Comments

PAUL!  You sir are AWESOME.  You mentioned Brian Regan and his pizza/pie joke.  We discussed Brian Regan on YouTube in the past.

Anyway..  Happy Birthday bro.  As for how to celebrate, hmm, perhaps a Kinect Sports party, wine coolers, and junk food.  Yeah, I'm lame. 

Microsoft stores, sadly, I have yet to go to one, but based on video and photos they look fantastic, colorful, and more fun than competing stores...  One chain of competing retail stores reminds me a hospital morgues or operating rooms; sterile, white, cold and a whole lot of blah..

Forget traveling the world.  Just travel the country, a few miles and you will see some differences in speech.  Quick story: I'm originally from Queens, NY and when we order pizza, we say "pie".  We call the shoes on our feet "sneakers".  We call soft drinks "soda".  When I moved to Pittsburgh, I was told soda is called "pop", sneakers are called "tennis shoes" and when I tried to order a pie at the pizzeria, I was told "We don't sell pies; we're not that kind of business...".  Geezus, just gimme a large pizza!

IllumiShare has some great potential, but Microsoft needs to move this stuff from research to product sooner, rather than later.  There is so much going on there that they could capitalize on. 

Rock on Paul & Laura!

Here's another sympathy comment... 

I was in college from 1995-1997 and at the time couldn't afford WordPerfect or Word so I relied on Microsoft Works which came with my IBM Aptiva.  Oh and I emailed like mad with my Prodigy account. 

My first program, outside of copying them from 3-2-1 Contact, was an fake artificial intelligence (redundant?) program using SmartBASIC for the Coleco ADAM computer, *ahem* feel free to visit my blog: http://colecoadam.wordpress.com

Anywho, it's was a simple question & answer program that fooled the average person into thinking the computer is asking you it's own questions, gaining personal information and using it as if it learned something about you.  Very common, I believe, for most beginners in BASIC programming. 

What have I done with this skill?  Absolutely nothing; I work as a material handler in a multi-specialty healthcare practice in Hudson Valley, New York =)

Yeah, what the heck, where's the new show?

2 hours ago, IRB wrote

@JustinMSalvato: isn't the keyboard included for $499? I thought the base model was $399 without but im not sure as here in the UK they are MUCH more expensive all round.

 

EDIT: Actually you are right just checked $499 without keyboard :/ but I suppose they are aiming for the iPad especially on the fantastic build quality. the 32Gb WiFi iPad without keyboard is $599.

Still, cheaper would be better as it is £399 without keyboard here in the UK.

Ah, but do you see my point? In the U.S. anyway, at $499, people are going to ask, "who has the better app selection?" And the answer will be the iPad.  Microsoft has to either get some KILLER apps for RT immediately or include the keyboard for that price. 

Again, when you see those street signs of the Surface, they show the keyboard with the tablet. 

Well, I would choose either if they INCLUDED a keyboard.  At $499 for the RT or $899 for the Pro, I can't justify paying those prices without the keyboard.  The commercials make it seem as though the keyboard come with the device. The app selection (HELLO, Mythly) is not there yet and there's room for a lot of improvement in the way a mouse interacts with metro applications. 

Microsoft is still fighting an uphill battle and I don't see them succeeding until they make the consumer realize that their product is THE product to get; people will notice IF the keyboard is included with the $499 or $899 price. Microsoft can afford it: http://mashable.com/2012/11/06/microsoft-surface-profit-ipad/

To Paul, thank you for correcting Laura regarding the difference between RT and Pro.  After all, one is running Windows 8, the other isn't.   Hopefully Laura isn't going around confusing people outside of the Microsoft campus

First off, welcome back Laura & Paul!  Glad your vacation is over

The next Xbox is a MUST!  The current device is not a multi-tasking device, apps are slow to load, and is behind in terms of processing power.  Yes, it is indeed awesome, but the hardware is behind the times. 

As a collector of vintage computers and gaming consoles, I'm looking forward to having my Xbox 360 join my ColecoVision, NES, Sega Master System, etc..

Bring on the next Xbox and hopefully IllumiRoom!

@Paul II: The January 7th deadline has passed.  Are you and Laura playing hookie at CES?!

Laura & Paul,

It's Thursday, December 26th, 7:42 PM eastern time in Greenville, New York... 

Where are you? 

It's been too long since you've done an episode.  I'm having Ping withdrawal and I don't like it.