Slashdot Mirror

Seriously. People skimming may think he included Zuckerberg because of, well, Zuckerberg is an ass himself... but actually it is because he didn't wear professional attire? Right guy, completely wrong reasons.

Sorry, but your should have put a period after " People skimming may think he included Zuckerberg."

He didn't. Zuckerberg did not make the list.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/the-five-worst-ceos-of-2012/2012/12/18/0f353f14-4940-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_story_1.html

Zuckerberg is apparently like Hitler-- any mention of him hijacks the thread, and all discussion of the actual content ceases.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/the-five-worst-ceos-of-2012/2012/12/18/0f353f14-4940-11e2-ad54-580638ede391_story.html

The problem with the old method is that it's often a game of attrition, namely you keep dating until you give up on finding someone that you are lifetime compatible with, and settle whoever's around at the time.

Agreed. Mr Ludlow has the whole premise upside down to me.

When dating is expensive you are LESS likely to date around till you find a closely compatible person, and more likely to settle.
He has the whole situation upside down.

It will take a few years to find out if internet dating will produce more enduring relationships, but the old method wasn't working
all that well either. Some sites claim internet dating works better for the marriage minded. Other sources ask the divorce question in their headlines. (So we must invoke Betteridge).

One service actually publishes some numbers from an internal (and rather self congratulatory) study. They claim: "eHarmony couples had a 66.6% lower risk for divorce than would have been expected given eHarmony’s share of marriages in the population".

I suspect the study is rather flawed, but its the only one out there that I am aware of.

The problem is politics of financing the spending.

Even with unnecessary wars and with serious economic downturn public debt would be in good shape (look at the graph) without Bush tax cuts.

There are some problems that must be fixed in long term but it has more to do with emulating other countries, than just cutting spending. We need to just emulate others and fix this sillyness.

We can fix public budged easily with just small increase to the taxes.

The problem is not spending. The problem is politics of financing it.

Public debt would be in good shape if Bush tax cuts would have not been implemented. See the graph in this page. And Contrary to "Entitlement Society" Rhetoric, Over Nine-Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, or Working Households

Unnecessary wars and overblown and ineffective internal security apparatus are expensive, but surprisingly not even they could not cause fiscal crisis. (Unfortunately) America is so rich that it has money to blow into wars and still go on. What we should do is to fix healthcare. It would not be even hard; Just look at what others are doing and do the same. This is just absurd.

Just increase taxes and cut war spending and America is fine: 2013 United States federal budget / Total revenues and spending.. This crisis is fundamentally just political. This problem is fundamentally caused by GOP and it's lost coherence. John Boehner has no authority to negotiate with Obama, nobody in GOP has any authority to negotiate.

This might work in the short term, but infrastructue is a durable good; once built, it lasts a very long time. Look at the national highway system. Still there,

You may want to use a different example, since almost all the bridges of that highway system now need complete replacement.

I'm enjoying reading the Washington Post article, linked from Stallman's reference. I'm no expert in this field, but the arguments seem reasonable. Do you have any specific objections beyond name-calling?

This is what always made me LMAO at these chuckleheads, they can't say what they really want which is "He's a nigger!" so they try to find another reason to get rid of him,. . .

Is that so? So I guess that means you would also be implying that John McCain is simply "passing" for white?

McCain's citizenship called into question - Candidate, born in Panama Canal Zone, may not qualify as 'natural born'
Why Senator John McCain Cannot be President: Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship
McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

I didn't see a single news service say a fucking word about the revelation that Blackwater was selling kids as fuck toys to get better deals in both Kosovo and Afghanistan

The allegation is actually against DynCrop, and you're kidding, right? The media is full of that allegation, but what you don't see is this:

This spring, the State Department inspector general began investigating whether DynCorp ignored signs of drug abuse among expatriate employees in Afghanistan. A related review into the dancing incident is "substantially completed" and "at this point, no criminal activity has been discovered," said Douglas Welty, State Department inspector general spokesman. -- Amid Reviews, DynCorp Bolsters Ethics Practices

(If I recall correctly, the Dallas Morning News had quoted a State Deptment IG spokesman that made a stronger statement, unfortunately that story appears to be not online anymore.)

To quote the late Bill Hicks . . .

Must you?

So buy stuff that does tell you. Problem solved.

The FDA is making it increasingly hard for companies to label product as NOT having GMOs as well (Source).

Montsano recently created a variety of cucumber that results in genital baldness

I'm shocked to hear that. Also shocked to read, from the same source, that the US is aquiring the Canadian Maple Leaf symbol: http://www.thelapine.ca/united-states-acquires-maple-leaf-symbol

You don't work for the Chinese media do you? Just wondering.

Assuming that your statistics are true, all that means is that CCW licenses are currently strictly limited. Once we make them more common and widespread, you'll see the rate of violent crime go up. But you also do not address the greatest dangers related to home ownership of guns: accidental deaths and suicides.

Violent crime with guns is a small fraction of the problem. Seventy percent of homicides were perpetrated with guns. Fine. But half of all gun deaths are suicides. There were 24,000 accidental gunshot injuries in 2000. Research in Australia has shown that suicides dropped when strict gun control laws were brought into effect. (Suicides by guns dropped, and suicides by other means didn't go up.) When the Israeli military required soldiers to leave their weapons at their base before going home on the weekends, suicides dropped by 60%.

When one considers gun laws, you also have to consider the non-criminal aspects of gun possession. Suicides and accidental shootings go up when you have more guns. Is that something we are willing to tolerate so you can take up armed insurrection against the US government if it becomes a dictatorship in your view?

'The bad guys are getting worse,' says Howard. 'Antivirus helps filter down the problem, but the next big security company will be the one that offers a comprehensive solution.'"

Run your OS off a read-only USB device ... link

"Australian company Cybersource says it's currently talking to two domestic banks about providing Linux-based bootable CDs to consumers to ensure Internet banking security". link

"Accessing online banking from your home PC is unsafe, says CIO of CNL Bank", link link

Given that the price of gas keeps going up, isn't every year a record year for gas prices?

When adjusted for inflation, no. Are price increases really a given? Price decreases also happen. Supply and demand.

I think that near 2007~2008 they seized ExxonMobil assets and kicked them out, making their refineries state-controlled, which is really awful.

Why is that so bad? Far better to take the profit for the country than simply give it to a foreign company.

Except that the next big multinational that comes along might decide that it's not worth building those assets if the government may simply come along name their own price and take it.

Just because you're picking on a bad guy doesn't make it fair.

I would agree with your points save the one on term limits. Look at what happens today with freshman Congress people. They get shuffled into receptions and dinners jam packed with lobbyists. Since the lobbyists are the ones with the longest lives in Washington the nascent Congress members need to sign on with them to have any clout. With strict term limits every Congress member will essentially be a freshman and we'd end up with lobbyists with even more influence.

Besides lobbyist ties the whole internal operations in Congress would need an overhaul. The current committee system would severely break down if there was no meaningful seniority (not necessarily a bad thing). Current tactics your side (someone that agrees with your personal politics) uses would be thrown all out of whack. This might be helpful when it disrupts your political opposition but would really suck when things you want can't make it out of committee.

I think much more fair drawing of congressional districts (performed by multi-partisan independent panels) would be more effective than enacting strict term limits. Gerrymandering guarantees that areas that go strongly to one party in state-wide and national elections can still go to another party in local elections. It's something that only really serves the desires of national parties and guarantees alternative parties could never see any significant representation in Congress. It also breaks any sort of ability for constituents to have a meaningful say with their representatives. If a neighborhood/borough/region makes too much noise they'll just end up with a district line cutting them in half so they can't ever effect an election.

I would agree with your points save the one on term limits. Look at what happens today with freshman Congress people. They get shuffled into receptions and dinners jam packed with lobbyists. Since the lobbyists are the ones with the longest lives in Washington the nascent Congress members need to sign on with them to have any clout. With strict term limits every Congress member will essentially be a freshman and we'd end up with lobbyists with even more influence.

Besides lobbyist ties the whole internal operations in Congress would need an overhaul. The current committee system would severely break down if there was no meaningful seniority (not necessarily a bad thing). Current tactics your side (someone that agrees with your personal politics) uses would be thrown all out of whack. This might be helpful when it disrupts your political opposition but would really suck when things you want can't make it out of committee.

I think much more fair drawing of congressional districts (performed by multi-partisan independent panels) would be more effective than enacting strict term limits. Gerrymandering guarantees that areas that go strongly to one party in state-wide and national elections can still go to another party in local elections. It's something that only really serves the desires of national parties and guarantees alternative parties could never see any significant representation in Congress. It also breaks any sort of ability for constituents to have a meaningful say with their representatives. If a neighborhood/borough/region makes too much noise they'll just end up with a district line cutting them in half so they can't ever effect an election.

An amazing woman... http://m.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/rita-levi-montalcini-nobel-prize-winning-neuroscientist-dies-at-103/2012/12/30/054829e0-5295-11e2-a613-ec8d394535c6_story.html p

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-09-20/business/35494758_1_new-iphone-earpods-lte-networks
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395035,00.asp
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/25/ihs-iphone-5-costs-between-207-and-238-to-make-depending-on-storage/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/14/iphone-5-costs-168-to-make/

It's not hard to find..
https://www.google.com/search?q=cost+to+make+iphone

If I can buy cheap as hdmi cables from multiple vendors shipped to my front door for $1.50, it can not cost much more to get an iPhone to my house or to a retailer so please do not think distribution and shipping costs is more than a few $$ per phone.

. . . it can;t come from the Senate, it can't come from the President . . .So can we please drop this bullshit about how it's Harry Reid's fault for not coming up with a budget. The blame falls clearly on the House and thus on Boehner's lap

If we were to dispense with the bullshit, your post would be blank. How is it that you either don't know this, or expect everyone to be so ignorant as to not call you on it? Well, to your credit, you did suck in 3 moderators.

The Federal Budget Process

Once the president lays out his proposal, the House and Senate budget committees can begin writing their budget resolutions. The budget resolution sets targets for spending and tax revenue and identifies any policies that will need to move through reconciliation. The resolutions are sent to the floor for a vote, and differences are resolved in conference.

More: The Congressional Budget Process: A Brief Overview

The House has produced and passed budgets, the Senate hasn't. The Senate has voted plenty down though.

President Obama proposed a FY2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0. (And that budget was no prize—according to the Congressional Budget Office, that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would double the national debt in 10 years and would see annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.)
-- 1,000 Days Without a Budget: Facts on the Senate’s Failure

'1,200 Days and $5 Trillion in New Debt Since Senate Dems Passed a Budget'

Congress has spent $11.2 trillion since passing its last budget on April 29, 2009, according to the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee. The new debt since that date is $4.8 trillion.

"Since the last budget resolution was passed 1,200 days ago, the government has borrowed 42 cents of every dollar spent," the chart notes. The chart is based on Treasury Department figures.

The Senate obviously has no problem passing bills to spend money - why can't they pass a budget?

If this continues, it can't end well.

'U.S. Per Person Debt Now 35 Percent Higher than that of Greece'

If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. --Stein's Law

>Food is a much more essential good than fiber optic internet service, and yet I never hear anyone calling for the municipalities to nationalize (city-ize?) all the food stores in town.

I see you know little about America and what is 'nationalized'.

You've not been reading much lately, ISP's have consolidated and are not profit taking at record levels after years of fights cities laying their own fiber, luckly in this case the city finally won and is laying their own fiber at much higher speeds. I worked for one of the ISPs that fought the city at the time. We offered them shitty low speed service and would not spend the capital to upgrade their system. Instead the company spend millions in lobbying and advertizing to keep the city from building its own network.

Yes, booting from a LiveCD is another good alternative. But even if I used a Live CD, I would prefer to run it on a separate computer, so that I would not have to reboot everyday just for checking my online banking. Unfortunatley, that would actually require two reboots every day, once to boot up the live CD, and once to bootup back into the version of Linux that I normally use at home. Instead, I would prefer to leave my normal desktop computer running and then just boot up another computer with the live CD whever I need to use it.

If I ever actually do that, I might use a liveCD, or I might just install Linux on the banking only computer instead. If I were to unplug the hard drive, I could then probably assume that any ordinary Linux liveCD then had the extra security of being a read-only OS, although, Linux installed on the hard drive would have had more recent updates, including security updates.

I had not heard of the LPS-Remote Access liveCD that you mentioned, that sounds like a very good choice.

Back in 2009, Brian Krebs wrote these two articles that suggesting that small to medium-sized companies who lack fulltime IT/ security staff, use a Linux liveCD if they do online banking.

• E-Banking on a Locked Down (Non-Microsoft) PC
• E-Banking on a Locked Down PC, Part II

Yes, booting from a LiveCD is another good alternative. But even if I used a Live CD, I would prefer to run it on a separate computer, so that I would not have to reboot everyday just for checking my online banking. Unfortunatley, that would actually require two reboots every day, once to boot up the live CD, and once to bootup back into the version of Linux that I normally use at home. Instead, I would prefer to leave my normal desktop computer running and then just boot up another computer with the live CD whever I need to use it.

If I ever actually do that, I might use a liveCD, or I might just install Linux on the banking only computer instead. If I were to unplug the hard drive, I could then probably assume that any ordinary Linux liveCD then had the extra security of being a read-only OS, although, Linux installed on the hard drive would have had more recent updates, including security updates.

I had not heard of the LPS-Remote Access liveCD that you mentioned, that sounds like a very good choice.

Back in 2009, Brian Krebs wrote these two articles that suggesting that small to medium-sized companies who lack fulltime IT/ security staff, use a Linux liveCD if they do online banking.

• E-Banking on a Locked Down (Non-Microsoft) PC
• E-Banking on a Locked Down PC, Part II

miracles of science would feed the world with an unbelievable array of giant, hearty and delicious foods. We're almost there.

I was just talking about this with my daughter at the grocery store. We picked up some Polaner instead of the Smuckers because of their GMO positions.

The first GMO's were things like rice that grew Vitamin A so rural Asian children wouldn't go blind. That was good.

The logical next steps were to make all sorts of food that was healthy, tasty, vigorous, and efficient (able to grow in poor soils).

But instead, we got crops that are resistant to pesticides that are applied by the tanker load and vegetables that express their own pesticides, which, we're kinda-maybe-sure don't effect humans (but it hasn't really been studied).

Making fast-growing salmon is more like it's supposed to be, but the experience of the past decades shows that the critical vulnerability is the governments' Imaginary-Property system that their corporations are using to seize control of the food supply.

You're right about the science, but the governments have fucked it up (like pretty much everything else people ask them to save us from).

A 250lb JDAM dropped from a MQ-9 is treated completely differently (in the press) than the exact same 250lb JDAM dropped from an F-16.

Because the US president treats it differently too.
He doesn't consider using them an act of war requiring approval from Congress:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2011/06/koh_is_my_god_pilot.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2012/12/10/the-threat-of-drones-ushering-in-invisible-wars/

After Australia passed strict gun controls after their mass shooting in 1996, they haven't had a single mass shooting since then.

Howard cites a study (pdf) by Andrew Leigh of Australian National University and Christine Neill of Wilfrid Laurier University finding that the firearm homicide rate fell by 59 percent, and the firearm suicide rate fell by 65 percent, in the decade after the law was introduced, without a parallel increase in non-firearm homicides and suicides.

Democrats, in a strategy designed by then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), retook the House in 2006 in part by recruiting pro-gun centrists to run in conservative districts.

Now, I have deliberately avoided most of the coverage of this event but this is literally the first time I've heard any mention anywhere about Adam Lanza's father. And you mention him only indirectly. Before now I had to assume immaculate conception, which helped explain a lot, but now all my theories are laid to waste..

Naturally now I'm very curious. Did he have a relationship with his father? Was it close? How did his father treat his mother? With kindness, compassion and respect? Which came first: sociopathic child or broken home (indeed, I imagine if there is causation it can go either way- some marriages destroy kids, some kids destroy marriages...)?

FWIW the video game connection has been studied and reported on extensively. Two examples:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/09/us/they-threaten-seethe-and-unhinge-then-kill-in-quantity.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
If congress feels the need to revisit the question then I smell a pork barrel.

You draw the line when it starts to affect other people. The government (and society in general) ration resources when they become scarce - this isn't new. Similarly, the concept of speed limits and driver alcohol testing came about for safety, because enough people weren't able to handle themselves responsibly that measures were put into place for the good of everyone. On the topic of guns, I can say that I do not care for them and do not own or intend to own any. However, I also don't care if my neighbors want to have five guns for every room in their house, and if they want to go to the shooting range every day - they can do what they want.

The problem arises when we have people using guns to kill large numbers of people. Statistically speaking, our country is the most violent of any developed nation (see point #5), and we also have the most guns. Further, you'll find that the most violent region of the United States (the South - see point #6) correlates with the greatest number of guns, according to self-reported gun ownership. Correlation doesn't imply causation, but there's a trend that I'm sure you're noticing.

Additional regulations and restrictions is a raw deal for responsible gun owners, but we have a problem that unfortunately is affecting many people. I respect the rights of gun owners, but their rights end where mine begin. Sadly, the focus of their hobby is a factor that puts me, my family, and my community at risk. Hopefully we can come to an agreement such that the gun owners can still enjoy their hobby, and the threats that guns pose are greatly reduced.

You draw the line when it starts to affect other people. The government (and society in general) ration resources when they become scarce - this isn't new. Similarly, the concept of speed limits and driver alcohol testing came about for safety, because enough people weren't able to handle themselves responsibly that measures were put into place for the good of everyone. On the topic of guns, I can say that I do not care for them and do not own or intend to own any. However, I also don't care if my neighbors want to have five guns for every room in their house, and if they want to go to the shooting range every day - they can do what they want.

The problem arises when we have people using guns to kill large numbers of people. Statistically speaking, our country is the most violent of any developed nation (see point #5), and we also have the most guns. Further, you'll find that the most violent region of the United States (the South - see point #6) correlates with the greatest number of guns, according to self-reported gun ownership. Correlation doesn't imply causation, but there's a trend that I'm sure you're noticing.

Additional regulations and restrictions is a raw deal for responsible gun owners, but we have a problem that unfortunately is affecting many people. I respect the rights of gun owners, but their rights end where mine begin. Sadly, the focus of their hobby is a factor that puts me, my family, and my community at risk. Hopefully we can come to an agreement such that the gun owners can still enjoy their hobby, and the threats that guns pose are greatly reduced.

It seems that gun ownership is Switzerland is a little different to gun ownership in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

This article disputes the high level of gun ownership in Switzerland (although it talks more about Israel).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/mythbusting-israel-and-switzerland-are-not-gun-toting-utopias/

I personally think that the existence of high-powered fully-automatic assault weapons with large magazines have no place in the hands of the general population in any society that would call itself civilized. I would go further though, I would argue that firearms of any type do not have a place in society.

Who knows, perhaps the US will start to think a little differently about its huge arsenal of weapons in public hands now that so many children have paid with their lives?

Someone on Fark pointed out that the WBC aren't really haters, or even Christians, just a bunch of lawyers trying to make extortion money from the threat of (very carefully and legally) exercising their 1st Amendment rights:
http://www.fark.com/comments/7488418/81313473#c81313473

The appropriate response is actually to just organize counter-protests that block or drown out their feeble message, until hopefully they run out of money.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030406330.html

But anytime someone actually blocks them illegally, they get to sue and collect some settlement and they get their payday.

I suppose the DDoS helps them bleed money as well, But probably not enough, esp. if they manage to catch and sue the perpetrators.

I'd mod you higher if I could. Just a few stats for y'all:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/?wprss=rss_business

The majority of recent American mass shootings have been commited by mentally unstable people, most of whom were identified as such by people around them.

Perhaps if the care these people really needed was not so far out of their financial reach that they or someone close to them would have considered treatment then at least a few of them would have been avoided?

Even countries with severe gun restrictions have violence (guns, bombs, etc.).

No shit.

If at the recent school shootings in the US I wonder how many kids would have died if the kid used a pipe bomb instead of a gun?

Fewer.

Or how many would have been saved if a school employee was armed?

Hypothetical, unknowable, in aggregate more would probably die.

Oh, china has fairly strict gun regulations and some dude killed a bunch of kids with a knife.

A spate of attacks. Many left wounded, not killed, and fewer killed in any given attack.
Do you deny guns are deadlier than knives? Is so explain why police have guns, why military has guns, why mass murderes choose guns when given the choice.

There will always be bad people, the key is to make sure the good people have the means to stop them.

Deputize the 1st grade teacher? Mrs. Shaw will have crayons and ammunition? And go through training like a police officer on top of her B.Ed.?

My entire post was a sarcastic response to this contemptible, grasping bit of sophistry.

http://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/12/14/National-Enterprise/Images/Connecticut_School_Shooting_03cbd.jpg

Fuck you.

I am no expert and welcome rebutting data, but the data presented here argue against what you claim.

And on that note, we have here a similar attack in China where a man went to a school and tried to kill a bunch of children:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/22-children-1-adult-injured-in-knife-attack-outside-central-china-primary-school/2012/12/14/feac17e6-45be-11e2-8c8f-fbebf7ccab4e_story.html

"22 injured in knife attack". Tools indeed.

The work of other artists didn't often reduce Pablo Picasso to a state of utter humility, but that's exactly what happened just after World War II, when he was mucking about in a cave in southwestern France. This wasn't just any cave, however -- its walls were festooned with striking pictures of horses and bulls that date from the Ice Age, all rendered with exquisite sophistication and symbolic force. Upon exiting the cave, an awed Picasso declared, "We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years."

Wrong again.

From http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/making-money-with-your-apps-through-the-windows-store.aspx [msdn.com]

You're comparing a large, established, successful app store with hundreds of thousands of apps to a fledgling MS store with 20,000 apps. Apples to Oranges. Come back when the stores are comparable. Nothing yet indicates MS' model is even successful, much less better than Apple's. Companies that get a late start often try to attract business by offering their services at a loss or under some other unsustainable system with a plan to alter said system in the future.

For example, this wouldn't happen on Windows Store.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/02/apple_bans_sony_e-reader_app_a.html

The correct quote would be "hasn't happened yet". Windows store is just starting. Give it time and their shenanigans will too.

Sorry, but Apple apologists like you need to come up with a better defense of Apple than trying to muddy up things by saying "everyone else is doing it". They're simply not.

Effectively he was just saying "you don't know what you're talking about" concerning app store business models. Your post does nothing to refute that.

Okay let me lay this down clearly because you're trying to mislead people here.

Apple charges 30% for two different thing.

1) App purchases. Eg. To buy Office for iOS
2) In-App purchases. i.e ebooks, or any service sold through the app, eg. Office 365 subscriptions.

For #1, for 30% they do payment processing (for which 3rd party processors charge about 2 to 5%), and promotion etc. which might
be worth 30% to some devs, but the problem is that they allow zero competition to the App Store itself. So if a third party wanted to do the same things as Apple but charge less, say 20%, they cannot. On Android/Play Store. THEY CAN. That is a big difference.

Coming to #2 is where your argument completely falls apart, as evidenced in the parent comments. Apple is not paying for Office 365 servers or hosting, nor for Netflix, nor for Readability nor for any of the apps' services that they either completel banned because they didn't pay the 30% tax for nothing to Apple, or forced to remove the link to the web site.

How is that not hurting developers?? Microsoft doesn't do #2, they only charge if you're using their infrastructure, zero if you're not.

Here's an assigment for you. Read the following links and come back and claim with a straight face that it's not hurting developers.

http://blog.readability.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-apple/
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/48130-apple-forces-e-tailers-to-remove-in-app-links-kobo-to-offer-html5-browser-ereader.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/02/apple_bans_sony_e-reader_app_a.html

No. It isn't. The only people who think that are those that have an axe to grind with Apple.

a) Pretty much every other app store out there has the same deal and, more importantly

No, stop playing the "poor Apple" card.

This is about in-app purchases like Netflix subscriptions, ebook stores etc. Not 30% cut of apps.

Wrong - it's about the 30% cut. What in-app purchases does office have again?

Seriously, the only people who still bring this up (and mod it "Insightful" on /.) are those who are utterly ignorant of reality and just want to gripe about Apple (while ignoring all the other app stores operating under the same terms)

Wrong again.

From http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/making-money-with-your-apps-through-the-windows-store.aspx [msdn.com]

I see nothing there that says that MS will not take their 30/20% cut. What I do see is allowing third party payment processors. I'd guess, based on the fact that the statement includes original payment for the app itself, that you wind up registering your payment processor through MS, and MS continues to take their cut. How else would they know (or care) if the payment provider is PCI compliant?

For example, this wouldn't happen on Windows Store.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/02/apple_bans_sony_e-reader_app_a.html

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/21/apple-rejects-readability-due-to-subscription-policy-where-wi/

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/48130-apple-forces-e-tailers-to-remove-in-app-links-kobo-to-offer-html5-browser-ereader.html

This wouldn't have happened on the Windows Store and probably not on Play Store as well(you can always sell an APK directly for sideloading or use one of the 3rd party stores on Android).

Sorry, but Apple apologists like you need to come up with a better defense of Apple than trying to muddy up things by saying "everyone else is doing it". They're simply not.

You make a grand statement for a store that's been up just a couple of months. No one knows what MS will or won't do with their store. What we do know is that MS's store makes Apple's App Store look like an open garden in comparison. So this entire set of "examples" are merely a red herring with a healthy dose of speculation and a set of blinders.

No. It isn't. The only people who think that are those that have an axe to grind with Apple.

a) Pretty much every other app store out there has the same deal and, more importantly

No, stop playing the "poor Apple" card.

This is about in-app purchases like Netflix subscriptions, ebook stores etc. Not 30% cut of apps.

Seriously, the only people who still bring this up (and mod it "Insightful" on /.) are those who are utterly ignorant of reality and just want to gripe about Apple (while ignoring all the other app stores operating under the same terms)

Wrong again.

From http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/making-money-with-your-apps-through-the-windows-store.aspx [msdn.com]

Using your own billing system

Your app and service may already depend on a particular transaction provider or benefit from ties to other lines of business. Your customers want the trust and efficiency of a familiar, trusted transaction experience. You can use your own transaction provider within your app to provide the experience your customers expect.

If you are not using the Windows Store as your transaction provider, you will want to make sure that your app meets all of the certification requirements such as: Identifying the transaction provider to the user during purchase confirmation Prompt the user for authentication before processing the transaction Your payment processor must meet the current PCI Data Security Standard

For example, this wouldn't happen on Windows Store.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2011/02/apple_bans_sony_e-reader_app_a.html

http://www.tuaw.com/2011/02/21/apple-rejects-readability-due-to-subscription-policy-where-wi/

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/48130-apple-forces-e-tailers-to-remove-in-app-links-kobo-to-offer-html5-browser-ereader.html

This wouldn't have happened on the Windows Store and probably not on Play Store as well(you can always sell an APK directly for sideloading or use one of the 3rd party stores on Android).

Sorry, but Apple apologists like you need to come up with a better defense of Apple than trying to muddy up things by saying "everyone else is doing it". They're simply not.

Basic US infrastructure is crumbling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/decaying-infrastructure-costing-us-billions-report-says/2011/07/27/gIQAAI0zcI_story.html
Water, distance can really mess non voice copper data efforts. Old copper down old ducts, shared lines, digital subscriber loops that are long and where fine for adsl1 and voice been pushed to the limit.
Shared best effort coaxial been shared too wide, lack of good new equipment in near monopoly states... more users...
The telcos will upgrade but on their terms. Its back to the old telco dream - why get paid for packets when they could rent a game or hollywood gold plated packet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/solyndra-scandal-timeline/#document/p1/a41682

http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/exclusive-solyndra-scandal-timeline#slide=37499741

Basically, shelved by Bush because it wasn't viable, revived and pushed through by Obama.

...and I don't read the paper nor the website (much). Don't think it will affect me (much)

If you live close to DC then you're missing out by not reading the Post website for Capital Weather Gang http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang. When the area is facing severe weather those guys give the most detailed, area by area, timely weather data I've seen for the region. Fortunately we don't get Snowmageddens or Sandys very often, but when we do I'm hitting their site every few hours.

Great to see a company like Apple employing more American workers. Steve Jobs would be proud. I wonder if this is in response to the February of 2011 silicon valley President meetup. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2011/02/this_evening_the_president_joi.html I am not saying it is or is not just a though.

I have a couple better lines. Solar panels use semiconductor manufacturing techniques which require the use of solvents. Since most production is in China the solvents and the rest of the solution usually are just dumped into rivers and ponds. The result is a lot of pollution and liquid waste. Oh and windmills kill birds.

The unemployment rate for tech has been in the 3-4% range, but EPI says full employment has been historically around 2%."

Hmmm, let's see if I can figure this out - unemployment in the IT industry is currently TWICE it's historical norm, and wages are flat... Could it be that old "supply and demand" thing where as supply increases, prices stagnate or drop?

The value of a profession isn't established by comparing wages with other professions - besides, I'm pretty sure wages have been fairly flat/stagnant across the board for the last handful of years.

The United States has been downgraded. Reporters Without Borders has released its annual World Press Freedom Index and the United States fell 27 points to No. 47 on the list.

The US tie with Argentina, Romania and Latvia at âoesatisfactoryâ levels of freedom.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX 2011-2012

The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation

So some journalists and probably many "journalists" were mixed in with the "Occupy" crowd and didn't comply with orders to vacate? Not going to sweat that too much without evidence of actual wrong doing.

The United States has been downgraded. Reporters Without Borders has released its annual World Press Freedom Index and the United States fell 27 points to No. 47 on the list.

The US tie with Argentina, Romania and Latvia at âoesatisfactoryâ levels of freedom.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-china-business-travelers-take-extreme-precautions-to-avoid-cyber-espionage/2011/09/20/gIQAM6cR0K_story.html

George W Bush tried to cancel these two programs. For a paltry savings of $4 million/yr.

And we're sadly looking back on him as 'enlightened'.