Re: What about a nebula drifting through ?
Surely a nebula would emit other energies that we could detect.
210 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Nov 2007
I got mine at release and have been using it heavily for the last week.
Battery life is good - 8-10 hours depending on how often I play Hearthstone.
With the keyboard down, ease of use is excellent. I don't really understand why people can't seem to use the SP3 on their laps. The S3 is comfortable in every situation: on a table, on my lap in front of the telly, in bed resting against my knees, whatever. The three-position stand covers every eventuality. Very impressed, and I was concerned about this based on some previews I'd read.
As a tab it's heavier than the iPad, but I don't really trust myself to compare ease of use because I really don't like iOS at all. However, based on my experience, it works okay in tablet mode, and everything about the touch surface is excellent. The OSK is good, and Win8.1 in touch mode is excellent (lack of apps notwithstanding etc. etc.). For me, though, when it comes to tablets, anything bigger than, say, the Nexus 7 is not worth buying for the tablet experience alone. The beauty of S3 is that you get a good tablet and an excellent laptop.
And as a laptop it is excellent. Again, I was worried about the type cover but the keyboard, while small (which takes some getting used to), feels good under-finger and with the back-light looks terrific. The trackpad, which again has received some criticism, is small but otherwise fine. I've done a lot of writing on this thing over the past few days and it's a pleasure to use.
As a device, it looks fab. It's positioned between tab and laptop and the size reflects that. Build quality is exceptional. It's also an attention grabber, if you like that kind of thing.
One thing you can't get away from is the price. You get more than an iPad, but you pay way more than an iPad. I bought a bundle from PCWorld and got S3+type cover for £525. That's a freaking lot of money, and nothing I would ever have paid usually except that the device is powerful, unusual, and I'm bought-in on the MS ecosystem so it slots into everything I do for home and work with only five minutes' setup. So, a luxury purchase, sure, but not one I regret.
@Flocke Kroes "So you decide you want to use Midori web browser on you new computer. That is fine, but you have to buy IE because it comes bundled with all new computers. You decide you want to use Vi/Emacs. That is fine, but you have to buy notepad because it is bundled with all new computers. The same used to be true with media players, until an EU court ruled otherwise (Microsoft was required to release an EU version of Windows without a bundled media player. Anyone know if the EU version was cheaper, or if Europeans were still paying for the Microsoft media player that wasn't installed?)."
Look, a lot of solid arguments can be made for MS's market abuse ten years ago, but these comments are beyond the pale. A desktop OS that doesn't come with a text editor would be laughable, as would one that doesn't come with a media player (and yes, as an EU citizen, I declare the EU Media Player decision was inane), as would one that doesn't come with a web browser.
Trying to attach some monetary cost to Notepad (of all things) that you would rather not "pay" is a poor effort in the ongoing quest to demonize Windows. You might as well complain that you're "paying" for Control Panel when you'd much rather have something else.
The C64 version was pretty good. Rock hard though.
What I remember most from this "franchise" is the C64 version of "Ghouls and Ghosts", which while a great game in its own right, I would play endlessly just so I could hear the amazing Tim Follin soundtrack. It was the thought of hearing a new theme that pushed me to the next level.
These days, of course, I can enjoy that music at my leisure, and do!
@ Neil Barnes "and so everything has to look different and work differently and a lifetime's learned reactions go out of the window"
And yet you're preaching a UNIX-like separation of OS and GUI? It hasn't worked to push Linux into the mainstream, why would it work here?
@Chris Wareham -- "Banning handheld phone use by drivers had NO effect on handheld phone use by drivers"
This this this SO MUCH THIS. The problem is enforceability. There is a massively decreased police presence on the roads, and an actual traffic stop is the only way to catch someone doing this.
@AC - If you don't think the Transformers movies are market-driven, you need to look into how much money they make. That franchise is the most commercially-green-lit, by-the-numbers cash-cow you could possibly imagine. No-one forces people to go watch them, but they do.
The constant upward trend in cinema ticket prices is not sustainable. Like @Sampler I go once or twice a month for movies I think will benefit from the big screen and/or 3D. I enjoy the experience (else I wouldn't go), but the price is rapidly approaching the point where, for me, it's just not worth it. This is especially true given the (what seems like) almost immediate release of the thing on home media or streaming services. Three-star middle-of-the-road efforts like "Monuments Men" or "Cuban Fury", where I might have gone to see them at the cinema ten or fifteen years ago, are just not worth it any more.
Very little of this is the fault of the cinema itself, by the way. Over-priced concessions are just about the only way they make any money at all for movies which drop off the charts after two weeks. Make sure you focus your wrath at the right people.
I actually agree with them that vehicles and drivers designed to convey the public for money should be licensed and regulated.
I certainly wouldn't get in some geezer's Passat just because he rocked up to the door and offered me a lift, but that's essentially what users of Uber are doing.
However, knowing a couple of cabbies as I do, I can confidently say that if they don't get with the program, they are going to be utterly crushed by this kind of technology.
@Peter "Of course, you also need the albums for a slightly different version."
This is the definitive version in my opinion. The dialogue is is whizz-bang sharp, every joke top notch, and the music absolutely brilliant. I couldn't give a toss about the rest of my vinyl but I bought a USB record player to make sure I could listen to this whenever the fancy took me!
For those bemoaning the unlikely result of detecting radio waves in a form we can understand, bear in mind that our methodologies will change as technology and computing power increases. We can now look very specifically at planets we know are there and that we know are in the habitable zone; and we can now start to look for characteristics that demonstrate intelligent life is likely to exist on them. We may one day be able to look for signs of artificial satellites, for example.
@AC you are not alone in enjoying JJA's stuff. Not all of it hits the mark but when you're prolific and flavour of the month, you get to try a lot of stuff, not all of it worth anyone's time.
Alias, Lost (early seasons), MI:3, Super-8, and at least the first new Star Trek...all brilliant. Claiming that the man has no talent, as some in this forum have done, is idiocy in the extreme.
Not conflicted so much as short-sighted. As digital consumers we've embraced free content like it's our right, and spew indignation over the forums whenever someone who has put their heart and soul into a web project has the temerity to ask us to consider turning AdBlock off. It pisses me off.