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Yes - you can expect that the cost of a PC will rise, since demand for these "boxes" will not be there from the average consumer. As already noted, consumers want smaller devices - they want (and already are!) to use their phones and tablets for their stuff. For certain tasks, they may still need a keyboard, but there are plenty of bluetooth keyboards that can take care of that.
For those of us on the content creation side of things, though - a phone or a tablet just will not do (for anything other than debugging our content, of course). We need real PCs, with real keyboards (and you'll have to pry my Model M from my cold dead hands). We want real hardware, that is upgradeable.
You can still expect there to be a large PC gamer market, though, that will keep prices down for a while, but as other options open up to that market, and their demand for PCs drops as well, expect the prices of a PC (and their components) to rise - perhaps steeply.
In fact - you might even see a "renaming" of what a PC is - something to give it the cachet of it being for the "content creators" and not for the "content consumers". Of course, this rebranding (similar to the concept of a "personal computer" vs a "workstation computer") will also entail higher prices for those purchasing such machines.
What I fear, though, is not so much the PC going away - but our control of it going away. I want to use my PC however I want. I want to be able to mod it, to put whatever software and operating system I choose on it (subject to the regular restraints of said software and OS being able to use the architecture, of course), to add my own custom hardware (that I soldered together) whenever I want.
I don't want to be in a walled garden that I have to r00t and jailbreak just to gain some measure of control back. If I buy it, I should own it. If I own it, I should be able to do whatever I want with it - whether it's legal or illegal (and if illegal and I am caught - then I should be adult enough to know this, and willing to face those consequences). I don't need to have my hand held, or to be told what is right and ok, vs what is wrong and verboten. I am an adult - I can make those decisions for myself.
Unfortunately - this isn't the direction the phone and tablet market (ie - Android and iOS) have taken - and regular consumers have lapped it up like a dog; they don't care - in fact, some if not most have no clue, of if they do, they love it! They think they are protected, and safe from problems and viruses. When the fact is, they are more vulnerable than ever. Not just from bad actors - but also from the corporations behind their devices. Don't pay your bill? Guess what - your data is gone! Send an email to the wrong "group"? We'll just censor that!
Ok - not today, maybe - but perhaps tomorrow? Well - not here in the West - but in other parts of the world, certain accessing can get you in big trouble today! And yes, it could happen here in the West, too. Only a fool would think differently, given the revelations of Snowden and others.
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C-P-User-3 wrote: Who will use Desktop PCs in the coming year ? What about 5 years from now ?
Who will make the purchases ?
Me
Me (if I live that long)
Me
Think that about wraps that up for you.
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I don't know bout you guys, but I'd like to see
my lap/desktop cpu and programs just live in my phone. a lot already do.
but to toss the lap/desktop, I'm gonna need this phone to wifi/bluetooth to a dock that hooks to my 2 monitors and 12 usb devices.
When this dang iot finally comes up with the one true protocol, they can talk to that dock, too. Well, the dock will BE that one true protocol.
I also see windows phone dieing a horrible death. (ok ok, it already did.)
I also see those stupid lightweight universal windows apps dieing a horrible death.
I also DON'T want to see microsoft as a whole die a horrible death, but that seems to be the direction they're marching in. Guys! Google is eating you for breakfast! Remember when you ate IBM for breakfast? It's like that. Guys?
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I can only speak for myself as a software developer - and I agree with Griff all the way - I'm most productive with acres of screen, full size keyboard and a comfortable mouse. I still love my 2010 desktop running Win7 on an early Core i7 cpu. However, my new desktop is Win10 with the OS on an SSD, a huge disk, and one of those new 34" curved displays. Oh man, this system is sweet.
I have a nice i5 laptop for business trips and presentations but, powerful as it is, it's no replacement for the big, cool and quiet box under my desk. This might be the last big box that I ever purchase, but for now I'm loving it.
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The "CPU" might shrink to the size of a walnut but the I/O devices (mouse, keyboard, monitor etc.) are not likely to miniaturize unless your hands follow suit. I can see monitors getting even thinner (maybe Xenon-gas suspended images or something) but the dimensions of the screen surface are going to have to remain large enough for human eyes to see (unless you feel like implanting the devices in your head or something). Same with mouse & keyboard ... there's a limit to how small a device can be before you can't manipulate it with your hand any more. If computers get so "Hal" like that you just talk to 'em ... well, I think I'll just go do something else!
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I think we may see some stabilization take place. The new equipment that's for sale doesn't (in my opinion) offer a whole lot of functionality that isn't present in hardware that's a few years old. Just my 2-cents.
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This reminds me of the question "will internet connections all be wireless one day?". The answer imho is no because wired/optical connections should always outpace wireless in bandwidth. So to the question will desktops be replaced by phones/tablets/cloud the answer for me is definitively no!
I need several massive video cards in SLI to render Fallout 4 nicely and lots of video RAM to model in Maya. I need several monitors to develop in Unity3D's many IDE panels. I need massive hard drive space to store my Photoshop files. I cannot debug in Visual Studio with even a little cloud lag.
That said I do find myself being able to do more and more tasks on my Sager laptop with the caveat that the quadcore, 32GB RAM and replaceable NVidia GPU sizes it to a brick but still I can use it on the couch.
One final note who puts their lovingly crafted desktop on the floor?
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I think people still want big monitors / TVs, game controllers and keyboards. And the video hardware to run them at 90+ FPS. But I think these will move to wireless and the Desktop PC will become more and more a Home Server in a back room or closet.
Some people will be content to use remote "cloud" systems but I think there are a ton of people who don't want to give up control of their media collections, especially the ripped and torrent stuff.
I am always being surprised by people who aren't in IT but are running Kodi on Linux with 12 TB of RAID drives.
Media users will want heavy CPU for transcoding, gamers for games, developers for virtual machines and containers.
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I've attempted to track down an author of a rather nice little project I found on here, but since trying to contact him in November of 2014, there's been no replies from him or anyone else in the community.
It's no big deal - I wrote a minor modification to the code and wanted to share it with anyone who wanted it, but following the guidelines, I need the author's permission.
So I've not published it. Seems like a shame, but I respect the rules.
The madman is not the man who has lost his reason; the madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
--G.K. Chesterton
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So post your own version.
Open the article in question, on the very left side below the link to comments you have a link to "Add your own alternative version".
Since it's directly referring to the original article there should be no issues on plagiarism, especially if you only post your changes/improvements.
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Publish it with reference to the original, we hate plagiarism but improving or even offering an alternative is standard practice. Just make sure you give original credit where it is due.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Ok,
I went back and re-read the posting guidelines. I will do as you guys suggest. It's kind of a neat project - [^]
Chootair's original Altimeter only went to 9,999 feet. I put together an instrumentation package for a high-altitude balloon project and used his Altimeter for the ground-chase vehicles which would receive real time telemetry from the balloon and provide a visual indication of the system's AGL and ground track using a map API. All I did was update it so it would handle one foot less than 100K feet. With so many balloon projects, I figure someone else might like that.
No big deal, but didn't want to upset him or anyone else by reposting w/o permission.
The madman is not the man who has lost his reason; the madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
--G.K. Chesterton
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public int? Group { get; set; }
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: public int? Group { get; set; }
Shouldn't that be written:
public int? Author {byte; this;}
Merry Christmas, Marc! 
Will Rogers never met me.
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You just gave me an idea for a story, Marc.
Merry merry thanks !
Bill
«Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.» Benjamin Franklin
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Interesting. I wonder if more sites are going this route. 
modified 23-Dec-15 13:28pm.
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There is a website for UK soccer teams called something like footymad. Each time has their own pages and forums, some used more than others.
Earlier this year they blocked access to the forums if you had adblocker turned on.
They received loads of complaints and a massive drop in use and had to back away from that policy.
Websites cost money to run, plenty of them are commercial, users are going to have to pay or receive adverts, if enough refuse to do either then sites will close down.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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You can: disable the adblocker, enter, turn it on again.
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If users of the Internet remain predominantly degenerate freeloaders, I don't see that they'll have much choice. Either that or paywalls. Or they'll just not bother any more at all and we'll see sites simply ceasing to exist. I'm sure adblockers are all very clever but all the [insert favourite non-CP approved epithet here] currently rubbing their hands with glee at sticking it to the man might just want to consider whether there will be anything left of their favoured sites come the next decade.
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Yes they will.
AdBlocking is the same as having someone covering up billboards as you walk past, or cutting out all the ads from a newspaper just before delivering it to you. I'm actually stunned that those guys haven't been subject to a class action for obstruction of business.
I hate crap ads - and that's what started the hole adblocker thing - but advertising has been with us forever and is an integral part of our society and economy.
They should focus on improving the quality of advertising rather than creating an escalating war that simply wastes precious cycles from everyone.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I do set exceptions for my ad blocker for sites that work better with it off or sites that I frequent often, such as here. However, I personally never click on ads, so I don't see the need for them, for me personally.
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Also, If you started a subscription model for this site, I would pay. Just saying.
I have no problem giving companies or sites that I use/frequent often, a subscription or member fee, especially if the service/product/content is worth the money.
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AdBlocking is not the same as covering up billboards. The ads actively get in the way of the web site - the entire site stalls until some database somewhere looks up my IP, reads my cookies and finally decides I want to know about saving elephants. The equivalent would be the billboard blocking the damn road.
No, the problem with ads is that they have gone from a) hmm, out on the side bar to b) stalling the web site to c) popping up covering content and hiding where the damn x button is.
If you want to advertise, fine. Just don't be an arse about it.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Hear, hear! Charlie.
I'd add some additional coloration to the problem. Billboards certainly don't block the road. Yet, in many cases, adverts on sites do this routinely.
Also, a billboard doesn't ambush you five miles down the road, having secretly used an exploit to leave behind a fleet of spies and malware that car-jacks you, then forces your vehicle off the main highway and down some hillbilly dead-end road leading to a small town with in-breds running the police, jail and banks.
If the sites stopped selecting adverts that attempt to use these software and OS exploits and behaved with any modicum of decency and honesty, then people might just not need the #%$!#@ ad-blockers.
Until then, any site that demands I turn off ad-blocking software will never see me again.
The madman is not the man who has lost his reason; the madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
--G.K. Chesterton
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