I end all my sentences in semicolons;

Amazon (and others) are doing their part to piss on customers. Amazon blocks Google, Google blocks Amazon, and on the pissing match goes while their customers are the ones getting drenched and angry. There is a lot of functionality in this devices and services but if enough things don't work then someone else will move in to fill that role. The technology is no longer bleeding edge. Even Apple has lost much of its edge. Microsoft found out the hard way that things change and it can happen to Amazon, Apple, and Google too if they don't learn to make their devices and services play nice together. I'd love for all of these big players to step back and just consider how much more tablets, phones, set-top boxes, consoles, voice agents, etc could do for their customers if only they would work together. Why fight over a little pie when you can share a much larger pie?

Obviously you've never tried. MacOS' Unix bits are pretty stable and function as expected other than a bit of changes here and there such as in how stuff is configured. Cygwin, Microsoft's own Linux-bits port, or one of the many other efforts such as what you get with Git are all pretty buggy and can vary wildly. I'm glad Microsoft is finally making the effort but it's still very rough. Often crashes the entire computer and lots of common functionality is just missing as if they compiled everything for maximum lameness. Don't quite see the point of Wine but then I don't use Desktop Linux for serious work anymore as, after decades of trying, it just never got to a truly usable state and even tended to get worse. Combined with how awful most Windows apps are I can't imagine wanting to run a Windows app on a Linux desktop.

Why should he care what they say? If you show up to their court you are acknowledging their authority. Just because some retard waves their arms and makes some noise doesn't mean you have to do what they say. Just because some suit thinks their music has value or even that money has value doesn't make it so. Just ignore the kids and let them make all the ruckus they want.

You can buy their little Android tablets for $40 each. They aren't on par with an iPad but they are cheap enough to be disposable. I bought the six pack so I could give each of my kids their own. Seriously needed a case and screen shield but with those the units are reasonably durable and good enough for most users. The worst issues are caused by Amazon's stupid policies. Encryption is just one more issue. They don't work with Google Play and don't court developers so many common apps aren't available or don't work well. Freetime is a good idea but has idiot limitations such as not allowing parents to give kids normal web access or allowing in-app purchases ( to even just restoring purchases). Of course if I was going to use any device for nefarious purpose I'd write my own apps that included their own encryption â" regardless as to what the OS provided because obviously you can't count on corporations to shield you.

Don't know if it's the best answer but it'd be a fun project. Or just skip the monitors and have everyone wear Oculus Rift headgear.

Usually I keep paying more and more while getting less and less. Woo my Internet worked half the time this month at a fraction of the speed I'm paying for.. I must be the lucky customer. Networking is very cheap to deliver when done right. Disk space also is very cheap and by removing duplicates it quickly reaches a point where expansion needs slow. All these things are dropping in price constantly. Unlimited might be unrealistic but very cheap wouldn't be. By treating it as virtually unlimited you remove the cost of bookkeeping, explaining the bookkeeping, etc which can easily come to be a bigger expense than the actual product.

Better development tools and libraries would be a very good start. Way more useful than a bunch of pointless limitations that are as likely to cause new security holes with all the bugs they introduce.

The problem is less with terminology than with expectation. To often management doesn't want programmers to spend the time to correctly write the software. Not doing a shitty job can get you fired. Worrying about little things like not destroying users data, bricking machines, etc is considered a waste of time by the people calling the shots. Beyond that, users frequently don't care about such things until after they have a problem. They don't want to spend more or wait longer. Easier to get it cheap and sue when something goes wrong. I know more math, science, engineering practice, etc as any Engineer but getting to use it in any practical way is rare.

If it must have a GUI then use an iPad. No reason to run the UI on the same device as the work getting done. Usually use Linux on cloud servers and embedded devices anymore.. can't see any reason I'd want an actual server any more and only keep a desktop for running third-party software that requires Windows or MacOS.

Ooooh I thought he said Super Sailor Moon would end the world.. whew!

I could see an argument for C# maybe but not VisualBasic. I like Python best but C# programs do usually run faster and the harder type checking is helpful most of the time. I wish C# had real decorators, had a unlimited lossless big number class with its existing number classes in a logical hierarchy under it, had a standard epochs-based date time class, had a standard way to flag any variable as un-nullable, had a standard way of defining order-aware structures for import/export, had a standard way of creating event logged data, and had events that weren't a bit wonky and mysterious. It'd be nice if there was a way to create a subprocess that acted as its own program with its own memory, disk permissions, etc but I can't say I've seen any other language get that right either. At least VB essentially maps all the same underpinnings as C#.. just not as well and using weird terminology and syntax. Python has its own unique syntax but it's clean and uses pretty standard terminology.

I used to always custom build all my own boxes and carefully tune my Linux installs. For certain things I still do but it's rare now. I use MacOS for my desktop because I used Linux as my primary desktop for over a decade and it always sucked. If anything, I'd say it got worse with time. To much work on the look and not enough work on solid underpinnings. And MacOS has solid developer tools and a Unix command-line. For servers I mostly use cloud services such as Amazon. I went through the stages of having my own server clusters, then virtualized server clusters, and pretty much eventually ended up with a custom solution very close to what Amazon now offers but with less hardware available and at much greater cost. Usually I'm still running Linux instances but I prefer when I don't have to know what the OS is at all. For most my personal computing I actually use my iPad. I even prefer coding from it. Unfortunately I've mostly moved to C# for development and I've yet to find a decent programming environment on the iPad for it. May end up writing my own.

So long as programmers feel the need to write C to show off what studly coders they are we'll be stuck with C. We'd all be better off if we could spend less time fixing C-related bugs and concentrate on making sure safer languages were just as fast and functional. I'd suggest C# as a better alternative but recently I've been discovering how stupid its handling of byte order is. It's not a bad language except the amount of idiot Microsoftisms it has. C++ is just as bad as C. Objective-C is a mix of genius and insanity. Java is its own set of kludges. Python is nice but slow. Go isn't enough of an improvement.... Not sure we're ready to replace C yet but we should get ready.

I'd rather live as a gypsy with some sort of fold-out home in a box but mostly don't because other people find that weird and thus it doesn't fit well into our social structure. Try filling out a job application and when they ask your address put "parking lot".. yeah makes it difficult. I think that's why most our nomads are either social dropouts (we even call them homeless) or old enough and wealthy enough to not need employment anymore. So it's not really because I can afford not to live in a tent so much as socialization.. and probably the same is true with eating insects. If it suddenly became cool to eat raw insects people would do it and spend more for it even if it's pretty gross.. like sushi.