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First Sale Doctrine vs. copyright/trademark/patent owners is a balancing act between the originator and the buyer. Take away the privileges of either side, or grant additional powers to one side or the other, and the system becomes unbalanced... corrupted. Simply put, both pieces of legislation must remain intact, and must continue to exist in balance, or we all lose -- one way or another.
Bingo. This is exactly why I came to the comments of this post... to call "bull" on Nuance, for the very reason that you've already cited:
Nuance assumes that people don't want to have conversations with customer service reps -- but what they fail to consider is that most people do indeed enjoy human interaction... when it's actually human interaction. Whether it's the rep behind the counter at a hotel with their fake plastic smile and artificially exaggerated concern for your exhaustion, or the cashier at your local supermarket with their scowl and monotonous droning "Thank you... have a nice day..." it's all just forced and... well, predictably inhuman.
Generally speaking, people love interacting with their friends -- and for some of us, that even includes family -- and that type of camaraderie has largely been lost in today's customer services... the small town where you know Doris behind the register at the supermarket and your good buddy Joe who pumps your gas for you is gone. So the reaction from far too many people in "customer service" roles are, quite frankly, already so robotic as to offer no real advantages over the automated check-in kiosk and automated check-out registers... so why wouldn't I want the efficiency of an actual robot?
Now, mind you, if more companies were intentionally hiring employees who show genuine customer focused attitudes -- for example, in the same fashion as the folks running Chick-fil-a seem to have done -- then the pendulum might start swinging back the other way. In the absence of that, I'll go to the kiosk at every opportunity.
I imagine the extended battery life is one of the reasons for the standard copter design, instead of the quadcopter design. Size is almost certainly another factor; they want to minimize the space that these little drones take up in a rucksack, as much as possible.
... My Syma IR copter is impossible to fly outdoors even on days I'd consider to be relatively calm.
I have a similar IR toy copter, and I'm surprised you've been able to successfully fly it outdoors at all. The package of mine specifically states that it's not intended for outdoor use, and flying it indoors into a bright stream of sunlight coming through the front window of my house demonstrated very clearly why: the sunlight apparently obliterates the IR signals. My copter promptly became uncontrollable when it went into the sunbeam. As long as I kept it out of that sunbeam, all was fine.
Ban everyone with an incorrect or unjustified point and you'll have a pretty empty forum.
More importantly: ban just one person who knows enough to login to his Slashdot account afterwards, and you'll end up suffering the Streisand effect. At that point, it doesn't matter in the least whether or not the complainant's point was justified... they have just had a potentially significant negative impact on your business, all because you decided to foolishly attempt to censor a respectfully submitted opinion, instead of engaging in an intelligent discourse on the matter.
Or at least get it for consoles, where DRM isn't an issue.
Incorrect. DRM is still an "issue" on consoles; it's simply an issue which is so completely integrated into the system, that most people aren't even aware of it... but the reality is that console DRM is even harder to (ahem) "work around" than PC DRM. As an example: Try to make a copy of one of your console games, and then give that copy to your best friend, so that the two of you can play online together. Go ahead... we'll wait.
Well, not really... nobody is waiting for you. But then, why should we wait, when you're exceptionally unlikely to succeed at making that copy? The thing is, the process required to make a legitimate "backup" of a game (in order to have a fail-safe should your game disc ever become scratched or damaged) is exactly the same as the process required in the piracy scenario described above. This applies pretty much to all modern consoles -- and in some cases, the DRM isn't only applied to the games, but also to the saved game data and downloadable content. One recent story which highlights this with respect to Nintendo is over at ArsTechnica.com, but these issues exist to differing degrees on both PlayStation and XBox as well.
Wait a sec.... is there a reason that the "I transcend the concept..." option is immediately below the "Below 2.0" option? I wonder if maybe some people have been duped into admitting their own mediocrity, here...
I sit in front of three screens at work for 40%-60% on weekdays... but at home, I stand in front of one more screen for another 10%-20% on weekdays and somewhat more then that on weekends. (Mind you, my use of a standing desk has very little to do with the health benefits... rather, my reasons are more related to the five little rug-rats roaming around my house, who cannot resist playing with anything electronic which comes within their reach.)
Oh yeah... I also have the mini-screen in my pocket, which probably claims my eyes for another 10%-20%. So I would guess-timate (accounting for overlapping usage and substitution usage) that puts me staring at luminescent pixels for around 60%-80% of my waking day.
Holy crap. Why on earth would you ask such an introspective question, forcing me to evaluate how wisely (or not) I'm using my time?!? You sadistic nut! Now I have to find ways to start whittling those numbers back down -- or else, come up with rationalizations for why those numbers are so blasted high!
Wait, wait... perhaps I can claim that the numbers are entirely meaningless, since it's all just guesswork anyway... yeah, that's the ticket...
Whew. Crisis averted. Carry on; nothing to see here.
Oh... and the ultimate irony in all of this is that my current project is, by definition, an entire refactoring of a legacy project, which is no longer maintainable going forward. Life as a developer...
The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude.