Ballmer: Computer Scientists Needed to Use Android

[amk-aka-Phantom]

One more thing, more on-topic:

"But when you grab a Windows phone and use it… your information is front and center… and you don’t have to scroll through seas of icons and blah blah blah."

This is exactly what I want to avoid. I don't want to turn on my PC/tablet/phone and have all kinds of info shoved at me. I want a clean desktop - no "status updates", no "news feed", nothing. It's a waste of space. When I will decide it is time to check the news or weather, I will navigate to the corresponding menu item and use it.

Of course, there're people who woild prefer the opposite approach and that's fine. But what pisses me off is that they'll stuff the same thing into Windows 8 and give us no choice, most likely. Microsoft is trying to change the way we work with our PCs ever since Vista, where they boasted that "mouse and keyboard will no longer be an essential part". They have failed. That's why there's Windows 7 - less boasting, more efficiency.

Many people noticed a trend: every other MS OS is a fail. That is true; why? Because every time something successful - 98, XP, 7 - comes out, Microsoft refuses to see the reason of the product's success and instead tries to force unneeded changes on us. When these changes fail, they leave only the useful ones and fix the rest of the OS (Vista to 7, anyone?) So it looks like Microsoft is high on their success with Win7 again, their vision is clouded and they're gonna load Win8 with tons of BS "apps" and "tiles". That's fine. Once everybody will flame Win8 like they did with Vista, I'll be in line waiting for Windows 9 or whatever they'll call it. It will have Win7 interface, Xbox support, native CD mounting tool and all the good stuff - minus Metro

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]i have built computers before, and honestly suggest it for everyone, aside from the cpu and the cpu heat sync, its hard to screw up, fun, and cheaper than having someone else do it. but lets get more to the point the person you are responding to has to make. lets go pre dual core cpus.computers really did go obsolete FAST back than, mainly because of a fast paced and evolving tech, i had a pentium 2 333mhz, than went to a p4 prescot 530 (3ghz ht) and in all honesty, after about a year with the pentium 2 and 2 years with the p4 i felt the term obsolete kicking in, as i couldn't do things that i wanted to do. currently i'm on a phenom II 955 black. if you are on a dual core, there are certain aspects you will feel lacking in, but a good gpu can make up for it, such as video playback, with a 3 core, again the major thing would be 1080p video play back problems, but at a quad core level, i'm not sure you even need a video card to play that. until the standard goes up again, and i doubt it will any time soon, a quad core can do damn near everything, and will most likely be the cornerstone for this and my little brothers build for 4 more years. basically computers of today aren't like computers of 5 - 8 years ago, where they did become useless, today, they are more than fast enough its one of the reasons that i haven't thrown bulldozer under the bus and completely dismissed the future possibilities with phones however, he has more of a point, because they are rapidly growing tech, and for a while, there were options that seamed like sure bets that failed to pay off, like the hp os, and the nokia os, and they are basically dead, and this is what within a 2 year time frame for a piece of equipment that cost 600+$. the only good thing i can say in the cellphone area is there are 2 viable oses, and one that wont die even if it sells poorly (android, ios and windows respectively) if you get an ios device, prepare for it to be old tech in 2 gens, and have to deal with the asinine way you update os on it. and android is a crapshoot if the phone will be good or not. we arent to the point yet where the cpu in the phone makes up for everything yet, its why ios in a closed environment preforms better than a more powerful android much of the time. in all honesty, with smartphone i don't need one, but want one for certain aspects, and will not get one till the tech in them evens out quite a bit more, as in wont be obsolete in 2-3 years, in this way, cellphones are in the same realm os pcs 10 years ago, tech wise on their longevity.[/citation]

You have good points here. I disagree about dual cores; I skipped them completely - jumped from a Celeron M to i7-2600 I can watch HD on both; nicely tweaked codecs perform wonders. 720p works fine on the Celeron, 1080 not so much (especially if you seek), but it's playable, and I'm sure a C2D without a dedicated GPU could play 1080p fine. Most of the time, people greatly overestimate the resources HD videos take to play.

It's quite amazing how the computers don't age easily, huh? I had to repair my friend's Sony laptop recently and it has a first-gen Core i3M CPU... the thing is snappy as anything and opens Firefox faster then my desktop (what the hell? I was surprised... dual core with HT versus higher clocked desktop quad-core with HT?! Must investigate!) and will probably be good for another few years, especially if Win8 will be as optimized as they claim. Then you can throw an SSD in and it will again be damn fast. Laptops nowadays don't age easily, people usually change them when the chassis falls apart or they just "feel like". Same with desktops, and THAT is the cause of smaller PC sales nowadays; not the tablets overtaking.

I agree with your point about phones completely. That's why I don't have a smartphone OR a tablet. I have the money to get them, but I feel that their current functionality, battery life (or more like the lack of it 😀) and the fact that they get obsolete with the next generation released in a few months (not so much true for top devices like Transformer or SGS II, but still somewhat valid) show that my money is better invested elsewhere. My PC, for example

Yet I will stay in touch with tablet and smartphone news. Why? Because it takes barely any effort (especially with Tom's throwing all the tablet/phone articles at us, lol), I can always help out my friends and family if somebody wants to buy a good phone and I won't miss any useful innovations that could help me.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

alidan, I just realised my screens do NOt show my XP-like taskbar. Fixed:

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

You're making excuses for lazy, unmotivated people whom are willfully ignorant.


Seriously, I come home and read 20 mins a night, and wham-bam, I'm caught up on the world of technology. This isn't hard stuff.

Why do you think this is so black and white? It's not like:

A.) Choose between taking care of my family & working


B.) Choose a life of technology and allow my family to rot, while being unemployed.


You do know you don't have to choose right? You can quite easily have both - that is, if you're not a lazy ass who sits on the couch and wastes their life away watching the Kardashians exploit you with their fake lives and drama to make money for themselves.


I mean honestly, how low are we gonna go here? Are we going to start making excuses and sob stories for people who don't know 3rd grade math? "Well you know guys, Billy had more important things to do in life....like pick his nose and watch Power Rangers - he honestly couldn't be f'ed with learning that dumb thing called MATH". Then I'll continue to argue how math isn't exactly as important as mental well being, and friendship - how devoting all your time to nose picking proves to be more useful than knowing 2+2.

Sounds retarded as hell right? Yeah, well that's how you sound when you make excuses for these lazy baby boomers. They were wrong, technology was right. Instead of bettering themselves, they were emo and decided to give up. I see old timers from India who are eager as all hell to learn about computers and technology - are they just overly intelligent? Or, maybe they're just not lazy. That could be it.

I didn't notice you comment until now, but in fact it's pure gold. Thank you. I didn't reflect on that particular topic in my response, but you did - now my POV is expressed completely

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]You have good points here. I disagree about dual cores; I skipped them completely - jumped from a Celeron M to i7-2600 I can watch HD on both; nicely tweaked codecs perform wonders. 720p works fine on the Celeron, 1080 not so much (especially if you seek), but it's playable, and I'm sure a C2D without a dedicated GPU could play 1080p fine. Most of the time, people greatly overestimate the resources HD videos take to play.It's quite amazing how the computers don't age easily, huh? I had to repair my friend's Sony laptop recently and it has a first-gen Core i3M CPU... the thing is snappy as anything and opens Firefox faster then my desktop (what the hell? I was surprised... dual core with HT versus higher clocked desktop quad-core with HT?! Must investigate!) and will probably be good for another few years, especially if Win8 will be as optimized as they claim. Then you can throw an SSD in and it will again be damn fast. Laptops nowadays don't age easily, people usually change them when the chassis falls apart or they just "feel like". Same with desktops, and THAT is the cause of smaller PC sales nowadays; not the tablets overtaking.I agree with your point about phones completely. That's why I don't have a smartphone OR a tablet. I have the money to get them, but I feel that their current functionality, battery life (or more like the lack of it ) and the fact that they get obsolete with the next generation released in a few months (not so much true for top devices like Transformer or SGS II, but still somewhat valid) show that my money is better invested elsewhere. My PC, for example Yet I will stay in touch with tablet and smartphone news. Why? Because it takes barely any effort (especially with Tom's throwing all the tablet/phone articles at us, lol), I can always help out my friends and family if somebody wants to buy a good phone and I won't miss any useful innovations that could help me.[/citation]

the codecs are how i was able to watch some 720p on the p4. have to admit how nice they can be. i went with the 3core laptop we have, and tried a 1gb for 23 minutes of video 1080p and it couldn't play, i don't know its its because its 3 core, or because its lower clock than a desktop would have, but 4 for me and brother is why 1080p can play, but he may have gpu assist, im almost 100% sure i dont.

on the browser side, i'm just guessing that it has something to do with the laptop itself, or your browser on the computer has something extra added. only 2 reasons i keep up with tablet news are 1, in case wacom hits a tablet, that's one thing that would get me to buy one and 2, im looking to make money at every turn, and with used books, vhs, and the like, i could use a mobile internet point so i know what to buy. i could turn a fairly large profit, considering that many vhs tapes can be sold in the 30$ range, and most people will give them away for sub 25 cents. i'm still on the fence though about a phone or tablet, because i have specific needs and don't want a 3000$+ contract bill at the end of a 2 year agreement.