right. Mods. So what? We're not talking about what you want out of gaming. PC games aren't going away because I bought a PlayStation or a Wii U or an XBox. Nor would I want that.

All I'm trying to do is explain why anyone would buy a console and what the upsides are. I'm tired of being told by every jerkoff who has a real fetish for shitting on other peoples non destructive, non infringing choices that consoles are all awful and I should go get a gaming PeeCee because it's so much better when I've already lived that life and it sucked for me. It's not what I want. I want a box that plugs into the TV and plays games with out being fiddly, loud, power sucking and horrible.

or maybe that the console maker themselves are making games?

Nintendo's not going to port to a Microsoft or Sony platform anytime soon. I mean, they might go Sega but not any time soon. Nor is Sony going to port Gran Turismo. Or Microsoft Halo.

"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." - Alan Kay

For all the handwringing that happens over modern console firmware updates, very little has changed in the "I just want to turn it on and play games" space.

While I'm willing to concede that PC gaming has it's place, the superiority complex PC gamers have is really toxic.

The two points you singled out highlight that there are bigger problems here. You didn't read that I'm more interested in having a relatively tiny machine I can have sit somewhere, relatively little power at peak with very little noise that's tightly integrated.

I just want something to turn on and play. Citing that joypads suck for games always gets me angry because we're expected to just accept the idea that every game is an FPS where that kind of input scheme is necessary. Same with "Well our games look nicer." Well, maybe. Sure. But at what cost? What's the power consumption? What's the thing like living with?

I used to be a PC gamer and it just wasn't worth it. Appliances that play games and only play games have a place in the market because some people just want to play games and not have to fiddle with shit to make it work. Don't try to tell me it's not a thing anymore, Valve recently shipped out an update to CS:GO on OS X that broke. In order to make it work you had to uninstall then reinstall.

Maybe someday there'll be a glorious day where consoles literally are just gaming PCs with fast on and off and the binary that runs on a PC is the same binary that runs on a console and everyone's happy. But we're not there yet. Sure, both the XB1 and the PS4 use SOCs from AMD that run x86 but the OS right now is tuned specifically for games and entertainment.

SteamOS isn't it because enough of the underlying OS is still visible to both the user and the games that if a rogue process makes poor life choices, your day will get worse. I haven't used SteamOS since it's release after playing with it a bit, so this may have changed.

However, I don't think it has. And I don't think now is the time. Nor do I think Valve, which has had issues curating their own store(see: Flight Control; Hatred is another issue entirely) or releasing games they've promised on time.

Dear you

good for you. i have a tiny box that consumes less than 150 watts of power that fits neatly into nearly any place I put it. Not all games are FPSes and some are actually better controlled with a joypad. I have no interest in pushing everything to the limit. I just want to turn on and play(occasional 10 minute OS update not withstanding).

No love,

some console using jerk(me)

Yet, Apple hasn't backed down on their disk encryption.

My guess isn't that the NSA is demanding it, it's that vendors are more likely to be fucking it up.

Oblig XKCD. NSA has other ways to figure this out.

I hope you mean, malicious bots. Some markov chain generating bots on Twitter are great. So are some other automated processes like the who's editing Wikipedia from congress bot.

Im shocked. You didn't think about iTunes?

Granted, you can use a Mac with out ever opening iTunes and you can just delete it from the applications folder if you so choose and nothing will break.

Unless you want to sync an iOS device. But that's kind of an antiquated thing now isn't it?

Citation needed?

If I had to guess its because Microsoft isn't just pursuing change for its own sake here. It's icons. On new modern seriously high DPI screens. I think they're trying to future proof themselves.

Actually it's a little too moist in there, seeing as how the human body is comprised of a lot of water.

Not unless you've got a life proof case, of course.

"Make me a sandwich" is/was a common meme that guys would tell women on the internet. Often requests and/or demands for sexual acts were also made.

It's semistreaming. It buffers video, sure, but the buffer is blown out.

Your use case for YouTube reminds me of RMS browsing the web via email

For example, I don't need a 3 year backlog of the Vlogbrothers stuff. I simply don't. I'd rather just watch them via YouTube. It's impractical to keep a backlog of videos I'll watch maybe once or twice.

This I kind of agree with.

However, I think it's worth investing the money to educate teachers, parents and anyone else who will shape a kid's life about the subtle nuance of sexism in our culture. I think it's worth doing it at any level. Even though it'd be way more effective at primary school levels.

I actually do agree that more straight men need to get into fashion. Because the idea that straight cisgender men are just more likely to not get into fashion by the nature of their being is offensive. Women are being actively discouraged against being into STEM at young ages in a variety of ways. Some are really subtle but do have a disproportionally larger effect than you'd think.

How brave of you, rushing to defend the status quo with uninformed opinions.

If you remove identifying information from resumes before they get to hiring managers, diversity goes *up*. Which means that we haven't been hiring the best and the brightest. We've been hiring those who are similar to us. There are many hiring and HR practices that when changed, do improve diversity.

Not just that, but as Neil de Grasse Tyson said about being black and in STEM, who was left behind? Who was told, "No don't focus on STEM, go play sports go do something else, you're black, STEM's not for you." So all of the money being invested in education is also going to mean is to try to stop the meme that, "you're a girl you shouldn't get into STEM. Go into arts or history or become a homemaker."

To suggest that the current status quo is acceptable is ignorant, if not dangerous.