... because his suicide was a direct result of his prosecution and punishment. So unless they can return Alan Turing to life this pardon doesn't mean shit.

I run x11vnc on my Linux desktop and connect remote using androidVNC. Neither are likely to phone home to Google.

I've said before the Surface marketing was one of the nails in the coffin. The TV ads mostly featured hipster dambasses dancing and hiphoping while spinning the Surface tablet. Very little if any product knowledge is communicated.

MS has to tell people WHY they should choose their option over iPad and dozens of Androids, Kindles, and Nooks. There are tablet for all price points. Some offer decent performance and graphics. Others are affordable. Surface is.... from Microsoft. I guess that's all you need to know.

Then there's the Metro GUI fiasco. MS basically appologizes for Metro on Windows 8 and offers a Metro-less option on the new betas. What does that tell a potential tablet buyer?

I think this thing will be discontinued within a year. If I were a Surface owner I'd be hoping for an Android or Linux port right about now. Can you root a Surface??? I guess I'm lucky I don't need to worry about that one.

Best Spaceballs call out ever. Sorry I have no mod points right now.

Correct. It is something you can elect to do. It involves sticking a huge damn needle through the mother's stomach. That alone prevents many tests from occuring and will be one of the obsticles to this gene therapy's future potential.

I'm so glad we have a two party system where one party is so very obviously good and virtuous and the other is evil for all to see. We should keep voting blindly along party lines based on the rhetoric these people speak rather than looking at their actions.

I must excuse myself, the Two Minute Hate is about to begin.

TFA fails to mention you have to pay to assign words to a location.

If I were tasked with creating an automated seaerch tool to look for my client's copyrighted material the first thing I would do is assign a scoring threshold that estimates the likelihood of infringing content. This is a case where that threshold was clearly not meet.

Unless there is punishment for these types of blanket requests copyright holders will continue to abuse the DMCA takedown process.

That's not at all what I said, but nice try to inject your adenda into a discussion.

>> "I find these ads ridiculously pretentious"

To the extent they are emotionally manipulative I'd agree, but they're light years better than the choreographed hip-hop dancing in the Surface ad. Little to none in the 'product knowledge' category. In the MS ad I see dancing, the "kickstand on the back of the device, the cover/keyboard, and fleeting glances at the screen. Surface has a user interface (Metro) that MS just removed from it's desktop OS. That's a loud message. MS nearly apologised for Metro on the desktop but they expect people to want this on a tablet?

Even in the Apple "signature" ad I can draw the conclusion of using Apple products to video chat, listen to music, take pictures and do creative things. The commercial is sappy but it does tell people something.

Apple's emotional advertising is due to their stock price taking a pounding. They have no new killer app or product in the wings. A new iOS and that strange little Mac Pro aren't going to find love on Wall Street. Apple is in a position of selling you stuff you're seen many times and have very likely used or own in an earlier form. There are no suprises or "one more thing" to spring on you. I have to guess it's becoming hard to sell iPods/iTouch devices.

At the beginning of my current Sprint contract I got a Galaxy SII. It's been a good phone, no complaints. But durring this time I also picked up my first tablet (Asus Transformer Infinity) and I now find I've backed way off on the smart functions and apps on my phone.

I think at this point I'd be happier with a smaller device that acted as a solid 4G LTE hotspot to my tablet (and a new carrier because Sprint lied through their teeth about 4G deployment in my area)

Holy shit that's painful. I got one minute into that before I had to click on the parody instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-jJ0LkTOMQ

Right now MS adverts for the surface are nothing more than hipster dipshits dancing on a boardroom table and spining the Surface around. There is nothing infomative, nothing to tell the consumer why they might consider purchasing this vs. an Ipad or a decent Android tablet.

MS can't act like Apple. People already know why they might like to have an iPad. They either own one or have a fiend who does. Surface doesn't have familiarity to fall back on. It looks like an overgrown Zune and unless MS tells people otherwise they will assume it's just an "also ran" in the tablet race.

Slashing prices it nice but it reaks of desperation. I might be tempted to think they are dumping existing inventory prior to dropping the product line.

>> 'I think what we're trying to do is the equivalent of what you've got in the Internet, which is horizontal integration rather than vertical integration...'

It's always fun listening to a suit try to describe the interwebs using MBA terminology.

Next we can look forward to listening to health care issues described as "target markets" and "economies of scale".