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Would have made more sense. Which is to say – nearly none.

about 4 hours ago on Microsoft puts a Windows 8 key on its latest mice, hopes to improve navigation (hands-on)

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No I’m not. I use several computers fairly regularly. Some of them have mice equipped with back buttons and some don’t. I dearly miss it when it isn’t there.
In any event, while I certainly laud the back button as a reasonable choice for a Windows machine (or any desktop machine actually) that isn’t directly related to my thinking a huge honking ‘Start’ button on a mouse is pure insanity.
Most people using Windows who would purchase such a mouse are home users and using either Win7 or Win8. Commonly people put their most used apps on the launcher bar so marching into the Start menu isn’t necessary as often. Well, unless you are actually using the Metro part of Win8 on a desktop. Though I have no idea why you’d be doing that a lot either. But in any event you can always just swipe your mouse down to the corner to get there. The button on the mouse saves you not much at all.

about 4 hours ago on Microsoft puts a Windows 8 key on its latest mice, hopes to improve navigation (hands-on)

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It’s also useful in file managers and other applications I’m sure.
My decry of the Start button on a mouse has nothing to do with a phone UI which is inherently not multi-tasking friendly, has limited UI space, and uses full screen apps pretty much exclusively. I simply can’t get behind your comparison at all. A phone and a desktop are not the same functionality.

about 4 hours ago on Microsoft puts a Windows 8 key on its latest mice, hopes to improve navigation (hands-on)

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I can’t see it from here on my Linux, no.
Seriously though – I’ve used Windows plenty and spent several months earlier in the year using the Win8 preview recently. There is already a start button on the keyboard which is quite handy enough. They are also putting a software start button back on Windows when 8.1 comes out this Fall.
On a mouse I use a ‘back’ button way more than anything else (other than left, right click of course). I’d say I even use it more than center click.
Back me out of web pages, back me up in file manager. Back it up. Back it up. Back it up. Near constantly used by many I would think. Certainly by me.

about 4 hours ago on Microsoft puts a Windows 8 key on its latest mice, hopes to improve navigation (hands-on)

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Sweet! Because I was just thinking of writing a book on stupidity and wondering what to choose for a cover photo.

Yeah – who needs something useful on a mouse like a ‘back’ button. Better make it a ‘start’ button which gets infinitely less use. A nice response to removing the ‘Start’ button from your software to the howl of millions though.
My first thought when I see something like this is that somebody should be fired. But the reality is that somebody talked this BS through meeting after meeting and actually got it out the door. That guy is a valuable guy. Not for ideas if he came up with it, but for execution at getting other people to go along with it.

about 10 hours ago on Microsoft puts a Windows 8 key on its latest mice, hopes to improve navigation (hands-on) 3 replies

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Yeah – I still disagree.
Oddly right on that page you link they note that ‘cult’ movies are “obscure or unpopular with mainstream audiences” much as I indicated.
Yet just a quick look at the list turns up movies like “An American Werewolf in London”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Werewolf_in_London
Which the Wikipeida page itself for that movie indicates as one of several higih profile movies of the genre at the time – which it was. Not obscure or unembraced by mainstream audiences in the slightest upon release.

It’s purely semantics. These are great old movies. It’s easy enough to say a ‘cult’ movie is simply one which endures with a large fan base over time regardless of initial performance. To me though I think of them more as small or relatively failed films which gain popularity and audience over time. For me this movie, nor Werewolves of London nor several others on that list fit this description.

about 12 hours ago on Tracking 'The Warriors' through old New York, in 1979 and 2013

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Not really a ‘cult’ film I think as to me that implies a film which was relatively unknown in release but gained a large following later on.
This movie was massive in initial release. Some gang fights which broke out reportedly at some movie houses really got played up in the press. I recall my parents letting me see it but it was a matter of some contention between them. Discussions about both the violence on film and potential violence at the venue.
I’ve no idea really what the initial box office takes were for the movie’s release so maybe my memories about it being huge are based more in my own interest in the film at the time. But to my current thinking it was not at all small or quiet. The theatre where I did go to see it was packed.

about 13 hours ago on Tracking 'The Warriors' through old New York, in 1979 and 2013 1 reply

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Thank you. Thank you very much. I’ll be here all week. Please tip your waitress.

about 13 hours ago on HP Envy Rove 20 is the company's stab at a giant all-in-one Windows 8 tablet

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I actually think this category is going to be quite big going forward. So many people buy laptops and then set them on a desk and never move them anyway. I don’t see the hassle of moving a 10 or 15lb object if it offers flexibility in return and decent enough battery life.
Lay it flat on the coffee table for game night. Take it out on the patio to write a paper or whatnot…
Needs to park on a wall I think though. At the very least it should park on a desk on a wireless charging pad.
What I’d like to see within a few years would be 24" with decent resolution, under 10lbs, and with 5+ hour battery life at a resonable price point.
I’d be all over it.

about 19 hours ago on HP Envy Rove 20 is the company's stab at a giant all-in-one Windows 8 tablet 2 replies

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Well I’m not gonna know too soon myelf as I have the button present in Chrome 27 now but after 10 minutes of frustration I finally figured out the cat chewed my mic chord in half as it hung below the desk at some point.
He’s just looking at me like he still thinks we should be blaming Google but the evidence is in hand(s).

1 day ago on Google's latest voice search features now available in Chrome

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But it isn’t clear to me exactly how it works. In the demo she had a Google search page open I think. If that needs to be open and forward then it isn’t as useful I think as I"ve already done most of the actions it would take to just search.
If, however, I could just use the voice cue right now as I’m typing this with no other particular tabs open in the background and chrome would search and pull the result tab forward then that might be more useful.

1 day ago on Google's latest voice search features now available in Chrome 1 reply

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It has its place.
I use it quite a bit on the tablet where input is just more fussy. It’s usually accurate enough that it’s helpful.
With desktop we’ll have to see.
I’d kind of like the button to not just be on Google search page but maybe have it turn on with voice cue or mouse gesture or button on toolbar maybe.
I often open a new tab to search for something. If I could just do a quick gesture or whatnot and speak my search and it would display it in a new tab then that would be handy I think.

1 day ago on Google's latest voice search features now available in Chrome 1 reply 1 recommend

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MS certainly has a hard-on for annuities.
I’m not gonna play along.

1 day ago on Xbox One lets households share one Xbox Live Gold subscription across multiple accounts

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Oh screw him. He didn’t even bother having it published for posterity. He didn’t care about us…

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 2 recommends

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This guy is so gonna cry when he sees the talks on Web Components from Gogle I/O 2013.

1 day ago on Programmer shuns images, recreates intricate London subway map from pure web code 3 recommends

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It’s just peanut butter money talking.
We’re all for sale for the right price.

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 5 recommends

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It’s nice he invented it but it’s bigger than him now and it’s pronounced “gif” no “jif” – at least by me.
He has two problems.
1. It seems very odd to take a different pronunciation for the first letter in an acronym than the base word.
2. There is already a widely known product using the ‘jif’ pronunciation and it is indeed spelled ‘JIF’. It’’s peanut butter. At least here in the US anyway.

This is like Shakespeare turning up and arguing that it’s pronounced “Makebeth”. No. No it isn’t.

1 day ago on Inventor of the GIF uses awards ceremony to remind us how it's pronounced 3 replies

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Yeah – so that’s going on a power strip with it’s own switch then.

Have they (I bet not) said anything about use of those systems to collect/sell marketing information? Because it’s value would be quite high I’d think.
Imagine MS being able to provide to shows or even people running commercials information about how many people are in the room, their ages and genders, if they paid attention to the screen and at what times, if they spoke, etc…. Perhaps if they were eating or drinking and which products.
I do not for a second beleive the temptation is something the business of multi-media marketing will be able to resist.
You’ve been Micro-Screwed.

2 days ago on The Xbox One will always be listening to you, in your own home (update) 2 recommends

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Your base propostion that GoogleTV is just Android now and that TV is just another screen size is false.
GoogleTV has specific tools and features which Android base lacks. They have pulled those tools out to sit on top so that GoogleTV can march along at a faster pace than it is has. This was really needed. I would also bet GoogleTV will continue to be limited as to what apps it can download. We’ll see.
But that still doesn’t make it a non-differentiated offering.
As to it being dead – possibly it’s too late but then again it’s a long game.
As to Google not showing it much love to date – you can say that again.

6 days ago on Google TV: silent but not forgotten at I/O 2013

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Christ, let it go already. The guy said something in passing in response to a question. It’s nice he just talked without offering up boring pat BS cleared by the legal team.
The idea of open experimentation zones is nothing new and has been proposed by people with nothing to do with engineering. It’s an extremely common concept in economic circles. And perhaps you’ve heard of something called charter schools?

6 days ago on The horrifying (and fictional) wonders of Google Island 1 reply 4 recommends

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Modern manufacturing has less and less human participation. Robots in China cost pretty much the same as robots in the US because they are the same robots.
Also the cost of human workers in China is going up. Finally there is just the scale of it. The more you make the cheaper you can make each one.

7 days ago on Tim Cook defends Apple ahead of Senate hearing, reveals more about US manufacturing plans

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In 10 years yes good chance still cell phones of some description. In 20 … I kind of doubt it.
You miss my point. This isn’t something supplanting the idea of a cell phone it’s the cell phone being taken to the next logical place.
Right now cell phone size is dictated by screen size pretty much. If you can put the screen into a projected space and make it usable then the problem is solved. The other issues are usability and a new round of size issues, both for battery and camera. Those issues will be solved just as they have been solved all along.
In 20 years you won’t be wearing glass. You’ll be wearing the glass equivalent of what the modern cell phone is to the old bag car cell phones.
It will be very small with long battery life and project a fairly large screen of data for you. The battery life will be more than long enough. Usage will probably be through a combination of voice and it understanding visual cues such as hand movements.
It won’t be obtrusive or odd looking or stand out more than a reasonably sized piece of jewelry does today.
It will probably also offer extensions of human sensory capability. The ability to see infra red or a warning system for poisonous gas or oxygen depletion. It will probably also warn of imminent health matters. It will probably also make emergency calls on your behalf for that matter.
Perhaps it will do novel things like allow you to track a friend through a crowd using its abilityt to recognize thier odor – giving visual cues to lead you to them.
Perhaps even 20 years is pushing it for all that. But it’s coming. No question.

7 days ago on Google on Glass privacy: 'If I'm recording you, I have to stare at you' 1 recommend

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Here’s what it will be.
They will make the mac mini in the States.
They will charge more for it and it will sell like hotcakes because people are so happy they are making it in the USA.
In reality it won’t cost them any more to manufacture it at all – they will just pocket increased profit from the new pricing.

7 days ago on Tim Cook defends Apple ahead of Senate hearing, reveals more about US manufacturing plans 1 reply

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That’s hysterical. Congress asking if something is harmful to the citizens. I nearly cried laughing so hard.

7 days ago on Congress asks Google CEO if Glass infringes 'on the privacy of the average American' 1 recommend

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I wonder if it will be exactly like the outcry about cameras on cellphones, or cellphones themselves, or cameras themselves. You know – a bunch of people talking about how aweful it will be and how the public will not stand for it.
And then the real world getting on with our lives and gradually adopting it through better and better iterations of the category.
Frankly I don’t know why people persist with the notion that this is something different from a cell phone. It isn’t. It’s just the next logical step. In 10 or 20 years the idea of carrying around a little brick in your pocket to take pictures or send messages is going to seem as laughable as pictures of people with huge car bag phones do to us today.

7 days ago on Google on Glass privacy: 'If I'm recording you, I have to stare at you' 1 reply 5 recommends