I use this thing on my Android called 'folders'. It allows me to arrange apps by category (i.e. Internet, Social, Shopping, Finance, Games) and only have to look at 4-16 icons. I then arrange the icons in the folder based on their frequency of use so that the one I use the most is in the upper left. And I still have room left for a couple of really heavily used apps that I don't want in folders.
Then there are multiple pages, I use only two. I use one for folders and the other for miscellaneous, like weather, shortcuts to call and text my wife, and my music.
So I have access to 52 apps and four widgets with no more than a swipe, tap, and tap.. depending on which page I need to go to. Things I use the most are just one tap.
The problem isn't the proliferation of apps, it's people being too lazy to manage them. My wife used to drive me crazy with the tablet because she insisted on letting every new app install it's icon on the screen, and she wouldn't delete apps she didn't like. So now she has her own.
My phone never tells me an app needs to update, I've turned that notification off. And turned on auto-update. For those apps that don't auto-update due to permissions, or those people that are paranoid and don't want auto-update, only do it once a week or month. I've found that most apps work just fine if even they aren't updated.
And most mobile web sites have a 'full site' link at the bottom. Click it. Sorry it took you an extra click to get somewhere. I think people need to google the word 'patience' and stop demanding everything NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! What do folks need the extra 3 seconds for, play more angry birds??? (Oh wait.. that's old school. What is it now, flappy bird??? Oh wait , wasn't that pulled??? I can't keep up with this crap.)
It's easier to learn the language when assisted by an IDE. Qt Creator is my favorite, followed by NetBeans.
'Easier' rarely makes a 'better' product. I've seen all the 'next big things' come and go, and all the problems 'easier' has always prompted. Which is why one should start with the basics and learn them first. I use IDEs, but I've also been programming for over 30 years. I learned the dirty little details about assembler and COBOL and FORTRAN and C and C++ and perl and Java and who knows how many others by using text editors.
Now.. I don't think we need to go all the way back to assembler (although it would be nice of Java programs understood memory utilization a bit better and stopped writing code that stored a bunch of useless information in memory just because it's easier.. but I digress).
Because of that experience, when something doesn't work in Java the way I expect, I can read the generated code and understand it. I can take that code, modify it, and make it work the way I want it to instead of having to accept the way the IDE does it. I understand the consequences of misplaced parenthesis and braces, writing 'if' statements without an else, or 'try.. catch' blocks without a finally. I know when it's OK and when it's not.
Because I've made mistakes and had to fix them instead of some machine making my code perfect every time.
I can evaluate Groovy not just based on a reduction in the amount of written code, but because I understand why those things that make Java a little bit wordy exist and decide whether or not it's a good thing. And when I do use it, what I have to watch out for because a bunch of code is now missing.
Go ahead, depend on your IDE. And other things that make programming easier.
And when you can't figure something out behind the scenes, call someone who learned how to not depend on them.
I guess when you get to be so good people are willing to pay you that much, you will politely refuse it. But you will still put in 7 day work weeks, never get an uninterrupted vacation and be willing to away from your family for long periods because you are just such a nice guy.
Or is it because you will never get to be that good at anything, you feel that you have some right to tell other people how to spend their money.
That 'compensation package worth 88mil' isn't all cash, so dropping it to 50mil doesn't translate into necessarily being able to hire more workers. If the company tanks, all of the stock options in the package are worthless. Their compensation is very much tied to the company's success.
I suppose you are also in favor of getting rid of multi-million dollar sports player salaries and high-priced actors also, especially since they don't really earn it. For that matter, how about we limit the ability of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to make billions also. Let's just put a cap of 50mil/year max for everyone.
That should make it much better for companies.. they won't have to pay as much and can lower their prices. They'll still lay off people, since NOT SELLING ENOUGH STUFF IS USUALLY THE REASON PEOPLE GET LAID OFF YOU IDIOT!
My daughter and son-in-law are both graduating this year, at the age of 28, with zero debt except for a $500/month house payment. They also have a 1 year old child, and they own a house. He will receive his PhD in engineering, she will receive a BA in molecular biology. Both already have job prospects. Well paying job prospects. They will be able to go to just about any part of the US to work that they want to because their skills are in demand. But, to be fair, they don't need high paying jobs because they don't have any debt and already own part of a home. It's amazing how little money one needs when one doesn't have car payments, credit card payments, expensive internet bills, and a host of other luxury items.
No.. their parents aren't rich, although family members did contribute when they could. They did this thing called 'saving' and used things called 'scholarships'. They went to a state school instead of spending money they didn't have to go out of state. Then they did this thing called 'living with their parents' before they got married, and waited until they could afford a house to get married. During this time, they did this thing called 'only going to school when I have the money to go to school, even if it's part time'. They also did this thing called 'work', my daughter worked part-time at PetSmart for a year until she got into their dog grooming programing where THEY trained her in exchange for 2 years of work. She made pretty good money and continued grooming part-time on her own after she left there. All while going to college part time.
The problem isn't with finding funding for school. The problem is with a society that has brain-washed us into thinking that one has to go to college right out of high school, one has to live on campus for the 'experience', and one has to go full time. Sorry.. that's all just bull shit. My ex works as an RN (2 year vocational training) and only has to work 4 days a week because her home is paid off, I am a systems engineer with a 6 figure salary and never took more than a handful of post-high school classes, My wife is a book keeper with only one semester under her belt. Yet all of us seem to make a pretty darn good living. I'm not jetting off to Europe every summer, but we manage to enjoy our lives and not live paycheck to paycheck.
My daughter was convinced she wanted to be a vet. Fortunately, because she was working at PetSmart, she got a chance to see what all that was like and changed to something more to her liking.
I'm not against college, colleges are one source of knowledge. Some people can't learn without someone standing in front of them making them do homework and study for tests. I'm not against spending large sums of money to go to a private college if one can afford it. I am against going into debt for things that aren't worth it (i.e. living on campus) or because some self-righteous high school councilor is convinced that people can't possible succeed in life unless they go to college right out of high school.
If someone wants to go to college, they should be smart enough to figure out how to do it without going into debt. Or figure out if they go into debt, how they are going to pay for it. If they can't figure either of those things out, maybe they just aren't smart enough to go to college.
And one thing I've noticed is the smarter and more self-motivated someone is, the less they need a college education to succeed.
And of course there is the driving in heat/cold problem that sucks down the juice far faster than normal. Let's see them do the same Phoenix/LA trip in July, when temps hit 110 and most people will want the A/C running. Or how about from Fort Kent Maine to NY one day with the temps hovering close to zero, in a snow storm where you have to run BOTH the A/C and heater (A/C takes moisture out of the air and makes it easier to keep the inside of the car frost-free).
I don't want a car that I can drive most days, most places where there are roads. I want one like the one i have now, that will take me just the same places I go now whenever I want to. And if there aren't enough gas stations along the way, I can toss a couple of jerry cans in the back to get a few more miles.
I'm not against electric cars, but I can afford to drive my truck when it's hot or raining, and my motorcycle every other day. I have no desire to restrict my driving habits just to save a few dollars. People want to earn more and more money so they can enjoy more things in life, not fewer.
And I'm not getting a third car, there isn't enough room in our garage for the vehicles we have now and any gas savings will need to be used to pay for the higher insurance of a newer car compared to my 13 year old truck and 25 year old motorcycle.
He copied classified information, regardless of the ability of the data to address the concerns he had, and arranged to have them made public. And admitted to it.
He then fled the country to escape prosecution.
He has already admitted his involvement in the breaking of several laws. There is no question he did those things.
The only question is whether or not his reason for doing so was enough to justify his actions.
So far, I don't see any valid legal reason to not find him guilty and toss him in jail for the rest of his life. On multiple charges.
The only reason I would agree to is if he had a specific person whose life was in danger that he was trying to save. And that person was a US citizen whose life was in danger because of the actions of the NSA. And that specific person wasn't someone trying to do harm to the United States. (Whether the NSA is doing harm or intending to do harm is an opinion, not a fact.)
Maybe if the people around you had a good work ethic and worked it wouldn't be so noisy.
Maybe you need to tell them to shut the fuck up and get back to work. Or suggest to their manager they need additional work.
The company I work for pays me to work, not discuss politics while in their building. If I have to discuss something with someone in person, we have these things called 'conference rooms' with doors that close and keep the noise in the room. We also have this think called a 'network' so I can pick up my laptop, go to a conference room, and still have everything on my screen. I try to limit my talk about what I did this weekend to when I'm in the break room or walking down the hallways.
I have a 'U' shaped cubicle that is probably 10x8 feet. The desk area has two standard filing cabinets and one long one. It also has two book shelves. All I really need is space for my two monitors, keyboard, laptop, mouse, phone, and a place for drinks. I haven't cracked a physical book in probably 5 years, both bookshelves are empty. I could probably get by easily with half that space.
Had an office a couple of times. Didn't really care. Don't notice much of a difference between the quality or quantity of work I did then and now, except I've gotten better over the years and work a bit faster/smarter. None of that had anything to do with being in an office.
1. Android devices still outnumber Apple in the phone/tablet world 2. Windows still outnumbers Apple in the desktop/laptop world. 3. Apple doesn't even really do business computing anymore. 4. Apple is still an over-priced piece of proprietary hardware/software that is anti-competitive (i.e. iOS only licensed to run on Apple hardware when any PC could run it and hundreds of hardware manufacturers could be making different types of phones) that has no distinct advantage over anything else except some people think it's cool. There is absolutely nothing about it that makes it 'special' other than it looks pretty. 5. Both my wife and daughter have left the Apple cult and never want to go back. I know several other people who feel the same way. People are wising up to Apple's deceit.
Apple products are decent products. They work and do what they are supposed to do. Someone that elevates them to anything more than just another device is simply trying to justify why they spent too much money on something.
This has happened to me when I've talked in a 'stream of consciousness' about something I didn't know, but was guessing, and had people ask me questions later about the subject matter. When we sort things out that I'm not the expert they think, I've been told that I sounded very confident about what I was saying, which is why they thought I knew what I was talking about. I've since learned to interject comments like "I'm not sure" or "it might be something like this" to make sure people don't take things I say as facts when I'm only guessing.
I'm just an old, overweight white guy so it can't be an Asian thing for me.
I don't know where I heard it, but it seems to apply far too often: An expert is just someone who you think knows more than you do about something.
Why??? Snowden did far more harm than good. Nothing has been done about anything he revealed, courts have been ruling it's legal. Our allies have gotten pissed at us for doing something they already do, and have done for decades, just no one reports.
All he did was confirm what everyone already knew, that the NSA was spying on everything.
Stay in exile you spineless criminal, living in fear the black helicopters will come. Stay in exile in a country with far more privacy issues than the US will ever have, and far more intrusions into your personal liberties.
So sad that a criminal is listed as an influential person. Especially one so cowardly and spineless as to flee instead of actually staying and working towards what he believed in. I hope he lives to a ripe old age and has to spend his life constantly hiding in the shadows in fear. In countries with worse personal liberties and freedoms than the one he fled from.
Really?? My Android works well and doesn't require any maintenance. So does my computer. I agree that Apple products work well, but I've heard enough horror stories about upgrades, inability to swap out batteries, expensive repair costs, and other items to doubt the actual truth in that statement. Heard horror stories about MS and Android too, so at best it's an even swap.
Purchasing because of the perception that somehow Apple products need less maintenance or work better than anything else I agree with. People often forge their own realities when rationalizing spending too much money on something.
I remember my daughter buying an iPhone because of the 'cool' zoom feature. Her next phone purchase was an Android phone because it was cheaper, had the same capabilities, and far more choices. She had seen me use mine and couldn't find any reason to pay more. She has been an Android user ever since, and doesn't even consider iPhones any more. My wife went through the same thing with Nano and iTouch and refuses to ever buy Apple products because of the crappy DRM and difficulty in using iTunes. She prefers her big and clunky Creative Labs music player because it just works. She loves her Galaxy Note because of the big screen.
Maybe one day Apple will get smart and realize hardware is a commodity and let people run their software on any hardware they want to.
I don't recall writing anything about OSS. But, to fall for your troll, I buy Windows and Linux products because I can legally install them on computers I build. Apple won't let you do that. I buy Android because of the many different proprietary hardware platforms it runs on. I can swap out any part I want on my car if I want to and buy parts from many different vendors. I don't need do those things on the TV or microwave.
Your comparison is petulant and irrelevant.
Apple hasn't made better products for years, it now only makes different products. Better is subjective and nothing about any Apple product makes them superior over others in the same category. Just better in the eyes of some people who have different values.
I guess if someone thinks 'better' is the same as 'looks pretty', 'makes me look cool', and 'overpriced', Apple has filled that niche. Just about the only niche it has filled, since in every other category they are not the market leader by a long shot.
Sadly, too many people spend too much money on 'high end' because they use the concept 'looks cool' instead of 'meets ones needs' when making purchasing decisions. Or don't look at what they give up (i.e. options, competition) when they use only one vendor because they want to be unique like everyone else that buys it.
Or.. someone would have bought up GM at fire-sale prices, still owned all the patents and brand name but free from the yoke of union blackmail, been able to reduce wages and benefits to be in line with other auto manufacturers, and become a stronger company that is better able to whether economic downturns.
Instead, we have the same company with the same problems just waiting for the same conditions to happen again. One that screwed some minor unions and dealers that didn't have political backing in the process that no one seems to care about and the media doesn't seem to want to point out.
Why is it that the banks were able to pay back their infusion of cash, but not GM??? Because it's not the economic powerhouse we have all been mislead to believe it is. The 'what if' story is spread as if it is the truth, when in fact it's just what someone wants us to believe to make themselves look good.
I will never buy a GM car again. Thousands of Americans feel the same way. I'm sure at some point our memories will fade, but Toyota, Honda, and Ford all offer fine US made cars so it's going to take a long time.
Why bother with that either (unless you already have one.. which any self-respecting geek should already have). I have this thing called a 'clock' that I can use to determine how quickly something is charging. It's pretty simple to figure out which ones take the least amount of time to get to a full charge. I can then buy more of the ones that charge faster if I want to.
If someone has some money they want to waste on a device that only has one purpose, I won't argue with them stimulating the economy. But really.. $25US for this??? I'll pass.....
I've been using TurboTax desktop software for more than a decade, maybe two, and never had a problem. It has helped find deductions I didn't know I could take because I took the time to answer all the questions. It has helped with difficult things like a cross-country move where I had to file in two different states. And when I failed to claim capital losses (didn't know you had to file stock trades if you lost money), it helped me to file a correction and get even more money back after the IRS sent me a 'you owe' notice. The end result was that without spending a dime more, Turbo Tax did all the paperwork once I entered the information that *I* neglected to do the first time. It's never made a math error, and the only times I've gotten anything from the IRS is when I neglected to report something that I got paperwork for.
Now let's see.. $3,400 deduction at the 27% tax rate is $918. Exactly how many years of their service without finding anything new is that going to pay for??? It's an ROI question for me... TurboTax may miss something once in awhile because *I* fail to enter it and it doesn't ask the right question, but that can happen with tax accountants too. I get to sit at my desk and use it, all the info is in Quicken, I don't have to dig through or organize receipts unless I get audited. It's time better spent to me. I also use it half way through the next tax season to make sure I'm not going to be drastically overpaying by 'faking' a tax return using YTD information. How much is that going to cost me at an accountant's office??
My take on it is that someone like me that works at a regular job (i.e. no contract work), doesn't have a lot of complex tax situations like real estate purchases and sales or a home business, shouldn't have to spend the extra money for an accountant to do my taxes. My taxes basically don't change year-to-year because my life rarely changes much.
But neither your anecdotal story nor mine is any real reason for someone else. Everyone is different.
But, more on topic, I never use online software, don't trust it. Not one bit.
I have in my wallet, 12 different credit/debit cards:
1. A debit card that is used mostly at the ATM, but sometimes for small purchases. If I didn't need it for ATM access I would get rid of it because debit cards have very poor protection from fraud and mistakes. We were once double charged for groceries and it took almost a week to get $200 back. I don't use it for any large purchases anymore. Or shop at that store.
2. Amex because I think they have the best fraud division and customer service in my opinion. I also get points and use it for some of my monthly bills. Regardless, it's the one I use most often and has an absurd credit limit in my mind, one that I should never need. But it's good to know it's there if I need it. It gets paid off every month, although I don't have to. I have often considered getting rid of the rest except my debit card because I don't really need them
3. One Visa card because the account is 20 years old; long standing accounts improve credit scores. I use it once in a while just to keep it active. It has the highest interest rate and a pretty good limit. It gets paid off every month.
4. Two Mastercard cards because they have very low interest rates that I use whenever I buy something that might take a few months to pay off. The limits are pretty good, but lower than the other two above.
5. Cards for Lowes and Home Depot, because they both offer 'x months same as cash'. I use them for things around the house that are expensive that I can budget and pay off in the next 3-6 months. And I never pay any interest charges because I always pay them off on time.
6. A card for my FSA that I use to charge medical expenses to. No interest rate, and I get a tax break.
7. Four gas cards, because I like to use them to get gas. They have small credit limits and get paid off every month. I have four because that means that wherever I go in the US, the odds are that there will be one of those gas stations. Reduces fraud since the limits are very low and can only be used at limited places, and not online. I also play a game where I don't use a card the last two weeks of it's billing cycle. This lets me push off paying for gas a little bit more. Doesn't really save me any money, I just like to do it. It feels like I'm winning something.
I don't have any store credit cards, like Kohls or Macys, simply because I never buy anything there that I either pay cash for, or that I can't use my other cards for.
I keep all of the actual credit cards because it allows me to have a higher credit balance without impacting my credit score. Yet no single card, if stolen (other than the Amex) has that high a limit. Having $4000 outstanding on a $5000 card brings your score down less than having $5000 outstanding on several cards with a total limit over $15K. And if I'm hardly paying any interest on the $5000, because most of it is either paid off every month or on a 3-6 months same-as-cash incentive, why not??? Your credit score is based on how you handle credit, not whether or not you've ever been late. Keeping it as high as possible means lower rates on cars, houses, and credit cards. I usually qualify for the 0% rates on cars and most of my credit cards are in the sub-12% range. Which is irrelevant since I rarely pay interest anyway.
Just relating why someone might have lots of cards even if they pay them off every month. This may not work for many people, but I manage my money and it doesn't cause me any problems. If someone is willing to give me money for free (i.e. I don't have to pay to use it), why not take advantage of it if I can manage my ability to pay it back?
But... back on topic... as many times as I've been asked for my card at a store, I doubt if this would enable me to leave my cards at home anyway. So other than gas stations and self-service kiosks, I don't see it catching on until that issue is resolved.
However.. if this thing would work for rewards programs.. I'm in!!!! I'd love to get those things off my key chain.
Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean it needs to be changed. You can want it to be changed, but expecting it to be changed to suit you is only your ego talking.
Why don't you run for office and try to make a difference instead of expecting other people to do it....
The only gold medal he deserves is a bag of flour. And only a coupon for one. Snowden hasn't sacrificed jack squat, he is now far more famous than he ever was, has thousands if not millions of groupies, and can probably get paid thousands of dollars for writing a crappy book or for speaking engagements. He probably no longer even as to work. Same holds true for Agassi.
I sure wish there was a volume control so I could turn off all news items that even mention his name. Except the one where he is sent back to the US to face the consequences of his actions.
Because I don't have to take it out of my pocket to see why it buzzes?? Or just to check the time or weather??? Lot's of apps don't need a lot of screen real estate.. weather, calculator, phone, calendar, checking if emails are worth reading, text messages. Having an easy-to-reach display serves a real function even if it has reduced functionality. How about incorporating a small, wide angle camera that one could operate with voice commands?? It doesn't have to be the highest resolution, just enough for quick, uncomposed snaps. I take a lot of blind shots with my camera phone now so people don't know I'm taking them, you get really good at it after awhile. But I have to take it out of my pocket and set it to camera mode, which takes awhile.
Just because someone isn't clever enough to think of any use doesn't mean there aren't any.
I haven't worn a watch in over 10 years because I don't like something on my wrist with only one function. When I did, I bought the slimmest watch I could find. At one point, I had a nice Seiko multi-function watch that was very slim and had a stop watch and alarm in addition to being just a watch. Still have it in my nightstand. I might reconsider once these become a bit less nerdish and slimmer. I'll never have google glass because it's too big and labels someone immediately to other people, often in non-complimentary ways. Incorporate something into my existing eye glasses that disappears and I'd reconsider.
Slashdot Mirror
I use this thing on my Android called 'folders'. It allows me to arrange apps by category (i.e. Internet, Social, Shopping, Finance, Games) and only have to look at 4-16 icons. I then arrange the icons in the folder based on their frequency of use so that the one I use the most is in the upper left. And I still have room left for a couple of really heavily used apps that I don't want in folders.
Then there are multiple pages, I use only two. I use one for folders and the other for miscellaneous, like weather, shortcuts to call and text my wife, and my music.
So I have access to 52 apps and four widgets with no more than a swipe, tap, and tap .. depending on which page I need to go to. Things I use the most are just one tap.
The problem isn't the proliferation of apps, it's people being too lazy to manage them. My wife used to drive me crazy with the tablet because she insisted on letting every new app install it's icon on the screen, and she wouldn't delete apps she didn't like. So now she has her own.
My phone never tells me an app needs to update, I've turned that notification off. And turned on auto-update. For those apps that don't auto-update due to permissions, or those people that are paranoid and don't want auto-update, only do it once a week or month. I've found that most apps work just fine if even they aren't updated.
And most mobile web sites have a 'full site' link at the bottom. Click it. Sorry it took you an extra click to get somewhere. I think people need to google the word 'patience' and stop demanding everything NOW NOW NOW NOW!!! What do folks need the extra 3 seconds for, play more angry birds??? (Oh wait .. that's old school. What is it now, flappy bird??? Oh wait , wasn't that pulled??? I can't keep up with this crap.)
It's easier to learn the language when assisted by an IDE. Qt Creator is my favorite, followed by NetBeans.
'Easier' rarely makes a 'better' product. I've seen all the 'next big things' come and go, and all the problems 'easier' has always prompted. Which is why one should start with the basics and learn them first. I use IDEs, but I've also been programming for over 30 years. I learned the dirty little details about assembler and COBOL and FORTRAN and C and C++ and perl and Java and who knows how many others by using text editors.
Now .. I don't think we need to go all the way back to assembler (although it would be nice of Java programs understood memory utilization a bit better and stopped writing code that stored a bunch of useless information in memory just because it's easier .. but I digress).
Because of that experience, when something doesn't work in Java the way I expect, I can read the generated code and understand it. I can take that code, modify it, and make it work the way I want it to instead of having to accept the way the IDE does it. I understand the consequences of misplaced parenthesis and braces, writing 'if' statements without an else, or 'try .. catch' blocks without a finally. I know when it's OK and when it's not.
Because I've made mistakes and had to fix them instead of some machine making my code perfect every time.
I can evaluate Groovy not just based on a reduction in the amount of written code, but because I understand why those things that make Java a little bit wordy exist and decide whether or not it's a good thing. And when I do use it, what I have to watch out for because a bunch of code is now missing.
Go ahead, depend on your IDE. And other things that make programming easier.
And when you can't figure something out behind the scenes, call someone who learned how to not depend on them.
I guess when you get to be so good people are willing to pay you that much, you will politely refuse it. But you will still put in 7 day work weeks, never get an uninterrupted vacation and be willing to away from your family for long periods because you are just such a nice guy.
Or is it because you will never get to be that good at anything, you feel that you have some right to tell other people how to spend their money.
That 'compensation package worth 88mil' isn't all cash, so dropping it to 50mil doesn't translate into necessarily being able to hire more workers. If the company tanks, all of the stock options in the package are worthless. Their compensation is very much tied to the company's success.
I suppose you are also in favor of getting rid of multi-million dollar sports player salaries and high-priced actors also, especially since they don't really earn it. For that matter, how about we limit the ability of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to make billions also. Let's just put a cap of 50mil/year max for everyone.
That should make it much better for companies .. they won't have to pay as much and can lower their prices. They'll still lay off people, since NOT SELLING ENOUGH STUFF IS USUALLY THE REASON PEOPLE GET LAID OFF YOU IDIOT!
My daughter and son-in-law are both graduating this year, at the age of 28, with zero debt except for a $500/month house payment. They also have a 1 year old child, and they own a house. He will receive his PhD in engineering, she will receive a BA in molecular biology. Both already have job prospects. Well paying job prospects. They will be able to go to just about any part of the US to work that they want to because their skills are in demand. But, to be fair, they don't need high paying jobs because they don't have any debt and already own part of a home. It's amazing how little money one needs when one doesn't have car payments, credit card payments, expensive internet bills, and a host of other luxury items.
No .. their parents aren't rich, although family members did contribute when they could. They did this thing called 'saving' and used things called 'scholarships'. They went to a state school instead of spending money they didn't have to go out of state. Then they did this thing called 'living with their parents' before they got married, and waited until they could afford a house to get married. During this time, they did this thing called 'only going to school when I have the money to go to school, even if it's part time'. They also did this thing called 'work', my daughter worked part-time at PetSmart for a year until she got into their dog grooming programing where THEY trained her in exchange for 2 years of work. She made pretty good money and continued grooming part-time on her own after she left there. All while going to college part time.
The problem isn't with finding funding for school. The problem is with a society that has brain-washed us into thinking that one has to go to college right out of high school, one has to live on campus for the 'experience', and one has to go full time. Sorry .. that's all just bull shit. My ex works as an RN (2 year vocational training) and only has to work 4 days a week because her home is paid off, I am a systems engineer with a 6 figure salary and never took more than a handful of post-high school classes, My wife is a book keeper with only one semester under her belt. Yet all of us seem to make a pretty darn good living. I'm not jetting off to Europe every summer, but we manage to enjoy our lives and not live paycheck to paycheck.
My daughter was convinced she wanted to be a vet. Fortunately, because she was working at PetSmart, she got a chance to see what all that was like and changed to something more to her liking.
I'm not against college, colleges are one source of knowledge. Some people can't learn without someone standing in front of them making them do homework and study for tests. I'm not against spending large sums of money to go to a private college if one can afford it. I am against going into debt for things that aren't worth it (i.e. living on campus) or because some self-righteous high school councilor is convinced that people can't possible succeed in life unless they go to college right out of high school.
If someone wants to go to college, they should be smart enough to figure out how to do it without going into debt. Or figure out if they go into debt, how they are going to pay for it. If they can't figure either of those things out, maybe they just aren't smart enough to go to college.
And one thing I've noticed is the smarter and more self-motivated someone is, the less they need a college education to succeed.
As far as I'm aware, people can still go to Sochi and watch it.
Spend your own money or shut the fuck up.
And of course there is the driving in heat/cold problem that sucks down the juice far faster than normal. Let's see them do the same Phoenix/LA trip in July, when temps hit 110 and most people will want the A/C running. Or how about from Fort Kent Maine to NY one day with the temps hovering close to zero, in a snow storm where you have to run BOTH the A/C and heater (A/C takes moisture out of the air and makes it easier to keep the inside of the car frost-free).
I don't want a car that I can drive most days, most places where there are roads. I want one like the one i have now, that will take me just the same places I go now whenever I want to. And if there aren't enough gas stations along the way, I can toss a couple of jerry cans in the back to get a few more miles.
I'm not against electric cars, but I can afford to drive my truck when it's hot or raining, and my motorcycle every other day. I have no desire to restrict my driving habits just to save a few dollars. People want to earn more and more money so they can enjoy more things in life, not fewer.
And I'm not getting a third car, there isn't enough room in our garage for the vehicles we have now and any gas savings will need to be used to pay for the higher insurance of a newer car compared to my 13 year old truck and 25 year old motorcycle.
And then came Barack Obama, whose only achievement in life was giving a few speeches and being a (mostly absent) senator.
Now they give it so someone who has caused strained relations between countries and, if anything, has made the world just a bit less safe.
The Nobel Peace Prize is simply a tool for socialist liberals to reward their heroes .. it means nothing anymore.
He copied classified information, regardless of the ability of the data to address the concerns he had, and arranged to have them made public. And admitted to it.
He then fled the country to escape prosecution.
He has already admitted his involvement in the breaking of several laws. There is no question he did those things.
The only question is whether or not his reason for doing so was enough to justify his actions.
So far, I don't see any valid legal reason to not find him guilty and toss him in jail for the rest of his life. On multiple charges.
The only reason I would agree to is if he had a specific person whose life was in danger that he was trying to save. And that person was a US citizen whose life was in danger because of the actions of the NSA. And that specific person wasn't someone trying to do harm to the United States. (Whether the NSA is doing harm or intending to do harm is an opinion, not a fact.)
Maybe if the people around you had a good work ethic and worked it wouldn't be so noisy.
Maybe you need to tell them to shut the fuck up and get back to work. Or suggest to their manager they need additional work.
The company I work for pays me to work, not discuss politics while in their building. If I have to discuss something with someone in person, we have these things called 'conference rooms' with doors that close and keep the noise in the room. We also have this think called a 'network' so I can pick up my laptop, go to a conference room, and still have everything on my screen. I try to limit my talk about what I did this weekend to when I'm in the break room or walking down the hallways.
I have a 'U' shaped cubicle that is probably 10x8 feet. The desk area has two standard filing cabinets and one long one. It also has two book shelves. All I really need is space for my two monitors, keyboard, laptop, mouse, phone, and a place for drinks. I haven't cracked a physical book in probably 5 years, both bookshelves are empty. I could probably get by easily with half that space.
Had an office a couple of times. Didn't really care. Don't notice much of a difference between the quality or quantity of work I did then and now, except I've gotten better over the years and work a bit faster/smarter. None of that had anything to do with being in an office.
1. Android devices still outnumber Apple in the phone/tablet world
2. Windows still outnumbers Apple in the desktop/laptop world.
3. Apple doesn't even really do business computing anymore.
4. Apple is still an over-priced piece of proprietary hardware/software that is anti-competitive (i.e. iOS only licensed to run on Apple hardware when any PC could run it and hundreds of hardware manufacturers could be making different types of phones) that has no distinct advantage over anything else except some people think it's cool. There is absolutely nothing about it that makes it 'special' other than it looks pretty.
5. Both my wife and daughter have left the Apple cult and never want to go back. I know several other people who feel the same way. People are wising up to Apple's deceit.
Apple products are decent products. They work and do what they are supposed to do. Someone that elevates them to anything more than just another device is simply trying to justify why they spent too much money on something.
This has happened to me when I've talked in a 'stream of consciousness' about something I didn't know, but was guessing, and had people ask me questions later about the subject matter. When we sort things out that I'm not the expert they think, I've been told that I sounded very confident about what I was saying, which is why they thought I knew what I was talking about. I've since learned to interject comments like "I'm not sure" or "it might be something like this" to make sure people don't take things I say as facts when I'm only guessing.
I'm just an old, overweight white guy so it can't be an Asian thing for me.
I don't know where I heard it, but it seems to apply far too often: An expert is just someone who you think knows more than you do about something.
Why??? Snowden did far more harm than good. Nothing has been done about anything he revealed, courts have been ruling it's legal. Our allies have gotten pissed at us for doing something they already do, and have done for decades, just no one reports.
All he did was confirm what everyone already knew, that the NSA was spying on everything.
Stay in exile you spineless criminal, living in fear the black helicopters will come. Stay in exile in a country with far more privacy issues than the US will ever have, and far more intrusions into your personal liberties.
It's exactly what you deserve.
So sad that a criminal is listed as an influential person. Especially one so cowardly and spineless as to flee instead of actually staying and working towards what he believed in. I hope he lives to a ripe old age and has to spend his life constantly hiding in the shadows in fear. In countries with worse personal liberties and freedoms than the one he fled from.
Really?? My Android works well and doesn't require any maintenance. So does my computer. I agree that Apple products work well, but I've heard enough horror stories about upgrades, inability to swap out batteries, expensive repair costs, and other items to doubt the actual truth in that statement. Heard horror stories about MS and Android too, so at best it's an even swap.
Purchasing because of the perception that somehow Apple products need less maintenance or work better than anything else I agree with. People often forge their own realities when rationalizing spending too much money on something.
I remember my daughter buying an iPhone because of the 'cool' zoom feature. Her next phone purchase was an Android phone because it was cheaper, had the same capabilities, and far more choices. She had seen me use mine and couldn't find any reason to pay more. She has been an Android user ever since, and doesn't even consider iPhones any more. My wife went through the same thing with Nano and iTouch and refuses to ever buy Apple products because of the crappy DRM and difficulty in using iTunes. She prefers her big and clunky Creative Labs music player because it just works. She loves her Galaxy Note because of the big screen.
Maybe one day Apple will get smart and realize hardware is a commodity and let people run their software on any hardware they want to.
I don't recall writing anything about OSS. But, to fall for your troll, I buy Windows and Linux products because I can legally install them on computers I build. Apple won't let you do that. I buy Android because of the many different proprietary hardware platforms it runs on. I can swap out any part I want on my car if I want to and buy parts from many different vendors. I don't need do those things on the TV or microwave.
Your comparison is petulant and irrelevant.
Apple hasn't made better products for years, it now only makes different products. Better is subjective and nothing about any Apple product makes them superior over others in the same category. Just better in the eyes of some people who have different values.
I guess if someone thinks 'better' is the same as 'looks pretty', 'makes me look cool', and 'overpriced', Apple has filled that niche. Just about the only niche it has filled, since in every other category they are not the market leader by a long shot.
Sadly, too many people spend too much money on 'high end' because they use the concept 'looks cool' instead of 'meets ones needs' when making purchasing decisions. Or don't look at what they give up (i.e. options, competition) when they use only one vendor because they want to be unique like everyone else that buys it.
There .. that's more accurate....
Or .. someone would have bought up GM at fire-sale prices, still owned all the patents and brand name but free from the yoke of union blackmail, been able to reduce wages and benefits to be in line with other auto manufacturers, and become a stronger company that is better able to whether economic downturns.
Instead, we have the same company with the same problems just waiting for the same conditions to happen again. One that screwed some minor unions and dealers that didn't have political backing in the process that no one seems to care about and the media doesn't seem to want to point out.
Why is it that the banks were able to pay back their infusion of cash, but not GM??? Because it's not the economic powerhouse we have all been mislead to believe it is. The 'what if' story is spread as if it is the truth, when in fact it's just what someone wants us to believe to make themselves look good.
I will never buy a GM car again. Thousands of Americans feel the same way. I'm sure at some point our memories will fade, but Toyota, Honda, and Ford all offer fine US made cars so it's going to take a long time.
Why bother with that either (unless you already have one .. which any self-respecting geek should already have). I have this thing called a 'clock' that I can use to determine how quickly something is charging. It's pretty simple to figure out which ones take the least amount of time to get to a full charge. I can then buy more of the ones that charge faster if I want to.
.. $25US for this??? I'll pass.....
If someone has some money they want to waste on a device that only has one purpose, I won't argue with them stimulating the economy. But really
I've been using TurboTax desktop software for more than a decade, maybe two, and never had a problem. It has helped find deductions I didn't know I could take because I took the time to answer all the questions. It has helped with difficult things like a cross-country move where I had to file in two different states. And when I failed to claim capital losses (didn't know you had to file stock trades if you lost money), it helped me to file a correction and get even more money back after the IRS sent me a 'you owe' notice. The end result was that without spending a dime more, Turbo Tax did all the paperwork once I entered the information that *I* neglected to do the first time. It's never made a math error, and the only times I've gotten anything from the IRS is when I neglected to report something that I got paperwork for.
.. $3,400 deduction at the 27% tax rate is $918. Exactly how many years of their service without finding anything new is that going to pay for??? It's an ROI question for me ... TurboTax may miss something once in awhile because *I* fail to enter it and it doesn't ask the right question, but that can happen with tax accountants too. I get to sit at my desk and use it, all the info is in Quicken, I don't have to dig through or organize receipts unless I get audited. It's time better spent to me. I also use it half way through the next tax season to make sure I'm not going to be drastically overpaying by 'faking' a tax return using YTD information. How much is that going to cost me at an accountant's office??
Now let's see
My take on it is that someone like me that works at a regular job (i.e. no contract work), doesn't have a lot of complex tax situations like real estate purchases and sales or a home business, shouldn't have to spend the extra money for an accountant to do my taxes. My taxes basically don't change year-to-year because my life rarely changes much.
But neither your anecdotal story nor mine is any real reason for someone else. Everyone is different.
But, more on topic, I never use online software, don't trust it. Not one bit.
I have in my wallet, 12 different credit/debit cards:
... back on topic ... as many times as I've been asked for my card at a store, I doubt if this would enable me to leave my cards at home anyway. So other than gas stations and self-service kiosks, I don't see it catching on until that issue is resolved.
.. if this thing would work for rewards programs .. I'm in!!!! I'd love to get those things off my key chain.
1. A debit card that is used mostly at the ATM, but sometimes for small purchases. If I didn't need it for ATM access I would get rid of it because debit cards have very poor protection from fraud and mistakes. We were once double charged for groceries and it took almost a week to get $200 back. I don't use it for any large purchases anymore. Or shop at that store.
2. Amex because I think they have the best fraud division and customer service in my opinion. I also get points and use it for some of my monthly bills. Regardless, it's the one I use most often and has an absurd credit limit in my mind, one that I should never need. But it's good to know it's there if I need it. It gets paid off every month, although I don't have to. I have often considered getting rid of the rest except my debit card because I don't really need them
3. One Visa card because the account is 20 years old; long standing accounts improve credit scores. I use it once in a while just to keep it active. It has the highest interest rate and a pretty good limit. It gets paid off every month.
4. Two Mastercard cards because they have very low interest rates that I use whenever I buy something that might take a few months to pay off. The limits are pretty good, but lower than the other two above.
5. Cards for Lowes and Home Depot, because they both offer 'x months same as cash'. I use them for things around the house that are expensive that I can budget and pay off in the next 3-6 months. And I never pay any interest charges because I always pay them off on time.
6. A card for my FSA that I use to charge medical expenses to. No interest rate, and I get a tax break.
7. Four gas cards, because I like to use them to get gas. They have small credit limits and get paid off every month. I have four because that means that wherever I go in the US, the odds are that there will be one of those gas stations. Reduces fraud since the limits are very low and can only be used at limited places, and not online. I also play a game where I don't use a card the last two weeks of it's billing cycle. This lets me push off paying for gas a little bit more. Doesn't really save me any money, I just like to do it. It feels like I'm winning something.
I don't have any store credit cards, like Kohls or Macys, simply because I never buy anything there that I either pay cash for, or that I can't use my other cards for.
I keep all of the actual credit cards because it allows me to have a higher credit balance without impacting my credit score. Yet no single card, if stolen (other than the Amex) has that high a limit. Having $4000 outstanding on a $5000 card brings your score down less than having $5000 outstanding on several cards with a total limit over $15K. And if I'm hardly paying any interest on the $5000, because most of it is either paid off every month or on a 3-6 months same-as-cash incentive, why not??? Your credit score is based on how you handle credit, not whether or not you've ever been late. Keeping it as high as possible means lower rates on cars, houses, and credit cards. I usually qualify for the 0% rates on cars and most of my credit cards are in the sub-12% range. Which is irrelevant since I rarely pay interest anyway.
Just relating why someone might have lots of cards even if they pay them off every month. This may not work for many people, but I manage my money and it doesn't cause me any problems. If someone is willing to give me money for free (i.e. I don't have to pay to use it), why not take advantage of it if I can manage my ability to pay it back?
But
However
Just because you don't agree with it, doesn't mean it needs to be changed. You can want it to be changed, but expecting it to be changed to suit you is only your ego talking.
Why don't you run for office and try to make a difference instead of expecting other people to do it....
The only gold medal he deserves is a bag of flour. And only a coupon for one. Snowden hasn't sacrificed jack squat, he is now far more famous than he ever was, has thousands if not millions of groupies, and can probably get paid thousands of dollars for writing a crappy book or for speaking engagements. He probably no longer even as to work. Same holds true for Agassi.
I sure wish there was a volume control so I could turn off all news items that even mention his name. Except the one where he is sent back to the US to face the consequences of his actions.
Because I don't have to take it out of my pocket to see why it buzzes?? Or just to check the time or weather??? Lot's of apps don't need a lot of screen real estate .. weather, calculator, phone, calendar, checking if emails are worth reading, text messages. Having an easy-to-reach display serves a real function even if it has reduced functionality. How about incorporating a small, wide angle camera that one could operate with voice commands?? It doesn't have to be the highest resolution, just enough for quick, uncomposed snaps. I take a lot of blind shots with my camera phone now so people don't know I'm taking them, you get really good at it after awhile. But I have to take it out of my pocket and set it to camera mode, which takes awhile.
Just because someone isn't clever enough to think of any use doesn't mean there aren't any.
I haven't worn a watch in over 10 years because I don't like something on my wrist with only one function. When I did, I bought the slimmest watch I could find. At one point, I had a nice Seiko multi-function watch that was very slim and had a stop watch and alarm in addition to being just a watch. Still have it in my nightstand. I might reconsider once these become a bit less nerdish and slimmer. I'll never have google glass because it's too big and labels someone immediately to other people, often in non-complimentary ways. Incorporate something into my existing eye glasses that disappears and I'd reconsider.