On one hand, they are partially correct. Every PC, tablet, phone etc. has a damn calculator these days. Hell, anything that can query google can work as a calculator. At a certain point we are better spent learning why and how to use the math rather than forcing to learn time and again how to perform the calculations by hand.

On the other hand, multiplication is at such a low level, any person who can't do rudimentary multiplication in their head probably shouldn't be passed to the next grade much less graduate. If one can't do simple "Home economics"-type problems in their head (like estimating the cost of purchases or the such) they have been failed by their education.

Too be fair, the media and slashdot in particular has always had a love / hate relationship with the iPad. In one sense, it seems the media is in love with them in that pretty much every journalist and pundit I have ever seen is usually carrying one. On the other hand, most articles not from a Mac fan site, is usually going on and on about "Apple is doomed", "iOS is the worst OS ever and is a failure compared to the greatness of Android", "iPad is just an overpriced toy", "Bill Gates proved time and again that nobody wants tablet computers", etc.

I like my iPads and my computers (2 Windows Desktops and 2 Macs). If you like Android tablets, or Windows laptops, or whatever great, use what makes you happy. However, in the end, Apple just posted record profits which tells me they are at least putting out products that people want.

For a good bit of nostalgia, find the Slashdot post anouncing the iPad and look at the amount of vitriol and nay-saying.

No. This was actually addressed in a hand-waving sort of way in an episode of Enterprise where the inventor of the transporter said that that particular metaphysical argument was poppycock.

Don't be such a drama queen. Mac's have been associated with graphic artists and "creative types" for over 30 years. Or you could always learn to use The Gimp like everyone else.

Also, I know it hurts to hear this as an PC Master-Race Ubermench, but millions of people play games on these things called "consoles." Sure, you have to ditch the mouse and keyboard, for something called a "gamepad" but it can theoretically be done. I know your Ubermench brethren will laugh at you for leaving the Gamer Gods to join the Konsole kiddies, but I'm sure they will understand your reasons and only laugh at you behind your back.

Just out of curiosity, what linux apps are you using that can't be installed using one of the many mac package managers such as Macports, Fink, Homebrew, etc? While I don't use fink or homebrew, Macports typically has pretty good support for a good swath of popular (and even some pretty obscure) console and GUI programs. If the translation of key mappings between host and VM is the issue, having a native version installed could help solve your problem.

Really? Emoji as they are being described here are part of the Unicode standard. If their textboxes blow up on account of stray unicode characters, then their software is crap to begin with. That isn't bloatware, that is bad design.

Bloatware is that desire to turn the web browser into a mail client, text editor, HTML IDE, chat client, music player, video editor, and all-around operating system. Giving full support to standard character sets is well within the core feature set of a program whose purpose is to connect to a site and display text and pictures.

I assume that you also believe the Wingding fonts were the biggest fundamental design flaw with Windows?

The problem is it is a terrible idea for a service because as it has mentioned by practically everyone in this forum, storage space is cheap, bandwidth is expensive, and kiddy pron. However, for a company to use on internal networks, it would be a pretty neat idea. It would be an interesting way of turning leased or purchased corporate PCs into cloud-based thin clients while still utilizing the (generally) large hard drives most laptop and desktop machines come with. It also means not needing a data center in every campus to house local cloud storage for employees as every computer on the network would be a (hopefully) redundant node of the local storage cloud.

Same here.

I bought an iPad 2 last year and love the thing. I found that I use it as much for work as I do for home. So I bought an Air 2 to keep at home. They both work fine and I have no need to replace them until they can no longer fulfill their purpose of checking email, browsing the web for a few hours and playing the occasional video or game. Definitely not going to replace them every 2-3 years.

Nah, The reason PC monitors have been stuck in the HD-age is because LCD TVs were damn cheap to produce and took practically nothing to repurpose into monitors. Since the death of CRTs, TVs and Monitors have converged into more-or-less the same device, at least as far as manufacturers are concerned. The second that 4K TVs become dirt cheap to produce in 13"-30" sizes, you will see 1080 monitors going the way of the dodo. Same with 8K, etc.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like bananas.

Don't leave your clocks sitting out or they'll draw bugs.

Cash, How else are you are supposed to bribe slippery government officials. They can't exactly covertly palm a credit card, charge $50 and slyly give it back! No one takes a check slipped in the pocket seriously. Besides, the best part of bribery, is no paper trail.

That is the situation we are in now. That is not how it has always been, and, if enough people can get angry enough to actually facilitate change, not how it has to be.

I've worked with quite a few of the "old timer" engineers, the ones who started working back in the late 60's, 70's and 80's. They would tell tales of how people would start at their companies as a lowly technician or engineer and stay for 30-50 years, moving up the corportauntil retirement. That it wasn't until the late 80's to 90's where everything went to hell. Multinationals would buy the company out, plunder the pensions, bring in foreigner for pennies on the dollar and fire everyone. There even used to be this mythical thing called job security where assuming that you didn't royally fuck up or the company didn't tank, you didn't have to worry about getting fired or laid off at the end of the week because one of the 40 VPs needs a few extra dollars to replace his company-paid three-month-old Porche with a more sporty Jaguar.

It reminds me of an Onion Radio News episode from 2008, 1998 was 10 Fucking Years Ago" It was almost a wake-up call because at that point as it did seem like almost yesterday.

What are you talking about, Half, if not more than half of CEs are programming. Sure, not game programming (as in the book) but still programming.

I'm a CE and I spend most of my time programming everything from Robots, PLCs, HMIs, Motors, FPGAs and Vision systems, to the communication that glues them all together. I still need to have a knowledge of electronics and electrical design, but still a good portion of my work is (usually low-level) programming.

If I can predict lightning, now I no longer need to rip off plutonium or travel into the future and waste my money on a Mr Fusion to power my DeLorean. I can just use free thunderstorms and save a metric shitload of money!

What's the point. I still need to go into the future to pick up a hoverboard and sports almanac anyway.