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1 to 10 of 190

My comments

• When are they going to make the sides and backs of cars look as cool as the front grilles? All the luxury car manufacturers are pouring gobs of design into fantastic front grilles, but as soon as the car turns to its side, it just looks like yet another sedan. The headlights look spectacular, and the interior is great! The side view, though, looks like another car. In reply to: "2011 Audi A8 preview"

  December 30, 2009

  0 replies

• It's NOT the bloody world's first tablet PC, not by a long shot. I've been working with tablet PCs for years, trying to figure out why I'm the only one interested in them. I can hardly picture doing computer graphics on anything else, and yet the professional graphic artists seem oblivious to their existence. Since they are almost all die-hard Mac users, maybe Apple's tablet will fix that and help bring tablet PCs out of the depth of obscurity and into mainstream use where they belong. In reply to: "CrunchPad tablet allegedly revealed: Apple tablet killer or overhyped Netbook?"

  December 28, 2009

  0 replies

• Well, I use Apple TV, my DVD player is the Toshiba HD-DVD console in the article, and my current and last laptop are and were both tablet PCs. So, I'm perhaps outside the usual trend. Still, I never had a pet Aibo (which I can't help but look at and say, "that's not a real dagget," or "Muffy, come back!") Although I never owned a UMPC, I considered one for awhile. I'm very eager to see what Apple produces out of the rumor mill in the next few months. In reply to: "The decade's 30 biggest tech flops"

  December 14, 2009

  0 replies

• Verizon may not have a trendy phone, but it's still my carrier of choice, because it has the best (or at least the least worst) customer service. A trendy phone that does a hundred other things is not interesting to me if I can't use it as a phone. With Verizon, I pay the bill on time, and they do not turn around a month later and try to pretend I didn't. I get a signal wherever I go. The phone works, and I can talk to people. No one else has figured that out yet. For all the other crap an iPhone can do, I've got an iPod Touch. I love Apple. My sister is married to them. Once AT&T rethinks its life or Apple gets with Verizon, I'll probably consider the iPhone. But, not today. In reply to: "Verizon ad describes negotiations with Apple?"

  November 17, 2009

  0 replies

• Next comes the almost inevitable reference to Revelations, where someone decides that Google is the next to join the long line of supposed Beasts that will destroy the world.
  
  The information on Google is personal, but so is the data collected for years by credit bureaus like Experian or by Lexis Nexis, a network used by attorneys. I have yet to see anyone suing them over privacy worries, even though I feel the three credit bureaus ROUTINELY commit liabel on a daily basis by reporting erroneous data that affects peoples' ability to secure loans. In reply to: "Google trying not to cross 'the creepy line'"

  November 9, 2009

  0 replies

• This is a classic case of contemporary Gen-Y high tech companies putting bells and whistles above essentials. I liken it to a $1000 home theater system with a billion equalizer settings, Web-enabled remote programming, "All Your Base Are Boost (tm)," and all the fidelity of a pair of $10 headphones. I'm a stickler of covering the essentials. I don't care how many different options, features, or upgrades are added to a device or service if it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. First, do the job at hand, then try to wow me with extras. The extras do not mean SQUAT to me if the device or service DOESN'T WORK. In this case, it sounds like ZipCar is a great idea in concept that either needs to be ironed out or needs to be handed over to somebody who understands customer service. In either case, while it may be a great idea, if it leaves you stranded, it sounds like it's being an abysmal failure. In reply to: "Dude, where's my Zipcar?"

  October 10, 2009

  0 replies

• This is a good app if you're driving with someone else. With two people in the car, one person can pay attention to the road while another operates the phone, the navigation system, and other devices. I'm a proponent of not speeding--aside from the safety issue, it's one of the simplest ways of reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. But, let's face it. There are speed traps out there. There are places where the speed limit drops rediculously over a short distance, and there are places out there where law enforcement has devolved into a predator and prey relationship. A lot of otherwise good law-abiding people's only routine interaction with the police involve getting pulled over for speeding. If someone is barrelling through a school zone, then I say nail them. But, on an open Interstate that has been "under construction" for five or six years, where one or two unoccupied bulldozers are left by the side of the road, along with a stretch of blocked off shoulder, no actual workers, and no real work having been accomplished in over two years, is reducing the limit suddenly from 65 to 50 really that legitimate? Or is there some racketeering going on? In reply to: "Trapster app steers you clear of speed traps"

  September 25, 2009

  1 reply

• This tendancy to crank up the volume rather than engineering for fidelity is rendered all the more painful and absurd when one considers that ANY recording can be made loud or soft by the main knob on most sound systems. Volume up and volume down are about the only two buttons on my iPod Touch other than On/Off and Let Me Start Over. In my cars past and present, the volume knob is easy to find, and on my home theater amplifier, it's a huge dial that eclipses every other controller. ANY sound source can be made loud or quiet. There's absolutely no reason to sacrifice fidelity just make "2" instead of "6" is the desired listening level. In reply to: "Poll: The most atrocious-sounding music"

  September 21, 2009

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• But, but, but... Microsoft has been pushing tablet PCs for years! Am I the only one who knows about them!?! If I had a web cam, I'd show you the Fujitsu Lifebook sitting next to me right now! They're real, I tell you! Why is it tablet PCs are treated like some paranormal phenomenon? Is it because all the tablet PCs are getting sequestered by the U.S. government for the ultra-secret Stargate program, shipping them off to some other galaxy? (Kidding aside, fans of Stargate: Atlantis might have noticed frequent use of tablet PCs on the show.) I suspect that Apple will come out with something, and suddenly they might as well have invented tablet computing. (Well, they kind of did, with the Newton.) Microsoft has spent most of the decade trying to get the format to catch on, but so far, it remains a niche market. Maybe the Apple logo will get graphic artists on board. And, maybe a touch screen rather than an easy-to-lose digitizer pen will get more people interested. In reply to: "Microsoft to take on the Apple tablet?"

  September 21, 2009

  2 replies

• I've never owned a PS2; I've always played my PS2 game on my PS3. I only own one PS2 game, but it's Okami, a major epic that I want to be able to play over again should I decide to do so. Yes, there's a Wii version, but there are reasons for keeping the PS2 original, such as the end credits (left off the Wii version).
  
  If Sony can port PS1 games to the PS3, and they've already done software emulation on a version of the PS3 that I've already got, then it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to offer it again. In reply to: "PS3 Slim uses half the power of PS3 'Fat'"

  August 30, 2009

  0 replies