Apps are not games. I get the sneaking feeling that this is just a ruse to get people excited about W10 development. If you're expecting to build your own A/AA/AAA title on XB1 - I'd continue holding your money/breath. This could easily be a repeat of XNA.

Personally, I have no intention of even *touching* an XB1 unless they open-up *native* development. (That means a full directx sdk, kinect, ...the works. None of this .NET second-class-partial access)

benifits... here come the nazis...

Kudos for taking a statement out of context so knowingly - making it sound as if I was implying that Intel has done something wrong. (Learn how to read, or at least make a valid point)

Minorities (women, or non-Caucasian males, doesn't really matter) aren't traditionally considered on equal footing. It's not some new concept. But you know that already, don't you?

"passed up for a century" meaning that, even when qualified - blacks have quite famous been "last hired, first fired" from WWII until the well after the civil rights movement. None of those groups have pay equality today. That concentration of wealth and jobs aren't some simple line-item. That represents education, and voting power (especially today).

To make myself clear:

I never said "reverse discrimination" is the right thing. But acting like the status-quo is cool [because it benifits you] pisses me off.

I understand what you're saying, and I'm not saying you're wrong. (At an objective level, you're completely right)

But I can't completely agree with your nay-saying as a valid solution to a problem that repeats itself over and over in america: A group of people rigs the game to the where where they have a stranglehold, to the detriment of ALL others. That same group (or their progeny) then cries that those not-so-fairly won advantages shouldn't be taken away for the sake of the industry ...and themselves.

Its smacks of hypocrisy, and downright disrespect for every group but your own. (IMO.)

Who said anything about hiring/helping someone unqualified? There are plenty of qualified candidates who aren't white males, who have been "passed up" for a century, and worked twice as hard to even get to that point. Get off your horse.

Does this apply to tablets/data-only devices as well?

I have a PS Vita 3G that's just *dying* to get on a network that isn't AT&T.

FTFY

Walmart is quite subsidized to the point that it makes the 30% Mom & Pop pay downright mean.

CDs/DVDs. No LPs, though :-[p

I have DVDs that I've burned as a teenager kept in a nice, high-quality soft "archival" binder for the last 18 years. Nearly all of them, of varying quality/expense, are unreadable due to degradation.

OTOH, I've got old 500MB harddrives that read/work just fine and are just as old. I'd expect sealed HDDs to be as good as it gets - tape is nice, but maintaining a supported/working tape drive was always difficult (used to have one). But, unlike every other type of storage, harddrives are actually capable of warning you of an impending failure. (I've been *saved* by S.M.A.R.T. at least twice, over the years.) Add some rudimentary RAID, and you're probably good. The only way I can think of to go further is to use two/three, and cycle them between your PC(often/all the time), a nearby firesafe(When you are heading in that direction), and a safety-deposit box (seasonally?).

You entitled... You do realize companies often all but collude on this kind of thing? Once one gets away with it, it quickly becomes the norm "in order to stay competitive". IMO, Your rights shouldn't just apply to government - especially since bigger companies own it at some/any/every level anyway. You can't negotiate from unequal footing. If you say anything even approaching "no", the company will simply replace you without a single thought. Probably with someone cheaper. (Or, even better, give your former coworkers who couldn't afford to walk all of your work. Triple-win.)

It's true, I LOVE Liam Neeson movies! I've no idea why... he's a pretty good actor who happens to get properly cast more often than not.

As for Django.... My wife and I put off watching it for a year, as a lot of people I know made it out to be super offensive/over-the-top. Turns out, I think it's one of Tarantino's best films.

But I digress.... Companies tend to be clueless, as a whole - as people tend to be clueless, as a whole. I mean, how hard is it to ask yourself the converse of a question? "Is it true white people have a special bone in their ankle that prevents them from enjoying movies with black stars?" - (On second thought... Please don't answer that...)

So you're absolutely right, better to ask what is proper etiquette WITH ANY CULTURE, then to display your ignorance (and, since you didn't ask, arrogance) to the entire world. Even if someone is offended by you asking privately...you've still avoided worse.

I don't think any of the languages you've mentioned are ones people would consider one of those "vogue" kiddie languages. Scala, D, Swift, Everything on this list, is not something I would tell a child to start learning, and then bet a career on.

That said, use the right tool for the job! PHP is absolutely a great idea for a webpage, which is, by it's very nature, a scripted entity. With much pain, C *can* do it, but there is a better tool, already. PHP - and just about every other scripted language is written in C/C++. So is the JVM. It's all just (another) layer of abstraction, in the end.

  But, when it comes to kernels, firmware, and just about anything embedded - C should be near the top of your list. It's not the most popular language, but it's steady. It sits nicely on top of only assembly language - and thus, is easily used on any (and almost every) hardware-architecture there is.

In states like Oklahoma, we often create laws that are meant to make a single crime multiply, in order to maximize our "tough on crime" image. A police-friend was telling me one of their favorites is the "Computer Crimes Act", which makes the use of a "computer" (which, by their interpretation, includes a cellphone) during a crime, a separately punishable act.

So it applies to texting-while-driving and phone pranks, all of the way up to bank-robbery. Technically, according to paragraph 8, if you find this post *annoying*, I've just committed a misdemeanor!

Go USA!

Why this post is AC, I do not know. But I agree, as a father of 3, the shield portable/tablet is the bee's-knees! My desktop, in all of it's glory, has been relegated to the garage. But when a shield, I can game running 720p practically lag-free anywhere in the house using 802.11n/5GHz, and turn-based games (Civ/Xcom/etc) work fine outside of the house. It's requires an nVidia setup, however.

Welcome to Oklahoma. We just got one of those laws passed, quite easily.

A net-zero bill just isn't going to sit well here - can't have the rabble hurting profits with their "green" technology. To really take advantage of solar here, you have to change your stated goal to independence from the grid. That's going to mean having smarter appliances that can be told "do this load of laundry during the middle of the day, crank up the electric water-heater to 11, and, if there's any extra power - turn on the stereo just to make a point. Just don't give PSO/AEP free power.

If you try this, there's a 99% chance that you'll lose your steam/origin/ubi account, and everything in it. Companies are vindictive like that.