True enough. A Raspberry Pi, ODroid, or any other super-cheap computer is "just a computer". Except that it's also a computer that a kid could tinker around on without making a more serious computer unusable, and it's easier to use it to talk to other electronics, sensors, etc than a PC-style computer. It works well as a kind of compromise between a more expensive computer and a microcontroller. It doesn't do either job as well, but it's more flexible.

Ah, a "No True Scotsman" argument. From personal experience, I always skipped past the "program an elevator" section of the book and went straight to the chapters on graphics and sound. When I ran into something I didn't understand, I'd read the relevant section earlier in the book, but the "behind the scenes" stuff isn't what drew me in at first.

I'll agree that eventually, someone who actually enjoys coding will take joy in writing whatever they can. An algorithm with a slightly better runtime complexity will be fascinating...but that's not necessarily what sparks the initial interest.

But we *have* open software to run on those. That just leaves the hardware that you could be talking about.

Well, and the entire rest of the OS, if you don't count some of the drivers and firmware (which require either reverse engineering or published hardware specs from the manufacturers to implement openly).

Well, again, aside from BIOS/firmware and some drivers if I want all my hardware's features to work, it's here. We don't just have a kernel, we have full general-purpose OSes.

...And if the closed/proprietary software were to be open, then FOSS *would* have all the answers. As far as I can tell, that's the end goal of "the movement".

So did I. I see GPL-like licenses as being more protective than restrictive. They protect my access to code derived from the projects that are licensed that way. It's just a matter of perspective. I don't *want* to take someone else's open source code and make a closed-source derivative product. Until we have non-eternal copyright terms, I wouldn't really want to see someone *else* doing that either.

I can see the benefit of a system where proprietary software is closed for a period of time, in order to encourage development of new technology, and then made open to enrich the public as a whole. I don't see that happening, so out of practicality, I'll accept closed/proprietary software and hardware as a stopgap. It does the job right now, and I'll just buy the next-available closed system when my current one doesn't have the functionality that I need.

Wait. Are you talking about software or hardware? A laptop, tablet, smartphone, activity tracker, or smartwatch is a piece of hardware. All of those things can, and often *do* have a core of open-source software that they're built around. Hardware is much more difficult to manufacture than software is. If someone sends me the appropriate source code, I can get a working product by typing a few things in on my keyboard. If someone sends me hardware design files, I suppose that I'd either have to buy a FPGA of the appropriate size and speed for the hardware or I'd have to start talking to chipfabs about the 1-device manufacture run that I'd like them to undertake.

Hardware and software are apples and oranges. Although it would be convenient if open hardware were as easy to make as open software, it's not.

I've never felt restricted by open-source software. The problem has always been closed systems, for me. Although, I suppose that the licensing issues go to the back of your mind anyhow when you've got a system that won't do what you want, and there is no way for you or anyone else but the vendor to fix it.

Is a useless "feature" that goes through review and testing, but is more for amusement of the coders and/or customers than for any practical purpose, not an Easter egg just because it was known by the developers who wrote and tested it?

Oh, get the stick out of your ass. A little immaturity never hurt anyone (as long as that's all it is). Put the egg through review and testing like any other feature, or write it as something impossibly simple (undocumented program flag that prints out the programmer's name or something).

Done correctly, it's no more harmful than adding any other bit of code that wasn't explicitly asked for, like extra options/modes that were useful during development and don't hurt the function of the end product.

There are "real" easter eggs in Android related to this: http://www.askvg.com/hidden-secret-easter-eggs-and-daydreams-in-google-android-devices/

Duverger's Law. Due to a (presumably) unforeseen tendency of the US voting system, there's a strong tendency toward a two-party system. In the past, there were other prominent political parties. The tendency is that a party makes a major misstep, and a new party gains popularity, replacing it. Occasionally there are groups that split off into their own movements, but most of the time they fade away or re-absorb back into one of the major parties.

That's a much better argument than the AC made, and it's a fairly valid point (depending on area, of course). It worked halfway-reasonably for me on anything that wasn't a twitch game; with that kind of thing, even the display lag of most LCD monitors can be a downside, so I'd expect cloud gaming to be out of the question, even streaming purely over the local network (like that Steam streaming capability).

If they've got to pay to get the hardware in the first place, then have to pre-pay for service, then I don't see the problem. You won't get money from the people that don't give it to you up-front, and if they take it to pawn? *Shrug* All well. The hardware has the worst margin out of the bundle anyhow, so they're doing you a favor by spreading it out so that more people can sign up for the service.

In even a halfway-civilized country? Bad parts of town are where they're likely to get more work, anyhow. They're used to it.

You're making a lot of assumptions about someone you don't know. Do you need a hug, AC? It sounds like life has treated you roughly. I'm living my hopes and dreams. If your dreams are to ridicule strangers on the internet, then I'm glad that you're doing something that you find fulfilling. Otherwise, keep your chin up, I'm sure things will work out for you somehow. Have a nice day!

Sometimes the font is unattractive, and I'm sure that Netflix would prefer to have captions that appear the same between their different offerings. Plus, it's better to have nicer text than the stuff that was optimized for display on a 480i CRT.

Hahahaha. OK, AC. You can't even put your own pseudonym to your post. I get it; it's scary. Go spend time with your "cool" people, and don't worry your little head about things beyond your ken. Laugh at the goofy nerds, and buy whatever privacy-leaking/invading shit you'd like.

And? Money is money, and there are a lot more poor people than rich ones. Unlike the car or furniture, the streaming service wouldn't even have to send out a repo man if they didn't pay, either. They'd just cut off service.

They inherited that policy from IBM. I've got an R32 from about 2003, and learned about its BIOS whitelist while researching upgrades (it was a gift, and didn't have wifi capability when I got it).