countless Apple fanatics. Although fervor has dampened a bit in recent years, the switch to Intel processors and Apple having becomes largely mainstream playing significant parts in that. Not to discount what Apple has been able to do, but routinely Apple gets all the credit for things others have been doing for years.
The way I've seen some people idolize Steve Jobs is downright embarrassing. I've seen people use his portrait as a desktop background. Every time a new product comes along the rumors start flying about how it works and how it's built. I've heard some outrageous claims over the years.
The thing that I never expected was that this level of fanaticism would infect the mainstream. The big irony is that for many people, particular college kids from what I've seen, continue to see Apple as representative of some kind of counter-culture. I wonder how these people would feel if they say who's on Apple's board of directors. It doesn't get more mainstream than Apple. I'm sure they'd find a way to rationalize it all.
I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
I didn't think Japanese had ever given up on these kinds of PCs. Sony kept making Windows tablets for quite a while after they had given up on the US market. In fact, I think they probably have never stopped making them.
I have an old Sony tablet, running XP, which was released back in 2004. It was sitting around at my old company several years ago so I got it for free. I certainly wouldn't have paid the $1,000+ the thing cost when new.
People seriously underestimate the utility of a full-fledged PC in such a compact form factor. I've taken it overseas with me and have done work on it. At 1ghz it's performance isn't half bad, although battery life is poor. Still, I thought it was awesome, sitting on a subway in Asia, browsing the web long before the iPad was a gleam in anyone's eye.
The real problem with the device was that the concept was ahead of it's time. Windows wasn't designed with touchscreens in mind and Sony didn't have the foresight to develop a custom UI. The big complaint by everyone who saw the thing was how tiny type was. And the touchscreen wasn't very good being limited by the technology of the time. It made typing on screen a hassle, and the separate keyboard was a hassle to use anywhere I didn't have a table available. With subsequent models Sony seemed obsessed with finding ways to integrate a physical keyboard as opposed to actually improving the GUI.
A lot of the limitations of those early tablets will surely be addressed with these new devices. But then a fundamental problem with the Japanese is that while they're great at hardware they're awful at software development. And generally their user interfaces are terrible.
The limitations of that tablet prevented me from truly exploiting it as a mobile device. However, the fact that it's a full-fledged PC means it continues to come in handy. I use it with diagnostics software on my car.
I'm still eagerly awaiting a good tablet that runs a standard OS like Windows.
If this is illegal why the hell isn't it illegal for pharmaceuticals to advertise drugs that 95% of the American public don't need? It's not like someone is ever going to see a commercial for one of the countless stupidly named drugs out there and demand them from their doctor. It's insane.
I had an account at a bank which suffered data loss. It could have been theft or it could have been some idiot who misplaced sensitive information. They provided access to free credit reporting for a year. That should be mandatory. Unfortunately, even those guys are scumbags, because at the end of the year one of the credit reporting agencies actually began charging me for the service instead of closing the account.
Really, what could Sony possibly do? I have no clue what measures Sony took previously to ensure security. I'm not confident that anyone is truly secure. In my mind this could have just as easily happened to Microsoft. If it's demonstrable that this breech came about because of negligence on Sony's part those involved should lose their jobs. And on a larger scale I'd like to see companies held directly responsible for this.
The question should be turned on the users. If you're unhappy about what's happened make it obvious to Sony. Cancel your PSN account and stop using the PS3. Simple.
If I were going to be totally self-serving about this I'd say the only thing I'd want is free games. A gift card good towards a retail or PSN game, or two. This has the added effect of providing some indirect compensation to publishers and developers. Nothing else they could conceivable offer, like free access to PSN+, amounts to any value at all.
I fail to see how where you fingers hover could have any correlation to what you might be about to type. If you're in a proper position for typing your fingers are always going to be resting on a set range of keys. Also, people routinely type too quickly for this to be effective.
I suppose the people at Apple might have simply been brainstorming and just patent any idea that shows the vaguest hint of potential.
What surprises me is that predictive text hasn't been coupled with full-size keyboards. I imagine it would work a lot like how input for a lot of Asian languages works. There's an app I've been using for some time on my Android phone called SwiftKey which I think is impressive. The suggestions are driven by a log the app builds of what you've typed. It's not perfect, but occasionally I can complete a sentence without typing a single word, by just going through the suggestions. When I first saw that headline this is the sort of thing I thought Apple got a patent on.
Slashdot Mirror
Newer cars have suffered problems due to ethanol. In cases of engine failure where people thought to test the fuel they found much higher concentrations of ethanol than the fuel was supposed to have. And in addition to worse mileage it's also more polluting than straight gasoline.
It's not for nothing that some lawn equipment, like my lawn more, has a warning that specifically states not to use gasoline with more than 10% ethanol. And to think my state was trying to push for higher concentrations.
Has process become the new megahertz? I can appreciate the advantage 45nm might allow, but on it's own it's meaningless.
And Intel already offers i3s and i5s with 32nm process. So what's the big deal?
As it stands 45nm means nothing to me.
As is the case with every console introduction, a few numbers are thrown around in an attempt to impress us. They show us a few impressive looking demos where the consoles are doing nothing but rendering a scene. Then the console hits the market and it turns out to not be as impressive as promised, from a graphical standpoint anyway.
I guess all that's called marketing.
I'm impressed by their ingenuity. American hardware of this type is, without question, overpriced. A special effects company out of Hollywood could probably build the same thing for far less than some government contractor.
That said, you're seriously overestimating the reliability of that Libyan platform and underestimating the effectiveness of the American versions.
Have you ever seen Power Wheels in action? They run at 5mph, a more expensive model might approach 10mph. An adult can outrun these things. Not that it's necessary given that it's a slow moving target. Battery life on these things is maybe 30-60 minutes. They're really only good for getting across fairly flat terrain. And from the video I've seen it looks like it operated via a cable, not wireless.
Again, I don't want to discount the ingenuity of those Libyans. Aware that the US uses these things and appreciating their value, a couple of guys probably thought they could replicate it on the cheap. And they more or less pulled it off. But I don't see this particular concept being all that effective.
They would have been better off strapping explosives to RC cars. Cheaper and far more effective.
Most reviews I've seen are generally bad. Given how hard the publisher was pushing the lewd aspect of the game is it really any surprise it turned out to be crap. They were hoping to lure in a few suckers with the "mature" content before they figured out how bad the game actually was.
I also tend to think the intervening years colored memories of Duke Nukem 3D. I personally don't think it was nearly as good as some people remember. I recall it being entertaining, finding some of the subject matter amusing, but generally as an FPS it didn't stand out. For the time it was fine, but then the bar was a lot lower then. It's no wonder DNF would disappoint even if the level of quality is comparable to the original. Of course the mess that was it's development certainly didn't help matters.
This is a good object lesson. When a company plays a sleight of hand trick, trying to sell you on some aspect other than gameplay, it's a near certainty the game won't be any good. And they sure played that angle pretty hard with Duke Nukem Forever.
As others must have already pointed out, there's a PDF download button right on the page. And I can copy and paste text from that PDF.
Granted, this is not the way I like to read documents and it's totally superfluous, but from a design standpoint it's kind of cool. It's actually easier to read through the book in this than it would be in Acrobat. But I realize some people are Luddites when it comes to how information is presented.
Every so often someone has to come along with doom and gloom predictions.
The developed world, especially Europe and some Asian nations have been suffering population decline for quite some time. Some nations have avoided it because of relatively open immigration policies. Even China is starting to see a marked decline in population growth. They're feeling the consequences of both their one-child policy and reduced birth rates that always come with an improved standard of living. The expectation is that over the next few decades India will surpass them as the world's most populous nation.
I forget the exact details but I recall hearing some time ago that enough food is produced to feel the world several times over. There are countless reasons, global food shortage not being one of them, why we still have people in starvation. There are many other factors contributing to the price of food.
I'd say a more realistic threat is the potential for energy shortages. But even then, we already have numerous alternatives for fossil fuels. There may currently be a shift away from nuclear, but if we run out of coal or oil I'm sure it will start looking quite attractive. And discounting that there are quite a few other energy sources.
If we ran out of oil the one mode of transportation that would be hit hardest is air travel. We currently have no viable alternative for powering aircraft. We'll be faced with going back to international travel times of a few weeks. Of course, this may also result in the resurgence of domestic manufacturing which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Reality is always far more complex and less extreme than some would like to believe.
Actually, if it goes through it might be a good test bed. We'll get to see the implications of such a law, positive or negative. Although, the implementation may vary in the States and there may be different social and economic forces in play. Still, could be informative.
I was initially concerned about this until I read up on what it does. Honestly, in the scheme of things this feature is fairly benign. Anyone who who recognizes you won't need this feature to tell them who you are. You can't control what photos others are posting and what are people doing to do with this anyway, especially if you've got other privacy settings locked down.
The fact is, if you're concerned about privacy you shouldn't be on Facebook to begin with.
And from what I've been told it's quite impressive, being able to pick out people fairly accurately even from grainy and dark photos.
I'm nearing that age group, and although it doesn't entirely surprise me I would have expected it to skew younger. I'm curious to know if playtime were taking into account if the numbers wouldn't go much younger. A 37-year-old guy might call himself a gamer, but he's lucky to squeeze in an hour a night during the week, most of his time being reserved for the weekend. A young gamer has far more time to devote to playing. Certainly an older gamer has a lot more disposable income but they might be more careful about their purchases. And nowadays I don't see many kids earning income to buy their own games, with the way parents are constantly spending on their children.
I do have a console myself and roughly 10 games. But I haven't purchased anything in about a year now. I still follow what's out there, but I've been finding myself increasingly disinterested in gaming. I don't have the time for it and for some time now I've been finding it to be a waste of my time. Granted, I don't watch many movies either. But a movie only occupies 2 hours of my time and it's done. I don't have time to devote to the amount of time most games require, particularly those I'd be most interested in playing.
I fully expect Macs to move in this direction. This is something both Apple and many, if not most, consumers want. Apple wants the added level of control and profitability this model offers. Consumers evidently find the app model very appealing. No thought required on their part. And even if overall productivity suffers most wont care because of the gimmick of a new way of interacting with your computer
Of any industry I can think of the design industry is the most entrenched in the Apple world. Despite that designers will eat all this right up. The design industry is probably one of the most predictably industries out there for consumption. They eagerly lap up whatever is shiny and new with little regard for whatever it's the right decision. The constant fear of falling out of touch is what keeps them on the Adobe upgrade treadmill. Most never touch the additional functionality the new versions offer, but they've got to get it the day it's released. So if Apple tells them there's a new way of doing things they're going to buy right into it. And unfortunately, anyone in the industry who doesn't buy into it is inevitably dragged along kicking and screaming.
I really wouldn't be surprised if they abandon any OSX variant altogether. Apple is not the type to support multiple platforms and they absolutely have a penchant for forcing sudden change on everybody.
And the sad thing here is that the classic windowed-OS is probably the most efficient out there, well, second to a command prompt. But a windowed environment provides the most flexibility. Everything else I've used adds a layer of complexity. Smartphone and tablet interfaces are great, but for that particular form-factor. Tying to do on-screen precision work via gestures all day long does not make for a particularly productive or comfortable experience. Like anything new, people have to wear themselves out on a new concept before it starts being used more sensibly.
I can understand the physical technology that enables touchscreen technology being patentable. How the hell is it that finger gestures can be patented?
Couldn't prior art be argued given that many of these movements are performed on a regular basis in real life? Just because it's a virtual interpretation of that action shouldn't make it patentable. Apple's slide patent, for example, should automatically be invalided for this reason. Aren't these all things that could be copyrighted instead?
It just seems absurd to me.
The problem with the American comic book industry is that it's stuck in the persistent now. That means that history irrelevant. We've got these characters and stories that span decades but no one ever ages. The world changes around them to fit with the times and we're expected to accept that everything just happens in the present. The industry, like American entertainment in general, is afraid to let go. They desperately cling to the same never-ending stories because if they let go they're then forced to come up with something new.
Japanese manga produces and endless amount of crap, but this one area in which they're far superior to American comics. Japanese comics routinely feature a finite storyline. There's a definite beginning and end. Some have a tendency to stretch out a particular storyline to an absurd length, but at least there's the satisfaction that there will eventually be a true conclusion and that major characters could actually die.
However, I wonder if readers are still obsessed with certain characters like I remember growing up. Whenever a character did die it would spark outrage amongst fans. Evidently American readers have as much trouble letting go as do the writers.
So this who DC reboot strikes me as lame. It leaves me with this extremely unsatisfying sense that there will never be any resolution. But then I've stopped reading this sort of thing long go. The superhero archetype has gotten a bit too quaint for my taste. They haven't even done anything to modernize the costumes, instead continuing to stick with tights that looks like they've been painted on. I've always wondered if they go with this look because it's easier than drawing clothing and other accoutrements. I don't have an inherent problem with them theme, but they keep perpetuating tired old ideas. How many superheroes do we need?
In my experience every single show that runs too long ends up turning into a caricature of itself. The writers get fixated on certain distinguishing character traits and exaggerate those. They default to the predictable. It's not surprise to see this happening with Dr. Who.
I believe it. I've got friends working as programmers for financial companies. Their salaries aren't in the $300k - $400k range but they're all earning $150k and above. But they easily earn double what someone would earn doing roughly the same thing in any industry. And the nature of the work isn't anything particularly sophisticated. But then that's the nature of the financial industry. Even secretaries earn fairly outrageous salaries. Those companies earn so much money that they can afford to be generous. And from what I've seen, with the occasional exception of course, job security is generally quite good.
Anyone who lives in a region with a lot of finance, and doing work that they might need, would be a fool not to seek employment at one of these companies. At least if your motivation is to earn a healthy income and have some job security.
You consider present-day civilization to be past it's peak? I'm really having a hard time comprehending why anyone would think this. I guess I don't understand what you mean by a self-destructed civilization. For me the collapse of human civilization means humans go extinct, or at least human population shrinks to such an extent that all progress comes to a halt and humanity reverts to a hunter-gatherer existence.
There was a time where people considered humanity and the world to be the center of the universe. People have managed to swing to the other, equally absurd, extreme that humans are the nadir of the universe.
I've worked in the design industry for well over a decade now. Nearly everyone I've worked with is a Mac user, and a die hard at that. Nearly every last one of them was not the kind of power user you imagine they are, although a good number of them did fancy themselves to be one. I think this is reflected online where the perennial solution to every last problem is the utterly ineffective "delete your preferences".
The ones I currently work with continue to consider themselves immune malware.
The US government doesn't ban the use of embryonic stem cells, they simply aren't providing the funding for it. Other organizations are free to do so. In addition, a ton of research is being done with adult stem cells and if I'm not mistaken, the government does fund that kind of research. And the fact is that this country throws far, far more money at medical research than pretty much any other country on Earth. So either way the breakthroughs are inevitable.
The nice thing about Gibson's cyberpunk novels is that the plot is generally compact enough that it should be relatively easy to fit it into a 2 hour movie.
I don't think the subject matter is nearly as dated as some are suggesting. Certainly, it's no more quaint than the junk Hollywood movies constantly put out. But really, a writer with a reasonable amount of talent and sense would update and improve any those elements. The problem, of course, is that good writing seems to be a scarce resource in Hollywood.
While this news has me excited I'm not confident that they wont just botch the whole thing. I can think of quite a few near-future sci-fi movies which have been terrible and have placed far too much emphasis on action.
The idea is appealing, but in this day of high resolution screens it's largely irrelevant. Years ago, when I was browsing in 640x480 and then 800x600 trying to fit as much content on the screen as I could was important. Back then I browsed with the window maximized. Nowadays my browsers are windowed. Sites are so much longer than the vertical height of the window that an extra 40-50 pixels is irrelevant. The vertical orientation of tablets also makes this pointless.
The one environment where this helps is on laptops. So many laptops today are equipped with excessively wide screens that offer little vertical resolution.
But then, I'm sure that the real motivation for this is to make the browser more transparent and enhance the whole "app" experience.
Over the years I've personally seen Mac users praise the wonder that is Apple and mock the ignorance of Windows users. I've been in meetings where someone starts making offhand remarks about the superiority of their Mac. Outside of very particular circles Windows users don't care. Their computer is merely a tool. They're not compelled to comment.
A lot of the anti-Apple commentary is a direct response to the zealotry exhibited by the fanboys.
It's not that dissimilar to what atheists do. A lot of it probably stems from a similar reaction to religion. But I still find them exceedingly obnoxious in their compulsion to share how enlightened they supposedly are. You're no smarter than anyone else merely because you don't believe in a god just like you're no better than anyone else merely because you own a piece of electronics made by Apple.
I think it's simply human nature. An individual who doesn't have religion inevitably creates something to fill that space. So you get celebrity and idol worship and the adulation of lifestyle brands.
Having worked in design for well over a decade I've come across countless Apple fanatics. Although fervor has dampened a bit in recent years, the switch to Intel processors and Apple having becomes largely mainstream playing significant parts in that. Not to discount what Apple has been able to do, but routinely Apple gets all the credit for things others have been doing for years.
The way I've seen some people idolize Steve Jobs is downright embarrassing. I've seen people use his portrait as a desktop background. Every time a new product comes along the rumors start flying about how it works and how it's built. I've heard some outrageous claims over the years.
The thing that I never expected was that this level of fanaticism would infect the mainstream. The big irony is that for many people, particular college kids from what I've seen, continue to see Apple as representative of some kind of counter-culture. I wonder how these people would feel if they say who's on Apple's board of directors. It doesn't get more mainstream than Apple. I'm sure they'd find a way to rationalize it all.
I've always thought Apple has a great marketing machine. But really, their job is made unbelievably easy thanks to all the fanatics.
I didn't think Japanese had ever given up on these kinds of PCs. Sony kept making Windows tablets for quite a while after they had given up on the US market. In fact, I think they probably have never stopped making them.
I have an old Sony tablet, running XP, which was released back in 2004. It was sitting around at my old company several years ago so I got it for free. I certainly wouldn't have paid the $1,000+ the thing cost when new.
People seriously underestimate the utility of a full-fledged PC in such a compact form factor. I've taken it overseas with me and have done work on it. At 1ghz it's performance isn't half bad, although battery life is poor. Still, I thought it was awesome, sitting on a subway in Asia, browsing the web long before the iPad was a gleam in anyone's eye.
The real problem with the device was that the concept was ahead of it's time. Windows wasn't designed with touchscreens in mind and Sony didn't have the foresight to develop a custom UI. The big complaint by everyone who saw the thing was how tiny type was. And the touchscreen wasn't very good being limited by the technology of the time. It made typing on screen a hassle, and the separate keyboard was a hassle to use anywhere I didn't have a table available. With subsequent models Sony seemed obsessed with finding ways to integrate a physical keyboard as opposed to actually improving the GUI.
A lot of the limitations of those early tablets will surely be addressed with these new devices. But then a fundamental problem with the Japanese is that while they're great at hardware they're awful at software development. And generally their user interfaces are terrible.
The limitations of that tablet prevented me from truly exploiting it as a mobile device. However, the fact that it's a full-fledged PC means it continues to come in handy. I use it with diagnostics software on my car.
I'm still eagerly awaiting a good tablet that runs a standard OS like Windows.
If this is illegal why the hell isn't it illegal for pharmaceuticals to advertise drugs that 95% of the American public don't need? It's not like someone is ever going to see a commercial for one of the countless stupidly named drugs out there and demand them from their doctor. It's insane.
I had an account at a bank which suffered data loss. It could have been theft or it could have been some idiot who misplaced sensitive information. They provided access to free credit reporting for a year. That should be mandatory. Unfortunately, even those guys are scumbags, because at the end of the year one of the credit reporting agencies actually began charging me for the service instead of closing the account.
Really, what could Sony possibly do? I have no clue what measures Sony took previously to ensure security. I'm not confident that anyone is truly secure. In my mind this could have just as easily happened to Microsoft. If it's demonstrable that this breech came about because of negligence on Sony's part those involved should lose their jobs. And on a larger scale I'd like to see companies held directly responsible for this.
The question should be turned on the users. If you're unhappy about what's happened make it obvious to Sony. Cancel your PSN account and stop using the PS3. Simple.
If I were going to be totally self-serving about this I'd say the only thing I'd want is free games. A gift card good towards a retail or PSN game, or two. This has the added effect of providing some indirect compensation to publishers and developers. Nothing else they could conceivable offer, like free access to PSN+, amounts to any value at all.
I fail to see how where you fingers hover could have any correlation to what you might be about to type. If you're in a proper position for typing your fingers are always going to be resting on a set range of keys. Also, people routinely type too quickly for this to be effective.
I suppose the people at Apple might have simply been brainstorming and just patent any idea that shows the vaguest hint of potential.
What surprises me is that predictive text hasn't been coupled with full-size keyboards. I imagine it would work a lot like how input for a lot of Asian languages works. There's an app I've been using for some time on my Android phone called SwiftKey which I think is impressive. The suggestions are driven by a log the app builds of what you've typed. It's not perfect, but occasionally I can complete a sentence without typing a single word, by just going through the suggestions. When I first saw that headline this is the sort of thing I thought Apple got a patent on.