Allow me to suggest an alternative to question marks. (Note that I am disagreeing with you)
Happy about about value. What is value? benefit minus the cost.
Can you get the same benefit at a lower cost? -that's the value difference between offerings (in this case phones).
As phones become more of a status symbol the value is less practical and more subjective than ever. The benefit is becoming more subjective as well.
This is why others may envy a person driving a lambo despite the fact the car has very little practical benefit. It is ill-suited to city streets, it has no space, it has poor mileage, expensive to maintain, expensive to insure, needs a lot of parking space and sometimes it's not even comfortable to be in.
Once again we see that "normal" chimps envy other "rich" chimps because those have a stick and a tin can. Why? because they have things other chimps do not have. That has value. Sounds ridiculous? not really. It has social value. Other chimps look up to those stick wielding, can banging "rich" chimps.
The practical value is depending on their ability to influence other chimps. Everyone wants to be friends with those elite chimps. To be in their good graces because they have connections and they "know people" and to maybe get a go with their new gizmo because, let's face it; they have sticks, cans and what do the rest have? -nothing. (possibly everything and a lot better but it's not popular so does not count for much)
The sad thing is that marketing, commercials, product placement etc have found this neural bug in humans that exists in chimps and have fed us the value proposition. We are now somewhat convinced that those happy successful people, they have this special stick that makes special sound on the special can; and that makes them happy! if only we could be happy like them with that stick and tin can imagine what life could be like! -While all the time this has no practical value other than to sell you shit.
Unhappy with life>? let companies that make shit create surveys to help you make a decision to be happier. It's simple; BUY! BUY!! BUY!!!
As the parent post asks what is return On Investment? -theoretically everlasting happiness. Practically your mileage varies on your productivity and specific requirements which most likely mean there is no ROI - it's a net loss but so is alcohol and cigarettes and bubblegum and...
A lot of people have this great idea about getting in shape, becoming healthier and what not. the problem is all the crap they are fed.
Drink this fucking protein shake, eat 6 meals a day, train HIIT, do weights, callisthenics, 3 times a week, 7 grams of protein per ounce, buy this gizmo, use this electrode belt, avoid fat etc etc.
All-of-a-sudden become fit is a research project. You need 10,000 steps a day, people that take stairs have less chance of heart disease and so on and so on.
Guess what most people do? choose the easy fucking way out. Step 1, buy this fitness device (because you'll need it with all the fitness you're gonna do right?!), step 2 follow magic formula??, step 3 get fit
Here's my "magic formula" to get fit: Move your fucking ass. Do whatever workout you want that is COMPOUND movement at the intensity you can SUSTAIN. Listen to your body, if you're feeling depleted take it easy, if you're feeling pumped put your back into it.
It's the same thing with gym memberships after the Olympics, 2-4 weeks later they never come back. No fucking gizmo is gonna lift those weights, run up that hill or do 100 burpees for you. That's you that has to do that. Do it. -remember that when you're watching other fitter people work. (You know, NFL, NBA, Olympics, they're at work)
Perhaps Indonesia runs off with some creative legislation some would frown upon they would wish to make the rule of law the finite authority above religion first...
With gridlocks, careless drivers and odd traffic laws I've come to seriously dislike driving. I'd rather have the option to read or sleep whilst automation takes me from point A to B.
Humans are slower to react, they cannot see as well as a sensor array and they do get distracted. Yet they know not to try to drive under trailers or against traffic. Even the dumbest human has awareness that eclipses these replacement logic programs.
If we need to make driverless the default? -I'm sure that will come one day. Hopefully when we are old and frail and cannot drive anyhow.:-)
It is not aware. It does not have instincts. I has settings. It dynamic data contradicts the settings it does not learn the settings are wrong.
It can have cameras but the data captures is not used as well as the human eye's data is used with spatial awareness.
I do believe that AI and sensors will eclipse human collision avoidance. The current "AI programs" are far better with reaction times and can even see "through" certain obstacles and around corners. Yet currently that is not enough. It is a substitute for the lack of actual intelligence/awareness.
The failures I see is with how that data is used. It is nowhere near a profound enough manner that an experienced driver can use the information.
If you compare a human driver to a computer program the human would be overwhelmed with the data sensors give him or her. Except the human knows for most of the time what data is relevant and when it's useful.
For example; if I'm driving along on a highway and I can see the driver ahead, he is looking down and has one hand on the wheel. I assume he is on his phone chatting away or checking FB because I notice the vehicle is edging to the side of the lane and then when he has his head up again he corrects and comes back to the center of his lane. I know there is danger to overtake. I might choose not to even attempt to overtake because I know what to do with the information I have.
The Car AI is clueless. It has margins, it has speed data. It may avoid a collision because it's a braking scenario manufacturers have tested but it did not foresee the situation it was entering.
We have the sensors, we have the theory but we simply do not have the AI to handle it all. I think we need driving to be more like a chess board. With predictability and a sandbox type environment. Currently the dynamics of driving, more importantly collision avoidance by foresight is lacking.
We need regulating bodies and driverless car makers to agree on standards and zoning.
A driverless car has sensors, not eyes and spatial awareness. It has GPS and map data not a sense of direction.
If the data fed to the car says it can turn into oncoming traffic (and there are no vehicle so the sensors don't alert some wannabe AI) it will turn. Any human that might make the error will very quickly notice they are going the wrong way without the need for cars. the might notice how (most) cars are parked facing in a certain direction or road markings that give clues like "no entry" and the corresponding road markings.
Car AI cannot yet read these properly. Forget reading in time or when it's raining and the sign is slightly eroded or placed at an odd angle.
A human can spot a branch handing on power lines dangling in the wind, a sensor designed to avoid collisions with other cars cannot.
I'm certain that driverless cars will get much better and will very quickly be safer than a human driver despite these and other faults BUT to make it all so much safer we need approved zones. Like zoning for congestion or weight/height limits.
Car manufacturers will know that in these specific zones/highways they can expect a rather predictable set of road conditions. A human can drive the car out of some odd city intersection with angry aggressive drivers in rush-hour then switch to autopilot for that boring and predictable 100 mile highway journey. (Or not if you like that sort of driving)
When a driverless car can navigate A to B across a busy city in India it might be ready to do away with zoning but until then it's simply necessary and I believe it's just a matter of time until zoning happens.
You may care to acknowledge that copying is and always was part of humanity. Copying each other's actions, words and ideas enriched human societies overall and allowed humans to advanced rapidly the faster they could copy off each other.
Corporations spend vast amounts of resources to become exclusive, to build demand, to have a monopoly, to leverage their wealth to improve their already superior position.
You seem to be confused about what and who are the leeches in the story. A leech
The real leeches are the ones depriving others of content at an affordable price due to greed. By definition a leech in relation to people is; "a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite. "
Note one "personal gain" - consumption of entertainment, information etc is personal gain. Agreed but this is not said in isolation the context is "without giving anything in return" - 1. Copyright infringers often PAY for more content than the average person. 2. Free promotion of content by soi called "pirates", that is considered worthwhile, contributes to sales.
Of note for this definition is "...and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite." - When COD was copied and shared for free across the internet and many generations of games which resource was exhausted or reduced? -When Game of Thrones was just an uncommonly known series what made it famous worldwide?
The real leeches are those that refuse to share content and jack the price to the detriment of society for the greed. They are the ones that restrict you from playing your purchased DVD anywhere on any machine. They are the ones that make Chinese farmers work more hours for even less while putting another $50 on their latest phone.
You can make all kinds of excuses about depriving...indeed you can. You hold on to a belief because it is convenient to you. Factually you may find that things are not so black and white.
Apparently it's perfectly safe...so vaping companies say AND there's been some studies to say that vaping is so much better for you than smoking...
You should believe vaping is safe...except if you suspect that the lack of decades of data makes it difficult to determine AND if you suspect studies are influenced, falsified, wrong or completely malicious.
Because respectable bodies of research were never going to lie for money and they never do:
The eagle-eyed reader will notice this is a research about sugar. Nothing to do with smoking or vaping...after all another supposedly respectable body already said vaping is 95% healthier. Public Health England, a government affiliated body no less. -> https://www.theguardian.com/so...
Some searching leads to this 113 page piece of "research" that was no carried out by the UK government of course but rather an "independent researcher" which actually are:
McNeill A, Brose LS, Calder R, Hitchman SC
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &
Neuroscience,
National Addiction Centre,
Hajek P, McRobbie H (Chapters 9 and 10)
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine
This is some people's minds cements the belief that vaping is 95% safer than smoking cigarettes. the author of that "study" which is more like a search on Pubmed gave two key factors for this 95% figure:
That there is less than 5% known carcinogens in vaping (assuming your sucking on the same "juice" and that there is currently no associated health risk.
So really this thought that vaping is so much healthier has some good concepts behind it what it lacks is proof and data. All we found is that we have no data to say it's unhealthy. If it causes genetic damage or increased mutation that is only apparent many years later we have no clue.
Just think what the tobacco industry is worth. What the vaping industry will be worth...can you honestly beliee they will not pub their weight into anything much like the sugar lobby once did? -in fact we already know the tobacco industry has covered up decades of research and used their expertise to counter anything that made them look bad.
95% healthier...once this flawed concept is in the public's mind it takes another fucking decade to tell them otherwise. Once upon a time Kent cigarettes had asbestos filters that increased cancer rates many times over compared to regular smoking. They were the product of "research" and were thought to be "healthy"...remember that.
Just continue vaping. It's safe. Anything coming out of a miniaturized "fog machine" is so much better for you. Honest.
As an added bonus it's cheaper than your previous addiction platform too!
Dude, where do you get off coming up with this shit?
No one wants to hear anything except how anthropogenic global warming is melting all the ice and we're soon going to extinct the planet.
Your opinion that there's some data that isn't doom and gloom makes me suspect you are some sort of in-closet global warming denier/self hater.
Just read history. Climate change never happened at this rate before because there weren't any cars then. Ocean toxicity was never a problem. Even coral lived forever.
(Come with my on this journey of faux pas religion)
===
Someone said here that if people are terrible online they are probably atheists; you vicious atheist!
Don't you go hurting my iFeelings or the iMob shall iPod you to death.
Yes the heavy 5th gen, 80gb drive iPods!
I shall be a good iPerson and offer you this warm embrace if you bow and submit to the all mighty tree apple.
===
Seriously though, if there are enough crazies out there their insanity will become a religion and you will have to respect it. These special breed of monkey will batter you in the name of religion despite not yet producing a shred of proof of "god" as written of in their "holy books".
Oh wait, this has already happened. All praise our lord and saviour *insert deity here* the one true god of the one true religion.
When will these type of crimes become proportional FFS??
Here's some average jail times for crimes in the UK to put this into perspective:
Administering drugs to obtain intercourse Sexual Offences Act 1956 s4 2 years
Abuse of trust: sexual activity with a child Sexual Offences Act 2003 s16 5 years
Burglary with intent to commit rape (non-dwelling) Theft Act 1968 s9 10 years
Distributing copyrighted material Dumbass Act 2016 10 years?!
Who is "demanding justice" in this case to require 10 years for "piracy"? It's not for the people...you know, the individuals that make this democracy thing work.
One thing is to leverage the law fairly to get the tax benefit you DESERVE.
Another thing entirely to go in with the sole purpose of paying less to simple evade as much taxation as possible.
The spirit of the law.
These companies are gaining unfair advantages for paying less, leveraging their well to pay even less and continue to abuse their position to the detriment of any system that relies on taxation. You can be a capitalist, a communist, a socialist a frigging surrealist -if you depend on far taxation these people, these legal entities are parasites.
Fair and square you say? -under which article or tax dodging does that fall in the taxation guide?
Tax benefits are there to stimulate growth, help the poor, encourage small businesses and all sorts of other forms. It's not there for a supremely rich company to rape the system.
It takes years to investigate and prove this stuff. It's only right they pay what they DODGED with interest.
IF you let it slide then everyone will be ENCOURAGED to steal -I mean "dodge" because getting away with it for 10 years is cost effective if you get caught for 1 year.
Not only should apple pay it's almighty execs should line up and apologise for knowing fucking us all over -Sorry I mean "dodge tax"
Their C level staff that took part and planned this should be given a stern warning about LEGAL implications of dodging tax...which as you know is illegal.
Or do you mean to encourage smart and well established people to fuck the rest of the population even more than they already do by saying if they got some technicalities we'll just bend over and take it?
When I pay tax I do so according to my tax code. Generally speaking people get a different code and pay taxes differently based on their age, their marital status, disability or other factors. Why is that important? because once most of us know our tax code and salary we pay tax accordingly.
Here is what we do not do; look up all the tax codes in different countries and try to align ourselves in such a way that we can leverage different tax benefits under different codes in different places while squeezing local economies and weaker governing bodies to look away with the singular intent to pay less rather than pay our fair share.
Such behaviour is more akin to a parasite carefully leeches off the rest of us.
Like someone suffering from battered wife syndrome Ireland is DEFENDING Apple. Why? because those politicians are inept, corrupt or desperate to remain attractive for future business...or actually all three. Luckily the EU is stepping in.
Who's next on the hit list? -stop! don't tell me yet! *runs to get popcorn*
You can have whole divisions of lawyers covering each and every aspect of the fine print to the nth level but the bottom line is;
Tax laws, breaks and reductions are not there to be professionally manipulated to the extent that you pay nothing.
Due to loopholes, exploitation and poor oversight megacorporations have had an unfair advantage for decades.
Apple execs will throw a hissy fit because they know they manipulated every legal loophole to pay less. "It's legal" they shout. The intent not to pay tax to any meaningful degree is fucking the rest of us over. The rest of us can decide to call BS and slap you with a fine to pony up what you owe.
Welcome to the iTaxes you owed us and never pay ALL THOSE YEARS -they are magical.
You obviously cannot see problems but let me illuminate you by suggestion what the features of a smart fridge are.
Facebook status updates; We're run out of tomatoes!
Twitter feedback; After 2 hours of refrigeration we have discarded your new product because it sucks!
Family alerts (via facebook); We've run out of tomatoes!!
Intrusion detection; "Toddler attempting to open fridge door. Deploying countermeasures!"
MaaS (Maintenance as a Service; Fridge printer ink running low, please consider replacement.
Seamless integration; update to phone (via Facebook) - friedge temperature decreased by 20c so your coke can be cold in-time for pizza before your favourite show.
Sure you might think this is useless but soon people will not remember a time when their fridge didn't have a GUI. A fridge that cannot reboot would be looked upon like a CRT B/W television.
Once this is popular in more countries we will be rid of the problems we often have with human drivers.
No more grand tours taking you via the longest route at a special tariff. No rude comments or "chitchat" because they are bored. No phone conversations or unwanted sexual attention.
I just hope they won't run into too many teething issues to put people off for another few years...
Slashdot Mirror
Life? Phone? ROI? Value?
Allow me to suggest an alternative to question marks. (Note that I am disagreeing with you)
Happy about about value. What is value? benefit minus the cost.
Can you get the same benefit at a lower cost? -that's the value difference between offerings (in this case phones).
As phones become more of a status symbol the value is less practical and more subjective than ever. The benefit is becoming more subjective as well.
This is why others may envy a person driving a lambo despite the fact the car has very little practical benefit. It is ill-suited to city streets, it has no space, it has poor mileage, expensive to maintain, expensive to insure, needs a lot of parking space and sometimes it's not even comfortable to be in.
Once again we see that "normal" chimps envy other "rich" chimps because those have a stick and a tin can. Why? because they have things other chimps do not have. That has value. Sounds ridiculous? not really. It has social value. Other chimps look up to those stick wielding, can banging "rich" chimps.
The practical value is depending on their ability to influence other chimps. Everyone wants to be friends with those elite chimps. To be in their good graces because they have connections and they "know people" and to maybe get a go with their new gizmo because, let's face it; they have sticks, cans and what do the rest have? -nothing. (possibly everything and a lot better but it's not popular so does not count for much)
The sad thing is that marketing, commercials, product placement etc have found this neural bug in humans that exists in chimps and have fed us the value proposition. We are now somewhat convinced that those happy successful people, they have this special stick that makes special sound on the special can; and that makes them happy! if only we could be happy like them with that stick and tin can imagine what life could be like! -While all the time this has no practical value other than to sell you shit.
Unhappy with life>? let companies that make shit create surveys to help you make a decision to be happier. It's simple; BUY! BUY!! BUY!!!
As the parent post asks what is return On Investment? -theoretically everlasting happiness. Practically your mileage varies on your productivity and specific requirements which most likely mean there is no ROI - it's a net loss but so is alcohol and cigarettes and bubblegum and...
A lot of people have this great idea about getting in shape, becoming healthier and what not. the problem is all the crap they are fed.
Drink this fucking protein shake, eat 6 meals a day, train HIIT, do weights, callisthenics, 3 times a week, 7 grams of protein per ounce, buy this gizmo, use this electrode belt, avoid fat etc etc.
All-of-a-sudden become fit is a research project. You need 10,000 steps a day, people that take stairs have less chance of heart disease and so on and so on.
Guess what most people do? choose the easy fucking way out. Step 1, buy this fitness device (because you'll need it with all the fitness you're gonna do right?!), step 2 follow magic formula??, step 3 get fit
Here's my "magic formula" to get fit: Move your fucking ass. Do whatever workout you want that is COMPOUND movement at the intensity you can SUSTAIN. Listen to your body, if you're feeling depleted take it easy, if you're feeling pumped put your back into it.
It's the same thing with gym memberships after the Olympics, 2-4 weeks later they never come back. No fucking gizmo is gonna lift those weights, run up that hill or do 100 burpees for you. That's you that has to do that. Do it. -remember that when you're watching other fitter people work. (You know, NFL, NBA, Olympics, they're at work)
Perhaps Indonesia runs off with some creative legislation some would frown upon they would wish to make the rule of law the finite authority above religion first...
Indeed all this challenges can and will have a technological solution.
It will still be a few decades before we can replace human drivers completely and be always safer for it.
Happy to go with the solution that works.
With gridlocks, careless drivers and odd traffic laws I've come to seriously dislike driving. I'd rather have the option to read or sleep whilst automation takes me from point A to B.
Humans are slower to react, they cannot see as well as a sensor array and they do get distracted. Yet they know not to try to drive under trailers or against traffic. Even the dumbest human has awareness that eclipses these replacement logic programs.
If we need to make driverless the default? -I'm sure that will come one day. Hopefully when we are old and frail and cannot drive anyhow.
Because of the "awareness" bit.
It is not aware. It does not have instincts. I has settings. It dynamic data contradicts the settings it does not learn the settings are wrong.
It can have cameras but the data captures is not used as well as the human eye's data is used with spatial awareness.
I do believe that AI and sensors will eclipse human collision avoidance. The current "AI programs" are far better with reaction times and can even see "through" certain obstacles and around corners. Yet currently that is not enough. It is a substitute for the lack of actual intelligence/awareness.
The failures I see is with how that data is used. It is nowhere near a profound enough manner that an experienced driver can use the information.
If you compare a human driver to a computer program the human would be overwhelmed with the data sensors give him or her. Except the human knows for most of the time what data is relevant and when it's useful.
For example; if I'm driving along on a highway and I can see the driver ahead, he is looking down and has one hand on the wheel. I assume he is on his phone chatting away or checking FB because I notice the vehicle is edging to the side of the lane and then when he has his head up again he corrects and comes back to the center of his lane. I know there is danger to overtake. I might choose not to even attempt to overtake because I know what to do with the information I have.
The Car AI is clueless. It has margins, it has speed data. It may avoid a collision because it's a braking scenario manufacturers have tested but it did not foresee the situation it was entering.
We have the sensors, we have the theory but we simply do not have the AI to handle it all. I think we need driving to be more like a chess board. With predictability and a sandbox type environment. Currently the dynamics of driving, more importantly collision avoidance by foresight is lacking.
We need regulating bodies and driverless car makers to agree on standards and zoning.
A driverless car has sensors, not eyes and spatial awareness. It has GPS and map data not a sense of direction.
If the data fed to the car says it can turn into oncoming traffic (and there are no vehicle so the sensors don't alert some wannabe AI) it will turn. Any human that might make the error will very quickly notice they are going the wrong way without the need for cars. the might notice how (most) cars are parked facing in a certain direction or road markings that give clues like "no entry" and the corresponding road markings.
Car AI cannot yet read these properly. Forget reading in time or when it's raining and the sign is slightly eroded or placed at an odd angle.
A human can spot a branch handing on power lines dangling in the wind, a sensor designed to avoid collisions with other cars cannot.
I'm certain that driverless cars will get much better and will very quickly be safer than a human driver despite these and other faults BUT to make it all so much safer we need approved zones. Like zoning for congestion or weight/height limits.
Car manufacturers will know that in these specific zones/highways they can expect a rather predictable set of road conditions. A human can drive the car out of some odd city intersection with angry aggressive drivers in rush-hour then switch to autopilot for that boring and predictable 100 mile highway journey. (Or not if you like that sort of driving)
When a driverless car can navigate A to B across a busy city in India it might be ready to do away with zoning but until then it's simply necessary and I believe it's just a matter of time until zoning happens.
https://youtu.be/fIWKMgJs_Gs?list=PL5919C8DE6F720A2D&t=237
Random nerd issues warning; Becoming a police officer may lead to abuse of power and total douchebaggery.
You may care to acknowledge that copying is and always was part of humanity. Copying each other's actions, words and ideas enriched human societies overall and allowed humans to advanced rapidly the faster they could copy off each other.
Corporations spend vast amounts of resources to become exclusive, to build demand, to have a monopoly, to leverage their wealth to improve their already superior position.
You seem to be confused about what and who are the leeches in the story. A leech
The real leeches are the ones depriving others of content at an affordable price due to greed. By definition a leech in relation to people is; "a person who clings to another for personal gain, especially without giving anything in return, and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite. "
Note one "personal gain" - consumption of entertainment, information etc is personal gain. Agreed but this is not said in isolation the context is "without giving anything in return" - 1. Copyright infringers often PAY for more content than the average person. 2. Free promotion of content by soi called "pirates", that is considered worthwhile, contributes to sales.
Of note for this definition is "...and usually with the implication or effect of exhausting the other's resources; parasite." - When COD was copied and shared for free across the internet and many generations of games which resource was exhausted or reduced? -When Game of Thrones was just an uncommonly known series what made it famous worldwide?
The real leeches are those that refuse to share content and jack the price to the detriment of society for the greed. They are the ones that restrict you from playing your purchased DVD anywhere on any machine. They are the ones that make Chinese farmers work more hours for even less while putting another $50 on their latest phone.
You can make all kinds of excuses about depriving...indeed you can. You hold on to a belief because it is convenient to you. Factually you may find that things are not so black and white.
Apparently it's perfectly safe...so vaping companies say AND there's been some studies to say that vaping is so much better for you than smoking...
You should believe vaping is safe...except if you suspect that the lack of decades of data makes it difficult to determine AND if you suspect studies are influenced, falsified, wrong or completely malicious.
Because respectable bodies of research were never going to lie for money and they never do:
This -> https://www.statnews.com/2016/...
The eagle-eyed reader will notice this is a research about sugar. Nothing to do with smoking or vaping...after all another supposedly respectable body already said vaping is 95% healthier. Public Health England, a government affiliated body no less. -> https://www.theguardian.com/so...
Some searching leads to this 113 page piece of "research" that was no carried out by the UK government of course but rather an "independent researcher" which actually are:
McNeill A, Brose LS, Calder R, Hitchman SC
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology &
Neuroscience,
National Addiction Centre,
Hajek P, McRobbie H (Chapters 9 and 10)
Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine
A link deeper and you find the actual full paper -> https://www.gov.uk/government/...
This is some people's minds cements the belief that vaping is 95% safer than smoking cigarettes. the author of that "study" which is more like a search on Pubmed gave two key factors for this 95% figure:
That there is less than 5% known carcinogens in vaping (assuming your sucking on the same "juice" and that there is currently no associated health risk.
Read it if you like -> https://www.gov.uk/government/...
So really this thought that vaping is so much healthier has some good concepts behind it what it lacks is proof and data. All we found is that we have no data to say it's unhealthy. If it causes genetic damage or increased mutation that is only apparent many years later we have no clue.
Just think what the tobacco industry is worth. What the vaping industry will be worth...can you honestly beliee they will not pub their weight into anything much like the sugar lobby once did? -in fact we already know the tobacco industry has covered up decades of research and used their expertise to counter anything that made them look bad.
95% healthier...once this flawed concept is in the public's mind it takes another fucking decade to tell them otherwise. Once upon a time Kent cigarettes had asbestos filters that increased cancer rates many times over compared to regular smoking. They were the product of "research" and were thought to be "healthy"...remember that.
Just continue vaping. It's safe. Anything coming out of a miniaturized "fog machine" is so much better for you. Honest.
As an added bonus it's cheaper than your previous addiction platform too!
No. Only your mother is on topic.
*runs away giggling*
OR the reader is intelligent and considers more than one possibility...
Hating? - banter is lost on you.
"douch" said the anonymous coward...oh the pain.
I was so worried about the poor RIAA.
Profits are up? woohoo they've survived high speed tape cassette dubbing! -err I mean the latest copying technology/piracy.
Safe in this newfound knowledge I can sleep well again.
That was clearly and precisely what I was referring to. If you understood...
Dude, where do you get off coming up with this shit?
No one wants to hear anything except how anthropogenic global warming is melting all the ice and we're soon going to extinct the planet.
Your opinion that there's some data that isn't doom and gloom makes me suspect you are some sort of in-closet global warming denier/self hater.
Just read history. Climate change never happened at this rate before because there weren't any cars then. Ocean toxicity was never a problem. Even coral lived forever.
(Come with my on this journey of faux pas religion)
===
Someone said here that if people are terrible online they are probably atheists; you vicious atheist!
Don't you go hurting my iFeelings or the iMob shall iPod you to death.
Yes the heavy 5th gen, 80gb drive iPods!
I shall be a good iPerson and offer you this warm embrace if you bow and submit to the all mighty tree apple.
===
Seriously though, if there are enough crazies out there their insanity will become a religion and you will have to respect it. These special breed of monkey will batter you in the name of religion despite not yet producing a shred of proof of "god" as written of in their "holy books".
Oh wait, this has already happened. All praise our lord and saviour *insert deity here* the one true god of the one true religion.
When will these type of crimes become proportional FFS??
Here's some average jail times for crimes in the UK to put this into perspective:
Administering drugs to obtain intercourse Sexual Offences Act 1956 s4 2 years
Abuse of trust: sexual activity with a child Sexual Offences Act 2003 s16 5 years
Burglary with intent to commit rape (non-dwelling) Theft Act 1968 s9 10 years
Distributing copyrighted material Dumbass Act 2016 10 years?!
Who is "demanding justice" in this case to require 10 years for "piracy"? It's not for the people...you know, the individuals that make this democracy thing work.
One thing is to leverage the law fairly to get the tax benefit you DESERVE.
Another thing entirely to go in with the sole purpose of paying less to simple evade as much taxation as possible.
The spirit of the law.
These companies are gaining unfair advantages for paying less, leveraging their well to pay even less and continue to abuse their position to the detriment of any system that relies on taxation. You can be a capitalist, a communist, a socialist a frigging surrealist -if you depend on far taxation these people, these legal entities are parasites.
Fair and square you say? -under which article or tax dodging does that fall in the taxation guide?
Tax benefits are there to stimulate growth, help the poor, encourage small businesses and all sorts of other forms. It's not there for a supremely rich company to rape the system.
It takes years to investigate and prove this stuff. It's only right they pay what they DODGED with interest.
IF you let it slide then everyone will be ENCOURAGED to steal -I mean "dodge" because getting away with it for 10 years is cost effective if you get caught for 1 year.
Not only should apple pay it's almighty execs should line up and apologise for knowing fucking us all over -Sorry I mean "dodge tax"
Their C level staff that took part and planned this should be given a stern warning about LEGAL implications of dodging tax...which as you know is illegal.
Or do you mean to encourage smart and well established people to fuck the rest of the population even more than they already do by saying if they got some technicalities we'll just bend over and take it?
Another thing I forgot to mention...
When I pay tax I do so according to my tax code. Generally speaking people get a different code and pay taxes differently based on their age, their marital status, disability or other factors. Why is that important? because once most of us know our tax code and salary we pay tax accordingly.
Here is what we do not do; look up all the tax codes in different countries and try to align ourselves in such a way that we can leverage different tax benefits under different codes in different places while squeezing local economies and weaker governing bodies to look away with the singular intent to pay less rather than pay our fair share.
Such behaviour is more akin to a parasite carefully leeches off the rest of us.
Like someone suffering from battered wife syndrome Ireland is DEFENDING Apple. Why? because those politicians are inept, corrupt or desperate to remain attractive for future business...or actually all three. Luckily the EU is stepping in.
Who's next on the hit list? -stop! don't tell me yet! *runs to get popcorn*
This is where push will come to shove.
You can have whole divisions of lawyers covering each and every aspect of the fine print to the nth level but the bottom line is;
Tax laws, breaks and reductions are not there to be professionally manipulated to the extent that you pay nothing.
Due to loopholes, exploitation and poor oversight megacorporations have had an unfair advantage for decades.
Apple execs will throw a hissy fit because they know they manipulated every legal loophole to pay less. "It's legal" they shout. The intent not to pay tax to any meaningful degree is fucking the rest of us over. The rest of us can decide to call BS and slap you with a fine to pony up what you owe.
Welcome to the iTaxes you owed us and never pay ALL THOSE YEARS -they are magical.
You obviously cannot see problems but let me illuminate you by suggestion what the features of a smart fridge are.
Facebook status updates; We're run out of tomatoes!
Twitter feedback; After 2 hours of refrigeration we have discarded your new product because it sucks!
Family alerts (via facebook); We've run out of tomatoes!!
Intrusion detection; "Toddler attempting to open fridge door. Deploying countermeasures!"
MaaS (Maintenance as a Service; Fridge printer ink running low, please consider replacement.
Seamless integration; update to phone (via Facebook) - friedge temperature decreased by 20c so your coke can be cold in-time for pizza before your favourite show.
Sure you might think this is useless but soon people will not remember a time when their fridge didn't have a GUI. A fridge that cannot reboot would be looked upon like a CRT B/W television.
Once this is popular in more countries we will be rid of the problems we often have with human drivers.
No more grand tours taking you via the longest route at a special tariff. No rude comments or "chitchat" because they are bored. No phone conversations or unwanted sexual attention.
I just hope they won't run into too many teething issues to put people off for another few years...
Please find me on Telegram. My nickname is FFB
Actually everything else seems better now.