After shelling out $1350 for a phone, $700 for a tablet, $200 for the TV box, $250 for wireless headphones, $300 each for speakers... seems to me I shouldn't have to pay a dime for services and content. And boring TV "entertainment" and mindless propaganda posing as "news" at that. Hard pass.

Near where I live is a place which rents out VR time on Oculus goggles. It was a chance for me to try it out without having to buy the gear. I tried several games, including Fruit Ninja (kinda lame), Rec Room (really lame) and Richie's Plank. The latter one was kinda interesting and kinda OK... for about 10 minutes of flying around this VR city of skyscrapers, a space port and whatnot. Then all of a sudden, I got sick to my stomach... like worse than any really bad carnival ride I had ever been on. I almost collapsed. I was sick for all the rest of the day and read up on "VR Sickness" which I found out was really a thing.

I don't know whether my experience plays into this, but I have to tell you, I will never do VR headsets again; and I get the impression that, between the ridiculous price for the gear, the limited experience the software provides as well, enough people have been turned off by it to substantially impair the business viability of VR as a mainstream technology.

Full disclosure: I'm 56, and remember the days of watching TV... on a TV.

We don't have TVs anymore. We have Big Ass Monitors. There really aren't TV shows anymore. There are movies and video programs. Frankly, there's not much worth watching anymore in my opinion. Not because I'm "some old dude", but seriously, Hollywood is commoditizing "entertainment' into unwatchable time-wasting nonsense... or foolishly remaking stuff from 30 or more years ago that was already good enough.

As for me... I watch the rare movie, or catch something online... or even do a little work from home... on my 55" Big Ass Monitor in my living room. I could lament about the good old days of MTV when they actually played music; but that's for a different thread.

Rather than use some algae-filled machine to remove CO2, we have better "machines" already out there that can get the job done.

They're called TREES. There's also lots of other vegetation that can already get the job done. Rather than Brazil burning every tree it has, why not keep them and use them? And grow more here? Believe it or not, we still have way more than enough land to grow LOTS of trees which can enrich the air with oxygen for man and beast alike.

Think about this... how much energy was consumed manufacturing these machines? How much has to be consumed in running it? Even if it's not much, it's more than any tree. I'm willing to wager the energy usage involved in the manufacture, operation and maintenance of these machines requires more energy usage (read: carbon output) than this machine will ever remove (sequester, or whatever).

This so-called "AI-focused" effort seems horribly, horribly misguided.

I have some sympathy for Birkenstock, but not much. For the amount of money they are asking for essentially a good name, they can spring a few extra coins (or whatever) on holograms or some other identification that shows it's THEIR genuine product.

Other than that, knockoffs are knockoffs and if a customer just wants the design and not the name, they should have the right to buy that if that's what they want.

I can tell you from my own standpoint, I feel a hell of a lot better scuffing up and getting sand in a $10 pair of beach sandals, rather than a $135 pair of authentic Birkenstocks... that may also be a target of theft if someone recognizes them as genuine.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

- John 1:1 (NIV)

...usually comes out, too.

The "spiciness" of chiles normally has to be dealt with... TWICE.

You mean like General Motors, which went bankrupt at the hands of a greedy UNION, and greedy GOVERNMENT?

Or Chrysler, which had to be bailed out and bought out by Italy's Fiat, for the same reasons...?

Or Compuware, another so-called "greedy corporation" which is now being parted out thanks to the recession brought about by the failed economic policies of the aforementioned greedy government?

How about the city itself, where the greed of it's former mayor and corrupt, rotten-to-the-core city "leaders" couldn't plunder it's treasury quite fast enough before getting caught with it's hands in the cookie jar...?

Bash corporations and capitalists all you like, but they are the ones that actually create and maintain the few remaining jobs Detroit has.

(I've got karma, and I know how to burn it. So here goes some.)

The same idiots that trot out this junk science and "suggest" that we all go vegan, are the same damn fools that would have us all "save the environment" by putting corn into our gas tanks; and turn California's most fertile farming area turn into a desert in order to "save" some freaking minnows that actually need MORE water, not less.

The thing that really needs to be studied is what the hell happens to areas where the so-called "intelligencia" are allowed to run amok with their foolish ideas.

Near where I live, we have just such a place. It's called Detroit.

Shut down the website. Shut down Obamacare. Both are bad and hopelessly broken ideas.

If people took better care of themselves and, as smart consumers able to vote with thier loud voices (and thick wallets) for better food and medical choices to start with, they would be healthier to begin with and not need nanny government to wipe their noses and butts for them.

For the accidents that happen, there is private insurance for that... and it is far more affordable than this socialist trainwreck we've been dragged kicking and screaming thereto. And it's not just cheaper in terms of money. It costs nothing in terms of sacrificing personal freedom as well.

All this does is weaken the ability of a carrier to enforce a contract which a paying customer willingly entered into. As a result, the paying customers who honor thier contracts will end up paying extra to cover those who bail out, and stiff the carrier for the exit fees they voluntarily agreed to pay.

This is nothing more but welfare for scofflaws.

This is quite the "Oops" on the part of MSFT which, even if this is nothing more than anti-MS FUD, can ill-afford this kind of bad press with a platform which has less than 4% of market share.

This has nothing to do with the concept of "corporate personhood", whether you agree with it or not.

This is a 4th Amendment issue. Searches and seizures of anything are protected for personal effects and papers. Electronic records are arguably that, but this court did not agree. It needs to be settled by SCOTUS.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

- Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution

What? Emails, text messages and other electronic communications are not "papers", you say? Well, "electronic signatures" are taken as just as legal and binding as if it were an actual signature in ink on a piece of paper.

This needs to be taken to SCOTUS, extra pronto.

They can see which fingers I am waving at them... one on each hand, of course.