Points to Ms Clinton for asking that money be put to fundamental development and the general betterment.

How sad that more people do not realize computers have brought "General Betterment" to more people than most inventions in history.

The BamBaoni 5000

Don't miss the Penny Arcade Surface Pro 3 feedback, as it gives some good solid thoughts on usability hiccups - which it sounds like Microsoft is going to great lengths to address quickly.

His take is especially interesting because he uses it heavily for art.

Are you sure your not looking to rationalize a toy?

No, it's very useful for development work to have programming stuff on one monitor and design things n another. It's not rationalization.

But that's also why I'm not sure about three monitors, because I don't as often have use for three separate "views" as it were.

It's not a bad idea but I don't want the fiddling (and cables) associated with that many monitors.

The customer's time is valuable too. If they can get at the relevant information more quickly by asking you to read the manual to them than by reading it themselves, then they have saved time that can now be put to productive use.

Even if a product margins were 90% you would not be paying enough to have anyone do that for you.

It's like you bought a new car and with no training or help expect to run the Dakar rally...

That's ust plain unreasonable.

I don't believe that - unless you have a screen the size of a small movie theatre your eye cannot distinguish between 4k and 1080p resolution pixels.

It's not that large of a screen you can plainly see the difference, especially sitting at a few feet (as you do with a computer monitor).

You should go to CES sometime where you can see lots and lots AND LOTS of different displays all using the same source material, then you can tell for yourself...

Really? Many people like dual monitors, which gives lots of horizontal resolution and not so much vertical.

Yes really. I use multiple monitors most of the time, but I find my current second display (A cheapish HD monitor) at 1080p, is jet a bit too short. I've been looking at second monitors that offer more vertical resolution (looking strongly at 4K).

Although extra space to either side is nice in the end vertical space is often more useful for the task at hand.

So would it also be ok if publishers colluded with cell phone stores to instead sell jailbroken iPhones that purchase and download the books directly from the publishers,

Why not? Although your analogy breaks down badly because none of what you advocate is bypassing a monopoly the way Amazon's kindle has a monopoly on eBooks. The Android market sells plenty of apps too.

There is a pretty tried and true method to handle monopolistic businesses: petitioning the government to start an anti-trust investigation

Pretty hard when the government has it against you to begin with.

Ever hear of the concept of civil disobedience? Doing something technically unlawful in pursuit of the greater good is a time honored tradition, and companies that participate in same should be lauded, not attacked.

Out of the goodness of Steve's heart (and he has a rich history of goodwill) he tried to help the poor publishers out?

Not sure why everyone is so confused about this.

It was not out of Apple's goodness. It was not even legal. What I am saying is that against a real monopolists, some rules against group actions should be abolished. Amazon is able to dictate terms and harm publishers without recourse because Apple (the only serious challenger against Amazon consuming the whole eBook market) was slapped down along with the publishers trying to help distribute control.

Why you all make it out to be it has to be Apple being good to be helpful is beyond me, it's not about Apple's benevolence but about allowing actual competition in market where one company is running roughshod.

It won't be until people get hauled off for some sort of throughtcrimes or a purge happens that people will give a crap

Why then?

People are already hauled off for making movies. No-one cares. No one will care.

I have no illusion what OR is and is not. But neither am I bling to how they have helped.

I think good OR is inevitable. But to try and pretend OR has done nothing to significantly advance not only the state of the art but also interest in VR is laughable.

Do you really honestly think Samsung would be announcing a VR product right now if it were not for OR?

Do you have a dev kit BTW? Have you used them or are you just speaking from experience with past VR products?

Apple and the publishers were trying to ensure there was a choice in eBook providers.

What Amazon is showing is the consequence of allowed, through government action, Amazon to utterly control the online eBook (and just plain Book Book) market.

Amazon wields way too much power and whatever publishers - and other book vendors - can do in response should be allowed.

Oh sweet, just point me to all those patents they're sitting on then...

What if you simply wanted to advance the general state of VR. Would you:

(A) Do a bunch of work and patent it all, or
(B) Do a bunch of work and patent none of it, knowing any company could use the information to make better VR products?