Y2HH

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 11:45 AM) Thus, using the nickname "XBox Done," It's an incredibly stupid "nickname", by the way, especially when a much simpler/better one is staring everyone in the face: XBOneD. That said, it's not out yet, as many of you have gone over already. My initial impression of it is negative, however, but so was my initial impression of the 360, which I thought was better than the PS3, with a much better gaming network.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 10:58 AM) How old are you? ...was also my reaction.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 10:41 AM) Nah, you don't know the whole story at all actually. So you're actually way off base with your attacks. I'm not really "attacking" you, I'm merely writing my reaction to what you wrote. That was my reaction. If I don't know the whole story, as you now state, it's because you didn't tell us to me/us.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Jun 17, 2013 -> 01:38 AM) Just bought a nearly 4-year-old Sony Vaio off a friend of mine....for $20. I was originally going to pay $75 for it. Then he decided before he was going to give it to me that he would wipe the harddrive......which deletes the operating system....which he lost the disc/key for (He upgraded it from Vista to Windows 7). So he said he'd go buy a student version of Win7 when he went down to IU for $20, so I agreed to throw in $5 to be nice. Now the price is at $80. Well he tries the new disc, and finds out it won't work, because it's an UPGRADE disc, one that requires an OS be on the system to upgrade, well there is no OS on it since he wiped it and lost the install disc/key. So frustrated that he thinks he just bricked the system, he says I can take it off his hands for $20, and then buy my own OS for it, then use his upgrade disc to make it Windows 7. What he didn't realize is that the product key for his Vista OS, which is what came on the computer, is on a sticker on the bottom of his computer. So I simply found MY windows Vista disc from my other laptop, put it in the computer, changed the BIOS settings to have it boot from my disc, installed Windows Vista using his old product key. Then, because it at that point had an OS on it, put in the Win7 disc, installed Win7, upgrading the OS from 32-bit to 64-bit, and BOOM, got a pretty nice Sony Vaio laptop for $20. Sometimes it really pays to know more than your friends about technology and computers. It's a shame too because I gave him every chance to fix the problem himself, and then sell it to me for $80, but he was too lazy and just wanted the computer gone. TL;DR Version: He ripped off his friend some guy, but insists on calling that guy his friend. You aren't his friend. Friends don't knowingly rip each other off. If it's just me that felt this way after reading this, fine...I'm a dick. Wouldn't have it any other way.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) Hey techy guys, thoughts on this design? New product, new site. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vckg2sgmadwnudr/Home.v2.jpg Looks nice to me.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 04:42 PM) Moving next month and UVerse isn't available at my new place. It's between Comcast and DirectTV. DTV leading because Comcast is expensive as hell. Anyone have that Genie thing with DirectTV? For new customers entering a contract, there will be almost no price difference between Comcast/DirecTV/Dish, etc, so long as you have a comparable package. I have Comcast, I have a premier package (HBO, Showtime, Stars, Encore, CiniMax), which is basically all the channels, 50mbit/10mbit internet and phone, and I pay 149 a month. That includes 2 HD-DVR's and a cable modem, and I have no idea how much space is on them, but it's a lot. I have 20 episodes of GOT in HD on one of them (amongst other things), and it's only 24% full. The Genie tech from DirecTV looks really nice, though. Oh, and my speeds are legit (keep in mind that's going cross country, if I picked a local test spot, it'd be even faster with less latency):

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 14, 2013 -> 05:22 PM) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Communications OTA internet of this sort exists, but it's high latency, so it's terrible for online gaming, or anything that requires quick response times. It's also slower than wired.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 09:02 PM) I'm convinced private browsing was invented specifically for this. While I know you already know this, others may not, so I'll post it anyway. Private/incognito browsing isn't actually private or incognito to anything but your own PC/device. The only thing it actually does it make it so your wife/girlfriend/children cannot see what you've been browsing, leaving no history, recording no cookies, etc. It doesn't, however, change the way tcp/ip works, and your IP address is still coming across the internet as it always does...and that IP address CAN be tied back to you/your PC/device, quite easily.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 06:31 PM) It's nothing special until the manufacturer deliberately sets a s***ty one as the default. There is no real difference between Beats headphones and a $80 pair you buy from Sony. EQ's on cellphones also negatively effect battery life, because they have to actively process all audio, versus passing it straight through.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 03:35 PM) I dunno if I have ever seen a pair of headphones where some people don't say they sound like s***...give me a break, folks... This right here, audiophiles annoy me to no end, because I'm convinced they're talking out of their ass and 99% of them couldn't pass a blind test if their lives depended on it. I can hear a difference in the cheap to expensive ones, but I can't hear much of a difference between one cheap pair and another cheap pair, or an expensive to expensive comparison...any difference, I'm convinced, is in my head because I happen to know the brand name and may like one brand over another. But blind, where I have to wear 10 high quality sets, I couldn't tell the difference.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 11:05 AM) Not sure if they have it for iPhone, but I use DriveSafe.ly. It will read texts (and emails) to you and send a corresponding text to the initial party stating that you are driving at the moment. To a degree, you can use the DND (Do Not Disturb) setting on an iPhone that will silence calls/texts on a schedule OR when you manually enable it. There is a whitelist where you can add specific people where it will still alert you, allowing calls/texts to come in, however. Those it doesn't allow will get an automatic reply saying you're busy.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 09:42 AM) They do it so they can catch the outliers, which they don't know about before they start exhibiting signs of lunacy or abnormal behavior. I doubt they really care (or even want to know) what 99% of the law abiding citizens are doing. I understand there is an aspect to that where I should be angry that my privacy is being invaded, but I really have more pressing concerns than that. The issue isn't really that they don't care, it's that if they decide to care, or worse, if someone decides to care, they can use that information against you, or a group of people, very much like what we see going on in the IRS right now. The fact that the information is being compiled, any rogue employee can do any of the following: steal it, sell it, release it, etc. Or, considering it's electronic surveillance/storage, that means it can probably be hacked/stolen by an outside entity and used for the same purposes, or simply released for no reason at all. It's not the fact that they don't care about us, it's the fact that the information is being compiled and stored in the first place, whether it's being used or not at this specific moment is irrelevant.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 09:18 AM) Honestly though, what am I going to do? Go live off the grid somewhere? I understand the surveillance aspect of it all, but they don't give a s*** about the grunts like us... If that was the case, they wouldn't be doing what they're doing, now would they?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 12, 2013 -> 12:45 AM) I 1) am not really supposed to be talking about the topic and 2) generally just got tired of talking to deaf ears about electronic surveillance. The vast majority of people don't have the slightest clue what they're talking about and don't know where to start. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, all things considered. If you can't talk about it publicly, PM me some info, please.

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 01:10 PM) Chicago taxes have nothing to do with the fact that gas in Indy is over $4.00 per gallon and are .50 to .60 per gallon higher than they should be. This current spike in prices is all because of the refinery issues. Since taxes are based on %, they absolutely have something to do with it. You pay well over 10% in sales tax on top of the "total", as I've said, refinery issues and any other excuses they can come up matter, too, but the highest sales tax in the country don't help the matter.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 10:22 PM) If everyone is participating in PRISM, it really doesn't matter how you spread the data. But then again, do you have anything to hide? Everyone isn't participating, though, and spreading your data increases the odds some of it will be lost on those that don't. Privacy wise, it matters in either case, at least then it has to be extrapolated and re-connected, it's much easier if it all comes from one source, and since the odds are none of them will use the same data or storage format, cross searches are harder to perform and more time consuming. This also assumes they all deliver the data at the same time, so it can be cross referenced, which will never happen. The point is, why make it so easy on them and pretend it doesn't matter? I think it matters more now than ever, at least until proper laws can be passed and tried in court, but right now, it's wide open grey area, and making it easy on them is the worst choice a person can make. And whether I have anything to hide is besides the point.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 07:53 PM) Google Now is seriously like the coolest f***ing thing in the history of ever, It is? I find it big brother creepy. I just don't trust one company with so much of my personal information, I guess for my own peace of mind I prefer spreading it out a bit, especially in light of the fact that they're seemingly giving it away when asked. At least if you spread it across Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and Mozilla they'll have to do a bit of work to piece together the puzzle. It's depressing, to be perfectly honest. It's 2013, 1984.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:18 PM) I think I misunderstood what Gage was talking about. I thought he was talking about how he can enable bluetooth + car mode in one action when you get in the car, which can be done through a single NFC tag action. He might have been talking about what you are talking about, which is pairing the phone with the car's bluetooth system. I think he was talking about, when you get in your car, NFC or BT activates, and at that point, you cannot do anything BUT make calls, answer calls, dictate texts/send them, or have texts read to you. And probably mapping for turn by turn, I'd assume. I think that's what he was talking about...though IMO, that's a bit too big brother for my tastes. To be perfectly honest, I understand we both tend to "defend" our chosen platforms a bit, but all things considered, we probably aren't very far on most of the things we discuss here, depending on the platform. Whatever mobile OS I use, however, I don't want it messed with by a carrier, or a manufacturer if they're a 3rd party. If/when I get an Android phone, it will be an Android phone, not a TouchWiz Sense Pseudo Google version full of Verizon/AT&T/carrier spyware. It's one of the few reasons I lean toward iOS still, they're phone software is just cleaner in this regard, and they update. Microsoft is a bit too new to the game, with hardware I still find lacking in comparison to what you can find on Android/iOS, and they lack support...their updates are slow too arrive and few/far between, unlike both iOS and Android, which get frequent update love. The Nexus brand phones also fall short, IMO, as they're not flagship devices, and often purposefully gimped. For example, no LTE on the recent Nexus...that was annoying, purposeful garbage, and there was no excuse for it other than to make manufacturers happy. I'm very very happy for the upcoming Google edition GS4/One, however, those have to be bought at full price, which is a lot of cash up front. But all in all, in a legit conversation, I bet you'd find we agree on a lot more than you'd think.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:00 PM) http://jonyiveredesignsthings.tumblr.com/ That's a thing. That's awesome. I have to show this to people.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:01 PM) I toggle it off when I leave my car with my NFC tag. I like to save battery, even keeping it on won't drain much at all. And I also hate the Bluetooth icon when it's not connected. Lol hilarious. I hate that icon too.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 06:02 PM) Actually, how do you do all of that through Bluetooth? That has to be done through the car then, which means the car must have that function? It does. Can't be done in any old car, it all goes through the cars speakers, mic, etc. You can do it with a Bluetooth headset also, the buttons on the headset control certain functions on the phone. I've never used it that way, though. I actually don't like it very much, I try to stay off my phone in the car these days.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 05:54 PM) This whole issue of borrowing or copying stuff from other operating systems, especially mobile operating systems, is only relevant because Apple loves to claim others took what they made. Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying that he wanted to bring Android to the ground at any cost, because Android had supposedly ripped off every part of iOS. And then you have the whole Samsung vs. Apple ordeal where Apple wanted devices banned because Samsung devices had a system-wide search function. Apple sure as hell didn't invent system-wide search, but they might make get $1 billion out of it. So when Apple decides to borrow elements from competitors, critics take notice and they will look for even the smallest resemblances to bash Apple. And most of that is fair because if Apple gets to sue over a technicality, why can't you bash them over a glaring similarity? You can't have a double standard where everything Apple gets a pass for borrowing while the competition gets sued or criticized for borrowing. And we couldn't agree more here. Apple acts like a little b**** when it comes to this, and now they're all starting too. Nokia essentially sued them all, and won. Samsung sued Htc, Mocrosoft, Apple, Apple is suing everyone, and the consumers always lose. We've seen this before with Microsoft when they had their monopoly, so this isn't surprising.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 05:56 PM) You have to enable the bluetooth first though. Only if you disable it, I leave it on.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 05:54 PM) This whole issue of borrowing or copying stuff from other operating systems, especially mobile operating systems, is only relevant because Apple loves to claim others took what they made. Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying that he wanted to bring Android to the ground at any cost, because Android had supposedly ripped off every part of iOS. And then you have the whole Samsung vs. Apple ordeal where Apple wanted devices banned because Samsung devices had a system-wide search function. Apple sure as hell didn't invent system-wide search, but they might make get $1 billion out of it. So when Apple decides to borrow elements from competitors, critics take notice and they will look for even the smallest resemblances to bash Apple. And most of that is fair because if Apple gets to sue over a technicality, why can't you bash them over a glaring similarity? You can't have a double standard where everything Apple gets a pass for borrowing while the competition gets sued or criticized for borrowing. Yea I don't agree with Apple on the issue of software patents. I think everyone copies everyone in software, as they should.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 11, 2013 -> 05:35 PM) iPhone doesn't have NFC. Sorry bro. And this is the moment where I feel like one of those people in the Samsung commercials telling iPhone users theirs doesn't do "it". You can program NFC tags to do specific functions on the phone, like switch on bluetooth, switch on GPS (or toggle if you want), open an app, etc. once you tap the NFC tag to your phone. You can place the tag on your car (most of them have adhesive) or you can get one on your key chain (what I have). There's applications that aid you in "programming" the tags. It's pretty easy. Can be done through Bluetooth already. NFC isn't necessary for this. Still can't stop a person from picking up the phone and using it, though, which was what he was posing the question as. When I get in my car, my phone auto connects to the cars Bluetooth, and I can make calls issue texts, etc, all with buttons on my steering wheel. Studies by the highway safety organizations show it's no safer than just picking up the phone, however. Hands free is plecebo, it's just as dangerous according to studies so far.