I don't know that I'd say ridiculously expensive... Sure, they cost more than a generic fax machine, but not that much more. And you often get what you pay for - meaning a more expensive document scanner will likely hold up better than your bargain fax machine.

And then there's the real multifunction devices...

Any place that's dealing with a large volume of paper - be it scanning, printing, or faxing - really ought to have a good, solid all-in-one device. Not one of those piece-of-crap inkjet things that HP sells for $100 - but a real office machine. The kind of things that Kyocera or Canon make. The big beasts that'll scan in reams of paper in just seconds, automatically convert it to whatever format you want, OCR it, and then store it somewhere on the network or email it or whatever else.

These things really aren't that expensive. Usually you can get them under contract with some local company and then you don't have to worry about maintenance or anything. And the cost per page is usually much lower than it would be otherwise.

These things make scanning insanely easy. And they'll also email for you - making the whole process just as easy as sending a fax.

I guess it depends on where you work and what you're sending and where it's going... But a PDF document isn't that big. I've got 100 page documents that are just a couple MB. Most folks can receive files of that size.

Plus, it isn't like you fax machines have a magically endless supply of paper. If you're sending a document that's big enough to worry about the size limits on their mailserver, then they're going to be going through a lot of paper. Better hope they filled it up before you sent the thing.

Ideally, sure, that's how it works. But I can boil down sending a PDF attachment to something just as simple.

What you're neglecting to mention is that the entire time you're sending your 100+ page document, your fax machine (and attached phone line) are busy and unable to do anything else. As is the recipient's fax machine and phone line. And if you're sending (or receiving) a lot of these things, you can tie that line up all day long. Which is exactly what we were doing here.

I am always amazed that folks think a fax transmission is somehow secure, and simultaneously seem to believe that securing email is an insurmountable challenge.

Yeah... They'd have to remove that feature, or allow some kind of internal licensing server... Because there's no way in hell I'm going to roll out an OS that bricks my workstations when the Internet goes down.

Yeah. I cringed when I first heard about a new Blade Runner movie... But then I heard it was Ridley Scott... And now I'm just kind of confused.

Ridley Scott generally does good work. I can't think of a whole lot of movies he's done that I didn't enjoy. So that's definitely a step in the right direction.

And Blade Runner was certainly an interesting movie... Fairly complex world... I could easily see more stories being told in that setting...

But I just don't know where they'd go with the actual Blade Runner storyline. It seemed fairly self-contained to me. I've never really felt a burning desire to see what Deckard did before this last job... Or how the replicants managed their escape... Or what happened to Deckard and Rachael after they drove off into the sunset... All that really seemed superfluous to the main storyline.

Of course... That's never stopped someone for throwing together an ill-thought-out prequel/sequel before...

I guess what would make the most sense would be another story told in the same setting, but largely unrelated to the events of Blade Runner. See the events on one of the colonies, where replicants are not hunted down, but treated as slaves. Or maybe follow some other detective somewhere else. Maybe a super-prequel showing the development and release of the original series of replicants?

One thing I'd definitely hate to see is any of the original cast making an appearance as themselves. I guess a quick shot of Decker in the background somewhere would be ok... Or see his file on a detective's desk, or hear about him on the news... I could see maybe a glimpse inside a factory and see a bunch of Decker/Priss/Zhora/Roy-model replicants... But they'd have to be digitally altered to look more-or-less like they did 30 years ago.

PvE, PvP - it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, it's all about the people you play with.

I had a great group of people I used to play WoW with... We'd played EQ before that, and DAoC, and CoH... Awesome folks.

But the gameplay mechanics of WoW really kind of ruined things for us. We were used to raids that involved 100+ people, and WoW limited it to just 40... And then 25... And, last time I played, most things were geared towards groups of 10.

Absolutely everything is instanced, so you don't really run into other people unless you want to. Then there's all the automated systems to help you find a group... Even going so far as to pull people into a group across different servers...

The end result is that WoW became downright antisocial. I'd log in, join a queue, run through a dungeon, get my loot, and join a new queue - all without anybody saying more than a half-dozen words to anyone else. Didn't get to know anyone, no feeling of camaraderie or anything like that, no sense of community.

This is the biggest difference between WoW and EVE - not any particular gameplay mechanic or quest structure or anything like that. The fact that the entire game takes place in a single, shared universe; and that even in the mission pockets you can still be scanned-down... You're forced to deal with other people. That makes the whole process more social, more communal. And it leads to better inter-player dynamics. Which is the whole point of a MMOG.

Done right, that actually adds to the story... It's easier to relate to characters eating Pizza Hut (or Dominos, or some other national chain) because we've seen the stores, we've probably eaten the food, we recognize the packaging, and we can relate to the entire situation of having a party and ordering pizza delivery.

It doesn't work so well if you go out of your way to make something generic, and avoid branding. The pizza example isn't such a good one since there are plenty of local pizza shops with rather generic boxes and people could still relate to the situation... But when you see people drinking a can of generic COLA, it kind of ruins the immersion. Unless you've gone to the trouble of making it fit within the storyline - developing a fictitious brand with a look and feel of its own. Like the Weyland Yutani beer in Alien.

It takes my work PC about ten minutes to get to a working desktop. Probably two minutes to actually boot to windows, three or four to get to the Windows logon (anyone who works Windows domains has learned that if you don't have some wait times built in, policies may not load and you get support calls), then another three to five after I log in for all the scripts, antivirus, citrix, and other crap to run before my desktop is fully functional.

This.

Yeah, a quick boot time is nice... But that isn't even half the problem. The biggest delay for my users is after they've actually logged in.

Actually... What I said was: I don't know how many times I've been asked why it doesn't all just live in Citrix, or why they can't just do it all from a remote connection. Given the opportunity, they'd happily access everything through a Citrix session on an iPad.

In which case, absolutely nothing would live on the tablet itself. It would be completely and totally disposable. No PHI, nothing. Just basically a very portable thin client.

Again, Grishnakh, I have to wonder if you actually read what I wrote...

Whose post are you responding to? Mine? I never said there was no office... I specifically mentioned a business office... And I never claimed that I knew what was best for anyone.

Unless I missed some kind of new disclaimer that's being attached to my posts, I've never claimed to be an authority on anything. I'm simply talking about my own experience here. Your mileage will, obviously, vary.

There's Citrix clients out there for just about everything. Including the iPhone and the iPad. There's absolutely no problem running Citrix on a tablet.

Yes, heavy data entry is awkward with a touchscreen. But there isn't really anything preventing you from using a keyboard with a tablet.

I said they mutter and complain - not that it was impossible to exchange documents across the network. We've got countless network shares set up... Public shares, private shares, departmental shares, shares for specific projects... I personally think it works just fine. But they'd rather just carry a document into the office and show it to someone - like they do with a piece of paper. And they mutter and complain when they can't do it.

We have one there. And it is a slow, old surplus PC. Which is the source of many complaints. It's mostly OK for running PowerPoint presentations, but it can get a little slow sometimes.

But the main problem is when we're trying to do some kind of training with a specific piece of software. Usually that software won't run on the presentation PC because it's so underpowered (and, honestly, I don't want to throw everything imaginable on it anyway). If we're lucky, they've got a laptop already and just plug into the projector. But that isn't always the case. So then we're grabbing a spare machine out and loading it up with whatever they need... Or running it through a Citrix session anyway.

Of course, that all assumes that they're giving the presentation in our building. Sometimes they've got to do so off-site...

Again, I never claimed anything was impossible. We've got VPNs galore. But that doesn't help much when somebody is in a rural location with nothing but dial-up or a crappy cellular data connection, and they're trying to pull several megs of data through a VPN. They're usually happier just leaving the data behind, and using terminal services or Citrix to work with it remotely.

...seriously, did you actually read what I typed? I mean, it looks that way, seeing as you quoted things out and all. But I really don't know where all your venom came from. It's not like I'm threatening to come to your office and take away all your desktop computers.

I work at a hospital.

I've got doctors and nurses who want the smallest, lightest, most-portable device possible. They're using some medical Toughbook tablets right now. The doctors all wish they could use their iPads, but we aren't certain that they'll play nice with our environment yet.

We've got plenty of folks in administration and the business office and wherever else that are pushing virtual paperwork all day long, crunching numbers, whatever else. Yes, they like their full-sized keyboards and big screens and numeric keypads. And then they all mutter and complain when they have to go into somebody else's office for something... Or they give a presentation... Or they're out of the office... And they don't have access to all the resources they had. I don't know how many times I've been asked why it doesn't all just live in Citrix, or why they can't just do it all from a remote connection. Given the opportunity, they'd happily access everything through a Citrix session on an iPad.

Then we've got the registrars, and folks in the lab, and they really don't need to move around too much. They're perfectly happy with their desktops PCs. But they don't make up the majority of my users.

Yes, there are power users out there. And they will, indeed, continue to demand things from their computers that the typical user does not. But that's pretty much irrelevant.

The quote is: "going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs. And that's not far from the truth.

Yes, people still use vacuum tubes, typewriters, vinyl records, CRT's, and incandescent lightbulbs. But I'd argue that with the exception of lightbulbs, they're all seeing dramatically reduced usage these days. All of them (with the exception of the lightbulbs) are falling by the wayside, becoming niche or nostalgia products. The average person doesn't use vacuum tubes, typewriters, or vinyl records in their day-to-day lives. They might use a CRT, but only because it hasn't been replaced with an LCD yet.

Similarly, for the average user, the need for a PC is dramatically shrinking. Folks who just want to do email, surf the web, watch things on YouTube, spend time on Facebook... They don't need a PC for all of that. They can get by with a phone or a tablet or something. And the power of those devices is only going to increase.

We've got infrastructure issues. That's nothing new. We need to upgrade/replace huge chunks of our nation's infrastructure. But that isn't really the fault of electric cars.

Electric cars are supposed to be an improvement over regular gasoline cars largely by centralizing the power generation. So you can (hopefully) get better efficiencies and less pollution and all that.

Obviously that electricity needs to be distributed out to wherever the cars are charging. And right now, if everybody suddenly switched to electric cars, we'd be screwed. But that's secondary to how electric cars are supposed to save the world.

Worse still is the fact that it doesn't really apply.

I mean... I guess maybe ID does like browns and greys. I can't say I've ever really noticed the color palette that much. But they aren't the only folks making first-person shooters.

The Unreal games have always had a fairly vibrant color scheme. Hell, the original Unreal game had some downright psychedelic vistas. And, depending on the map you had loaded, the Unreal Tournament games were similarly vibrant.

Then there were titles like Serious Sam, and Far Cry, and Crysis that all had pretty vibrant color schemes.

Games like Half-Life and Duke Nukem weren't exactly vibrant... But I wouldn't call them predominantly grey/brown either.

But you don't actually have to do an origin story for each major character.

Look at something like Watchmen. Alright, maybe not the best movie... Maybe not the best adaptation. But they managed to tell a story about several different heroes without actually doing separate origin movies for each character.

Don't like that example? How about Star Wars? You could easily argue that the whole series was basically an origin story for Luke... But Han and Obi-Wan and Leia and Chewie and Yoda and Darth Vader all managed to be pretty cool characters without their own origin stories.

How about the Indiana Jones movies? We eventually got some flashbacks to when he was younger... And that horrible Young Indie TV-series... But there were a couple solid movies before anybody started worrying about an origin story.

I don't know if I'd call Captain America a 2nd rate hero... He's a fairly major character in the Avengers line...

But I'm really getting pretty sick of these superhero origin movies. They're all the same.

Somebody acquires superpowers.
We get a montage as they learn to use their powers.
They do some vaguely heroic things, fighting fairly mundane enemies.
Then they're put to the test against some superior foe and have to become a true hero.

It isn't much different if they're Batman, the Green Lantern, the Green Hornet, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, or Spider-Man. Sure, the plot will be slightly different... The characters and acting will be slightly different... The visuals will be different... But, ultimately, it's the same story.

I like superheroes. I read comics for years. I've enjoyed them quite a bit. But the origin stories were never the best part.

And it seems like all we get from Hollywood is a never-ending barrage of origin stories. Now we're going to reboot Spider-Man and see his origin again...

I did not go to see Thor, or Captain America, or Green Lantern specifically because I'm sick of origin stories - not because I didn't think they looked good or I didn't like those comics or whatever. I just don't want to see another origin story. Show me something else. Come up with something original. Or, hell, just jump into the middle of some superhero story and let me see them fighting some awesome supervillains - I don't need to see an origin movie for absolutely every superhero out there. Just run through enough exposition to let me know who's good and who's evil; and give me a good story. If the audience is really curious enough, you can give us an origin story later.

You don't even need power or wealth here in the US...

Give it a year, and people won't even remember any of this.

We've got the attention span of gnats.