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Comment: Re:People want cheaper tablets (Score 1) 657

by frist (#40866631) Attached to: Why the Tablet Market is Really the iPad Market

What insane number of functions in the home button? I find it much easier to use than my android phone. My kids including 2 yr old can use it. I don't miss the other 3 buttons at all. The software on the iPad is just so much more intuitive and just works. I havent learned a multitude of gestures as some other poster wrote and I have no problem working the device.

Comment: Windows/Linux/QNX Fanboi Loves his iPad (Score 3, Insightful) 657

by frist (#40863241) Attached to: Why the Tablet Market is Really the iPad Market

Background: Not an apple fanboi. Owned no apple products other than a $1500 used Mac Lisa that VPI forced the CS class to buy back in the day because they had a version of Uniplus Sys V for it...

I've owned C64, Amigas, now a bunch of PCs that have various versions of Windows and Linux starting with Windows 3.1 and Linux 1.0 (4 floppies for a distro, I miss that).

I went to the store to look at the Transformer and some other android tablets after checking out a friend's. All the Android tablets were so-so. I'd have to sideload Netflix on most of them. The displays were ok. They had an apple section so I said "what the heck, let me check out this iPad thing".

Looked at an iPad (3rd gen, retina display). Wow. It just worked so well, the display was unbelievable. Everything was super smooth. Reading docs on it was amazing. It made the Android tabs look terrible. There was just no comparison. I went back over to the Android tabs and gave them another shot. There was just no going back anymore.

I bought a 3rd gen iPad, came back for a 2nd for the kids the next day. I tried an iPad 2 for the kids, no good, 1024x768, could not use it after using the retina display (2048x1535), so exchanged that one for a 2nd new 3rd gen iPad. Definitely worth the extra $150.

I keep an eye on the Android tablets, They're starting to come out with 1920x1080 res devices now, still no comparison.

I borrowed a mac mini to try out Xcode (you have to develop iOS aps on a mac). I had tried the android SDK, not too impressed, and the nightmare of managing all the different platforms is no fun (I have to do that at work). I actually liked OS X. Nothing like the crappy OS 9 and prior. A BSD-based desktop OS - imagine that. A Linux-like desktop that is actually good.

I've been eyeing the Macbook Pro w/retina display... 2880x1800 in a 15" package. To run Windows and Linux because I have to.

If I could extricate myself from the Windows / Linux ecosystem that I write software for I would, but I can't, too many PCs, too many ties. I have to write windows and linux software. Windows 8 holds nothing for me, current distros of linux are going in the wrong direction with their insane UIs (activities? really?). But OS X is nice. Too bad the mac desktop/laptop hardware is so expensive and limited, and I can't use a phone w/out a slider keyboard.

But for the tablet experience, I wouldn't trade the retina display iPads for any android tablets. There's just no comparison.

Comment: Article Summary Deceptive (Score 1) 503

From reading the article summary I thought that I could now only return something once every 90 days at Best Buy. Reading the actual article reveals that this is only true for habitual returners who meet whatever patterns are used by the software used by Best Buy and others now. Some unlucky few fall between the cracks, but for the majority of shoppers, this is a non-issue.

We should be able to mod submitters down as incompetent or deceptive.

Comment: Re:Well, Hungary, you asked for capitalism... (Score 3, Insightful) 95

by frist (#39024095) Attached to: Hungary's Needy Given Money to Burn

Oh please. As a 1st gen immigrant from Romania, an eastern european soviet block country crushed by first the Nazis and then the Soviets, capitalism as done in the US is a godsend compared to the bullshit of Marxism. What you have in Russia and Romania is the result of years of devastating communism, where there is no incentive to work, everyone steals from their employer (the state). The same people are in power now as before, they're just "capitalists" by name. I have family that went back after the revolution and tried to help the country, start businesses, teach etc. They got stolen blind because of the same attitudes that had been forged into the soul of the people by communism.

Never mind that I had relatives in prison tortured because my family wouldn't join the communist party. My mother told me about when she was being appointed to her first job, how she wanted to request to be in a different location so she went to the hearing and a married couple went first. They were stationed (the govt picks where you work in that system of govt by the way) over a hundred kilometers apart. They had no car. They had a child. They requested to be posted closer together. The govt presiding officer told the woman - eh you can find another man in your new village. After a few similar cases my mom just left without a hearing.

Go back to your dear Russia and take your communism bullshit with you. Never again you fucks and take your fucking KGB putin and his fucks with you. Thank God for the US. The main regret of the Romanian people and the cause of so much horror there was that the US didn't take over and instead gave Romania to you Russian bastards.

Comment: Re:Anyone seen the new Google Calendar / Gmail? (Score 1) 980

by frist (#38340304) Attached to: The Condescending UI

This is exactly right. Office 2010 does this crap where they got rid of panes/lines. Those lines are there for a reason. Now I lose my title bar in another window behind it because the app behind it (e.g. Lotus Notes) has the same grey content as the stupid title bar with no lines in 2010. WTF is wrong with these people. I wish these so-called GUI designers would go work for a car company and try to redesign car controls...

After a while, we get things right, and then changing them is just change for change's sake and is not making things better. I've been with this GUI thing since X-Windows first came out. Lots of great stuff has happened over the years. Lately it's all going to shit.

Comment: Re:Menu-izing the Ribbon for screen real estate (Score 1) 980

by frist (#38340240) Attached to: The Condescending UI

Yeah except the menus would be there while the ribbon is hidden and you can't do jack. So of course you have to click again to get it back...

Ribbon is about the most retarded thing I've ever seen. Different targets, different size, some pictures, some words, some pictures and words, some big pictures, some little pictures, crap spread accross different ribbon tabs.

OMG so bad. Old menu system + toolbar was so good. Ribbon is so bad. So bad and inconsistant. Review ribbon tab makes no sense in Visio but it's there. Not to mention that now some apps have ribbons some have menus....

Office 2003 was the last good version. When I was forced to upgrade to 2010 from 2003, I desperately started looking for an alternative. I even downloaded openoffice and seriously considered using it...

Comment: Re:Linus is right on about microkernels (Score 1) 480

by frist (#38120322) Attached to: Andrew Tanenbaum On Minix, Linux, BSD, and Licensing

You totally missed the point. You should not have any reason to add a system call. In a microkernel (QNX is my favorite) you leave the microkernel to do its job, and you write userland code. That's way easier than your example of adding a system call. Yes I have for fun added system calls and written linux driver. Would you rather write in C in the kernel and debug with kprintfs and not know who's messing with your address space, or write your "driver" in whatever language you want and debug it in eclipse?

Nothing is finished until the paperwork is done.