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Comment Re:But they get refunds, right? (Score 1) 204

Shared real life spaces like hotels, apartments, etc. require you to play by the rules and be a good neighbor.

You can't start blasting heavy metal at 2AM every morning and then get upset when you get evicted.

Similarly, cheating completely screws Blizzard's economy, and can ruin the PVP experience depending on the cheat. So you're disrupting other people's enjoyment of virtual space.

MMOs are shared spaces. Play by the damned rules.

Comment Re: Pass because the price point is too high (Score 1) 80

Depends, what are you using the NUC for?

Games? For 200 bucks you can buy a PS3 that plays mostly the same games, has a BluRay player and plays digital media. For 400 bucks you can get a PS4 which has a better GPU.

For anything else, depending on how much horsepower you need. If you're rendering video or editing RAW photos or audio, sure, it's probably unbeatable for size/power consumption.

Anything else though, we're at a stage where things are pretty much Good Enough.

Comment Re:Who will win? (Score 1) 176

The check engine light can come on for any manner of things, including things that are very expensive to fix, but have no effect on safety. You can't judge the condition of a car by whether or not it is on.

I don't know what code that light is indicating. I'm 99% sure I'm going to reach my destination, so I hop in anyway.

Still, doesn't make me feel great to do so.

They really don't. At least not where I live.

I live in NYC. Yellow Cabs here are impeccably maintained. Maybe you live somewhere that doesn't care about taxis? NYC is run on taxis.

Comment Water resistance? (Score 1) 113

There's a few reasons I can imagine Apple was mum on this. Either it just really isn't actually useful, or meant to be released, or the software/frameworks aren't ready for primetime.

Still, my biggest concern is water resistance. It's exposed pins and it's a wearable. I can't imagine a strap alone is going to help matters here. Right now the watch can survive in relatively shallow depths for short amounts of time, but I wonder if it'll even survive getting dripped on with the diagnostic port exposed.

Comment Re:Who will win? (Score 1) 176

Don't punish people for carrying out commerce.

If you think paying taxes and playing by the same rules the yellow taxis have to play by is "punishing people", then I don't even know man.

The cars are also owned by the drivers, who will notice when something is wrong, and get it addressed quickly, since they have to pay for it and don't want damage to compound.

Yeah, that's a nice fantasy there. I use Uber and Lyft to get around sometimes and the number of times I've gotten into a car with a check engine light on is astounding.

I never review drivers and ding them for it because drivers can review me and make it hard for me to get car service.

Here's the thing, it's not the consumer's responsibility to make sure that what they're consuming is fundamentally safe or not. I'm not an inspector. I don't have the tools, money, access, and most importantly time to vet every single one of my drivers. When I need to get across town in twenty minutes, I don't have time to shop around for a cab. I get in the one I can get and go. It's not like I'm shopping around for a washing machine, a video card, a pair of pants, or any other consumer good.

Fortunately, there are people out there who make it their job to ensure that commerce is done fairly with proper levels of oversight to take care of that for me. I elect them. They need to do their damned jobs. And in the case of the Yellow Cabs, they do it amazingly well.

Comment Re:no (Score 2) 417

Demand might be there, but the problem is that OEMs are really *REALLY* awful at business.

Selling lots of machines at razor thin margins to compete with everyone else selling machines at razor thin margins has been a massive albatross on the neck of the PC market. When there are no more OEMs, who's going to sell PCs to people who don't want to build or want notebooks?

While it's possible that savvy enthusiasts not willing to make the mistakes of their elders may rise from the ashes, I'm not holding my breath. Part of the problems with the PC business right now lie with the fact that Windows is *the* desktop OS, and Windows has problems tech people and non-tech people just accept as being "computer problems."

Comment Re:Dell, HP, Panasonic (Score 1) 417

That watch is also available for 350 bucks if you don't want it to be super spiffy. Even comes in a range of colors too.

Given the thing is backordered into June, I think you're underestimating what's going on at Apple. But I don't count them as a "PC" company since they're not building commodity Windows hardware to begin with.

Comment Re:So let me get this straight (Score 4, Insightful) 686

I'm partially sympathetic to the Government. The Government isn't a monolithic entity where they're all marching lock step towards the same totalitarian goal.

No, it's worse than that, in that we have some parts being turned into agencies and departments that no one wants to reign in because heaven forbid someone put a check on law enforcement power, lest you be considered to be "weak on crime" or "weak on national defense." It's why we still have outdated ideas about incarceration and justice despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary that this shit doesn't work. No one wants to be told prisons don't work, they just want the safety and security illusions of having a prison system. Once they're told that the whole system is broken the illusion of safety is gone.

That's harder to fight. If there was a conspiracy or a tyrant running the NSA doing awful things, it's easy to point that out and say, "Hey, get them! They're the problem." When the problem is more endemic and harder to check than just saying, "The Government is spying on it's citizens and that's bad for a whole host of obvious reasons."

We aren't in an age where the Stasi-like agents are stopping cars asking for papers, but the transition from there to here would be gradual. It's a ... not slippery? Slightly moist and lightly more lubricious than average slope to a terrifying police state no one but the most ardent control freak wants but we wound up with any way because of partisan electoral politicking.

I don't think that Park Services is tapping your phone line and I don't think that DOT and DOE are interested in your private conversations, unless you're out to burn down a forest or school or rest stop.

Even then, that's an FBI matter.

teal dear:

I do still trust the Government, but with a whole lot of caveats.

Comment Re:So let me get this straight (Score 4, Insightful) 686

I have a nuanced opinion about Edward Snowden. I think he's a patriot who may or may not have compromised national security but I also don't know if that's a bad thing or not.

I do have a very low negative opinion of people who make Nazi allusions because of complex international security and policing issues.

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