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Comment Re:When will they make a movie about this? (Score 2) 353

So because a wikipedia article doesn't cover it, it must not be true?

Here's US v. Nicholas in which (under oath) he admits to drug use. So there's part of it verified. Find the divorce case which was they fought to keep sealed (but the L.A. times fought for) and I'm sure you'll find information about his infidelity with prostitutes. With some quick googling I was only able to find his attempts to keep it sealed.

Did Vanity Fair possibly exaggerate or sensationalize? Sure, but nothing in there is all that unbelievable. I've seen rich people with a lot less money (only 400-500K/year) do things along those lines. If they had that money it would be the same story. Only thing is they aren't in the tech business.. they are in an inherently shadier business..

Comment Re:When will they make a movie about this? (Score 5, Interesting) 353

Forget McAfee. I want a movie about Henry Nicholas of Broadcom. Henry was living large: drugs, prostitutes, secret sex lair being built under his house while his family lived in it.. It's as though he was living his life just to make a crazy movie about it.

McAfee? I don't want to watch a movie about some some guy that is obsessed with taking drugs rectally.

Comment Re:What? (Score 1) 878

Quite true. I know a few people who use "medical" marijuana for pain relief (medical simply meaning they procure it through legal means, not that it is produced or controlled by a lab). It has kept them off opiates (in one case gotten him off opiates). They are very specific about what works for their pain yet allows them to live productive lives.

Speaking of opiates: I am very against the use of opiates for pain control. Use in anesthesia makes sense, but as a long term pain control solution they just don't make any sense to me. They are extremely addictive and they become ineffective quite quickly. I have an uncle taking a dose large enough to kill an average person. At this point he's mainly managing his addiction, not his pain. Yes, marijuana can be habit forming, but have you seen opiate withdrawal or the side effects of heavy opiate use? I have no idea about long term usage of marijuana (not many studies covering that), but comparing people I know on optiates vs marijuana I don't see why marijuana isn't more consistently used as a first line defense in pain management with opiates being a last resort. I'm sure the tin foil hat wearers would claim it's the fault of the pharmaceutical industry, I suspect it's just the controversy around pot due to the "war on drugs". I'm sure pharmaceutical companies can find a way to make money off of cannabinoid based products.

Comment Re:What? (Score 2) 878

Majority of coding work is not creative. Take an interactive form with 20 fields in WPF, for example - with data binding, with triggers, with validators.

I assume you aren't a recreational pot smoker. Different people, different strains, different results.. but in my anecdotal experience pot can be useful in routine tasks. For some it lets them focus (like Ritalin or adderall). I've tried coding drunk.. results were horrid. Weed? I can focus for longer periods of time, but also find it increases creativity. For some people it ruins concenrtation. We did an informal experiment with a dance game (similar to DDR). Played it sober, same level multiple times and kept score. Then "got high" and played the same level. Some people did better, some did horribly worse. It seemed to go one way or another (though the sample size was pretty small).

My point is the effects of pot aren't consistent, so we can't make broad statements about its effects. Maybe with the change in laws we'll see more research into the effects.

The book mentioned in the summary, "What the doremouse said", is worth a read. It shows the real beginnings of modern personal computers (which was SRI not Xerox Parc.. Parc got their researches from SRI after the gov't funding dried up). Those researchers experimented with plenty of drugs and came up with some really cool things.

Comment Re:Few things (Score 1) 260

Of course, in a perfect world, we'd all be running BeOS :-)

You mean if Apple had bought BeOS instead of NeXT? I've always wondered what would have happened (alternate future style) if they had gone through with that purchase. They didn't like they price (of BeOS), but somehow Steve talked them into paying more for NeXT.

Comment Re:Few things (Score 1) 260

Once it's working, Linux is alright. Getting it there sucks...

I can agree with this. I had a rock solid linux setup (well a few, but most recent was ubuntu 6.something). It took a while to get there (wireless, video, keyboard function keys.. don't remember if I ever got hibernation going right, but I don't remember it being an issue), but once I worked out the kinks.. rock solid. I even converted my wife to it once she borked an XP install and she liked it.. until she needed a flash update that didn't exist (to stream her horrid reality tv shows).

The biggest issue was upgrading. I'd often have to rework problems I thought I had already solved. We both ended up moving to OS X and that's where we stuck for personal stuff. I use Win7 for most work stuff and it's fine. Nothing to rave about, but I now couldn't imagine ever having to use XP again. Linux is now relegated to the raspPi. All my web hosting is linux.. but that's shared hosting so that's what you get. Some BSD variant would be just as good.

I university I was very pro linux anti-MS, ran openBSD for my firewall/router, loved using the Solaris servers at school since noone else was on them etc. Now I just use the tool that gives me the least grief for the job at hand. I have no love for any OS. They all cause some amount of grief, more so if they are the wrong tool for the job.

Comment Re:Missing links (Score 1) 201

..though I'll be honest--I type faster on Apple's laptop keyboards...

Really? I have both a mech keyboard (same keyswitches as Das) and a macbook and I'm much faster on the mech keyboard. Travel length isn't that much if you are just hitting the keys until they register (i.e. click) rather than bottoming them out (which is kind of the point of a mechanical).

Comment Re:Keyboard evolution stopped with the Model M! (Score 1) 201

Yep. MX Black switches all the way and plenty of different manufacturers making keyboards with them. I went with a gaming company one as it was cheaper than my friend's Das. The biggest benefit to me is less fatigue. I don't have to bottom the keys out for them to register. Of course I find I'm also a bit faster on a mech.

Only downside is my office is beside the bedroom. I have to keep a dome keyboard on hand in case the wife is trying to sleep.

Comment Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad (Score 1) 359

Cool. I'll check out goodReader. The Toshiba Thrive I have has a removable battery. They stopped making them (we bought up a bunch from whatever suppliers we could find). I don't think there was a cell version anyhow. Toshiba went on to make thinner tablets (ones without fullsize hdmi, usb, SD etc). It's funny, many different companies contacted Toshiba in regards to getting an OEM version of it since it's a good inexpensive device to use as a control, or POS device or what have you. They had no interest in supporting that. We offered to buy 500 retail version models and they wouldn't budge on price either (places like Newegg and tigerdirect were better prices in quantity).

I'm still waiting on a rep from Askey about their 12" Android tablets they were supposedly launching end of the summer, then Sept, then October. I can't even get my hands on a dev unit (regardless of price) as they keep changing the specs and release date. Oh well.

Comment Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad (Score 1) 359

Personally I prefer iOS to Android for the stuff I end up doing on it. Keyboard is better (of course you can get better ones for android than the stock software keyboard). I am stuck on Honeycomb on my current tablet so take that into consideration (I have some limited experience with ICS) regarding the stock keyboard. I think the aspect ratio of the iPad is way better for documents and viewing in general. All the business related apps I use are on iOS. I love my android phone, but the Android tablet ends up just being a development device (I work on a product that's currently deployed to android tablets.. though it looks like they may drop those and use all-in-one computers..).

You didn't ask, but here it is anyhow.. I use office^2 (office squared) HD for reading and editing documents on flights, toggl for tracking time, Evernote (for notes), an RDP/vnc client (forget which), LogMeIn and that's about it for productivity. Otherwise I use it for media consumption (movies, news, books, magazines). Works great. If I need something more serious I'll pull out my laptop, but I can generally do without.

Comment Re:No LTE, less space than a nomad (Score 1) 359

Check the specs in the google play store. Nexus 10 is wifi only on both models (at least on the Canadian site) but the Nexus 7 is available with cell connectivity (HSPA+ for data). I don't see why you had a hard time finding that out. It's right there on the official site "wifi only" right under the price.

Why do you even need cellular connectivity on your tablet? I have an original ipad (wifi version) and a toshiba thrive I use when travelling. If free wifi isn't available I just create a hotspot with my samsung smartphone.

Comment Re:I'm sorry but.. (Score 1) 770

Shoot.. I wrote a nice reply.. but forgot to hit submit after preview.

IANAL.. took a little law in school (mainly contract) but I honestly don't know shit. I ask for my lawyer's advice on all things legal regardless of how good a grasp I think I have on them (and then most often find out how little I know).

How would it help? Well you'd have your day in court (as you can sue, whereas the Crown must prosecute criminal cases) and some kind of remedy would be applied by the judge. It may be a trivial amount of damages (i.e. money) depending on the culprit's income, but they would apply something. The culprit would not end up with any criminal history due to the case, nor can the judge sentence jail time or similar.

Based on what you've said you should be able to get him on battery (for touching you) and trespass (trespass of chattels in particular). It should be noted the torte known as assault does not involve touching but simply putting you in a position where you fear imminent harm. It may apply as well. To start your case you'd need to make a statement of claim to be served to the defendant. It would be advisable to look up similar cases online to see what was applied so you can request a similar amount. If the defendant doesn't settle our of court and you have to go to trial you can apply for filing fees (it cost something like $400 in filing fees to take a case through to court.. luckily that's recoverable). If it goes to court and the judge thinks the actions of the defendant were egregious.. then he/she can apply punitive damages in addition to the damages you requested. The judge also can apply other remedies such as an injunction. In BC they have tried to streamline the civil suit process for cases under $25K: small claims bc.

As an aside.. had they followed through with criminal charges you could have still filled civil charges as well. It actually makes the process easier as you can just refer to the criminal case (which has a higher burden of proof). There was an instance of a vandal being charge twice (teen tagger) in Victoria. I laughed when his mom was complaining to the paper that he shouldn't get charged twice for something he was already punished for. One applied criminal charges (and possibly related fines) and the other sought the financial damages he caused. Being charged criminally doesn't get you off a civil case, it makes it easier to pursue. Also each property owner who had their property damaged by his graffiti could sue him. At the same rate, losing a criminal case doesn't mean a civil won't succeed (OJ being a famous example).

Comment Re:I'm sorry but.. (Score 1) 770

They probably didn't think they had enough of a case (for criminal trespass) or that the person wasn't worth charging (no history etc). That doesn't mean you can't push civil charges yourself. The police report alone would probably be enough for civil charges to stick (just need to prove it's more likely than not he trespassed). However the result would be some trivial amount of damages to deter the culprit from doing it again.

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