Skype has actually gotten considerably worse since MS bought it.

Gaming in Linux still doesn't match up to what can be done on Windows.

And I have yet to find a spreadsheet of any sort that is as capable as Excel 2007. (2010 may be, but the online variant now isn't). I have tried most open source alternatives. I'd probably even try a pay-for alternative if I thought there was one for Linux that was as capable.

The free market sees why windows exists.

An as an aside: As far as Surface goes, where's my affordable coffee table sized version? I kept seeing the ones they used in demos and early experimental development and THAT is what I want from Surface - an affordable, robust, coffee table sized touchscreen that can be married to many very cool applications and data visualizations.

Microsoft, where is this? I don't give a crap about small tablets or notablebooks (or convertibles). I want the big mid-livingroom coffee table you developed and I want it to be affordable in the consumer space.

AC, seriously? That doesn't even address the point raised.

The original poster sounds like an Apple fanboi. The iPhone6 was perfectly timed only in the sense of 'gosh, Samsung and others have been making lots of money off bigger phones... we'd better try to get some of that FINALLY.'.

Trying to copy Surface is.... coming late to the party too.

Apple hasn't really innovated much since Steve left the scene. Now it is trying to make progress not by inventing innovative new products that control new product spaces or create them, but instead by joining the party after the fact in several already busy sub-market areas and trying to fight with the other dogs over the bones.

Honestly, I hate a lot of things they did on the iPhone that they could have done differently without losing many of its truly positive features. There's no good reason backup is the mess it is (if you don't want to use Apple's chosen method and even a bit if you do) as just one example. But I will give credit where credit is due - they created a device most people seem to find usable (I don't, but that's probably just because I've been trained in other directions) and that doesn't tend to just shut off on my randomly in mid-day to run an update I didn't ask for (I'm looking at you, Android/Google).

The one thing the iPhone 3s and 4s had right is that I want a phone that fits in my pants front pocket. I don't want to need a cargo pocket. I also want a phone I can operate one-handed. The larger iPhone 5, 6, and the Samsung monstrosities as well don't accomodate that. I'm getting concerned that when my Nexus 4 dies, I won't be able to easily replace a highly capable phone in that form factor (instead having to buy either a bloated oversize phablet or settle for an incapable smaller phone).

Why not an SSD?

A signature is pretty dumb too.

Voiceprints, retina prints, DNA scans, fingerprint scans, hand geometry scans, capillary scans, etc. all have one thing in common: They generate some sort of electronic record. That record can then be stolen and misused.

Unlike a password for my bank or a credit card number, it isn't easily possible to reissue these sorts of biometrics (although some sort of Monty Pythonesque 'Biometric Update Service' showing up at your door with bone saws and graft on parts a la Fankenstein is a darkly comedic thought).

THIS is why they're a horrible idea. They are not replaceable or updatable.

It's bad enough to have a \. account, let alone a FB account...

If you aren't paying for it, you are the product. Lately, if you are paying for it, you're still the product.

I totally wanted to say this. THIS THIS THIS!

British banks are distributing retinal scanners. If my mastercard or bank debit card are hacked, I can get a new one. If someone steals my retinal data, I'm pooched in a permanent way. Ditto voiceprints.

Biometric data is never going to be fully secure and thus it borders on pointless as an access control. To use it when its theft would be devastating is a clear sign of insanity.

I'll drop my accounts with any agency or entity that wants to use biometric data as the access control. When we get hacks of biometric data they'll make the 'sploits of Home Depot, Steam, Snapchat, Dropbox and various government agencies look like a minor moment of humour comparatively.

We are sailing upon the Seas of Stupidity and have elected to make our course directly for the Maelstrom of Idiocy located in the Bermuda Triangle of Lost Common Sense.

And you are counting on whom?

Anarchists? (can't organize, often seem oriented around just opposing everything rather than building anything)
Communists? (never met a real one, just a lot that wrapped other objectives in the flag of communism)
Democrats? (there is a misnomer if ever there was one)
Socialists? (they like big nanny state which is as bad as big surveillance state just different slightly)
Republicans? (long since betrayed republics of all sorts)
Conservatives? (apparently most lean towards the Brown Shirt style of conservatism)
Liberals? (another big government group, their classic brethren rotating in their graves at high speed notwithstanding)

The system is such that the voice of the people can only make itself heard through bought men and women and through party apparatuses that insure not true change will disturb the social elites.

As I recall, that was usually to blow up the ship.... ;)

TANSTAAFL is a truism in the physical world (except for entropy - we get more of that no matter what we do). In the larger perspective, it is still true. There is a cost for everything in some respect.

Societies evolve (I can't think of one of any size that was ever 'set up' in some particular way) and they evolve in different directions and have many, many actors in that evolution. That means they cannot have a coherence of thought or purpose or even of mechanisms and social structures.

What you can say is that people will be generally be nice to others if it won't harm them (ignoring the a-holes who have a real sense of schadenfreude as they need some re-Ned-ucation...). What you can also say is that if people see a chance to line their own pockets and they don't think it'll hurt someone directly and that they won't get caught, a fair percentage of people will. People have no problem preventing a government or corporation from collecting money from them (in various ways) but they may well be not inclined to steal from a single mother (unless the are the a-holes mentioned previously).

This new commenting thing is a mess. My preview looks fine with paragraph spacing even after I preview it, but when I post it, it jams everything together.<br><br>What sort of a preview is it that doesn't display what will show up when the submission is done? That's ridiculous.<br><br>Is there a setting I need to fix? Or is this just slashdot's Beta sucking?

Let's start by saying you've got a good point when it comes to the mercenary nature of the corporations involved.<br><br>Acknowledging that, a lot of people on here seem to be criticizing coding as an activity for kids *because of their own notion of what that means - particularly reams of text, etc*.<br><br>Coding is simply a way of instructing a machine to do something (at its root). If you have the right graphical ways of doing this and the things the machine can do (for instance a Lego mindstorm robot or an RC car with computer control), then this doesn't have to be a boring exercise for kids. There are several enrichment programs for kids from 8-12 around here using lego mindstorm products.<br><br>What does coding involve? Sequencing actions/instructions (a skill kids need to learn and practice), understanding on some level trade offs between two options (another important skill for kids to develop), and an ability to create a solution to a problem using tools (a skill kids usually intuitively manifest). These ARE key developmental skills. They aren't the only skills of import (teaching the kids about life, about society, about how the world works socially, and about mathematics and critical thinking are all valid and useful, as are languages and philosophy). But the skills that coding can develop can be helpful too and can be fun if done right.<br><br>I don't want to plop my 7 year old in front of a mixed batch of C and assembler or even Ruby Off The Rails, but I wouldn't mind sitting down with her and having her learn to control a robot via an app on an iPad where she could program the robot to accomplish a variety of things and to solve puzzles or to have her use an app to direct a character to solve puzzles (an educational game could be made from a programming task). It has to be fun but it can also help her develop key skills.

There's no need for balance! There's only work. And then dying. Now shut up and like it, dispensable interchangeable resource creature!<br><br>Seriously, our biologically best childbearing years are likely in the 18-25 range. Maturity wise, we're probably better parents often in the 28-35 range. Later than that, you're going to have some issues. Keeping up with agile, active kids at 35+ is more draining than it was at 18, 25 or even 30. The odds of complications are also higher. So are the odds of small families (the wear and tear of a pregnancy at older ages is higher and people want to have a second or third child less often as a result). That means kids get denied some of the social context they might have if people were having slightly bigger families (and starting younger). As an older parent, you also tend to be involved in fewer physical activities with the child. (I'm not saying in any event that some parents aren't able to keep up or aren't fully involved in sports and other activities, but on average, fewer older parents will be).<br><br>The companies are mercenary. They'll coddle you as long as they think you are useful and replacing you would be more expensive. They'll try to convince you to work hard, long hours and remunerate you not with what any objective standard thinks you deserve, but the least they can get away with (why you generally get more from moving companies). And they'll dispense with you rapidly if you show any signs of cracks from illness, stress or if your skillset simply no longer fits their needs or if their business case changes. Loyalty is a conveniently fostered illusion (a convenient fiction for HR types).<br><br>Also, your odds of getting sick or dying are higher as you age. This means the chance the kids lose their parents at vulnerable times in their lives goes up. If you are younger, this is less likely and your kids stand a better chance of getting to maturity and hopefully independence and emotional readiness before having to deal with the loss of a parent.<br><br>Our society is kind of backwards. I hate to say it, but those in Utah had some parts of it right. I had a friend from Corel go down as part of the team picking up the Word Perfect code base. He noted that down there, their universities and colleges were filled with late twenties women. They had elected to have kids in the 18-25 zone and had them up to school age by their late twenties so they could pursue a higher education and a career once the kids were in school. This model has all sorts of benefits biologically and statistically. (Again, not saying individual cases, and even a fair number of them overall, of parents of older ages don't work out just fine... mine did, albeit with many health scares and a lot less involvement in physical activities or sports).

True enough but every critique I've seen that leans the other way seems at least as flawed and assumption loaded.

Speculation is always cherry picking. But the 'no stealth' crowd at least has a lot of data on modern sensing and near future developments on their side whereas the 'stealth' side seems to rely on forcing restrictions on the detection platforms that are unreasonable and unlikely as well as developing heat sinking technology that is 100% efficient and as yet not even in vague development.

When one side is based partly in today and partly in the near future and the other is based in things that might be possible someday, I know who I tend to side with.