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Comment Re:No low end market (Score 1) 100

For games - maybe not, but perhaps non-interactive content like many people already watch will be adapted to this.

Its not a holodeck - there's no tactile feedback, but I can a future where one could watch the superbowl as if they're standing on the field with the players. Or similar things for movies. Basically like being a "ghost" - you're there, and you observe, but you can't interact.

Your comment kinda reminds me of something my brother said back in the mid-late 90's. I had a DVD drive on my computer and I said "Eventually these are going to replace video cassettes.". He exclaimed that that would never happen because most people don't watch movies on a computer. While he was right on the latter part (for a time), that was irrelevant, because he wasn't seeing the full scope of what the technology could be used with.

Comment Re:Please.... (Score 1) 321

No, Google designed a system that would be a compromise between security and usability since some people would obviously go bat shit if they had to enter their password every time.

If only there were some precedent for making that time adjustable - or even eliminated. Perhaps if I'm quick enough I could patent the ability for a user to adjust the settings of a device to his or her own preferences . . .

Comment Re:Please.... (Score 3, Insightful) 321

Indeed. I don't think they understand that "parenting" isn't so well defined.

My kids I do a lot of activities with. Next weekend we're going to the zoo. A few weeks ago we went to the aquarium. I read to them and tell them stories quite frequently.

However, often times they WANT to go do something by themselves. Whether that is playing in the back yard or on the iPad (or more recently the laptop - the 5 year old has gotten pretty proficient with both. She can't even read but she understands how to open the browser and type in "pbskids.org"). You simply can't be there like a hawk for every second without delving into helicopter parenting, which is just a bad idea. At a minimum I should be able to set the tablet so that it asks me for the password EVERY SINGLE TIME you make a purchase.

Its not something that I have to worry about as I generally hate microtransaction games to the point that I don't let them buy anything in them (so I never enter the password the 1st time), but I certainly can see why someone would want this.

Comment Re:research pay sucks (Score 1) 225

Pretty much the same in government. My friends in the private sector get paid 30-40% more, but the benefits are worth it. I have extremely good healthcare paid 100% by my employer, 4 weeks of paid vacation per year, a pension plan that pays for life after 28 years (I can retire when I'm 51) and an extreme level of job security (in developed countries governments don't "go out of business" like private firms).

I actually had a friend straight up offer me a private sector job a few years ago at a 25% pay increase over my current one and I turned it down. The extra pay isn't worth the stress.

Comment Re: There may well be life on Europa (Score 1) 216

Your link doesn't support that. It merely talks about life living near those vents without any energy from the sun. Indeed, the presence of shrimp, crabs, etc indicate that the life indeed did start elsewhere and then slowly migrate down into those areas and adapt to them.

While the life down there doesn't need the sun to survive, without the sun the life might have never made it down there.

Comment Sure (Score 1) 287

Both my dad and my sister are running Xubuntu without issues. My sister is ok with basic tasks on a computer but far from a technophile and my dad knows almost nothing. His only use is really for fantasy football websites.

Neither really plays games - both just do web browsing and not much else. Honestly as long as there's a Chrome icon on the desktop many people wouldn't know they were using anything different.

Keeping that on their systems keeps me from the headache of supporting Windows and all the associated spyware.

Comment Re: There may well be life on Europa (Score 1) 216

Even on our planet life exists in very, VERY hot water that until recently we thought that life had no chance there

Yes, but its easier for life to exist in more normal environments and very slowly evolve into something suited to those extreme environments. Life springing up from scratch and then sustaining itself in an extreme environment would be much harder.

Comment Re:Re... or without a background check? (Score 1) 310

Yeah I run into the same thing. There's a guy with my same (first and last) name and birthdate who was born a few rooms down from me (our mothers actually spoke that day and were amused that they both named their babies the same name). His middle name is different and his SSN is different.

Fast forward to adulthood he turned out to be quite the bad apple. Before I moved from my parents house I was getting his debt collection notices (of which there were many) constantly. They didn't hit my credit report so I didn't care too much. Then I found out my insurance had skyrocketed and upon investigating the insurance company had mixed up our records and raised MY insurance. About 4 years ago I was driving home, got pulled over for speeding. The cop mistakes me for him and I come damned close to being arrested because my doppleganger was supposed to be in prison on narcotics charges. The local hospital has also mixed up our identities as well.

Trust me, every time they'd call in for a NICS check I'd be nervous that they'd mix us up again (though I always put down my SSN, which is optional, to help narrow things down). Thankfully after I got my concealed weapons permit the background check is no longer necessary in my state so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Comment Re:..or without a background check? (Score 4, Insightful) 310

No - laws should punish things that are actually wrong. Theft, rape, murder, etc. Anything that it is claimed simply facilitates the breaking of another law without causing direct harm itself should not be illegal.

In the terms of this site - the DMCA is wrong, because (as is obvious) the pirates are gonna pirate stuff regardless. The law only prevents legitimate uses.
Banning guns or complicating the process is wrong, because murderers are going to get guns and kill people anyways.

Put simply, laws do not PREVENT crime. Never have, never will. All they do is define what crime is, so that we can identify those that have done society wrong and punish them accordingly.

Comment Re: Tired... (Score 1) 860

OP didn't say anything about Macs. He said in their OS. I'm pretty sure iOS is their OS.

You can't read.

"Their OS" implies an obvious subject else it would be ambiguous. Given that the topic at hand is desktop computers, referring to "their OS" would mean their desktop OS.

If we were arguing about stoves and you said "the GE unit doesn't work as well as Kenmoore", then I pointed out otherwise, it doesn't save your argument if you proclaim that you were talking about refrigerators.

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