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Comment Re:Do those things actually sell? (Score 1) 226

I think it may be the way you were using it. My wife swipes with big swirling curlicues, and the software appears to suggest random crap instead of every other word. She hates it with a passion.

I draw angular shapes that go from letter to letter, sometimes with pauses on double letters, and only rarely need to correct it. I love it.

My mental model of how it works is by matching shapes (points here, curves there, pauses there) with a dictionary of words that could be created with letters near the shape's distinctive features. I'm sure that's not exactly how it works, but when I act on that mental model, I end up drawing over specific letters, with as clear a line as possible to the next one. Consider trying it this way, and you might find you like it better.

Comment Re:Neverwinter is excellent (Score 1) 555

I'll second that: Neverwinter's gameplay is one of the best I've seen in an MMO. The capitol city was terribly laggy, but the combat felt __very__ satisfying. Unfortunately, the few people I talked to indicated that there were some class balance issues -- I took that with some grain of salt -- , and my pocket healer expressed a lot of frustration that as a cleric he couldn't really healbot. Healing mechanics requiring you to face people to see their health didn't make it any nicer, he said.

We're hopeful that Elder Scrolls Online (beta soon!) will be nice.... but honestly I'm not eager to maintain two subscriptions, so the bar for awesomeness is that much higher.

Go where your friends go, though. If my guild rolled to a different game, I'd go with them.

Comment Re:yeah no (Score 1, Insightful) 682

Perhaps he misses the bus and is worried.
Maybe he is lost in a store.
Maybe his mom's car crashes and the kid can call 911.
Maybe he misses talking to his dad and wants to talk to him.

A phone is a tool, if you treat it as one. Seeing the unbridled joy as my son ran off with his aunt's iphone to do face-time with his grandmother was a life-changing moment: I finally understood the value of the smartphone as a tool. A knife is a tool, too, and some cultures are OK with teaching kids how to use them.

Comment Re:Realtime voice encryption apps? (Score 1) 146

Encrypting the communication will likely not encrypt the routing or connection information: the cell network has to know where to send your call. Signals intelligence can get a LOT of information about you from knowing to whom you are talking, even if they do not know what you are saying.


GNOME 3.8 Released Featuring New "Classic" Mode 267

Electronic Frontier Foundation

DOJ Often Used Cell Tower Impersonating Devices Without Explicit Warrants 146

