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In fact, when searching for articles on iOS malware this is what one finds:

http://www.mactrast.com/2012/11/report-android-gingerbread-most-malware-prone-mobile-os/

"much still remains to be done before Android users can sleep as soundly as iOS users do."

and:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/07/05/researchers-say-iphone-users-hit-with-app-stores-first-ever-spam-sending-app/

The first EVER spam app hit the iPhone just this year - and was very promptly removed from the App Store.

"Just as antivirus researchers congratulated Apple for keeping the iPhone free of nasty apps five full years after its release, spammers seem to have finally tarnished that spotless record."

So I think it's fair to say that while not perfect (and who is?) that iOS has really done a remarkable job keeping the malware off it's platform. Android has gotten better and I freely admit that, and it's a good thing. But it's definitely not up to snuff quite yet compared to the competition in that particular area.

- an entire book on the subject

And is the book any good? I don't want to bother with it, if it's going to be a waste of my time. Glancing through reviews of the book, it doesn't sound that impressive. A favorable review has this as the bold claim, Exxon Mobile spending millions, but not a lot of millions to protect its business.

The fossil fuel industry, who have poured millions of dollars into PR campaigns to confuse the public. Over 8 years, the most profitable company in history, Exxon Mobil, gave $16 million to think tanks that deny global warming science. Fossil fuel companies also give millions of dollars to politicians such as Joe Barton and James Inhofe, who vehemently oppose climate action.

- Greenpeace, for whatever their word is worth, claiming that the Koch brothers have donated over $61 million to the cause of denying global warming.

Doing that google thing, I see that $61 million is a mere six years funding of the US branch of Greenpeace. The World Wildlife Fund has $180 million in funding last year of which $44 million came from government sources. No anti-AGW group has that sort of funding.

So what we have is a "well-funded" campaign that is vastly outspent just by government contributions to a single non-profit. Ever wonder why the "climate denialists" get any traction at all? It's not the money they're spending. That's for sure.

Yes, so we can Bring it back to the States!

It's all a stupid side show that distracts attention away from the looming financial catastrophe.

We'll see what all those soccer mom and middle class tax payers think when they are stuck for about $2k more in taxes. And that's just the start as they will also start having to pay higher health insurance premiums (yes, Obama care raises costs, not reduces them)

You're right, but why nuclear? Why not something that doesn't have the chance, however remote, of causing armageddon?

Because modern nuclear doesn't have even a remote chance of causing armageddon. The worst crisis in the history of nuclear power gave a few thousand people cancer. The second worst crisis has killed or injured almost nobody, although caused a lot of inconvenience in the area no doubt. No other nuclear failure has caused any health problems worth mentioning, and the ones whose failures were costly to clean up were old, and would not be produced in this day and age.

Nuclear power is the safest energy source per TWh, bar none. Wind power is more deadly.

Modern nuclear can also process existing nuclear waste, which seems like a bit of a win.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/06/15/apple-samsung-55-of-global-smartphone-sales-90-of-profits/

In case I haven't enphasised how stupid and out of date this post I include this quote from the original article "“At this point in the year, Nokia will have to grow its Windows Phone business 5000% in 2012 just to offset its declines in Symbian shipments,” says Michael Morgan, senior analyst, devices, applications & content.

Q3 Microsoft Phone 2%

But you are comparing 1 company (Apple) to the multiple companies who sell Android devices (Samsung, LG, Sony, Google themselves and now apparently HTC). Certainly, Apple's market share has shrunk as other companies enter the market wit competitive products. This does not however, spell the imminent demise of Apple. if we look at Apple's quarterly report from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, we can see they actually improved profit year-on-year.

As to your comment downthread about global smart phone sales, well it seems Apple is doing alright there.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/06/15/apple-samsung-55-of-global-smartphone-sales-90-of-profits/

Charitable donations aren't the only way of creating value in the world.

It's a tad more complicated than that sadly. What they tried to do was replace nuclear with renewable sources. Unfortunately they chose wind and solar. 2 sources that when used on a small scale are not so bad. Unfortunately when you have a huge portion of your power grid running off them they generate a lot of problems. During the day Solar obviously works... and it doesn't at night. Then you have wind, which fluctuates almost at random. So now your grid is spiking and crashing. But your usage is not. Their other sources like Geothermal and Hydro are constant. You can't really get more power out of either. So you're left with Oil and Coal/Lignite to burn when the wind dies down and its night time. The problem there is that we are very good at burning fossil fuels efficiently when we're doing it consistently... unfortunately ramping up a coal plant in the middle of the night is terribly inefficient. Just like your car gets better gas millage when it's warm. So because they are now ramping up and shutting down their coal plants, those very plants are operating at about the worst efficiency they possibly could. Currently Germany has plans to build 16 new coal-fired and 15 new gas-fired power stations by 2020 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9559656/Germanys-wind-power-chaos-should-be-a-warning-to-the-UK.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-19/merkel-s-green-shift-forces-germany-to-burn-more-coal-energy.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/08/31/germany-insane-or-just-plain-stupid/

I can tell you I don't have money.

LOL http://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-ellison/

Oh yes, it's all the unions. Even though Germany has unions, pay's it auto works more, and their car industry is profitable, makes more cars, with large amounts of exports.

Unions done wrong fuck the system up. Builds adversarial us (the workers) vs them (the management) mentalities. Unions done right, can and does work very well. It is collaborative, where everyone works together to make the company better, struggle through the bad times etc. This collaboration works both ways, if the company is hitting hard times, the board, management should be taking paycuts themselves, stopping bonuses. They have failed to lead the company into a properous position. Before they have the cheek to ask the workers to cut their salaries, they should be severely cutting their own pay first. Put their hands up in the air, and claim "Yes, we fucked up", so how can we get through this? The CEO has taken a paycut of 80% sacrificing $25 million saving about 300 jobs, can you guys cut 15% until we get through this?

Both Germany and Japan after the second world war had written into their constitutions by Eisenhower, MacArthur and their aides various protections and rights for workers to bargain and act collectively. They both have become some of the biggest players in the automotive industry, and this is not by coinicendence, it is by design.

In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.

That would be the largest legal battle the country has ever seen. Given that Romney's campaign shut down so quickly that staffers found their credit cards had been canceled when they tried to pay for cabs on the way home from campaign headquarters, I kind of doubt he has the machinery in place for that kind of fight.

Perhaps he's saving that money for the legal fees. ;-)

That makes no sense. Raising the prices actually preserves the supply. In either situation, a lot of people won't be getting gas. But with gouging, you at least have the option.

Most of us must know the old aphorism brought to us by Laffernomics: To a man with a compass and straightedge, every gradient is a straight line, where one end is labeled "stupid" and the other end is labeled "what we were going to do anyway".

The willingness-to-pay utility curve is ugly on both sides. On one side the clueless and unprepared grouse far more than any person with self-respect ought to be caught dead doing. On the other side, one must proceed anecdotally.

You are alone in a dark, inner city alley and you feel cold hard steel pressed against your temple. Your willingness-to-pay lands on A) zero, it's just a bluff; B) contents of wallet, but not what you've also got hidden in your shoe; C) a quick net-present-value calculation factoring in the boundary condition "you can't take it with you".

You are crossing between two tall buildings through a walkway tunnel when global warming causes a floor tile to pop out--your reactions are quick and now you are hanging there by both hands, twenty floors up in the air, without the strength to pull yourself back in through the hole. A quick-thinking lawyer happens to walk past just then. He immediately whips out a pen and a title deed, which he proffers first to your white-knuckled right hand and then to your wobbly left hand in a gesture of good-will and Samaritanism, fine print attached, which you presume will terminate your mortgage.

You are among the huddles coping with the failure of major public infrastructure and you haven't tasted a sip of fresh water for more than two days. Furio Giunta saunters past with a gym bag, offering 1 liter bottles of Evian for $1000 a pop, cold cash only. Elite huddlers in tattered alligator shoes coalesce into cliques pooling cash resources for some sliver of sustenance. Furio conducts a roaring business, clearing 50 big ones in an afternoon. The trucker who was assigned the task of bringing Evian to the masses awakes in the gutter with only a small concussion and not very much pneumonia.

A block away a young computer whiz sells water for $500 a bottle after prudently stockpiling supplies. How could this people be so stupid! Such a simple matter to hack the department of meteorology, fix a few glaring errors in the weather system model, then fire off a covert day-long simulation until the accounting flag for doubly nested black-op (so secretive that nobody who can admit he exists will ever see the expense report). He makes enough cash to pay four years of tuition at state college (where most of this will go to the football coach and the director of athletics). Unfortunately, a day later he takes a "bad fall" in front of Satriale's Pork Store (as he reports his condition to police). Despite being unable to explain to the IRS where his windfall has gone to, he's awarded a national medal of honour for saving more lives at less cost than Soliris.

Enough anecdotes? By the time that the pimps and mobsters and hustlers and assholes amount to a larger share of the relief effort than the police, the firemen, the coast guard, and the reserve there's a case to be made for quelling the entrepreneurial straightedge.

In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.

That would be the largest legal battle the country has ever seen. Given that Romney's campaign shut down so quickly that staffers found their credit cards had been canceled when they tried to pay for cabs on the way home from campaign headquarters, I kind of doubt he has the machinery in place for that kind of fight.

Cisco has unwisely been fighting a land war in Asia too.

That's LAN war....

Cisco has unwisely been fighting a land war in Asia too.

Edit: Bah, looks like I messed up the quotes. My text is indented.

iPhone 5 comes with:

* Apple Maps and access to Google Maps, with a large number of options for other map apps (that can can be downloaded), both free and paid.

You're using Apple Maps as a selling feature? Meanwhile, Androids come with Google Maps out of the box, as well as Google Navigation, which supports voice instructions, and there are a similarly large number of other map/navigation apps available for Android.

While your point is that IOS can hold its own against Android, it's a bit silly to use Apple Maps as the first point of comparison....

Absolutely. For the 99.5% of times when it's not "epically failing" (and being corrected), it works very well. The whole "zomg look how bad it is, you'll end up in a lake!" stuff is amusing, but ultimately overblown. And, as I pointed out right after it, I noted that Google Maps is also available on iOS 6, along with many other apps to choose from if you think Apple Maps will "epically fail". For the majority of people, however, it is

* Uses a USB charger, charges off anything with a USB port (note that USB is not proprietary), and a micro-USB adapter is also available so you can charge it off a Galaxy SIII charger if you really want.

USB isn't proprietary, but the connector at the other end of the cable is. If your cable is damaged or lost, you need to buy a replacement cable from Apple, and pay for the privilege. If you lose or damage the cable for any Android phone I've ever used, you can use *any* MicroUSB cable from any other device you own, or can buy one very cheaply from any number of people selling them.

I didn't address the Lightning connector (or the previous incarnation, the 30 pin dock connector), merely that the GP said that Apple's charger was proprietary and that (I quote) "not compatible with any other brand", when it's obvious to anyone who has actually used an iPhone that it will charge off all sorts of third party branded chargers, and that you can charge other phones and devices off an Apple charger if you like since it has a USB port on it. It's no accident that the "non-phone" end of the cable is a USB plug, and that the cord is removable from the charger.

* Doesn't have removable memory card, no, but this has allegedly been a missing "killer feature" from every iOS device ever sold, and doesn't seem to be slowing down sales.

Some Android phones don't have removable memory cards. Mine does. It's very useful. I've used the same MicroSD card across 3 phones now, and have not needed to recopy the data to each new phone. Similarly, I haven't lost any of the settings or high scores from my games/apps, and several of my games have installed completely to the SD card, so they don't need to be reinstalled/downloaded on a new phone, either.

Yes, I mentioned that this is one of the few genuine differences, and that for some people a removable SD card is a killer feature. It simply bears repeating that the supposed "killer feature" is clearly not all that important to the vast majority of iPhone users. Personally I think it is more of missing killer feature on the iPad, where extra removable storage would be very welcome for the sorts of things it is used for - movies and games on the go.

* No USB Mass Storage Mode either, but files can be moved on and off it as necessary, also supports cloud storage (iCloud, Dropbox etc).

Call me next time you need to sync 32GB of data through iCloud to your new phone. We'll compare how long it takes against how long it takes me to remove my MicroSD card and put it in the new phone, shall we? We'll also compare how much that costs on your 3G data plan....

Oh, di

iPhone 5 comes with:

* Apple Maps and access to Google Maps, with a large number of options for other map apps (that can can be downloaded), both free and paid.

You're using Apple Maps as a selling feature? Meanwhile, Androids come with Google Maps out of the box, as well as Google Navigation, which supports voice instructions, and there are a similarly large number of other map/navigation apps available for Android.

While your point is that IOS can hold its own against Android, it's a bit silly to use Apple Maps as the first point of comparison....

* Uses a USB charger, charges off anything with a USB port (note that USB is not proprietary), and a micro-USB adapter is also available so you can charge it off a Galaxy SIII charger if you really want.

USB isn't proprietary, but the connector at the other end of the cable is. If your cable is damaged or lost, you need to buy a replacement cable from Apple, and pay for the privilege. If you lose or damage the cable for any Android phone I've ever used, you can use *any* MicroUSB cable from any other device you own, or can buy one very cheaply from any number of people selling them.

* Doesn't have removable memory card, no, but this has allegedly been a missing "killer feature" from every iOS device ever sold, and doesn't seem to be slowing down sales.

Some Android phones don't have removable memory cards. Mine does. It's very useful. I've used the same MicroSD card across 3 phones now, and have not needed to recopy the data to each new phone. Similarly, I haven't lost any of the settings or high scores from my games/apps, and several of my games have installed completely to the SD card, so they don't need to be reinstalled/downloaded on a new phone, either.

* No USB Mass Storage Mode either, but files can be moved on and off it as necessary, also supports cloud storage (iCloud, Dropbox etc).

Call me next time you need to sync 32GB of data through iCloud to your new phone. We'll compare how long it takes against how long it takes me to remove my MicroSD card and put it in the new phone, shall we? We'll also compare how much that costs on your 3G data plan....

Oh, did I mention my phone didn't cost anywhere near what a new iPhone would cost without a contract, and that the memory/cpu for my phone are almost identical to the iPhone 4S, which was the best iPhone available when I bought mine?

Eh actually sorry, Samsung denied reports it decided to stop selling LCDs to Apple.

Care to provide a citation with that?

If Google doesn't work on your machine, sure.

"AMD is aware that these very chips Intel produces are found in around 95.5% of servers around the world, as per Mercury Research. AMDâ(TM)s share of the server processor market is around a dismal 5%."

Graph at bottom shows AMD at 4.5%

"AMD lost server processor unit market share (now down to just about 5%)"

"The Intel x86 architecture has clearly won the server segment, and within the x86, Intel has 95% market share and AMD has 5% market share and is declining."

The more "official" source is probably IDG, but they only provide yearly figures. For 2011 they listed AMD as having a 5.5% server market share, and Bulldozer isn't going to improve that for 2012 but still a few months until you get those numbers... Oh yeah and that is x86 servers, not all servers just the Intel-AMD turf war.

"You don't spoof to get lower bills. You spoof so your neighbors get higher bills."

Or just shutoff the electricity to the neighbors you don't like.

If they don't catch fire and burn your house down first..

Add to misery. these smart meters have a much shorter lifespan(5-7 years)
and you are likely to get thr short end of stick(over billing) when it fails..

Just think more Chinese made components(bad caps?) that you can't unplug!!

Europe, you say?

Europe is a big place, but here's how they do it in Germany.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2011/12/21/germany-builds-twice-as-many-cars-as-the-u-s-while-paying-its-auto-workers-twice-as-much/
Frederick E. Allen
12/21/2011 @ 5:42PM |60,178 views
How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much
In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.
How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”
There are “two overlapping sets of institutions” in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country’s equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany’s car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they “hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties,” according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for “works councils” in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, “where you don’t always wear your management pin or your union pin.”
Mund points out that this goes
        against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.
At Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, the nonunionized new employees get $14.50 an hour, which rises to $19.50 after three years.

http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/tale-two-systems
A tale of two systems
By Kevin C. Brown
Remapping Debate
Dec. 21, 2011
American autoworkers are constantly told that high-wage work is an unsustainable relic in the face of a hyper-competitive, globalized marketplace. Apostles of neo-liberal economic theory — both in the public and private sectors — have stressed the message that worker adaptation is necessary to survive....
But the case of German automakers — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — tells a different story. Each company produces vehicles not only in Germany, but also in “transplant” factories in the U.S. The former are characterized by high wages and high union membership; the U.S. plants pay lower wages and are located in so-called “right-to-work” (anti-union) states. ... the UAW has made significant concessions on wages, especially through the creation of a permanent “Tier 2” level for all new employees. Whereas incumbent “Tier 1” workers earn about $28 an hour, all new UAW hires at the GM, Ford, and Chrysler earn around $15 per hour.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2011/12/21/germany-builds-twice-as-many-cars-as-the-u-s-while-paying-its-auto-workers-twice-as-much/
Frederick E. Allen
12/21/2011 @ 5:42PM |60,178 views
How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.

How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”

There are “two overlapping sets of institutions” in Germany that guarantee high wages and good working conditions for autoworkers. The first is IG Metall, the country’s equivalent of the United Automobile Workers. Virtually all Germany’s car workers are members, and though they have the right to strike, they “hardly use it, because there is an elaborate system of conflict resolution that regularly is used to come to some sort of compromise that is acceptable to all parties,” according to Horst Mund, an IG Metall executive. The second institution is the German constitution, which allows for “works councils” in every factory, where management and employees work together on matters like shop floor conditions and work life. Mund says this guarantees cooperation, “where you don’t always wear your management pin or your union pin.”

Mund points out that this goes
        against all mainstream wisdom of the neo-liberals. We have strong unions, we have strong social security systems, we have high wages. So, if I believed what the neo-liberals are arguing, we would have to be bankrupt, but apparently this is not the case. Despite high wages . . . despite our possibility to influence companies, the economy is working well in Germany.

At Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, the nonunionized new employees get $14.50 an hour, which rises to $19.50 after three years.

http://www.remappingdebate.org/article/tale-two-systems
A tale of two systems
By Kevin C. Brown
Remapping Debate
Dec. 21, 2011

American autoworkers are constantly told that high-wage work is an unsustainable relic in the face of a hyper-competitive, globalized marketplace. Apostles of neo-liberal economic theory — both in the public and private sectors — have stressed the message that worker adaptation is necessary to survive....

But the case of German automakers — BMW, Daimler, and Volkswagen — tells a different story. Each company produces vehicles not only in Germany, but also in “transplant” factories in the U.S. The former are characterized by high wages and high union membership; the U.S. plants pay lower wages and are located in so-called “right-to-work” (anti-union) states.

... the UAW has made significant concessions on wages, especially through the creation of a permanent “Tier 2” level for all new employees. Whereas incumbent “Tier 1” workers earn about $28 an hour, all new UAW hires at the GM, Ford, and Chrysler earn around $15 per hour.

Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion between 2013 and 2022 in order to pay for part of the law’s $1.9 trillion in new health-care spending for younger people over the same time frame. My co-blogger Robert Book and Michael Ramlet have published a paper for the University of Minnesota showing that Ohio’s share of those Medicare cuts is $21.2 billion dollars. This year, Ohio has 1,971,260 Medicare enrollees, which means that these cuts amount to $10,763 for every senior in Ohio.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/10/29/in-ohio-obamacare-to-increase-individual-insurance-premiums-by-55-85

Yup, I don't have facts. Of course, you'll protest Forbes as being "right wing" ... and HuffPo is unbiased .. right?

"If offered, most Americans would have voted against single payer, yet that is the goal of Obama Care."

That's not true, and also not true.

The polls have been all over the place on what people actually think about the single payer system, sometimes a strong majority for, sometimes a strong majority against, and often a very slim difference. The results have generally depended on the exact wording of the questions in the polls: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-payer_health_care

Of course Obamacare isn't actually a single payer system. In fact a lot of Republicans were worried that if Obamacare was overturned by the Supreme Court that we would end up with a single-payer system instead: http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbarro/2012/03/28/how-obamacares-rejection-would-lead-to-single-payer/

"Hence the HUGE election in 2010 that gave the house back to the (R). Or don't you recall that?"

I remember an election in 2010, and like pretty much every midterm election the balance in Congress swung away from the sitting President: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_midterm_election

I'm not great at statistics, but going by a quick glance the last 100 years only three times has the president's party gained or stayed even in both houses during the midterm election (Bush Sr, Clinton, and FDR) and those gains were tiny. Every other case has resulted in loses one one or both houses. Usually both, and often significant. In fact if you average out the value for elections in which they lost in both houses (21 out of the 26 elections) the average loss is 40 in the house and 5 in the senate. So the Democrats' loss of 63 in the house and 6 in the senate is above average, but not extremely so.

Southwest Airline Attendant: Up to $103k.

Their captains max out at a minimum of more than $200,000 a year.

So are we talking typical or upper end? Your post was of a general nature and makes it sound like all or most flight attendants and pilots are all rolling cigars with $50 notes. Yeah, Southwest employees are doing well- particularly those at the top end. And so is Southwest for that matter. Perhaps because Southwest treats their employees well or their management is more talented. The typical airline crew employee is not so fortunate, particularly at the contract carriers (feeders). The relevant statistic is the average- just as all CEOs aren't paid like John H. Hammergren. BTW, take a look at how much their management compensation compares to the rest of this industry: Airline CEO Compensation Roundup (dated, I know but things haven't changed all that much). Odd how my company wants to use Southwest as a benchmark for PRASM, CASM and other operating costs- EXCEPT when the cost of compensation of the employees is at hand. Then it's apples and oranges...

I'm on a personal campaign to educate anyone and everyone about the myths of pilot pay. Pilots are perceived as on the same level as doctors and lawyers, but that's not the case anymore. Please pardon my passion, and thanks for being civil- hard to find on slashdot these days...

As an accountant myself, I think it's important to point out that a number of countries (and US states - including my home state of Texas) offer significant tax incentives for businesses that will move more of their operations to their location and create jobs. TFA does not say whether or not this was the case, but an article from Forbes this past March pointed out that Ireland lured significant Apple business to the country through creative tax reduction incentives: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/03/18/ireland-continues-to-flex-tax-haven-muscles-will-their-luck-run-out/

The article points out that Microsoft, Dell, Pfizer, and Wyeth have also taken advantage of Irish corporate tax incentives. So, a lot of this isn't "beancounter magic" at all - its a carefully negotiated corporate strategy that benefits the company as well as the host country.

"No downside unless you find having a complete record of where you shopped disturbing. A record that can be hauled into court, or at the very least used to target you for mind-control, i.e., advertising."

Advertising? I'd be really interested in seeing how they can meaningfully advertise based on my name only.

Forbes had a nice example of how Target has done just that: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

Don't harbor any illusions that Google won't use your Google Wallet purchasing information to come to similar, deeply personal, conclusions about you and then sell those conclusions to the highest bidder(s). Many credit card companies are already doing this and it's killing Google that they're missing out on all that juicy marketable information about you.

Germany leads in solar mostly because it's quick, easy, and therefore cheap, to get solar projects approved there. It's a nightmare in the US, at least the city where I live; I've been going through this for months: already dozens of pages of blueprints, specifications, calculations etc filed, thousands spent, and still no end in sight.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2012/07/05/cut-the-price-of-solar-in-half-by-cutting-red-tape/

... you do understand that "Market Value" has nothing to do with "largest company", right?

Apple isn't even top 20 in terms of actual value

Apple's profits: $33 Billion Rank: #2
Apple's assets: $138 Billion Rank: #187.
Apple's sales: $127 Billion Rank: #26

Their stock is over-priced and it will return to earth eventually. They probably cannot maintain their profit margin over the next 3-5 years and as soon as the sharks see them miss a few growth estimates, it will be bye bye Apple market value.

I'm not sure if you're aware how most of the far east works but if you look at diversity they're not full of immigrants. China has ~500,000 foreign nationals out of 1.2 billion people. Let's use another example, Japan. 1.6% of Japan's legal residents are foreign nationals. You're arguing that the 'outside world' is xenophobic of the East? Traditionally both of these countries have been isolationists and not exactly hospitable to "barbarians".

Ethnocentric view points are nothing new. Many cultures have tales of hermits, strangers, foreigners that are viewed with suspicion. Grossly simplified international politics can be likened to schoolyard behavior. Its not much a of a leap to see why xenophobia exists; fear of the unknown. An interesting article relating to racism in China which might be of interest.

Is it xenophobia or ethnic nepotism?

Thanks Basil but it won't matter, they have this "white VS black" concept so locked into their minds no matter how much data you show them they'll just go "la la la, you must be a shill! La la la you're one of THEM!" and continue with their fantasy.

I think its sad myself, a site supposedly for nerds yet something as banal and trivial as a marketing slogan apparently works just as well on certain parts of nerd culture as it does on 16 year old kids. It doesn't matter to this type how many dirty deals or doing the exact same thing the other guys are doing is found on Google, in fact here is a page listing them, complete with internal emails, but none of that will count you see because Google is "their team" and "does no evil" so they won't believe their lying eyes over the marketing slogan...fascinating if you ask me, this kind of rampant refusal to see reality over one's ballclub like worship of some company should probably be studied, its most interesting.

3) Series hybrids have a niche (garbage trucks and buses, mostly), and passenger cars are not that niche. This is why the Volt and Karma are failures.

The Karma is a mess of problems, but the Volt is not a failure by any stretch of the imagination [1]. Sure it doesn't have the hype that the Prius did back in 2004, but it's a 40 mile ranged electric car that solves the range problem by including a gas-engine powerplant.

I do concede that the Model S is drool-worthy and I'd prefer one, but I've seen Volts around where I live and they're snappy, quiet, look nice and cost half as much as the Tesla... oh, and they have zero range problems as they reuse the existing petrol-distribution network. Definitely a geek status symbol (just not as big as the Tesla).

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2012/09/24/august-chevrolet-volt-sales-redefine-failure/

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!

You don't know much about VUPEN -- they are expletive deleted low-lifes of the first order. VUPEN used their existing 0-day exploits from older versions of Windows -- and they don't tell the manufacturers about the exploits -- they only sell them for big bucks to government intell. agencies, etc.

If low-lives can find these zero days how come MS with their massive profits and massive install base can't find them first and fix them?

Maybe because fixing Windows is like polishing a turd.

You don't know much about VUPEN -- they are expletive deleted low-lifes of the first order. VUPEN used their existing 0-day exploits from older versions of Windows -- and they don't tell the manufacturers about the exploits -- they only sell them for big bucks to government intell. agencies, etc.

https://lpo.energy.gov/?projects=fisker-automotive
http://nlpc.org/stories/2012/02/08/many-unanswered-questions-surround-fisker-layoffs
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2012/09/25/obamacar-bad-karma-for-taxpayers/

I'm conservative and I didn't mod you down.

I just provided facts about what a totally corrupt, clusterfuck Obama's green energy programs are and I didn't even do it tangentially. Biden was the Senator from Delaware before he was VP, what a coincidence! The cars catching fire just prove what a ill-designed piece of shit they are. We should be grateful that there are not many of them actually on the road.

Remember that their cloud solution is somewhat questionable. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyclay/2012/07/19/is-microsoft-spying-on-skydrive-users/ If you enable the cloud sharing you risk getting your MS account banned if you:
"depicts nudity of any sort including full or partial human nudity or nudity in non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga. advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or gratuitous violence."

As an example if you're a manga artist and you use skydrive you just might find yourself banned losing access to everything. If you write a naughty story in Word with sync on you are violating their terms of service.

I am aware that it is most likely very rare that there would be massive bans. However the fact that they have already banned some users of Skydrive simply due to the content of their private files indicates that they will probably do so in the future.

Not to mention:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7745868/Scientist-Craig-Venter-creates-life-for-first-time-in-laboratory-sparking-debate-about-playing-god.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sciencebiz/2010/05/20/life-made-in-the-lab-but-dont-freak-out/
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/tpna/

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I always tell them: "If you think you won't ever use much math, you probably won't. And your bank account probably won't get big enough to require many decimals."

Yea! I mean,
who
besides
math majors
and
engineers
ever
got
rich?

What a maroon...

I've love to see someone challenge Romney on the concept of tax cuts for the rich leading to Job creation.

Frankly, anyone who fails to understand how stealing less from productive people leads to more productivity isn't just failing Economics 101, it's amazing that this person manages to put his pants on in the morning! Your political masters had to build a very intricate religion in order to prevent you from seeing the absolutely obvious... Every single pixel of human economic history confirms that the moral argument for free markets is the practical argument as well!

Let me explain in a way that even a 4-year-old could understand it. You have a lemonade stand A, and a lemonade stand B. Lemonade stand A charges $1.15 for a glass of lemonade. Lemonade stand B charges $0.42 for an identical (or even slightly better) glass of lemonade. Which one do you prefer? B? Well, guess what - in an analogy to real life, you've just picked Hong Kong over New York City as a place to start the next Pfizer or IBM!

USA's economic freedom (and thus its competitiveness to retain its brains and capital, and to attract more from abroad) has has experienced rapid decline during the Obama administration. If he is reelected, it is likely to fall further. In spite of all his political vagueness, Romney is clearly a lesser evil in that regard. A few more years of Obama means more lemonade stands offering a better deal than USA, which means Uncle Sam's lemonade simply won't sell.

Productive people don't just create jobs, they create products and services that separate us from cavemen, as well the investment opportunities that give people an incentive to save. They are the pillars of civilization, paying for things like security and scientific research. There is a reason why USA became rich, and why those rich people you want to rob are here in the first place - USA used to be the most economically free country in the world at that time, but it is no longer. The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of competent people to tax!

--libman

At the same time I'm pondering what the "other side of the coin" as you say has banned for me.

Well, drugs for one. Thanks to your wonderful Supreme Court, my back yard is now in another state. Go ahead, rant about regulations making medicine expensive, the Republicans won't touch the FDA because Schedule I is the only thing standing between you and an army of stoned zombies.

Pornography for another. Romney's made his position pretty clear. Oh that's right, the First Amendment "doesn't include obscenity"... wait, which amendment gave the federal government the power to decide something is obscene and not worthy of the 1st's protection?

Best part: banning drugs and porn because they are bad for you is exactly the same as banning large sodas because they are bad for you and banning smoggy trucks because they are bad for you. The exact same unconstitutional process in every case, except that when New York bans Big Gulps, they're not beholden to the US Constitution in the same way when the federal government does it.

If all you can point to is gay marriage

Read: "Banning things I don't like is ok. Banning things I like is wrong!" See also sodas and CAFE standards.

Also, you forgot to mention abortion, sodomy in general (both hetero- and homosexual, my theory is that Republicans can't get a blow job so they don't want anyone else to either, my guess is that Anthony Kennedy was getting some good lovin' in the privacy of his own home), protests, and so on.

Did I mention that Texas Republicans want to do away with your first amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances by appealing violations of your rights to the Supreme Court? It's right there on Page 4-5:

Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights

It's a fully Constitutional power, that hasn't been used since the president every Republican loves to hate, Abraham Lincoln, had Congress use it in order to prevent people he was detaining from being able to appeal to the courts for habeas corpus. But hey, you weren't planning on to trying to appeal any gun laws on 2nd amendment grounds anyway, amirite?

Apps leaking private info? Gee, good thing that would never happen in a curated Apple's appstore. Wait, what? Don't tell me they only cared about apps not crashing and being in line with Apple's policies on design and content.