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Comment: Gave my mother an iPad (Score 1) 417

by Petersko (#42491237) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Using a Tablet As a Sole Computing Device?
Had my iPad 1 setting around, and my mother developed breast cancer. I gave it to her and set up facebook, email, scrabble, everything she needed. Gave her a bluetooth keyboard along with it that acted as a stand for typing long emails.

To say she loves it is a clear understatement. I thought she'd use it on days when she was exhausted from the chemo, or during the actual treatments, but she uses it everywhere. She doesn't use the PC I built her last year anymore.

She's especially enamored with the rouxbe.com cooking school membership - they're fully compatible with iOS safari. Works mint. And there's nothing better than a tablet in the kitchen for serving up that kind of content. Keyboards are splash attractors, and a touchscreen is trivial to clean

In my experience a tabled and a senior citizen do just fine. When it comes time to do taxes, she'll likely need her PC, but right now the tablet is the go-to device for everything.

Comment: Are We Reading the Same Article? (Score 1) 862

"Yes, in fact, people -do- kill "in the name of atheism", provably, as a matter of simple historical fact, and do so by the millions."

I read your link. I see a lot of misbehaviour, but not a lot of killing - and certainly not enough to constitute "millions". For instance, "In Tsarist Russia, religion was a major source of violence and conflict between religious groups, and State Athiesm was designed to end these problems. Notable atrocities include the persecution and killing of over 200,000 Jews as "Christ-killers" due to pogroms."

So, confiscations, propaganda, suppression, sure... but please justify this claim of millions.

Comment: Just Because You Don't Get "Marketing"... (Score 1) 377

by Petersko (#41732937) Attached to: Samsung Terminates LCD Contract With Apple
"You seem the sort to easily fall for bullshit marketing terms. Or are you seriously suggesting computer processors should be marketed as "fast", "super fast", "mega fast", "ultra fast", "super mega fast", "mega ultra fast", "super mega ultra fast", "super mega ultra faster", etc? I mean, that avoids meaningless numbers, and each step is fairly pointless for human comprehension of speed.

You've completely managed to avoid understanding any of Apple's very successful marketing. I mean, you missed the boat ENTIRELY. Talking about relative processor speeds is completely off the table. Mhz, GB, dpi - these things are absent from their marketing for a very good reason. Not even the geeks need it in the advertising. If they want it, they can look it up on the web site.

Apple's marketing is squarely focused on what you can accomplish with the device.

Comment: The Western World Doesn't Have Free Speech (Score 1) 1160

by Petersko (#41659451) Attached to: Shut Up and Play Nice: How the Western World Is Limiting Free Speech
They have the tiny slice that the governments allow. If you're American, try blabbing classified secrets. On the more ridiculous side, see how far you get reciting passages from "Fifty Shades of Grey" in a classroom of grade 7 studies. Maybe engage in some hate speech. How about slander and libel? Basically, whatever the government is comfortable with you having, you can have.

Comment: What now? (Score 4, Informative) 687

by Petersko (#41572393) Attached to: Laser Strikes On Aircraft Becoming Epidemic
"One of the most natural things in the world a kid with a lazer pointer will do is shine it straight up into the sky."

Good lord.

First of all, the odds that a kid would shine a laser into the sky and accidentally hit an aircraft are... well, stupendously low. The laser point is incredibly tiny, and the sky is incredibly large. And the slightest movement of the hand holding the laser has huge implications at the distance where an aircraft would intersect it. If it's not trained and held on the target, it would never be noticed.

So, "no" to whatever point you're making.

Comment: Diablo 3 is fine. (Score 5, Insightful) 221

by Petersko (#41481071) Attached to: Game Review: <em>Torchlight 2</em>
I got my $60 out of it, and so did almost everybody who's bitching about it. I don't know where anybody got this idea that their one-time payment (that has become progressively cheaper as it failed to increase with inflation) should give them hundreds of hours of entertainment.

If you check your played time and it's over 100 hours, maybe you should stop whining about how crappy you think it is, because clearly your bitchy brain and your gaming brain are having an argument.

Actually, the old man in me wishes the entire gaming community would benefit from a complete media blackout when it comes to video games. Then they can buy a game without expectations, enjoy it without absorbing the negative crap from other gamers, and be satisfied.

Comment: Law of Large Numbers... and... (Score 1) 596

by Petersko (#40756897) Attached to: App Developer: Android Designed For Piracy
Can the author of this editorial kindly explain why there are numerous profitable applications for Windows, during the XP era?

Simple. The publisher themselves often included the security that the O/S did not - things like serial numbers, key generation, and call-home authentication. Also, the market for Windows apps is vast enough that people can profit even if a small number of users pay up.

So perhaps android apps might sell more if you had to get a serial number derived from your device's unique identifier, and supplied by the software publisher... but maybe it would sell less instead.

Comment: What do YOU think certification means? (Score 1) 323

by Petersko (#40714905) Attached to: Microsoft Taking Heat For Five-Figure Xbox 360 'Patch Fee'
Certification is not declaration of an absence of bugs. They're not going to regression test your entire app, or pull apart your entire source tree and make sure you didn't screw up - certainly not for just 5 figures.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21464

There is something in the pang of change More than the heart can bear, Unhappiness remembering happiness. -- Euripides

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