Re: Have a gorilla...

Moriarty ... I believe we found a Charlie ...

Re: Another Way to Push Out Possible Customers

If only competent people were allowed to drive, no one would buy a Kia or Prius. So I'm for it!

Re: More iPads equals

It's part of the "halo effect" that the iPod had. People get an iPod, like the design and how it works. Then they think "You know, Apple did a good job on this, I wonder what their computers are like."

The Linux and Windows core fans dismissed this at the time, but Apple sales data and survey data sure back up the idea.

Also, the -2% vs -11% is not to be sneezed at.

Re: Gosh

Certainly not me.

Sincerely,

Richard Burton

A star in our own galaxy in the foreground.

Re: @Kevin 6..

"What D.C. (finally) does get is that the competition is unfair "

Competition is unfair. Water is wet. Anything else to add?

And remember, Congress never LOWERS taxes due to unfairness. Per usual, this is about the government finding a way to take more of our money.

Re: AAPL maintains 50B p.a. cash surplus rate

"Who is it who keeps DOING that? Must be the umpteeninth time AAPL've been having their going-out-of-business sale."

The MacObserver has kept a count of these things for years in their Apple Death Knell Counter. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/death_knell/ Amazing what people have predicted, even the editor-in-chief once.

Re: unfair burdens?

I am by no means wealthy, but between income tax, property tax, sales tax, airport tax, license plates and drivers' licenses (which I consider fair use taxes, but still), and extra taxes on gas, restaurants, tickets, .... we probably spend over half of our income on taxes. And I do not think the US taxpayers are getting value for money.

Enough is enough. Our government has been getting more and more expensive, evasive, and big brotherish since 1912, with a brief respite during the 20s. And I for one would be happy to spend a winter or three at Valley Forge in an attempt to get rid of the political fatcats and their bureaucratic drones.

The scary thing is we live in a relatively low-tax area; for having an NBA and NFL team, good museaums, good restaurants, etc, Indianapolis is quite affordable and taxed pretty lightly. I know the offers I've had in places like Boston, New York, and San Francisco; I have no idea how middle class people live there.

Re: Why ever not?

Never ascribe to malice or greed that which can be put down to laziness and incompetence.

Says the guy who once contracted at a big telco.

Based on my 40+ years of living under US politics, cluelessness and electability are not mutually exclusive. Someone like mencken might argue that there is a correlation, actually ...

Shall we add you to the Apple Death Knell Counter? http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/death_knell/

Re: Smut in online bookstores?

Knowing China, the offending book was probably Rose and Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" of Hayek's "Road to Serfdom".

Cook's background is in manufacturing/production, IIRC, and I know certain components are now made in the US. I recall reading about the glass being made in Austin, TX, at least as of a year ago.

Re: Betteridge's Law says 'No'

"Mornington Crescent"

Wait, I though you were in nip ...

Re: to answer the headline question

"Raising awareness "

Ah yes, "Raising awareness ", the phrase used by people who want to LOOK like they're doing something important when they're not actually doing anything.

(Yes, I am that cynical, but how can anyone be over 25 and NOT be cynical?)

Re: Ten Windows Tablets - the Eadon Review

"Rik, I don't want to say that you're predictable, but there are as-yet-undiscovered tribes in the Peruvian jungle who knew you were going to say that."

OTOH, I can't see any of these as compelling. Mostly, they don't know whether they're tabs or laptops and therefore probably not great as either.

Re: Uh... No.

You 8are* familiar with the term "standing on the shoulders of giants", right? Afterall, Einstein's work was just an advancement of men like Mach, Michealson, Morley, Maxwell, and others whose last names did not begin with M.

"Isn't Harrogate the highest town above sea level or something like that?"

No, I think it's some place in Bolivia or Tibet.

Re: Well good

All that being said, Obama's proposal for domestic drone use is a very serious and worrying thing. The US government does not have a great track record with respect to privacy, and add in that our current prez is an Ivy Leaguer, former wall streeter, Chicago machine politician, and lawyer, and you can see why I have my doubts.

Re: I hope he will get another job soon

I know there is an opening for a dunk tank target in Schenectedy.

Re: Very much a "no shit, Sherlock" moment

"for a supposedly business friendly country the US is very good at cartels that work against end users and new business entrants "

Because our lobbyists and politicians are very good at "plausible dediability" when cash flows and are very good at sneaking in items in important bills that no politician would dare vote against. There was a joke/rumor going around that the reason the relief for Hurricane Katrina took so long to be released was that they needed to figure out the path a new interstate in West Virginia first.

Re: Sales figures don't tell the whole story...

Mostly because the manufacturers realized they couldn't make any money on them.

Re: My Prediction

"I saw that documentary and it was hair-raising. Systematic, brutish abuse of staff. Every conceivable loophole in the law being used to cheat and rob people who were in no position to argue."

Wait, is that Amazon or the US Congress?

Re: First two were apple

"Apple stuff is just horrible,"

I realize this is probably flame-bait, but I can tell you from personal experience that Apple hardware, while not perfect, is pretty darn good. I'm trying to think of the man-years my Macs have run in useful service, and it has to be more than sixty. I recently sent my Performa 631-CD, from 1995, to a recycler, but it still ran fine with no hitch. The only problem I've had is that one fan bearing went bad after about 7 years of heavy use, a couple mice got worn out after that amount of time, and an original (mac-only, Firewire-only) iPod's battery has gone phut after ten years.

You can call them overpriced, but I've found them damn reliable and trouble-free, and surely that is worth something (unless your time is worthless).

I wish my Wintel junk I've been given for work were that horrible ...

Re: Good try...

Love the iMac G4. We have two that are still ticking along quite happily, and still allow us to play Baldur's Gate (I and II) and the first Neverwinter Nights. When I got mine, I showed it to my then-boss, and he was stunned that the whole computer was in the gumdrop base.

Some people deride its looks, but it actually has a personality, with the swivel arm and adjustable screen. Plus it's quiet, since the fan rarely runs thanks to the the design to allow natural convection. Reliable as hell, too.

Re: Dude just use Mint

I'm a software developer and I'm using Mint and Windows 7 at work and own OS X machines at home. Mint is nice, but I just went through an upgrade where the NVidia drivers were absolutely horked and it took 10-12 hours of my time and about 5 of the sysadmin's to get it straightened out. Good luck getting my kids or in-laws to figure something like that out.

Re: Excuse me?

No, Mr McMahon, you have to pay taxes to support a pathetic, useless, wasteful, unfireable bureaucracy filled with people who are worth less than the price of their constituent atoms ...

... said the guy who owes the federal government enough to pay for a two week European vacation come April 15.

Sir Humphrey put it best: the government figures out how much they can get then decides how to spend it. And to be honest, I think it's even worse than that.

Re: Windows XP was considered a failure when it was first introduced

As I recall, XP was a stopgap. Win2K came out and was, for its time, a decent desktop OS. In 2000, MS looked like they'd won and the war was over. However, Apple started to ship OS X, and by the end of 2001, 2K was already looking like it needed updating. Add to that that MS was deep into Longhorn, which would become such a running joke that it quit being funny, and MS had to release SOMETHING if only for marketing purposes. They put out XP, which I remember being called "cheesy", "bloated", and the interface possibly being made by Fisher-Price. Plus, the system requirements for the time were pretty darn serious, so that put a lot of people off as well.

Over time XP became more accepted, because the stopgap (XP) turned out to be better than what replaced it (Windows 7). This is not unique to Microsoft, but it was a pretty glaring example.

It's odd, looking back, just how quickly MS went from dominating the desktop to scrambling to keep up with Apple in the early '00s. (I can't bring myself to call them the aughts.)

Re: Ever wondered if...

Not in an observed supernova, because the chemicals are already here. However, everything in your body outside of hydrogen, (any trace of) helium, and lithium are cooked in stars, and IIRC anything from neon up comes from a star that went supernova (certainly iron and beyond).

Re: Google vs Microsoft

"It's literally impossible for any PUBLICLY TRADED company to be nice, "

Fixed it for you. The privately owned ones can be turds as well, but at least there is a CHANCE ...