Here's where a bunch of Apple apologists chime in to the effect of: "If you're trying to do that with your iPad, you're using it wrong."

I'm really tired of hearing that. The only things an Ultrabook can't do that an iPad can come down to apps that qualify as curiosities. I'd rather spring $200 more for an Ultrabook that can pretty much do anything, not just what iPad owners proclaim as important.

Which is why hybrids like the Yoga are actually a compelling idea, despite the execution needing some refinement.

Completely legitimate comment to make. And one which Microsoft and Intel would surely approve of.

Personally, I am just as interested in the Acer W700 as SPro. Its dock, I admit, looks like it was made by Hasbro, but otherwise also looks on par.

When someone tells me my code is bad, I look them straight in the eye and say

Is my code bad, or is it BAD ASS. Aw yeah.

This.

I've posted on this before, but I am using an Acer W500 with Win8, and have found the experience to be surprisingly productive. At night, I lie around browsing tablet style, and it's pretty much on par with any iPad or Android tablet for most things. Win8 is still appallingly crappy in some areas (I'm looking at you, Windows Mail), but that's a software thing, not a design / hardware thing. In the morning, sometimes I work from home, and so I plug it into my 1080p 24" LCD, keyboard, mouse, and am happily opening terminals, browser windows, and other tools. The tablet screen acts as a second monitor - that's cool, too. My scanner, printer, camera, external DVD, and every USB peripheral I have work perfectly fine.

OS team: Good job, thanks for the speed improvements, retaining great hardware compatibility, and decent stability.
UI team: Ha ha, you guys are funny. You're not fired.
Apps team: You guys are not even funny, so you're fired.

You seem so sure of yourself, evident by the unnecessary profanity. And yet many highly successful products both past and present betray your assertion.

MP3 + Video player => iPod Touch and its ilk
MP3 + Video player + Browser + Apps + Phone => smartphones
Passenger car + SUV => Crossover SUV cars
Game Console + Media Center => PS3, Xbox 360, soon PS4 and Xbox 4
PC + LCD monitor hybrids => All in one PC's, iMac
Compact Camera + Interchangeable lens => Micro 4/3 (e.g. Sony NEX)
Printer + Scanner + Fax => Printer / Scanner / Fax (duh)
Radio + CD Player => Boombox, FM Walkman
Power Screwdriver + Power Drill => Combo Power Screwdriver / Drill
Hammer + Crowbar => Pretty much any hammer you find today

and the list goes on and on and on. Pretty much every one of these carries with it compromises that can be lambasted by anyone inclined to do so. In all successful cases, the benefits match or exceed the compromise. Some of these examples are more enduring than others, but the bottom line is that compromised hybrid designs are a fine way to go about product design.

Unlike the iPad, it also supports multiple users.

Like the iPad, it supports iTunes - except that it actually, like, runs it.

I wouldn't want to stay in a coffee shop or library all day, either. Fortunately, where I *do* work, I have a 2560x1600 monitor and a nice ass keyboard and mouse.

I wouldn't want to work all day on a MacBook Air, either.

Yes, older, wiser, greedier, selfish, and judgemental.

I found both the article and what JC wrote to be highly informative and rather validating of my approach to things. In software, we usually get little validation because of the wide variety of opinions of who we work with. We've all seen the extremes: The hard core C programmer who can't be bothered with any OO nonsense, and who advocates inspecting the assembly of every method you write. The C++ hippie who sees everything as some kind of exercise in getting the compiler to write the code for you.

I'm sure most of us follow a more balanced approach. C++ has to be about performance over anything else, otherwise there are plenty of other languages that accomplish much greater degrees of expression, but can't cash the performance check. But, expressibility is important, too, because performance goes out the door once we stop understanding what the code is doing. It's nice to have a language that lets you express things somewhat functionally, yet gives you the flexibility to wring out serious performance.

I think there are only 2 important aspects to code quality: performance and readability (I classify correctness under performance).

Both need a great deal of context to judge, and any judge will ultimately see what they want to see if they want to see it. It is impossible for a developer to judge without preconception. One developer working on highly parallel systems will, if they are predisposed to, gasp at your lack of use of parallelism. Another developer who lives and breathes C++ 11 will gasp that everything lacks move constructors and how your code could be refactored with lambdas.

I remember working in an audio group where I found a long algorithm to do a bit of sound processing. I gawked at how unwieldy it was, and proceeded to hotshot a new implementation that was 1/2 the number of lines. And then I was promptly reprimanded: the original code, ugly as it was, was that way because it was way more L2 cache friendly. I ended up setting the project back with my "less sucky" code. Doing a source diff history, I found a much shorter version as one of the initial versions.

The only rule when working in this industry is: Always be prepared to defend your decisions. If you can't, then either you deserve to be fired, or you're working in the wrong place.

Templated examples. I like it, we should do more template meta posting.

That sounds like the near future of HTML5 and more advanced browsers. But when you add...

... well, hmm, ok, the first part sounded great. What's with the second part?

My main issue with netbooks was the horrible resolution and the sluggishness.

If, by the end of 2013, they can slim down a Bay Trail-based netbook to 3/4", banish the absolutely awful 1024x600 resolution for 1366x768 or even 1600x900, rev to Windows 8.5, and keep it at $350, I will buy 3 for the price of a Macbook Air.

A while ago, I had bought an Acer W500 as I was developing a specialized touch screen type of app for Windows 7. That project kind of died, so I ended up with a useless piece of hardware for almost a year. After Windows 8 was released, I upgraded for $40 and put that on there.

Recently, my MBP and Acer netbook both died, leaving me with nothing but this W500. My first reaction was to whip out the CC and go to apple.com. However, I gave the W500 a chance. Here's what I found:

- It works quite well as a desktop. I plug in my USB kb/mouse and 24" 1080p monitor. The traditional Windows desktop is perfectly responsive
      - As a Putty client, it's great. I can easily have 4 big terminals open on the 24", and a browser open on the tablet.
      - Demanding desktop apps can run a bit slow (it's only an AMD C-50), but it depends on what you're doing.
- With only 32GB, it's pretty space limited. Fortunately, I have a 64GB SD card which mitigates it a bit. Also, I can plug in my external 500GB.
- I'm also able to plug in my printer, scanner, camera, and external DVD, and they work for the most part.
- As a tablet, it's OK. It's no iPad, but there's already been endless discussion on that.

Overall, it's actually impressed me in that there's no way I could do this efficiently with an iPad. I give it a B for desktop productivity, and a B- for tablet functions. For reference, I'd give an iPad an A+ for tablet functions, and an F for desktop productivity (not intended as a knock). My guess is that an Acer W700 (core i5) would be an A for desktop tasks (since it's way faster and more capacious) and a solid B for tablet (since it's faster and has higher resolution).

In short, at the risk of getting attacked as an MS shill, I'd actually recommend one of the newer hybrid tablet-top Windows 8 thingies if you're looking for a single device. If you can, I'd wait until after CES and the market to settle down a bit before buying anything.