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Comment: Re:@CauseBy - Re:Yes (Score 1) 252

by Tom (#47441227) Attached to: Slashdot Asks: Do You Want a Smart Watch?

* Displace smart phones/dedicated GPSes used for turn-by-turn directions (visual and audio) while driving. It's going to be great for motorcycle users. I'm not sure yet whether it will be legal for this use.
* It will make the policeman's job more difficult by allowing drivers to check their emails/texts while driving without it being obvious to an observer.

Having the stuff on your wrist in a way that may often require you to turn your hand is quite probably no less dangerous than having a phone in your hand.

* Provide quick updates to stock/commodity traders who are on the go or not near a desktop/laptop.

They're already being replaced by fully-automated trading systems, in a few years we'll wonder why humans ever even did the job in the first place.

* Allow joggers to skip songs without carrying their smartphones in their hands.

Earphone pieces already allow for this. Those from Apple, for example, let you stop, start, skip forward and backward. And it only requires one arm to do it, not both, which is more important in running than having a cute gadget.

Comment: smart vs. what marketing says (Score 1) 252

by Tom (#47441163) Attached to: Slashdot Asks: Do You Want a Smart Watch?

If it is actually "smart" in any appreciable sense, I'm interested.

Right now, I see nothing on the market that even approaches anything that would justify using that term. The best that these watches have to offer at this moment is that they're about 3 seconds faster to look at than the smartphone in your pocket. Maybe if you're a lady and keep your smartphone dug in deep in your bag of holding and it takes you a minute of searching to find it that's interesting, but for most people I don't see any actual practical value (not that that would stop a million or so customers from buying it simply because it's new and flashy and advertisement budgets have convinced them it's the second coming).

I can't say what a watch would need to be interesting. If I could, I wouldn't post it here, I would sell it very expensively to Apple. So I'm looking for what everyone announces, maybe someone is smarter than me and I'll say "I didn't think of that, it's really cool". But so far, that hasn't happened.

Comment: and... (Score 4, Insightful) 151

by Tom (#47435245) Attached to: "Internet's Own Boy" Briefly Knocked Off YouTube With Bogus DMCA Claim


As not only activists but almost everyone aware of the rampant abuse going on has been claiming for years, it is high time that the "under penalty of perjury" part of the DMCA claims is actually enforced. Mistakes can happen, nobody is perfect, but some companies have been taking down large amounts of content for years, repeatedly and with not even a slap on the wrist.

Comment: 15 year old marketing genius? (Score 4, Insightful) 203

Though that marketing video, while "snazzy", is pretty pedestrian, as marketing videos go.

There are some bona fide "kid geniuses" out there who have done amazing things (though many with lots of help from family/friends/other adult geniuses). That said, there are 100 times more who talk a good line, but have nothing to show for it.

I'll wait until I see the goods before I pronounce anyone "kid genius".

Comment: Re:Two things (Score 1) 85

by Tom (#47344287) Attached to: The Game Theory of Life





Comment: Re: Ridiculously stupid (Score 2) 501

Speaking as a physicist myself, I'm not sure he knows what he's doing. Physicists tend to oversimplify things.

Picture a massless, spherical cow.

Now picture that massless, spherical cow bouncing like a pinball around a giant tornado hemmed in by a thousand-foot wall...

Comment: Re:You've forgotten 1 thing Tom (Score 1) 103

by Tom (#47281541) Attached to: German Intel Agency Helped NSA Tap Fiber Optic Cables In Germany

The real world is not that simple.

There are some psychopaths, especially in politics, who are not driven by money but by power and control. They've intentionally moved into politics because of that. Merkel is actually a good example of that, she spends considerable amounts of her efforts on getting rid of every potential rival around her, and she's quite good at it. She's the most popular politician in Germany largely because she's made sure all the others woke up to a knife in the back one day.

These kinds of people are not looking for big money, and are not easily bought, because they're looking for a different drug.

Comment: Re:no surprise (Score 1) 103

by Tom (#47281471) Attached to: German Intel Agency Helped NSA Tap Fiber Optic Cables In Germany

No, I mean 2 decades. Adenauer was before my time, what I know about him is from history books and I don't trust them on the details.

But we also had Brand and Schmidt, for example. We had Kohl who, even though I massively disliked him, cannot be said to have been anyones pet. And SchrÃder was... not exactly great, but he did have the guts to stand up to Bush and tell him that his war in Iraq is stupid and we will have no part in it.

Anything free is worth what you pay for it.