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It isn’t that MS missed a great opportunity … it is that the cable providers, mostly in NA, are too much a bunch of control freaks to let anyone else be the interface with their content.

about 21 hours ago on Live TV on the Xbox One: Microsoft learns nothing from Google TV's mistakes 1 reply 2 recommends

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DSM’s biggest problem (from my perspective) over the last few versions has been the ever-expanding group of people covered by things like ADD, Autism, and so forth. The definitions have become so broad that it makes it easy to diagnose, and then give drugs to, people who are functioning just fine. Yes, I recognize that part of the situation also falls on the doctors and the drug companies that push them.

20 days ago on Federal institute for mental health abandons controversial 'bible' of psychiatry 3 replies 1 recommend

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Not exactly true. Many places have laws against recording conversations but there are exceptions and variances.

- Lots of places have one-party consent. That’s usually why the cops can get a “snitch” to wear a wire without having to get a warrant to record a conversation.

- Places with two-party consent you would need consent of both people. But, this only applies to private conversations. If you and your buddy are walking down the street and talking in a normal tone you can be recorded just fine. If you’re huddled in a corner whispering then you have an expectation of privacy.

- Other places, the rules only apply to admissibility in court. For instance, even in some places with two-party consent you could record someone just fine, you just couldn’t admit it into court proceedings. It wouldn’t then be illegal, just become inadmissible evidence.

To be blunt … people assume they have a LOT more privacy than they do.

21 days ago on Google Glass app lets you sneak photos with a wink 1 reply 4 recommends

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Was typing just that when your post appeared. :)

22 days ago on Space robots land on Canadian currency

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I firmly believe that there will be so many form factors for computing devices within the next 5-10 years that lining the markets up as “tablets” and “smartphones” and “watches” and so forth will be pretty much archaic. In that sense, I believe that many devices will be rendered obsolete. The tablet hardware, for instance, is starting to push past what is actually required to provide a fast, fluid experience on the device just like home desktop computing power. Give it another five years and who’s to say that you won’t be able to put (as an example) a smartwatch type device into the back of a 10" screen and have it act as a tablet. We can do that with phones right now but the concept just hasn’t hit mainstream popularity yet. Heck, if anyone figures out how to reliably let a phone, via a dock, beam an interface out to various devices like TV’s and tablets you won’t even need to plug them in. You’d dock your phone and have its interface beamed out to whatever device you want.

Whether that is five years or ten years I’m not sure. But, I simply don’t see all these disparate devices surviving the coming years. I feel that many of them, tablets included, will start becoming more accessories than devices themselves.

23 days ago on BlackBerry's Thorsten Heins thinks tablets will be dead in five years 3 replies 2 recommends

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I carry two phones with me most of the day … a Blackberry Curve and Galaxy SIII. The former is from work and the latter is my personal phone. For straight email … I don’t think anything even comes close to BB’s setup on the curve/bold. The physical keyboard and easy scrolling between emails just seems to flow. When I swap to my SIII for personal email things just slow down and I’ve noticed the same thing with lots of people using touch screens. Yes, I can do so much more on my SIII … but I don’t need that from my work phone so I like the simplicity of it.

24 days ago on BlackBerry Q10 review: revenge of the keyboard 1 recommend

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So now the Xbox “always online” will be exactly the same as PC’s and the PS4 … and people are still angry at MS over it. I guess some people are giving up on games completely, then.

27 days ago on Next Xbox rumored to emphasize sharing, let publishers mandate 'always-on' connection 1 recommend

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Here’s the problem with all brain-scanning technology: It can tell you what the brain is like right now … it can’t tell you how it got that way. It can identify what the activity is in the brain’s regions but it can’t say that the person got that way via biology, upbringing, or a variety of other factors.

And, despite that, even if it is about biology it doesn’t mean they get to go free and kill/hurt people and not have to face the penalty for it. It only changes the method of incarceration. And, if it truly is biology then guess what … you might never leave the facility they put you in because the claim that you “couldn’t stop yourself due to biology” will also tell the public that you can never be trusted, ever. A guy that claims it was his upbringing stands a chance of convincing someone, down the road, that he’s rehabilitated. The guy that claims it was biology can’t claim the same.

28 days ago on Dangerous minds: new research unravels the brains of psychopaths 3 recommends

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No, the simple point is that the bloody media shouldn’t be using reddit as a “source” for their information about suspects in a case. If certain idiotic media outlets didn’t take reddit information as gospel and publish it then these articles wouldn’t be an issue because the bulk of the public would never have known. The only reason he’s apologizing is because someone took information being theorized on by a bunch of random folks on the internet and published it as if the cops had done the work. Personally, I would refuse to apologize for it and simply state that maybe the media should get its information on suspects from the cops, not reddit users. The guy is apologizing for other people’s stupidity and it is simply wrong. It would be no different than folks coming to the Verge forums and quoting our opinions as coming directly from the police. It would be stupid and it should be called out as such.

30 days ago on Reddit apologizes for 'online witch hunts,' asks community to be 'sensitive of its own power' 1 reply 2 recommends

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I simply object to the mass of flying objects that are becoming too common in the cabin. I firmly believe that nothing should be in your hands during takeoff and landing that can become a projectile in a crash landing. I don’t want to be in a crash but if one occurs I don’t want to be the guy smacked in the head by a flying iPad that someone was playing Angry Birds on during landing. To be fair, I also don’t want to be hit by the hard cover copy of war and peace either. I think they should all be put away for those 5-10 minutes.

about 1 month ago on Senator McCaskill grills FAA chief over 'arbitrary' electronic device restrictions 1 reply