And one of these problems is input, which is probably the biggest practical difference among a PC, a console, and a "mobile" device. For example, even if you can port your desktop game's game logic, graphics output, and audio output to Android, that doesn't mean the resulting game's input will make any sense unless you're on an OUYA. I tried playing platformers in an NES emulator on a Nexus 7 tablet, and pretending a flat sheet of glass is a gamepad is not fun. A Steam Controller will probably handle like a Triax Turbo Touch 360 given the pictures I've seen of it.

I see up to four potential differences.

1. Games for Steam OS may support community-created game mods to a greater extent than games for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
2. On the other hand, Steam pretty much requires cable or DSL. Disc-based consoles work even if the only Internet access offered to homes in your area is satellite or cellular with a cap of 5 to 10 GB up+down per month, which is smaller than a single layer of BD-ROM.
3. I'm not sure how easy it is for a startup to get a game greenlit on Steam and to keep it patched, but the major consoles have had problems with this in the past: Bob's Game denied due to home office, The Binding of Isaac denied due to religious subject matter, excessive charges for Fez patches, etc.
4. I haven't seen solid evidence one way or the other about whether Linux-compatible games not sold through Steam can be loaded onto a machine that ships with Steam OS. Makers of traditional consoles, on the other hand, have since 1985 been building their entire business around console owners not having a counterpart to Android's "Unknown sources" checkbox.

I was under the impression that it took a lot more work to remaster a game for a new platform than to remaster a movie for a new video format. Video conversion is essentially automated once you have the lossless or nearly lossless source data. Game conversion, on the other hand, may need an emulator, and entry-level Steam OS devices might not have enough CPU power to run one.

I don't see how. The OpenGL on desktops isn't the same as the OpenGL ES on devices that ship with Android. The input is too different, requiring the entire game to be rebalanced for a touch screen. And in my experience owning three Android devices, audio latency ranges from laggy to unplayable. If all that mattered were the kernel and components close to the kernel, every PS4 game would run on a Mac just because both systems use pieces of FreeBSD.

PlayStation 4 is based on parts of FreeBSD, but so is OS X. There might be as little userland-facing code shared between a typical FreeBSD with X11 operating system and the PlayStation 4 operating system as there is between FreeBSD and OS X, or between Android and X11/Linux.

Let me guess: "Some artists" didn't write their own songs.

The cloud is someone else's computer. iTunes Radio is streamed from someone else's computer. Pandora is streamed from someone else's computer. Spotify is streamed from someone else's computer. All are thus equally cloudy.

If you want to do that then it's your right. Passing judgement on others for using social media as it was intended kinda says you are some sort of techno-snob. What do suggest people do in cases like my sister-in-law who had to go in for an emergency Cesarean. My brother should have lugged his laptop into the hospital or personally called nearly a dozen people with the birth news? Or was it far easier to instagram on his phone that the mom was fine, the baby's name, weight, and picture. It went out to the entire family, his friends, her friends, etc instantly.

Translation: I personally have never benefitted from a warranty so they are useless to everyone.

At the many IT departments I have worked, warranties were used extensively. From little things like memory to whole motherboards were replaced without hassle. The only major company I know that uses consumer grade HDs in volume is probably Google and that is only because they have designed their server infrastructure to use massively identical and disposable hardware.

I didn't say that.

If your company wants to do that, then do it. But I would think that is a hard sell to the IT directors who want service and replacement parts quickly. Here's the scenario:

1. HD fails
2. Log ticket with HD company and get replacement drive with little cost
or
2. Put in a purchase order for a new drive.

At some companies, buying a new drive outright is more troublesome/bureaucratic than getting a replacement drive.

Goodness, you're on a roll today with your "facts".

The chip is not used for normal USB communication (because it's simply not necessary), but is part of the Lightning specification for other uses if the device is connected to something other than a USB port.

No, they didm't insist people needed "only Apple's branded cable" - they said that to ensure safety, you should only buy certified chargers and cables, and to emphasise this they initiated a trade in program where they would give you an Apple charger and cable if you sent them a cheap knockoff one.

Don';t let the facts get in the way of a good bash though, eh?

Oh, that's right, you're just "the rest of us" - you're not at all unbiased when it comes to discussions about Apple. My mistake!

Carry on with your gross inaccuracies presented as fact!

Yes - there's no such thing as "the C calling convention", there are just conventions for particular instruction sets and, as indicated, most of the conventions involve passing some parameters in registers.

Yes, if programming in assembler, or developing a compiler, you have to make sure you know whether a register gets overwritten, but that's not specific to passing parameters in registers.

You mean like this guy?

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4463987&cid=45471959

I guess he represents "the rest of [you]".

There is micro A and micro B. Micro A is rectangular and Micro B is trapezoidal; however here is a micro AB receptacle that accepts both. Other than it is easier to see the orientation, there isn't much of a difference between them since mini. Now Type A and Type B are very different in arrangement.

Perhaps you are missing this part:

Businesses want longer warranties especially these days as computers are being used longer and longer before being replaced. Realistically the first part to fail on a PC will be the hard drive.