Spoken like someone who's never taught a programming class...

Wow, you couldn't be more wrong. It's like you went out of your way to be as uninformed as possible.

Bullshit. What bad habits are you imagining? I'm willing to bet that you're just parroting nonsense, and that you don't actually know.

Even old unstructured BASIC taught you the skills and techniques necessary to structure and organize your code when you moved on to an assembly language. Moden structured BASIC is a nearly perfect introductory language. (That is, the language stays out of your way, letting let learner focus on the task, not niggling details.)

Bullshit. It WAS the language for the masses for decades. Millions of programmers got their start with BASIC -- Either via teletype or their home micro. From the early 1970's all the way into the mid/late 1990's

Oh, and WHAT exactly can't you do with BASIC? I seriously doubt that you can answer that question, or have even put a moments thought into your ridiculous comment.

Don't get me started. Python as a beginners language is a JOKE compared to BASIC. Of course, you Python zealots refuse to recognize the serious problems with your favorite toy.

Pffft... "swamp gas", "weather balloon", " 39-litre hydrazine bladder tank" it's all the same story.

It's all a big conspiracy, man. Open your eyes! Stop drinking the kool-aid! The truth is out there!

Easy there speed racer, your average speed is WAY lower than 0.03 meters per hour -- it's closer to 0.00003459 meters per hour.

Why, if you were zipping along at a blazing 0.03 m/h you'd be well over 8672 meters away from your place of birth by now!

Being transdimensional, I'm both at my place of birth and an infinite distance away all the time.

Insensitive clods!

See, that's the problem -- you're decidedly NOT voting your conscience -- You're voting exclusively based on party -- the very thing you're accusing me of doing (and nothing I've said indicates that is the case. Quite the opposite, in fact.)

You're a moron because you pay more attention to what party the candidate is a part of and not about their positions. If a democratic candidate best represents your views, you won't vote for them because they're associated with one of the two major parties. That's idiotic.

The worst part about this is that you think you've done something intelligent when all you've done is trade reason, thought, and consideration for a simple, useless, rule: don't vote (d) or (r).

Call me when there exists a viable third-party candidate. I've never had one in my district.

Voting for a third-party candidate for no other reason than their a third-party candidate or not voting for a good candidate simply because they're affiliated with one of the two major parities is completely idiotic.

This kind of unthinking nonsense is exactly what I was addressing in my last post. But go ahead and keep thinking that you've "figured it out", you probably need the ego boost.

It's not easy to defend non-user replaceable batteries. Especially knowing that batteries lose their ability to hold a charge over time.

This makes your statement "Devices with sealed batteries last much longer too" difficult to believe.

Of course, no matter what options or solutions you can offer, the fact remains that using a dedicated device instead of my phone means that I'm not using my phones battery for that purpose -- none will always beat out some.

On external battery packs, I've tried tons of the things from the cheap $20 models to the high-end $100 models. I've found them just slightly less than useless. I went through four of the things trying to get my wife's Android phone to last through a work-day before just giving in and buying an extra battery. She would charge one in the evening and swap them out before bed (to have two charged batteries at all times). [In the end, she switched to a Blackberry to avoid the hassle altogether. Though this isn't relevant.]

We're not likely to come to any middle ground on the above, but I would like to revisit a point you made earlier:

This is where we really differ.

The software is only a part of what makes a device usable. Take my Kindle, for example, eink we already agree is an advantage in that dedicated device, I'll also add that the position and size of the page turn buttons is a big advantage in terms of usability that swiping a screen to turn pages. (Less effort, etc.).

In the case of the mp3 player, it's smaller size, less fragile hardware, and tactile buttons (more than just skip/back/pause/play) mean I can carry it on me in more ways than I can my phone, I'm less worried about damaging it from where it's placed, I can access almost every function without looking at the display. These are all advantages that software simply can't address where the hardware is lacking.

In the case of the GPS, I much prefer a larger screen than the one on my phone. Granted, I like the GPS software I have on my phone -- it's very nice and super easy to use -- but, again, the dedicated device simply suits my needs much better. We can revisit this when we have software-resizable hardware :)

None of these points can be addressed by software. In short, software can never make up for hardware that isn't well suited for the task.

That's my take anyhow.

Think airplane. This is to say nothing of pleasure travel that may also put you out of reach of electricity for an extended period. (Though the user-replacable battery on Blackberry and some Android phones does mitigate this problem quite a bit.)

Legit? Are you saying that jail breaking is illegitimate now?

Shame on you! Someone with a user id as low as yours should certainly know better!

The web on BB has been fantastic since OS6 -- The old Torch (9800), for example, had better support for HTML 5 than the iPhone until iOS5 Take look.

That is to say, the browsing experience is so vastly improved from the old days that it's really worth taking a second look at what RIM has to offer.

Yeah, my phone does all those things as well. Still, sometimes a special-purpose device is a better match. ("works" and "works well" are often worlds apart.)

I have GPS in the car, because it's better suited than a phone for long trips. I have an MP3 player because it's easier to use without looking at the display. (It's also nice for travel, as I'm not worried about conserving my phone battery on long trips where I may not have access to an outlet for a long time). I have a kindle because the eink display is much nicer for reading than a tablet or smartphone screen.

That is true. BBM is one of the main reasons that Blackberry is so popular with the youth. (That and the most amazing keyboard on the market -- it's a pleasure to type on, and has only improved with time. Try out the keyboard on a 9900 sometime, you'll be astonished.)

Really, Blackberry has something for everyone. From teens and rioters to wealthy business persons and celebrities, RIM has the software and hardware that most optimally meets their needs.

Odd, I bought a cheap 2GB Sandisk MP3 player for $30 and added a 4GB SD card. The interface is simple and the ergonomics are great (It's comfortable to use, and you don't even need to look at it at all to operate it.) It comes in several different colors, and mounts as a drive under Windows, Linux, Macos, and even MS-DOS with DOSUSB installed. (No need to install iTunes crapware. I can also optionally use any one of many different programs to manage my files, if you like that kind of interface.)

It was way cheaper and MUCH more versitile than buying the equivalent Apple product (Oh, wait, Apple doesn't have an equivalent product! My bad.)

"Apple premium" costs more and does less.

I'm sorry that your Philips MP3 player was a waste. Perhaps you should do a bit more investigation before you make your next purchase?