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Comment More difficult to hold properly (Score 1) 219

Most people don't hold their phones properly, this won't help. The optimal for a sub-Phablet is the Index twist method, but with the curve suggested by this new design, your fingers won't be able to form properly or will cramp up, so it's back to the "standard" non-ergonomic way. Perhaps some variant of the pinky-curl/ring twist method used to properly hold a phablet could be modified, but looking at the numbers, I suspect only about 30% of most users will have hands the right size to use that hold.

Obviously,Samsung didn't do proper ergonomics studies of the design before moving forward. That's a real shame.

Comment Re:Here's the real story (Score 1) 429

I have a small city lot and two HUGE maple trees. I wouldn't mind them if they are on a back acre or something... but they make landscaping impossible, force me to roto-rooter my sewer line (that runs under my driveway!!) once a year to clear the roots, and removing the trees is too expensive right now. I'd move, but nobody will buy my house with those trees (unless they are suckers) so close.

I've had several large branches come down, I've had to deal with the trees being stressed with some sort of fungus, crapping white stuff all over my pool deck and cars. They survived tornados that passed within 60ft (strangely enough).

Normally, I love trees. I love the forest. I just don't love it when it has become such a nuisance to living.

Comment Re:Here's the real story (Score 0) 429

Yeah, I need about 40 megatons of highly directed explosive force to get through the massive maple tree root system that infests my yard 2 inches under the surface before I can dig post holes for my back yard shed. We always need bigger weapons.

Seriously. /I hate maple trees

Comment Price? (Score 3, Interesting) 53

No price listed, so I guess it costs $45,000?

Wake me when I can buy a 3D printer off the shelf for less than $300, because as a consumer, price is far more important in adopting cutting-edge "new" technology than enhanced features.

Advancements in capabilities will come when these things are stocked and selling at WalMart and Target.

Comment Re:No co-op (Score 1) 263

Co-op and multiplayer is obviously allowed - provided you aren't trying to play multi-player with the person you are "borrowing" the game from.

Why is this a problem? If the game is that great that you want to play with the person you are borrowing it from, then buy it... or "borrow" it from another friend/relative who isn't playing at that time.

Comment Content? (Score 4, Funny) 108

Their website is about useless. How about some way I can peruse Oyster's current content offerings?

I'm a sci-fi fan, and that's what I read... if you aren't offering books in my genre, why would I want to spend money on your service, and if I have no way of knowing that you offer any books in my genre, I'm not gambling just to be disappointed by your selection.

On second thought, their web site actually makes me a bit angry. Probably because of its seemingly hipsterish pretentiousness.

Comment Re:Well he showed the problem (Score 3, Insightful) 588

Checking the transcript, it seems Zimmerman identified him as "looks black" - nonetheless, I believe the testimony was that he didn't know Martin's race when he started following him. He only knew for sure when Martin turned to confront him the first time as he was on the phone with the dispatcher.

Comment Re:Well he showed the problem (Score 2, Insightful) 588

I might be wrong, but I don't think Zimmerman even knew what race Trayvon Martin was before Martin jumped him.

Whatever might be said of Zimmerman, he didn't follow the kid because he was black. People made poor choices and somebody paid with their life. It's a tragedy, but to turn it into a race issue does a tremendous disservice to all the great people who have worked hard and sacrificed so much to advance civil rights in this country.

Comment Sumitomo all over again (Score 5, Interesting) 77

Anybody else remember when the Sumitomo epoxy resin plant went up in the early 90s? RAM prices TRIPLED OVER NIGHT and remained high for the next two years, even though chip manufacturers had 6~10 months of the product stockpiled, Sumitomo had 6~8 months worth stockpiled (and in fact, weren't producing for that reason at the time), and several other chemical companies could have been up and running to produce the resin (which sold for $6/lb and THAT price never changed).

In the end, the plant came back up ahead of schedule, and nobody else jumped in because at $6/lb, it simply wasn't worth it to make the stuff, which was use not only in RAM chips, but a lot of other chip packages as well (oddly, none of those other chips went up in price).

In short, the price jump was artificial, had nothing to do with supply and demand, but simply companies taking advantage of news to increase profit margins. ....the Thai floods from a couple of years ago are another example, though those floods did at least have a small impact on supplies (though again, the prices for platter drives remain unreasonably high)

Comment My Smart TV and Blu-Ray players still play media (Score 4, Informative) 329

I still wonder why people go through all the fuss over media players... Samsung, LG and others have TVs and Blu-Ray players that are capable of playing MKV files and such from local drives or streamed from DLNA, and the players can be had for less than $50 when you catch the right sales. As a bonus, you also can play DVDs, BDs and optical discs full of loose media files.

On the negative side, I don't get a lot of fancy presentation, and I don't have emulators and such running on it, but that's fine. I never really understood the excitement over Roku boxes - I also get plenty of online streaming services through my Blu-ray players and TV (I have one "smart" TV, but the rest in the house have the aforementioned Blu-Ray players).

For anything beyond that, I'll build an HTPC so I can also leverage my Steam library (not too excited about the next gen consoles, either).

Comment Getting out of this mess (Score 5, Insightful) 406

Microsoft spent millions every year researching things like user interfaces.

They threw it all away in a short-sighted quest to shove their way into the revenue stream of walled markets.

I think a return to basics - provide value to their best customers (Corporate IT) - through improving productivity and offering stable development environments to encourage those customers to invest in a Microsoft ecosystem.

At this very moment, the only thing tying corporations to the "Microsoft Ecosystem" are Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and pretty much everything pre-2012. Admins don't need "Modern UI" interfaces on their server boxes. Developers don't need monochrome toolbar buttons and screaming menus. Desktop users don't need to gestures to do their daily work. All of those mis-steps has IT departments across the country realizing that while they do not WANT to put the effort into leaving that ecosystem, Microsoft has left them with no choice - So now the decision is to move to something slightly less familiar (Linux and OSX), or move to something WILDLY unfamiliar (Windows 8, Server 2012, etc...) - which makes more sense? so It departments are no longer beholden to Microsoft, thanks to Microsoft's own stupid decisions.

Get back to what worked. Mobile and Desktop are separate markets, which is why Apple didn't paste the iOS UI onto OSX, and why Android isn't a desktop operating system. Stop trying so hard for convergence in the UI when we aren't even close, technologically, to making that happen. Stop forcing your customers to face painful training budgets and re-writing legacy apps just to fit into your executive's superfluous decisions to bully them into the Metro UI with the idea that it would somehow magically sell millions of mobile devices with "Windows 8" (more like "Tiles 1"). That effort failed spectacularly, by any measure, so step back, lick your wounds, and give the customers what they want, instead of shoving what YOU want down their throats.

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