all of the people who expressed a preference wanted to see the 2D version.
I've seen it three times (I still can't believe it only came out a few weeks ago and is already on Blu-Ray), once in IMAX 3D and twice in 2D. While I don't regret seeing it in IMAX 3D, Joss did a phenomenal job with the 3D in that film, I've always found it to me much more analogous to "Headache Vision" than anything; the film needs to be AMAZING for me to not notice the road crew jackhammering the inside of my skull while wearing those 3D glasses.
Deliberately went twice more just to see it in 2D and even though I'll buy the 4 disc mega box, just in case I buy a 3D TV at some point in the future, I'll likely only watch the 2D version of the film.
Based on nearly every emergency room doctor asking me if I have an allergy to Penicillin during the medical history part of the interview I figured it was an actual real thing. Still, just in case, I found this Wiki page talking about Penicillin drug reactions that covers allergic reactions and has links to some studies or some such thing.
Honestly I'm not really well versed in the nitty gritty medical terms so I didn't entirely understand everything on the page, but I figure if its important enough for a doctor I've never seen before to ask me about then that means there's likely some people who are allergic to anti-bacterial agents.
I like the bacteria that lives on my body too... not so much the bacteria in the creek on the side of the road seeping into my open wounds thanks to the asshat who just cut me off.
This kind of thing could be great for people who have allergies to anti-bacterial agents or, as the summary states, "provide a convenient way for paramedics and military personnel to deal with harmful bacteria in the field." If you're going to complain about killing off the good bacteria on your skin then rail about anti-bacterial soap and hand sanitizer, their daily use does far more damage to the good bacteria on your skin than any $100+ device used in an emergency will ever do.
Unfortunately, if I'm reading this right, it doesn't matter how many legs to your journey you add. If the American government decides they don't want you flying to Canada you're not getting on the final plane home.
Which is fine if you don't live or travel anywhere near the US, Canada, Mexico, or Cuba. But seeing as how I live in Canada this rule pretty much means I can't travel anywhere without oodles of stress waiting to see if they accidentally confused me with someone else. The idea I need the express permission of a foreign country I have no intention of travelling to before I travel is, frankly, complete and utter bullshit.
In effect the US Government has made prisoners of the citizenry of four nations, including their own, unless of course we're willing to give up what tiny shred of personal rights and freedoms they've deigned let us keep.
Like I said to my sister in 1999, there's no way not to hate yourself if you invest in stocks. What are your options?
Buy a stock and it goes down, apparently forever. What a dope I am. Buy a stock and it goes up. Sell, and it goes up further. Damn, I knew I got out too early. Buy a stock and it goes up then back down. Shit! I got greedy and lost money. Buy a stock and it goes up, you sell, then it goes down. I knew I had that stock figured out! Why the hell did I only buy 200 shares?
You forgot one...
Buy a stock and company uses your money to engage in morally indefensible behaviour, not the least of which is lobbying against your rights.
I already use my iPhone and iPad as remotes with AirPlay it's absurdly simple to flip video onto any screen in my house or office.
This.
My Mom screams every time the cable bill comes in, "This shits way too expensive, I'm going to cancel it!!! Shit, then I won't get my shows, damn cable." After months of her whining about this I took her down to the Apple store, I was going to get her a Mac Mini and set it up as an HTPC with a wireless keyboard / mouse. She wanted the opinion of the sales guy as well and once she explained what it was he scrunches up his face in thought and says, "Come with me."
Walks us over the to Apple TVs, I wasn't too interested in that since I'd dismissed it as a physical front end for the iTunes movie store and other than Netflix (which the Blu-Ray player already did) I didn't see much use in it. So then he grabs his iPad and with a push of the button he's got AirPlay mirroring running and playing a movie right off the iPad on the TV, I don't know why I didn't think of it before! Once my Mom saw she could get her shows, she used his iPad to confirm all the channels she watches have apps that carry her shows, *and* have a connected device that she can keep in touch with the Grandkids via FaceTime and also fits in her purse, well, she was tickled pink.
She's set aside some cash for the iPad 3 and Apple TV 3 once they get released in March*, the Cable is getting cancelled not much later.:-)
* Rumours are sketchy on the Apple TV 3 is being released in March but with other rumours that Apple has been asking content providers to send them 1080p files, and the iPad 3 screen rumoured to be 1080p, it makes sense for it be released at around the same time.
Please follow this example and do a refresh, please no remakes or re-imaginings, of the Wing Commander series.
I, and a few friends I know, would be more than willing to drop 50 - 100+ dollars into a Kickstarter project that would portray the original Wing Commander stories with modern updated graphics, sound, all new voice overs with the established series voice actors, and full HOTAS support.
I'll even drop an extra 50 bucks if you provide a Steam-Play version so I can play it natively on my Mac.
Thanks, A Wing Commander Fan who want to give you money...
PS: Lets do this for System Shock and System Shock 2 as well okay?
If Valve turns off their servers, you lose all your games.
I used to think this way too, until I realized that just about every game eventually goes on sale for the amazingly cheap 75% - 90% off. I've never bought a game full price, most of my stuff is in the 10-15 dollar range, and I get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of it. At that cheap price its like a rental I never have to return, making it incredibly convenient.
Besides, its not like I can't go online and find cracked copies of the executable files that would let me play the game without Steam if I really wanted to.
I'm just not interested in a 'family car'.....which is anything with > 2 functional seats.
Then just buy a Smart ca, retrofit it with a Hyabusa engine, then go smoke a Ferrari. Not only would it be novel but it'd probably cost a lot less than a Corvette to boot. Then there's the fact with the Tridion Safety cell, instead of Fibreglass panels, you'll even have some decent crash protection** if you screw up doing donuts in the parking lot trying to impress people.:-)
As a 2005 Smart owner myself I've been giving some serious thought to swapping out the diesel engine, once it comes time to rebuild the engine, for something with a lot more guts; a 35 horsepower Turbo Diesel just don't cut it when you need to enter the highway from a short merge lane or pass someone going under the limit.
** : Yes, the video makes it look scary. If you pay attention at the end though it will tell you, and rightly so, that NO ONE would survive a 70 MPH instant stop into a solid wall regardless of what they're driving; the same goes for a tractor trailer -- unless you're driving a tank hitting a tractor trailer in any vehicle is usually a death sentence. What the test does show is that even at high speeds the Smart maintains most of its shape, if you extrapolate that logically what it means is if you hit another vehicle at the far lower speeds you're likely to be traveling at the damage to the car would be even less and increasing your chances of survival.
Like most other gadgets, the iPad can charge off of a USB port. That would be 5 Vdc.
Actually the iPad can't be charged off a USB port, it doesn't have the 10W of power required. Still, the Air Force could replace one of the overhead 50W cabin lights (note, I have no idea how much wattage the cabin lights take but any decent light coming off an old style incandescent is going to be at least 50W) with a 20W CFL, or other low power use light, and run a cable off the socket for charging the iPads. Hell, build a nice docking station right into the instrument panel so the pilot has access to the charts while its charging.
Yes. And to really mess with your head, one of my biggest dreams in life is to raise my children in a full time capacity by being the stay at home parent. In other words I want to be the home-maker while my wife is out working to bring home the bacon.
Unfortunately when women ask me about kids and they find out I not only want them but also want to be the stay at home parent, well lets just say they usually find another place to be very quickly. In fact in 38 years I've only ever met one woman who was actively looking for a man willing to stay at home with the kids while she focused on her career, and that was eight years ago.
As I've gotten older I've realized its increasingly unlikely I'll ever have kids, but never doubt that I do want them.
Did you watch the video from Apple, you don't need to do that anymore. Just highlight the parts you care about and read them all from the same highlights page. Hell, it'll even take the stuff you've highlighted and make flash cards to help you remember it.
I wish I had something like this in school, would have saved me a fortune in sticky notes for bookmarking all the pages I had to re-read, or refer to, because now kids will be able to get all that on the same page with a swipe of the finger.
The University / College library usually won't let you into them unless your a paying student and if they do let you in they definitely won't let you take anything out since paying students need those books. Which gets back to the basic problem, I'm not paying 200 bucks because I'm curious about something but I will pay 15.
That's fine if you just want to learn University Physics on your own, but in college the professor will usually assign homework from problems in the book, which a comparable book won't have.
While that is true I think you're missing the point of my argument. If I'm learning for the sake of learning I don't care whether the professor assigns an assignment out of one book or another. I, as a non-student, have an interest in a subject and I am now able to buy an equivalent High School, College, or University Textbook to learn from for 15 bucks. I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars, I can now spend fifteen, and if I decide I like it enough to attain formal education in the subject, I might even be able to take a placement exam that would give me credit for the self taught material I've already covered.
Also, for K-12, although the thought of being able to buy books for $15 sounds great I think the start-up/maint costs will be too much. Hardware will increase every year, and hardware requirements for software will increase to match that.
Its cheaper than you think, if you think it through. Think of the average Grade 9 student: Math, General Science, Chemistry, English, General Computing, General History, Geography.
They'll need text books for all those classes, sometimes more than one if multiple topics are covered during the year. Lets assume they only need one for each for a minimum of seven textbooks and estimate a hundred bucks a pop, now they're going to need to buy textbooks for each year that student is there. Lets assume the same number of textbooks each year for the student's four year run: 7 x 100 = 700 x 4 = $2,800.00 per student per four year period.
Most schools replace their textbooks every four - five years, so basically once a student graduates they replace their entire textbook roster for all classes all at once.
Or they can spend $599.00 on a 32 GB iPad, lets get the mid line model in case the textbook authors decide to go a bit crazy with the video, and give the student 28 redemption codes for their textbooks over the four years which tacks on an additional $420.00. All told the district would spend $1,019.00 per student per four year period. And we haven't even covered off on any education discounts Apple would include in selling them an iPad, which there probably would be since Apple usually does provide the hardware at education discounts.
With proper care the iPad would certainly last for four years and as an incentive to treat it well, and solve the updated hardware problem, we could let the student keep it when they graduate; what an incentive to the student, do well in school and keep your iPad for College / University. Sure it would cost a fair bit to get the program started but once its running the cost in new hardware would be limited to the freshman class size each year and you wouldn't have to worry about disposing of obsolete hardware since the student's would be taking it with them.
As for insurance premiums use some of the savings for Apple Care, that should cover most stuff, and then set aside a bit more for breakage. Most schools already do something similar with their paper textbooks anyway by purchasing a number of extra copies allowing them to replace excessively damaged ones as needed.
In relation to IT costs, its an iPad and not a general purpose computer. It therefore wouldn't need the same level of IT support as a general computer would, a bunch of Wi-Fi nodes and a copy of iCloud set up for the school to coordinate textbook and lesson plan distribution should cover that. Hell that sounds like it'd be fun to set something like that up, I wonder what it takes to become an Apple Certified Technician.
Of course, one thing you miss is that in the 1970s, most households had a single wage.
I didn't miss that, in fact I compared that directly on purpose because that was the whole point of the argument. A single wage earner in 1970 was more than capable of buying a home and supporting their family.
in theory a dual wage household will be better off as with an average comibined wage of 70,000 the house costs 3.3 times what a person made.
Take a look at what you wrote. Has it sunk in yet? TWO people are now needed to do the same job as ONE only 40 years ago.
While the average price of housing has risen 900+% over that period the average wage has only gone up 50%. We, as a society, have almost the same amount of money to spend but now have to pay a far higher cost in order to attain even the most basic of necessities. Wages aren't keeping up to match the global realities, in order for a single income family to exist the average wage needs to be increased to at least 58K+.
And its not just housing, its food too. Back in the 70's you could walk into the Grocery Store with a hundred bucks and walk out with enough food to feed a family of four for 4 - 6 weeks! Now, you're lucky if a hundred bucks gets you enough food for a week, and that's assuming you eat cheap processed crap because fresh stuff will set you back even more.
Everything is more expensive, not just luxuries, but the money we collectively earn hasn't kept pace with that reality.
That's the problem here. People shouldn't have to work two jobs, or have their kids raised by Day Care so both parents can work, or go into such crushing amounts of debt, just so they can afford basic necessities. Necessities are supposed to be cheap and luxuries are supposed to be for those who can afford a bit more, but now housing is priced like a luxury and due to unending corporate / shareholder greed the wages haven't been keeping pace.
So until the University recommends those e-books, which they won't, it don't mean squat.
It doesn't matter if the University recommends them or not because prior to this announcement if I wanted to learn University Level Physics I had to spend $250 bucks on the textbook, now I can buy a comparable textbook from iBooks for $15.00 and receive information updates for the life of that edition.
Whether its a big deal in schools or not, though I really have a feeling this will be huge in the K-12 market, my desire to learn something isn't tied to expensive textbooks anymore. This is a good thing.
If only we had $243 million (about what megaupload made)
And the ironically sad part of this whole mess is that if MegaUpload had taken 20% - 25% of that and remitted it to the campaign funds of the Representatives in both the House and Senate, it probably wouldn't be in the mess its in right now.
If history has taught us anything, you don't need much money to sway a politician to your side. As long as you pay them gobs of money first, they're more than happy to let you go right on breaking the law. Hell, sometimes, if you give them enough, they'll even give you a tax break while you're doing it!
yet people act like lower house prices are a bad thing.
Exactly my point, low housing costs are NOT a bad thing. Low costs on things we absolutely need to survive are never a bad thing.
When I'm talking about helping people out with housing costs I'm not even talking about some luxury houses or condos, I'm talking a nice modest place that people will take pride in and work hard to keep nice. Because lets face facts, its really sad that something a person absolutely needs to survive is priced right out of the ability for all but the most wealthy of us to get without going through incredible, and ultimately unnecessary, hardship.
but there's an easy remedy for that: Stop paying, let the bank bank forclose and eat your losses, take your credit hit, and move on.
Or an ever better remedy would have been for Obama to let the property values tank. He could have then expropriated the land at the lower value and given the houses back to their owners, while adding its value to their tax bill, and then letting them pay it back over 25 years. In effect he could have let all those people transfer the mortgages from the bank to the public and because, unlike the banks who will use all kinds of creative lobbyist accounting to avoid having to pay the government back the Trillion dollars they were loaned, the homeowners would go to jail if they defaulted on their taxes. We would have been virtually guaranteed to get the money back while helping people out at the same time.
Instead he took the Trillion or so dollars that it probably would have cost and gave it to the thieves and liars who caused the problem in the first place. Then those same thieves and liars turfed the people they duped into the loans in the first place out of their homes, then refused to let them buy them back during the liquidation process. So not only did they steal from the economy, they also stole from the homeowners, and then they stole from the government tax rolls. All kinds of theft there, thefts that were they committed by me would place me in a 4x6 cement room for a few years but when done by the wealthy elites is totally okay and totally not theft.
I can defend my position just fine thanks but once a person starts equating any possible solution with theft while blatantly ignoring the types of theft that helped cause the problem in the first place, well, there's just no point in talking anymore.
Now we're basically trolling each other because we're bored, or at least I am. I have no clue what Kohath has in this.
Yet your words, or lack thereof, certainly implies you do.
For a great example of theft take a look at this and then please tell me oh great and wise Kohath, who seemingly has all the answers and proclaims that you "don't want anything stolen from anyone", how this isn't stealing?
Funny how its only stealing when trying to solve social inequality for the average person.
Funny how that totally goes out the window when talking about tax breaks for the rich, or for Companies who offshore everything (try finding anything that doesn't say Made in Someplace Other Than America on it), or when letting Corporations report earnings out of country for goods sold in country to avoid paying taxes, or any other number of instances of Corporate Welfare which steal money out of the economy and society as a whole.
Because in that fantasy world where Corporations always have our best interests at heart its totally okay when rich people steal! You got yours, the system works as advertized, everyone else can go fuck themselves!
Slashdot Mirror
I've seen it three times (I still can't believe it only came out a few weeks ago and is already on Blu-Ray), once in IMAX 3D and twice in 2D. While I don't regret seeing it in IMAX 3D, Joss did a phenomenal job with the 3D in that film, I've always found it to me much more analogous to "Headache Vision" than anything; the film needs to be AMAZING for me to not notice the road crew jackhammering the inside of my skull while wearing those 3D glasses.
Deliberately went twice more just to see it in 2D and even though I'll buy the 4 disc mega box, just in case I buy a 3D TV at some point in the future, I'll likely only watch the 2D version of the film.
Based on nearly every emergency room doctor asking me if I have an allergy to Penicillin during the medical history part of the interview I figured it was an actual real thing. Still, just in case, I found this Wiki page talking about Penicillin drug reactions that covers allergic reactions and has links to some studies or some such thing.
Honestly I'm not really well versed in the nitty gritty medical terms so I didn't entirely understand everything on the page, but I figure if its important enough for a doctor I've never seen before to ask me about then that means there's likely some people who are allergic to anti-bacterial agents.
I like the bacteria that lives on my body too... not so much the bacteria in the creek on the side of the road seeping into my open wounds thanks to the asshat who just cut me off.
This kind of thing could be great for people who have allergies to anti-bacterial agents or, as the summary states, "provide a convenient way for paramedics and military personnel to deal with harmful bacteria in the field." If you're going to complain about killing off the good bacteria on your skin then rail about anti-bacterial soap and hand sanitizer, their daily use does far more damage to the good bacteria on your skin than any $100+ device used in an emergency will ever do.
Sorry, had to fix that for you. No movie ever made has ever turned a profit, none. In fact, some world famous movies are such colossal failures they weren't even able to pay the actors who starred in them.
Unfortunately, if I'm reading this right, it doesn't matter how many legs to your journey you add. If the American government decides they don't want you flying to Canada you're not getting on the final plane home.
Which is fine if you don't live or travel anywhere near the US, Canada, Mexico, or Cuba. But seeing as how I live in Canada this rule pretty much means I can't travel anywhere without oodles of stress waiting to see if they accidentally confused me with someone else. The idea I need the express permission of a foreign country I have no intention of travelling to before I travel is, frankly, complete and utter bullshit.
In effect the US Government has made prisoners of the citizenry of four nations, including their own, unless of course we're willing to give up what tiny shred of personal rights and freedoms they've deigned let us keep.
You forgot one...
This.
My Mom screams every time the cable bill comes in, "This shits way too expensive, I'm going to cancel it!!! Shit, then I won't get my shows, damn cable." After months of her whining about this I took her down to the Apple store, I was going to get her a Mac Mini and set it up as an HTPC with a wireless keyboard / mouse. She wanted the opinion of the sales guy as well and once she explained what it was he scrunches up his face in thought and says, "Come with me."
Walks us over the to Apple TVs, I wasn't too interested in that since I'd dismissed it as a physical front end for the iTunes movie store and other than Netflix (which the Blu-Ray player already did) I didn't see much use in it. So then he grabs his iPad and with a push of the button he's got AirPlay mirroring running and playing a movie right off the iPad on the TV, I don't know why I didn't think of it before! Once my Mom saw she could get her shows, she used his iPad to confirm all the channels she watches have apps that carry her shows, *and* have a connected device that she can keep in touch with the Grandkids via FaceTime and also fits in her purse, well, she was tickled pink.
She's set aside some cash for the iPad 3 and Apple TV 3 once they get released in March*, the Cable is getting cancelled not much later. :-)
* Rumours are sketchy on the Apple TV 3 is being released in March but with other rumours that Apple has been asking content providers to send them 1080p files, and the iPad 3 screen rumoured to be 1080p, it makes sense for it be released at around the same time.
Dear EA...
Please follow this example and do a refresh, please no remakes or re-imaginings, of the Wing Commander series.
I, and a few friends I know, would be more than willing to drop 50 - 100+ dollars into a Kickstarter project that would portray the original Wing Commander stories with modern updated graphics, sound, all new voice overs with the established series voice actors, and full HOTAS support.
I'll even drop an extra 50 bucks if you provide a Steam-Play version so I can play it natively on my Mac.
Thanks,
A Wing Commander Fan who want to give you money...
PS: Lets do this for System Shock and System Shock 2 as well okay?
I used to think this way too, until I realized that just about every game eventually goes on sale for the amazingly cheap 75% - 90% off. I've never bought a game full price, most of my stuff is in the 10-15 dollar range, and I get a lot of hours of enjoyment out of it. At that cheap price its like a rental I never have to return, making it incredibly convenient.
Besides, its not like I can't go online and find cracked copies of the executable files that would let me play the game without Steam if I really wanted to.
Then just buy a Smart ca, retrofit it with a Hyabusa engine, then go smoke a Ferrari. Not only would it be novel but it'd probably cost a lot less than a Corvette to boot. Then there's the fact with the Tridion Safety cell, instead of Fibreglass panels, you'll even have some decent crash protection** if you screw up doing donuts in the parking lot trying to impress people. :-)
As a 2005 Smart owner myself I've been giving some serious thought to swapping out the diesel engine, once it comes time to rebuild the engine, for something with a lot more guts; a 35 horsepower Turbo Diesel just don't cut it when you need to enter the highway from a short merge lane or pass someone going under the limit.
** : Yes, the video makes it look scary. If you pay attention at the end though it will tell you, and rightly so, that NO ONE would survive a 70 MPH instant stop into a solid wall regardless of what they're driving; the same goes for a tractor trailer -- unless you're driving a tank hitting a tractor trailer in any vehicle is usually a death sentence. What the test does show is that even at high speeds the Smart maintains most of its shape, if you extrapolate that logically what it means is if you hit another vehicle at the far lower speeds you're likely to be traveling at the damage to the car would be even less and increasing your chances of survival.
Actually the iPad can't be charged off a USB port, it doesn't have the 10W of power required. Still, the Air Force could replace one of the overhead 50W cabin lights (note, I have no idea how much wattage the cabin lights take but any decent light coming off an old style incandescent is going to be at least 50W) with a 20W CFL, or other low power use light, and run a cable off the socket for charging the iPads. Hell, build a nice docking station right into the instrument panel so the pilot has access to the charts while its charging.
Yes. And to really mess with your head, one of my biggest dreams in life is to raise my children in a full time capacity by being the stay at home parent. In other words I want to be the home-maker while my wife is out working to bring home the bacon.
Unfortunately when women ask me about kids and they find out I not only want them but also want to be the stay at home parent, well lets just say they usually find another place to be very quickly. In fact in 38 years I've only ever met one woman who was actively looking for a man willing to stay at home with the kids while she focused on her career, and that was eight years ago.
As I've gotten older I've realized its increasingly unlikely I'll ever have kids, but never doubt that I do want them.
Did you even watch 24? Here, let me fix that for you.
Did you watch the video from Apple, you don't need to do that anymore. Just highlight the parts you care about and read them all from the same highlights page. Hell, it'll even take the stuff you've highlighted and make flash cards to help you remember it.
I wish I had something like this in school, would have saved me a fortune in sticky notes for bookmarking all the pages I had to re-read, or refer to, because now kids will be able to get all that on the same page with a swipe of the finger.
The University / College library usually won't let you into them unless your a paying student and if they do let you in they definitely won't let you take anything out since paying students need those books. Which gets back to the basic problem, I'm not paying 200 bucks because I'm curious about something but I will pay 15.
While that is true I think you're missing the point of my argument. If I'm learning for the sake of learning I don't care whether the professor assigns an assignment out of one book or another. I, as a non-student, have an interest in a subject and I am now able to buy an equivalent High School, College, or University Textbook to learn from for 15 bucks. I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars, I can now spend fifteen, and if I decide I like it enough to attain formal education in the subject, I might even be able to take a placement exam that would give me credit for the self taught material I've already covered.
Its cheaper than you think, if you think it through. Think of the average Grade 9 student: Math, General Science, Chemistry, English, General Computing, General History, Geography.
They'll need text books for all those classes, sometimes more than one if multiple topics are covered during the year. Lets assume they only need one for each for a minimum of seven textbooks and estimate a hundred bucks a pop, now they're going to need to buy textbooks for each year that student is there. Lets assume the same number of textbooks each year for the student's four year run: 7 x 100 = 700 x 4 = $2,800.00 per student per four year period.
Most schools replace their textbooks every four - five years, so basically once a student graduates they replace their entire textbook roster for all classes all at once.
Or they can spend $599.00 on a 32 GB iPad, lets get the mid line model in case the textbook authors decide to go a bit crazy with the video, and give the student 28 redemption codes for their textbooks over the four years which tacks on an additional $420.00. All told the district would spend $1,019.00 per student per four year period. And we haven't even covered off on any education discounts Apple would include in selling them an iPad, which there probably would be since Apple usually does provide the hardware at education discounts.
With proper care the iPad would certainly last for four years and as an incentive to treat it well, and solve the updated hardware problem, we could let the student keep it when they graduate; what an incentive to the student, do well in school and keep your iPad for College / University. Sure it would cost a fair bit to get the program started but once its running the cost in new hardware would be limited to the freshman class size each year and you wouldn't have to worry about disposing of obsolete hardware since the student's would be taking it with them.
As for insurance premiums use some of the savings for Apple Care, that should cover most stuff, and then set aside a bit more for breakage. Most schools already do something similar with their paper textbooks anyway by purchasing a number of extra copies allowing them to replace excessively damaged ones as needed.
In relation to IT costs, its an iPad and not a general purpose computer. It therefore wouldn't need the same level of IT support as a general computer would, a bunch of Wi-Fi nodes and a copy of iCloud set up for the school to coordinate textbook and lesson plan distribution should cover that. Hell that sounds like it'd be fun to set something like that up, I wonder what it takes to become an Apple Certified Technician.
I didn't miss that, in fact I compared that directly on purpose because that was the whole point of the argument. A single wage earner in 1970 was more than capable of buying a home and supporting their family.
Take a look at what you wrote. Has it sunk in yet? TWO people are now needed to do the same job as ONE only 40 years ago.
While the average price of housing has risen 900+% over that period the average wage has only gone up 50%. We, as a society, have almost the same amount of money to spend but now have to pay a far higher cost in order to attain even the most basic of necessities. Wages aren't keeping up to match the global realities, in order for a single income family to exist the average wage needs to be increased to at least 58K+.
And its not just housing, its food too. Back in the 70's you could walk into the Grocery Store with a hundred bucks and walk out with enough food to feed a family of four for 4 - 6 weeks! Now, you're lucky if a hundred bucks gets you enough food for a week, and that's assuming you eat cheap processed crap because fresh stuff will set you back even more.
Everything is more expensive, not just luxuries, but the money we collectively earn hasn't kept pace with that reality.
That's the problem here. People shouldn't have to work two jobs, or have their kids raised by Day Care so both parents can work, or go into such crushing amounts of debt, just so they can afford basic necessities. Necessities are supposed to be cheap and luxuries are supposed to be for those who can afford a bit more, but now housing is priced like a luxury and due to unending corporate / shareholder greed the wages haven't been keeping pace.
It doesn't matter if the University recommends them or not because prior to this announcement if I wanted to learn University Level Physics I had to spend $250 bucks on the textbook, now I can buy a comparable textbook from iBooks for $15.00 and receive information updates for the life of that edition.
Whether its a big deal in schools or not, though I really have a feeling this will be huge in the K-12 market, my desire to learn something isn't tied to expensive textbooks anymore. This is a good thing.
And the ironically sad part of this whole mess is that if MegaUpload had taken 20% - 25% of that and remitted it to the campaign funds of the Representatives in both the House and Senate, it probably wouldn't be in the mess its in right now.
If history has taught us anything, you don't need much money to sway a politician to your side. As long as you pay them gobs of money first, they're more than happy to let you go right on breaking the law. Hell, sometimes, if you give them enough, they'll even give you a tax break while you're doing it!
Exactly my point, low housing costs are NOT a bad thing. Low costs on things we absolutely need to survive are never a bad thing.
When I'm talking about helping people out with housing costs I'm not even talking about some luxury houses or condos, I'm talking a nice modest place that people will take pride in and work hard to keep nice. Because lets face facts, its really sad that something a person absolutely needs to survive is priced right out of the ability for all but the most wealthy of us to get without going through incredible, and ultimately unnecessary, hardship.
Or an ever better remedy would have been for Obama to let the property values tank. He could have then expropriated the land at the lower value and given the houses back to their owners, while adding its value to their tax bill, and then letting them pay it back over 25 years. In effect he could have let all those people transfer the mortgages from the bank to the public and because, unlike the banks who will use all kinds of creative lobbyist accounting to avoid having to pay the government back the Trillion dollars they were loaned, the homeowners would go to jail if they defaulted on their taxes. We would have been virtually guaranteed to get the money back while helping people out at the same time.
Instead he took the Trillion or so dollars that it probably would have cost and gave it to the thieves and liars who caused the problem in the first place. Then those same thieves and liars turfed the people they duped into the loans in the first place out of their homes, then refused to let them buy them back during the liquidation process. So not only did they steal from the economy, they also stole from the homeowners, and then they stole from the government tax rolls. All kinds of theft there, thefts that were they committed by me would place me in a 4x6 cement room for a few years but when done by the wealthy elites is totally okay and totally not theft.
I can defend my position just fine thanks but once a person starts equating any possible solution with theft while blatantly ignoring the types of theft that helped cause the problem in the first place, well, there's just no point in talking anymore.
Now we're basically trolling each other because we're bored, or at least I am. I have no clue what Kohath has in this.
Yet your words, or lack thereof, certainly implies you do.
For a great example of theft take a look at this and then please tell me oh great and wise Kohath, who seemingly has all the answers and proclaims that you "don't want anything stolen from anyone", how this isn't stealing?
Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you.
Funny how its only stealing when trying to solve social inequality for the average person.
Funny how that totally goes out the window when talking about tax breaks for the rich, or for Companies who offshore everything (try finding anything that doesn't say Made in Someplace Other Than America on it), or when letting Corporations report earnings out of country for goods sold in country to avoid paying taxes, or any other number of instances of Corporate Welfare which steal money out of the economy and society as a whole.
Because in that fantasy world where Corporations always have our best interests at heart its totally okay when rich people steal! You got yours, the system works as advertized, everyone else can go fuck themselves!