The pessimist in me says "That's ok. MS has plent of time to screw it up before release."

The realist in me says "You paid too much for the Windows laptop."

Isn't the Apple motto "It just works"? Not it works well, or quickly.

The optimist in me is still sleeping.

Getting more customers. In business they call it "the cost of acquisition of a customer".

But that's not what I came here to say. I came to say that I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I use ad block on my computers. I don't generally on my phone, but I also don't browse from my phone often. And I like the idea of blocking ads so they don't consume my data allowance.

On the other hand I don't like my ISP filtering through my content. There's nothing to stop them from playing MITM (looking at you Verizon).

I was just being a wise-ass, but that is a good argument.

Then I would point out how we produce that food. Cattle standing shoulder to shoulder and pigs in cages, round-up ready corn, then all of that trucked around. Shipments of peaches from Chile in the off season (don't get me wrong - I like that part).

Honestly, I think our highway rush hour every car has 1 person and we're all going under 10 miles an hour bullshit has more to do with it.

I'd bring up the Pong tournament at the local pizza parlor...but I'm too young for that.

They keep arguing about what causes high CO2 levels. Let me clear it up.

The world population is larger than it's ever been, and only projected to rise. People exhale CO2. The problem isn't man-made, the problem IS man.

Improving motion tracking, and stereoscopy: those are technical problems that we can deal with.

Improve the substance of modern games and movies: that's a more complicated problem.

The idea of VR is still iffy for me personally. I play mostly FPS games right now. For me I can see VR being used as a monitor (which might give privacy, but not much else). I would still need a mouse to "look around". I can't use my head to look around because I'd loose the keyboard if I turned around. And I'd choke out if I turned right a few times (if you follow where I'm going with that).

So I think it might be alright for a rollercoaster sim, where looking at it on a monitor vs looking at it with VR goggles isn't totally different. Though I do understand that you can have each eye independent so it might actually "feel" different - and that's where "it needs to be applied correctly" comes into play.

I think virtual desk kind of applications are interesting.

Driving games are where head tracking might be awesome. Because the keyboard and mouse are gas/break and steering, so you are totally free to look around and give the evil eye to that guy passing you.

You're a scary individual, but I like the way you think.

I would link a picture of a castle with a moat but I'm too lazy.

Air is so passe.

Your post clearly states that if money is required to view the video then it's commercial use.

So if you are required to be a member of the non-profit group (ergo you paid) then it's commercial use, but if the non-profit makes a video and slaps it up on its site or youtube for everyone to view then they're OK.

This.

How often do you hear about a government personal info data breach? The DMV, IRS, VA? Part of the problem is that the insurance companies are only interested in fleecing their customers for as much as possible. They're not interested in protecting your data, so it slips through their fingers. "Oopsie, sorry about that." is all we get.

The government, OTOH, is interested in data security. If there were a breach on that side the government also has the power to track you down and throw you in Gitmo claiming you threatened national security. Random corp doesn't have that kind of power.

And that's the thing. If it's a well known well understood thing then medicine / doctors work great.

If it's something rare or not well understood then doctors are very hit and miss.

Chiropractic and Acupuncture have worked much better than doctors in my case, but I certainly know that doctors have their place.

You mention running simulations, compiling, etc. You have some Dell and generic "mac" suggestions.

Sager is a company a lot of people have never heard of, and they market more to gamers, but the systems are very solid, have great performance, and cost less than comparable mainstream systems. I have run different Linux distros on 2 of them (4+ years old, and new).

I'm going to say around $1500 will get you 16GB RAM, 1920x1080 display, i7 CPU, 120GB SSD, 1 TB hd, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, etc

Because they are performance based you may need to tweak settings if you want more battery life, but you didn't mention an interest in that. I've never cared, I wanted a portable workhorse and that's what I got.
Check sagernotebook.com or powernotebooks.com

Holy crap! I need to check that out. (pun intended)

Will Darnell: "Ya know Pepper, ya can't polish a turd."
Christine (1983)