It's funny, but every time I hear people - men - complain about the feminists, the politically correct thought police, the 'War on Men' and whatnot, I can't help but be struck by how whiny and un-manly they all sound. Of course a conspiracy of feminists is a great excuse if you're a loser who doesn't get any. It's not me, it's the feminists who've caused my sexless life! Kind of like how millions of Americans blame the 'culture Marxists' for everything under the sun, rather than assuming responsibility for their own pathetic existence. Children will be children. I'm beginning to understand why so many attractive, intelligent young women have their work cut out for them trying to find an eligible partner, amid the throngs of moronic rabble.
Oh no...look, voice recognition is great if you're handicapped or something, but for the rest of us it's just a gimmick. And I say this as someone who's experimented with PC voice recognition from the get go - most notably Nuance's Dragon 'Naturally Speaking' software. At the peak of its game, and getting more accurate (and processor hungry) with every installment, but even Nuance's package falters at around 95% accuracy. This is, of course, because even over the course of a single session, your voice timbre changes. More to the point here, is that just because it's possible, doesn't mean people WANT to talk to their hardware. I have yet to see anyone actually using Siri on iOS, where tapping out your intent wouldn't be just as fast, if not faster - not to say less embarrassing in public.
@famos_ga @55584623 I'm playing San Andreas again too, for this reason. It still holds up today. The best part is just driving all the way from one city to another, and listening to the music. Good times are a-cummin.
@twaitsfan The difference, to me, would seem to be that Siri, or Google Voice search et al, require you to issue a formal command to start recording. I know most computers have built-in mics and cameras, but unless you've got some malware-infested version of XP or an older OS running, you can be reasonably sure 'off' really means 'off', and nobody's accessing these remotely. The Xbone, on the other hand, would have to be constantly scanning for human voices, and I fear the temptation to access users' private lives will be too big to resist.
@Daian indeed, what you're getting with your Xbone is an always-on microphone, possibly an always-on camera. Microsoft is one of the many big IT companies to have had no alms at forking over user-data to intelligence agencies. Do they really expect people to be positively excited about the prospect of an always-on spy station? Call me paranoid, but just for being so out of touch with the times, I hope the Xbone bombs.
Already this voice-controlled power switch malarky sounds old. As in getting old fast. At the very least you should be able to customize voice commands, so instead of the naff 'Xbox on', you can say something like, 'fire up, beeaatch', or whatever tickles your fancy. But then I guess the whole point of this rather unnecessary feature is to get people to say the Word, pledge allegiance to the Church of Microsoft. Thanks, but no thanks.
@VenkmanPHD the Cluckin' Bell employee avatar seems ruefully apt for someone whose reading comprehension is so far off as yours: the controls are precisely where they bungled this one, sez the reviewer. Shit, I was really hoping this would be good, something along the lines of Bionic Commando rearmed. I might have to give this one a pass.
Oh really, the extra proceeds would go to psychiatric 'victims' of exposure to violent video games? And how many of those are there in the state of Missouri? Or anywhere, for that matter? Hasn't there been all kinds of research done already - which has turned out zilch in the way of positive evidence for video games in particular warping fragile gamers' minds? America definitely has a problem with raving lunatics owning assault rifles - so take them on, don't go the old blame games, music, movies route.
Of course, we now know taxes aren't implemented for the sake of keeping America's poor and needy alive - the traditional conservative argument. America spends zilch on social security and nearly half its gross annual product on military/corporate subsidies - go figure.
So what you're looking at here is an extra tax on virtual violence, that will allow the federal government to cut back on public expenditure in (psychiatric) health care. Which revenue it can then transfer to the corporate-military complex for ACTUAL for-profit killing in far off nations most Americans can't even point on the map.
Yet more evidence that the society we are born in has zilch to do with 'freedom' and is an absurd totalitarian nightmare on par with the former Soviet Union. And everything I see and hear to me suggests we are in the final days now....
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