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Comment The Surface Pro, stiff competition for the iPad? (Score 0) 279

Hahahaha... ahahaha! How much did Microsoft pay for this? If anyone has ever spent any significant time with a Surface Pro, as well as an iPad, they would know that these devices aren't even in the same league. My organization has deployed some of the original Surface Pro's, and some 3 Pro's, and, combined with the stillbirth that is Windows 8, these devices are absolute dogs. I think my favorite part about them is that the official dock's video output only works intermittently. Well, that, and the fact that we've seen a failure rate of the Pro 3's of about 30%. I'm not Apple fanatic, not by a long shot, but the iPad just generally works, and it's easy/simple to use. The iPad is also not designed for the same thing the Surface Pro is. It's a pure consumption device.

Comment This shouldn't have been such a big deal. (Score 1, Insightful) 1083

Who cares what happens between consenting adults? This issue has been blown way out of proportion by religious fundamentalists in the US (mostly Christians). No one is forcing anyone to get married, merely extending that right (and the associated benefits) to all couples. No, the sky is not falling.

Comment Re:Minecraft itself is a phenomenon, but (Score 1) 330

How long is your "long run"? 5 years? 10? I know Minecraft has had some pretty serious legs on the NPD sales charts, but will MC merchandise be relevant for long enough to recoup that investment? It just seems to me like Microsoft is getting on board late in the game, and that they overpaid.

Comment Re:Seems reasonable (Score 1) 462

Grow up. Any country looks bad when compared to a perfect castle in the sky. For almost 2 centuries the United States stood tall among the nations of the world.

My ancestors were African slaves in Mississippi/etc. I'd like to borrow the rose-tinted glasses that you are wearing.


You would think so. In a way, it's lucky that they don't. Google could use a similar technology to the one that some digital forensics software does, which actually analyzes the pictures themselves. Basically, an algorithm matches the percentage of pixels that fall in certain color ranges and matches them to known illegal images. It's not a home-run like an identical file hash, and requires human intervention, but we have had some success with it in instances that involve a very large number of files.

Comment Re:Because of the Limited Lifespan? (Score 2) 202

Have you ever owned a Plasma? They die... all the time. I had 3 plasmas die in as many years. I've had the same LCD for 7 years now. Every time I go over to someones house and their TV has a giant glitchy white or black stripe running down the screen I know they have a plasma. I'm sure there are some success stories but when even the $7k+ luxury models have higher failure rates, that technology needs to die.

That's funny, I just pulled a plasma off of the wall yesterday at one of our remote offices (getting rid of local workstation/security camera display). It was an old ED (480p) display TH-42PHD5UY, model year 2002. This thing still works just fine. Additionally, Panasonic has, in the past, scored pretty well for TV reliability. Yes, the black/white stripe is a (rare) plasma-specific failure. LCDs have their own failures, like bunches of dead pixels in the center of the screen. I'm not sure why you were modded "5, Interesting". We can all post anecdotes about how something is reliable or unreliable.

Comment The "best" product didn't win. (Score 3, Interesting) 202



Comment This is an amazing feature (Score 3, Insightful) 171

for users who are disappointed that their cable company isn't showing them enough ads. No, but seriously, this feature sucks. You get voice-activated input swapping, but when you go to the Xbone's interface to swap it shows a pane completely bordered by advertisements ala Idiocracy. Who would find such a thing desirable?
