Y2HH

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Aug 30, 2014 -> 10:12 AM) Windows 8 isn't a total suckfest. Do you get the full capabilities if you don't have touchscreen or a Kinect? No. In the end, all you are missing is touch though. Not much of a deal breaker to anyone really as Apple, as far as I know hasn't introduced anything similar. And since he would be getting Windows 8.1(which improved greatly on whatever was wrong with 8), and a Surface Pro 3(which is touchscreen), seems like you were just fishing to take a shot at another non-Apple related product. Last, but not least, isn't Parallels a program that allows you to install a virtual instance of Windows on a Mac? If Windows sucks so much, why would you want to do that? In the end, both systems work differently and are best for different people. Both also have major flaws. No need to take shots at people who use Windows over Mac or even say an OS is crap when in reality, it's not. Next time read before you reply. First, certain software is only available on Windows, so maybe that's why you'd run Parallels or VMware? You're right, Apple hasn't introduced a touch centric OS onto devices that don't support touch, probably because that makes no sense whatsoever? I never said Windows 8 or 8.1 was a bad OS for touch screen devices (and if you actually bothered to read my post you'd have known that), such as the Surface, for which it was actually designed. For THOSE devices, it's a really good OS. And last but not least, I never took a shot for someone using something they enjoy using. You're paying for it, use it. But I absolutely can have the OPINION that Windows 8 sucks, whether you like it or not, and share said opinion when asked...which I was.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 27, 2014 -> 07:27 AM) Somewhat luckily, I do have some prior experience owning a Mac so it isn't a total paradigm shift for me. Both OSes have their pluses and minuses and in this case, it was the hardware as much as anything. I knew that this hardware and software combo was an incredibly safe choice - and that I couldn't afford what I consider a safe choice on PC right now. My next step is setting up an external monitor for my home office, once the money for it materializes. And I downloaded Yosemite on this bad boy - totally worth it for the interface refresh alone, as I found the prior iterations to be rather dated. This sucker is beautiful. I've still not installed Yosemite since I use this for work quite a bit and need to make sure everything works before I make the change (I'm sure it does, but not worth risking it considering it's going to be coming out soon anyway). I grew up a Commodore kid, having a C64 and then moving onto their (amazing at the time) Amiga line of computers...in the mid 90's I made the switch to Windows 95 beta (I used practically every beta of W95 from the start), which forced me to learn it inside and out. That said, the PC hardware SUCKED back then, but of course vastly improved as time went on. It took until the late 2000's (2008 to be exact), to move on from Windows to OSX...and I haven't looked back. The ONLY thing Windows has that OSX lacks at this point is game support (and even that's changed over the years with Blizzard and Steam supporting OSX)...and as I got older and played less games, this really stopped being a concern. At this point, I see no advantages to Windows in a TCP/IP cloud world.

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 07:25 PM) Also, got myself a Macbook Air today 13" base model today. I thought hard about some other machines, most notably the following: -Surface Pro 3 -Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro -Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga In the end, the main reason I went with the Mac was...price. Yep, you heard that right. I was/am in love with the Surface Pro, especially because I see a lot of value in active stylus input, but to fork over that amount (recall that the keyboard cover is separate and $130) for the same specs just wasn't working for me. This is particularly true because in my experience the same specs tend to run better with OS X than Windows. The Yoga 2 Pro had a better specs-to-price ratio, but I couldn't find a configuration that I wanted and I've heard bad things about the battery life. The 12 hour battery life of MB Air vs. 6 of Yoga 2 Pro is meaningful to me. Some of them use god-awful single-band N wireless cards as well, which is something meaningful to me after I invested in a top-end router. The Thinkpad Yoga is a really interesting device, but not exactly in the mainstream. It was difficult not being able to see one in person to go for it. I had the opportunity to get it refurbished for $700, but I didn't have a good way of knowing whether it had a well-documented (among owners) monitor ghosting issue that was fixed in later production runs. So I have a MB Air and at least 14 days to vet it and make sure it works for me. I'm not a specialist but I am a heavy multi-tasker who runs some statistics software and isn't eager to lug a charger to work with me every day. I'm considering doing Boot Camp w/ W8 since I can get a license for only about $10 via my employer. Anyone here use Parallels? Any tips for someone who is a bit of a Microsoft fan who is moving over to Mac? I've run Parallels, but I prefer VMWare Fusion over it. You shouldn't have any ghosting problems and if you did, I'm sure it's fixable under warranty anyway. You won't be a Windows fan much longer if you actually give OSX a real chance, especially Windows 8, which is a total suckfest OS on non-touch based systems. Just run a Google search for Windows users switching to OSX or Mac, there are probably 5000 websites dedicated to it. There are a few daunting changes, but after you get used to Apple's way vs Microsoft's way, you won't really notice it anymore. And for power users, OSX simply blows Windows away, as it's full UNIX. I once made this same jump from Windows to OSX myself, and at first there were things I couldn't figure out how to do, etc...but anything you can do on Windows, there is a way to do it on OSX, and after you learn it all, I doubt you'll look back. I HATE having to boot into Windows at this point, and thankfully the way the world has moved on, there isn't a lot of need to do it anymore aside from the few games that REQUIRE directX.

QUOTE (juddling @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 02:05 PM) I get a chuckle out of some of these sports announcers and writers who are now deciding to declare there distaste for the name Redskins. so....last year and the year before you had no problem using the "racist" name in your broadcasts/articles but NOW you've all seen the light or decided to come out of the shadows with your outrage?? GMAFB Pretty much.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 11:42 AM) Wouldn't they still have the double-dip problem in Canada and other countries (unless the country has some kind of exemption for paying taxes on foreign income)? The problem, if it exists elsewhere, would be a lot less of a tax hit, as you noted, we have the highest tax there is, by far.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 10:00 AM) If that's the case why are all of these companies moving their headquarters? Taxes can be avoided to a point, but the US still has the highest combined corporate tax rate in the world. It's sad that Canada offers them THAT much incentive. The benefit is mostly for international businesses, which BK happens to be. This is why you have Apple/Google/MS, etc. hiding money overseas and refusing to bring it back here. Keep in mind when you wield the kind of money these companies have, it's easy to get away with doing that, because they still have plenty of money laying around here, too. But for smaller places that aren't bleeding billions in profits, they HAVE to bring that money back here to invest, expand, etc...and the US loves to double-dip taxation on profits made overseas. In short: 1) US HQ'd company makes money in Europe, pays all of the tax due in Europe for doing business there (as they should). 2) Same US HQ'd company needs to bring the money back to the US, does so, and gets taxed on that same money AGAIN. Result: Companies that cannot afford to ignore their money overseas and HAVE to bring it back get to pay tax twice. Those companies say f*** that, and leave.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 09:43 AM) Why is Canada's total corporate tax rate 14% lower than the US? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkbl...nd-lower-taxes/ The actual US corporate tax rate is pretty meaningless...they can set it to 100%, but the sheer number of loophoes involved can bring that down to under 5% quite easily.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 09:43 AM) I doubt it. Even lobbyists wouldn't want to associate with a team that has a racist name. I don't think lobbyists care much about morals. Ask Jack Abramoff.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 26, 2014 -> 09:31 AM) I dunno, there's plenty of oil money flowing into DC but do the lobbyists really want to pay for the team too? They probably already do.

I'll solve this for the NFL, change the name of the team to the Washington Whiteskins. It's a team name, nobody cares. I'd rather have the Oilers back anyway.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 04:17 PM) Who knows Slingbox? I am thinking of using it instead of paying for cable at my cabin. What version should I have? Uses a ton of data, so you either need an unlimited package and good signal or a really solid wifi connection (also with good speeds).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 21, 2014 -> 12:10 PM) Just the art direction/cinematography doing all those different train car sets, I think there were between 20-30...the imagination behind them, makes the movie worth seeing. In the end, it's just another version of the 99% vs. the 1% story, but visually it's such a different idea than most sci fi/futuristic movies these days. It was interesting but not particularly good, the storytelling was a stretch at best with one car from the next (as an example) being a sushi bar, a rave, poor people, which was it's telling of segregation...I get it, but I felt it was hallow, and like you said another retelling of a story that's been told far better before. Too artsy for me.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 20, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) SNOWPIERCER. Awesome. See it. Bad.

...and years later Stupidville shows how it earned and continues to retain it's name.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 12, 2014 -> 11:43 AM) My wife and I are taking our 2 year old to Disney next month. Anyone do that trip with a toddler before? Any advise/tips/tricks? It's only for a few days and we're only doing 2 parks (Magic Kingdom over two days and Animal Kingdom for one). Staying in a Disney resort before heading over to St. Pete for a week. It's either going to be awesome watching him freak out with excitement, or it's going to be an absolute nightmare for 3 days.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 09:37 PM) I think the most important thing to remember in all of this is that everyone but the people doing these things is to blame.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 10:56 AM) You're right. I honestly meant I hope this town burns every local business and house because they're angry! Violence! Bad things happen to everyone, some more than others, but being civilized is WHY we don't loot/pillage and or use it as an excuse to break laws which are designed to protect other people (usually innocent people) when something like this happens. It's what separates us from the animals. Yes, I said animals in case the thought police needed clarification.

QUOTE (Brian @ Aug 11, 2014 -> 07:40 AM) Cops shot and killed an unarmed 18 year old, Michael Brown, in St. Louis a few days ago. Last night, a memorial turned into riots or looting and vandalism. Following #FergusonRiot on twitter shows some pics. I'm not dignifying the rioting but there are pics of police showing up like they were preparing for a riot during the memorial, which was peaceful at the time. Supposedly that set people off. If police just let the mourn in peace, would the riots have started? Who knows? Whenever someone says, I'm not doing/saying X and follows it with a BUT, they are.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 01:20 PM) I have friends who do nothing but send massive walls of text in text messages with using Google's voice recognition. It works fine most of of the time. The only complaint I have is that Google Now is kind of broken (it won't really listen for your commands for some reason) when you have your phone hooked up to a bluetooth sound system. I wrote they're wrong 70-80% of the time, that should have read they're RIGHT 70-80% of the time, but that means 20-30% of your message will often have incorrect words in it. I can ALWAYS tell when someone sends me a text via voice. I know what they were trying to say, but you can tell a computer wrote it.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 12:27 PM) I play music in my car a lot and my phone picks up the "Google Now" hotword just fine as long as it's not ear-screeching loud. This has NEVER been my experience with voice commands, be they via iOS or Google Now. They're both decent, but they're still both wrong 70-80% of the time, and a single word written incorrectly in a message can change the context or meaning of the entire message.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 12:25 PM) You can. Google's voice recognition is actually very good, as long as you're not at a concert or something. That's a bit of an overstatement. Google's voice recognition is good, but only when you're in decent conditions. The issue with voice commands is that they're largely invasive. I don't need to be listening to you rambling into your wrist on an elevator, or at a restaurant, etc. So, yea, while you can respond, you can only do so in a limited and often annoying fashion. You know what else you could do? Pull out your phone and respond since you have to have it with you anyway, and if your watch is working because you're in a place where you can use voice, you're phone won't be an inconvenience either...which also can be used hands free with voice. These are redundant applications. Everyone I know with a Pebble uses it to tell time now...when they first got it they were using it for basically everything it could do. Now they realize their phone is just easier.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 11:13 AM) And you're arguing that the country which is taking the land their homes sit on and blockading them will change course and allow those people to live in peace, which from their perspective makes just as little sense. Which again, leaves me no reason to do anything but fight alongside that terrorist organization. ...or realize you're an American living in America and don't have to fight on EITHER side of wrong.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 10:20 AM) Google's tracking apps are...questionable right now. Google Now sent me an "Activity" summary that said I was walking for a total of 10 hours in June and 12 hours in July. In both of those months, I used google's own "My Tracks" app to track about 100 miles of hiking. Something doesn't add up there. Depending on your device, these apps can only take snapshots, as they're not always running in the background. For example, on iOS, you don't have to allow apps to run in the background, so unless you're actively using it, it can't track you, and even if it does run in the background, it will only take snapshots once in a while or it would burn your battery down in an hour, and these apps aren't very accurate, as GPS is a battery killer, so most use cell tower triangulation instead, which isn't all that accurate.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 10:18 AM) Due to HIPPA many of the documents stored onsite arent accessible to the internet anyway. If they are, its behind several proxies that would be very hard to "hack." But it also depends if you think your medical records are more important than something like your Drivers License number, which is much easier to get. They also have to be encrypted while stored and transmitted, so even if they were intercepted they'd be largely useless.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Aug 8, 2014 -> 10:11 AM) Well, two things here. Your medical records at your doctor's office aren't going to have nearly the amount of data that some of these apps and devices track. Your doctor measures your blood pressure once or twice a year, not continuously. The other is that many of these devices and apps themselves have very poor security built into them, whereas you can be reasonably sure that electronic medical records are kept on a pretty secure system. Given enough time and resources, all security systems can be beaten, but my doctor isn't constantly spamming out medical information in clear text like some of these devices/apps are. That's why sticking with Apple / Google / Microsoft is probably the best choice you have -- at least they have the money to implement and/or fix security when necessary. There isn't much you can do about this IF you use technology these days -- unplugging is the ONLY privacy option we really have -- and for many of us, that's just not reality considering our jobs. So ... I'd recommend people stick with big companies who may mine your data, but they don't want it leaking to anyone. People often ask me about Google, and yes, Google knows a LOT about us, but it's in Google's interest that ONLY Google know these things about you. Google doesn't sell your information to others, because if they did that Google would no longer be necessary, and the company that bought it from them could bypass Google completely to reach you. This would kill their core business, so it's of their interest to keep your information secret and secure for themselves.