Apple's earnings came with the line: " The company currently holds $233 billion in cash and marketable securities ". Holy hell, that's a stupid amount of cash in hand to have at your disposal.
What's Tesla worth right now? I'd love to see Musk team up with Cook as he's the closest living thing to Jobs.
Sure there's a lot of Tesla lovers who hate Apple but I'll bet there's a shit load more Apple fans who'd buy a Tesla if it had an Apple on it's ass. It's not just the cars, I love Tesla's entry into the home power market with their wall mounted batteries. If you want disruption you need to get into some new markets. 10 years ago Apple didn't sell phones. Computing devices have almost reached commodity stagnation. The App market has been and gone.
There's so much going on in power, renewables and the changing global weather patterns. Believe in global warming or not this area provides a huge marketing opportunity.
Anyone seen or played with one of those tiny spectrum analysers that Texas instruments sells for $1000 a pop? Smaller than a mobile phone and runs on a mobile battery. That, I think, given the speed of miniaturisation is the next big thing in technology to come to our smart phones. The value really won't be in the hardware but in the reference databases and software that make it useful. Imagine going out to eat and scanning your food for calories, additives, nuts (for allergies) before eating? That's real power in your pocket. That's your trekkie "tricorder".
I don't see any particular good uses of the tax money being collected by the federal US Government. Having once been a US tax payer I used to look at NASA and the US military and think to myself "yep, that's what you are now funding". So Apple, Google and all the big earners are forced to pay USG 50% of profit. Who exactly benefits from that? I own none of those shares but I'd rather see the shareholders get the lot.
I was asked by the ex-CEO of Mega (not Dotcom) for suggestions for non-hostile data centres about a 18 month ago. We'd met casually and he was talking about the risks of raids, neutrality etc and was soliciting ideas. I suggested Iceland for a number of good reasons. 1) Geo-physical location. Right in the middle of the atlantic at the mid-point between Europe and N.America. Good latency to either continent. 2) Political neutrality. Iceland jails bankers and politicians. Not whistle blowers and has been a Wikileaks save haven. 3) Abundance, even surplus, of renewable energy. Cooling isn't a problem either:)
It's a message to the whole company not just the shareholders. If you have a corporate culture of arse covering no one takes risks and failures are exploited for personal gain and power building. You end up with a stagnant enterprise caused by internal fragmentation.
To change that you need a system where everyone buys into a gamble, or commercial sandbox. From the very top of the organisation it is understood that no blame will be used against anyone. Instead failure is reviewed and mined for data at every level in the chain of command. Assumptions and unknowns are removed and everyone moves on.
It has to come from the very top and the shareholders need to buy into this mindset too. Google and Apple have been following this model for a while, Amazon isn't really being avant guard in this respect.
The article is generalising to sensationalise and gain attention. It's about "indies" coming up with new features that the phone lacks but should be built in. This isn't about "indies" so much as about the recent pulling of FlexBright by Apple as iOS9.3 will provide that same functionality under the name "Night Shift mode" No point griping about Apple playing catch up with built in features. That's what their customers demand, indies don't matter.
Indies (and I am one who lives off the proceeds of my iOS apps) can thrive in the app store eco-system if they stand back from the technology and look at what people want or might like.
A better article on being an Indie would be one about how to monetise an app and how that has changed and evolved. There's an opportunity out there with Ads in apps to satisfy a lot of, rich, frustrated advertisers as ad blockers can't block ads in-app.
As an indie you can't compete with the big fellows and their massive marketing budgets that are paying Schwarzenegger salaries. You can capitalise on emptying those deep pockets though.
I was once, 20 years ago, an H1B. Back then I was "imported" because the US was behind Europe in digital telecommunications (ISDN). I didn't replace anyone, they had to advertise the job I was taking for a couple of months and I remember my boss laughing at the applications he was getting. They were still advertising my job even after I started it.
Here's an anecdote : The ISDN between San Jose and Mountain View wasn't working for data. I called up PacBell and after getting past the clueless support guys ("can you get a dial tone sir?" - "no, because this is a digital system, not analogue") I got through to a lovely lady in engineering. Explained who I was and who I worked for (Cisco) and that they'd setup up their switches wrongly (US ISDN was 56Kb, they'd configure data between them at 64Kb which was causing the data corruption). She called me back later in the day to say I was correct in my diagnosis and thanked me. Myself and the other MV folk could now work from home.
I remember one SFO immigration officer who cracked his knuckles in my face, rolled his neck and try to be as physically intimidating as possible when he bellowed at me "do you REALLY think an American can't do your job?". "yes", I reply. It was the truth based on the data I had. The anger swelled up in him to the point I thought he was going to explode. He threw my passport and papers at me and I went on my way. I stayed just short of 3 years. Too many "Trump supporters", for my liking.
If H1B's are being abused then it's the employers who are abusing them. Don't abuse the people.
You guys who like "total control" over your hardware and software are, at some point down this horrific line, in greater danger than the Apple fans you so love to sneer at. You'll soon find yourself carrying an "illegal comms device", if Apple loses. We all thought soviet communism was bad but we are on a crash course for something much worse in the "free west".
How many Americans side with the NRA -v- Government one wonders? Is it just me or has logic reasoning been deported from the USA in advance of all the illegal immigrants that "King Joffery" Trump is gunning for?
"The heresy of heresies was common sense... " - 1984
I miss the cold war. Back in the good old days the "free west", would tout it's political and social freedom as why it was on the side of humanity. Something for the oppressed behind the iron curtain to dream of attaining and seeing their over lords for the tyrants they were. Then down came the Berlin Wall. Today you'd think the history books on the communist era in east Europe were the manuals/manifestos for state control in the West. The only thing our governments needs to be better than today is IS.
Fear. That great manipulator of the masses. Unless you are a faceless corporation, with deep pockets and legions of lawyers you run the risk of jail time for posting ANYTHING online under the terms of the TPP. Even if you aren't quoting a book, or a song verse, for all you know you could print, or repost, something that can be held up as in breach of copyright. It's no longer "copyright", it's a gagging order for the common man. It's a return to media being entirely in control of the few.
Apple's not been spending enough of it's huge pile of cash on "lobbying" or "campaign funds". If that's what you want to call it. Those who would like a bite of that juicy fruit are trying to shake them down with all this "backdoor" bullshit.
I can't seriously believe America is run by morons who think forcing it's tech companies into breaking their products is not going to affect international sales.
Yes, I too laughed at this guy's comments. He's a self serving ass hole and sounds like he's uses the same script writer as Donald Trump.
However.... Let's look at this AdBlocker phenomenon, which is obviously having major effects on that industry if the big guys in it are screaming like pigs in an abattoir.
I've written a couple of Apps one of which is free to download but with IAP to unlock the juicy bits. It's suffered from 1 star reviews telling me how much I suck not making it 100%, a few demanding I make it Ad funded instead. Why write Apps at all when you can't make a living out of it? So I just released an update with interstitial full screen ads to see if it generates better income and prevents user frustration.
If the money isn't coming in 2 things happen. 1) find revenue elsewhere OR 2) Pull the content If AdBlock+ is working that well it could cause long term damage to the quality and quantity of the content you are consuming. How often do we see here on/. a "pay wall" moan about an article?
AdBlock+ doesn't prevent Ads inside Apps? So you may end up seeing content moving to Apps as a ring fence to force you to see their ads and give up your analytics.
I've personally not installed any ad blocking on my phone, tablet or computers as I don't find Ads a problem. Sympathy for the Devil? Perhaps. Someone has to pay. I'm just saying it could be worse.
Taking into context a certain presidential candidate's use of private email server to do government work which will not be an exceptional case but a common past and future problem for national security does the government want a back door to itself? Since the root problem here is human individuals, bad guys, good guys, public, etc how to you prevent your own gun being turned on you. I suspect that's part of the issue from Rogers stand point.
Of course he may not have got the memo about "2+2=5" and the other one reminding him that "The heresy of heresies is common sense" He could just be looking for a good Retirement Package in time for the Ski season.
I miss the cold war. Back in the good old days the "free west", would tout it's political and social freedom as why it was on the side of humanity. Something for the oppressed behind the iron curtain to dream of attaining and seeing their over lords for the tyrants they were. Then down came the Berlin Wall. Today you'd think the history books on the communist era in east Europe were the manuals/manifestos for state control in the West. The only thing our governments needs to be better than today is IS.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. No? I wouldn't want to have been the AB+ rep attending, left alone in the corner feeling like a pork pie at a Jewish wedding... It was an act of kindness.
May I add that I'm also curious as to why the BBC hasn't made the iPlayer service restricted to British TV licence holders. It can't be to stop viewing outside of the UK, if you are on business/vacation you should still be entitled to watch what you've paid for. It's technically simple to do, much easier than IP address blocking. So it leaves me thinking it's intentional by both the BBC and NetFlix.
I seem to remember a slew of "entrepreneurs" from the UK being extradited to the US for running online gambling and accepting customers from the US where gambling was illegal. e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carruthers The case against them was that they colluded with banks to accept non-UK credit card payments, specifically US cards. So the excuse of not knowing the customers were gambling illegally was inadmissible.
Which leaves me wondering why all the talk of Netflix playing the pointless game of IP address whack-a-mole. Card billing address should suffice.
Just before Xmas we had the Joomla patch every version from 1->3 to fix the user agent string attack vulnerability. Every Joomla sight I know of cough up it's configuration.php contents causing en-masse password changing. http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/12/14/1959231/attackers-can-hijack-joomla-sites-via-user-agent-strings#comments
All CMS are insecure, it's just knowing where the undiscovered holes are.
I had 2 kids with my ex wife who then nagged me into getting a vasectomy. It's very easy, easier than going to the dentist for a filling in fact.
However I then started getting pain in my nuts. You see they tie off your vas and the sperm has no where to go - think of the car chase scene in the Blue's Brothers with all the cop cars piling up on top of each other. That's your epididymis swelling up with all the sperm piling up. This German inventor's idea doesn't solve this problem however it does allow you to switch back on if you do get congestive epididymitis.
After I split with her I had it reversed. 2 hours on the table and a couple of big black grape fruits the next morning. 3 months for the bruising to fade. I timed it to be when I was writing my thesis for my masters. Plenty of quiet, sitting down working time.
I've now got 5 kids and no.6 due in March. Pisses my ex off no end. I still, occasionally, get congestive epididymitis.
Interesting fact. Vasectomy is illegal in France. Smart country. The only positive was it raised my Testosterone level to somewhere near where it was when I was 16. Going back to University for a year, single, sterile and horny as a teenager made for a very memorable time in my life.;)
As a war veteran of vasectomy my advice is this. Leave your nuts alone to do what they are supposed to do!
I'm very sceptical of any "2 minutes of hate" campaign against diesel. Especially when there's a price war on oil to kill off competition by Saudi. Fuel prices at the pump are at their lowest since 2009 just now. Diesel was a dirty fuel, which has had it's act cleaned up. The AdBlue cats have done a lot to help that. As I see it this is a long game plan by OPEC's leader(s) to kill off competition and then raise prices while at the same time using politicians and media to go after petrol's more economical rival diesel.
If you want to talk dirty and pollution I think now is the time to scrap all fuel burning vehicles and go electric. Picking on just one isn't the solution.
Media technology has seen quick adoption due to making porn accessible. Look at the Betamax -v- VHS war which Sony lost due to their prudish stance towards porn. Arguably the uptake of home internet may well have been driven by porn too.
Prediction. circa~2036. She: Are you wearing vr-contacts? You: Eh... Yeah... I forgot to take them out before we got into bed.
Slashdot Mirror
We can finally be rid of Android then? :)
Apple's earnings came with the line: " The company currently holds $233 billion in cash and marketable securities ".
Holy hell, that's a stupid amount of cash in hand to have at your disposal.
What's Tesla worth right now?
I'd love to see Musk team up with Cook as he's the closest living thing to Jobs.
Sure there's a lot of Tesla lovers who hate Apple but I'll bet there's a shit load more Apple fans who'd buy a Tesla if it had an Apple on it's ass.
It's not just the cars, I love Tesla's entry into the home power market with their wall mounted batteries.
If you want disruption you need to get into some new markets. 10 years ago Apple didn't sell phones.
Computing devices have almost reached commodity stagnation. The App market has been and gone.
There's so much going on in power, renewables and the changing global weather patterns.
Believe in global warming or not this area provides a huge marketing opportunity.
http://www.ti.com/tool/dlpnirscanevm
Anyone seen or played with one of those tiny spectrum analysers that Texas instruments sells for $1000 a pop?
Smaller than a mobile phone and runs on a mobile battery.
That, I think, given the speed of miniaturisation is the next big thing in technology to come to our smart phones.
The value really won't be in the hardware but in the reference databases and software that make it useful.
Imagine going out to eat and scanning your food for calories, additives, nuts (for allergies) before eating?
That's real power in your pocket. That's your trekkie "tricorder".
I don't see any particular good uses of the tax money being collected by the federal US Government.
Having once been a US tax payer I used to look at NASA and the US military and think to myself "yep, that's what you are now funding".
So Apple, Google and all the big earners are forced to pay USG 50% of profit.
Who exactly benefits from that?
I own none of those shares but I'd rather see the shareholders get the lot.
I was asked by the ex-CEO of Mega (not Dotcom) for suggestions for non-hostile data centres about a 18 month ago. :)
We'd met casually and he was talking about the risks of raids, neutrality etc and was soliciting ideas.
I suggested Iceland for a number of good reasons.
1) Geo-physical location. Right in the middle of the atlantic at the mid-point between Europe and N.America. Good latency to either continent.
2) Political neutrality. Iceland jails bankers and politicians. Not whistle blowers and has been a Wikileaks save haven.
3) Abundance, even surplus, of renewable energy. Cooling isn't a problem either
It's a message to the whole company not just the shareholders.
If you have a corporate culture of arse covering no one takes risks and failures are exploited for personal gain and power building.
You end up with a stagnant enterprise caused by internal fragmentation.
To change that you need a system where everyone buys into a gamble, or commercial sandbox.
From the very top of the organisation it is understood that no blame will be used against anyone.
Instead failure is reviewed and mined for data at every level in the chain of command.
Assumptions and unknowns are removed and everyone moves on.
It has to come from the very top and the shareholders need to buy into this mindset too.
Google and Apple have been following this model for a while, Amazon isn't really being avant guard in this respect.
The article is generalising to sensationalise and gain attention. It's about "indies" coming up with new features that the phone lacks but should be built in.
This isn't about "indies" so much as about the recent pulling of FlexBright by Apple as iOS9.3 will provide that same functionality under the name "Night Shift mode"
No point griping about Apple playing catch up with built in features. That's what their customers demand, indies don't matter.
Indies (and I am one who lives off the proceeds of my iOS apps) can thrive in the app store eco-system if they stand back from the technology and look at what people want or might like.
A better article on being an Indie would be one about how to monetise an app and how that has changed and evolved.
There's an opportunity out there with Ads in apps to satisfy a lot of, rich, frustrated advertisers as ad blockers can't block ads in-app.
As an indie you can't compete with the big fellows and their massive marketing budgets that are paying Schwarzenegger salaries.
You can capitalise on emptying those deep pockets though.
I was once, 20 years ago, an H1B.
Back then I was "imported" because the US was behind Europe in digital telecommunications (ISDN).
I didn't replace anyone, they had to advertise the job I was taking for a couple of months and I remember my boss laughing at the applications he was getting.
They were still advertising my job even after I started it.
Here's an anecdote : The ISDN between San Jose and Mountain View wasn't working for data. I called up PacBell and after getting past the clueless support guys ("can you get a dial tone sir?" - "no, because this is a digital system, not analogue") I got through to a lovely lady in engineering.
Explained who I was and who I worked for (Cisco) and that they'd setup up their switches wrongly (US ISDN was 56Kb, they'd configure data between them at 64Kb which was causing the data corruption).
She called me back later in the day to say I was correct in my diagnosis and thanked me. Myself and the other MV folk could now work from home.
I remember one SFO immigration officer who cracked his knuckles in my face, rolled his neck and try to be as physically intimidating as possible when he bellowed at me "do you REALLY think an American can't do your job?".
"yes", I reply. It was the truth based on the data I had.
The anger swelled up in him to the point I thought he was going to explode.
He threw my passport and papers at me and I went on my way.
I stayed just short of 3 years. Too many "Trump supporters", for my liking.
If H1B's are being abused then it's the employers who are abusing them.
Don't abuse the people.
You guys who like "total control" over your hardware and software are, at some point down this horrific line, in greater danger than the Apple fans you so love to sneer at.
You'll soon find yourself carrying an "illegal comms device", if Apple loses.
We all thought soviet communism was bad but we are on a crash course for something much worse in the "free west".
How many Americans side with the NRA -v- Government one wonders?
Is it just me or has logic reasoning been deported from the USA in advance of all the illegal immigrants that "King Joffery" Trump is gunning for?
"The heresy of heresies was common sense... " - 1984
I miss the cold war.
Back in the good old days the "free west", would tout it's political and social freedom as why it was on the side of humanity.
Something for the oppressed behind the iron curtain to dream of attaining and seeing their over lords for the tyrants they were.
Then down came the Berlin Wall.
Today you'd think the history books on the communist era in east Europe were the manuals/manifestos for state control in the West.
The only thing our governments needs to be better than today is IS.
Fear. That great manipulator of the masses. Unless you are a faceless corporation, with deep pockets and legions of lawyers you run the risk of jail time for posting ANYTHING online under the terms of the TPP.
Even if you aren't quoting a book, or a song verse, for all you know you could print, or repost, something that can be held up as in breach of copyright.
It's no longer "copyright", it's a gagging order for the common man.
It's a return to media being entirely in control of the few.
Apple's not been spending enough of it's huge pile of cash on "lobbying" or "campaign funds". If that's what you want to call it.
Those who would like a bite of that juicy fruit are trying to shake them down with all this "backdoor" bullshit.
I can't seriously believe America is run by morons who think forcing it's tech companies into breaking their products is not going to affect international sales.
Ask Cisco...
On the BBC just now: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35490910
He probably had someone "leak" that result prior to his "I'll give myself up on Friday", offer.
As if the UN can change anything...
Yes, I too laughed at this guy's comments. He's a self serving ass hole and sounds like he's uses the same script writer as Donald Trump.
However....
Let's look at this AdBlocker phenomenon, which is obviously having major effects on that industry if the big guys in it are screaming like pigs in an abattoir.
I've written a couple of Apps one of which is free to download but with IAP to unlock the juicy bits.
It's suffered from 1 star reviews telling me how much I suck not making it 100%, a few demanding I make it Ad funded instead.
Why write Apps at all when you can't make a living out of it?
So I just released an update with interstitial full screen ads to see if it generates better income and prevents user frustration.
If the money isn't coming in 2 things happen. 1) find revenue elsewhere OR 2) Pull the content /. a "pay wall" moan about an article?
If AdBlock+ is working that well it could cause long term damage to the quality and quantity of the content you are consuming.
How often do we see here on
AdBlock+ doesn't prevent Ads inside Apps?
So you may end up seeing content moving to Apps as a ring fence to force you to see their ads and give up your analytics.
I've personally not installed any ad blocking on my phone, tablet or computers as I don't find Ads a problem.
Sympathy for the Devil? Perhaps. Someone has to pay. I'm just saying it could be worse.
Taking into context a certain presidential candidate's use of private email server to do government work which will not be an exceptional case but a common past and future problem for national security does the government want a back door to itself?
Since the root problem here is human individuals, bad guys, good guys, public, etc how to you prevent your own gun being turned on you.
I suspect that's part of the issue from Rogers stand point.
Of course he may not have got the memo about "2+2=5" and the other one reminding him that "The heresy of heresies is common sense"
He could just be looking for a good Retirement Package in time for the Ski season.
I miss the cold war.
Back in the good old days the "free west", would tout it's political and social freedom as why it was on the side of humanity.
Something for the oppressed behind the iron curtain to dream of attaining and seeing their over lords for the tyrants they were.
Then down came the Berlin Wall.
Today you'd think the history books on the communist era in east Europe were the manuals/manifestos for state control in the West.
The only thing our governments needs to be better than today is IS.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. No?
I wouldn't want to have been the AB+ rep attending, left alone in the corner feeling like a pork pie at a Jewish wedding...
It was an act of kindness.
May I add that I'm also curious as to why the BBC hasn't made the iPlayer service restricted to British TV licence holders.
It can't be to stop viewing outside of the UK, if you are on business/vacation you should still be entitled to watch what you've paid for.
It's technically simple to do, much easier than IP address blocking.
So it leaves me thinking it's intentional by both the BBC and NetFlix.
I seem to remember a slew of "entrepreneurs" from the UK being extradited to the US for running online gambling and accepting customers from the US where gambling was illegal.
e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Carruthers
The case against them was that they colluded with banks to accept non-UK credit card payments, specifically US cards.
So the excuse of not knowing the customers were gambling illegally was inadmissible.
Which leaves me wondering why all the talk of Netflix playing the pointless game of IP address whack-a-mole.
Card billing address should suffice.
If Netflix starts accepting bitcoin....
Just before Xmas we had the Joomla patch every version from 1->3 to fix the user agent string attack vulnerability.
Every Joomla sight I know of cough up it's configuration.php contents causing en-masse password changing.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/12/14/1959231/attackers-can-hijack-joomla-sites-via-user-agent-strings#comments
All CMS are insecure, it's just knowing where the undiscovered holes are.
I had 2 kids with my ex wife who then nagged me into getting a vasectomy.
It's very easy, easier than going to the dentist for a filling in fact.
However I then started getting pain in my nuts.
You see they tie off your vas and the sperm has no where to go - think of the car chase scene in the Blue's Brothers with all the cop cars piling up on top of each other. That's your epididymis swelling up with all the sperm piling up.
This German inventor's idea doesn't solve this problem however it does allow you to switch back on if you do get congestive epididymitis.
After I split with her I had it reversed.
2 hours on the table and a couple of big black grape fruits the next morning.
3 months for the bruising to fade.
I timed it to be when I was writing my thesis for my masters. Plenty of quiet, sitting down working time.
I've now got 5 kids and no.6 due in March. Pisses my ex off no end.
I still, occasionally, get congestive epididymitis.
Interesting fact. Vasectomy is illegal in France. Smart country. ;)
The only positive was it raised my Testosterone level to somewhere near where it was when I was 16.
Going back to University for a year, single, sterile and horny as a teenager made for a very memorable time in my life.
As a war veteran of vasectomy my advice is this.
Leave your nuts alone to do what they are supposed to do!
I'm very sceptical of any "2 minutes of hate" campaign against diesel. Especially when there's a price war on oil to kill off competition by Saudi.
Fuel prices at the pump are at their lowest since 2009 just now.
Diesel was a dirty fuel, which has had it's act cleaned up. The AdBlue cats have done a lot to help that.
As I see it this is a long game plan by OPEC's leader(s) to kill off competition and then raise prices while at the same time using politicians and media to go after petrol's more economical rival diesel.
If you want to talk dirty and pollution I think now is the time to scrap all fuel burning vehicles and go electric.
Picking on just one isn't the solution.
Ditto. Just filled my 2 year old Citreon GP with 10L of AdBlue just as it's clock turned 30,000Km.
Media technology has seen quick adoption due to making porn accessible.
Look at the Betamax -v- VHS war which Sony lost due to their prudish stance towards porn.
Arguably the uptake of home internet may well have been driven by porn too.
Prediction. circa~2036.
She: Are you wearing vr-contacts?
You: Eh... Yeah... I forgot to take them out before we got into bed.
A whole new meaning to the term "beer goggles". ;)