It is at a heavy cost. A car receives support anywhere close to as we think of it in the software world for only a few years or a certain mileage limit. During that time, if there are problems, they fix it. However after that, it is your dollar. Also it is only repairs, no updates.
I have a 1996 car and the dealer will still work on it, you can get parts, but the charge quite a bit for both the parts and labour. There are no updates to it, no improvements. Subsequent models got a more powerful, turbocharged, engine but I don't get to have that retrofitted unless I want to spend serious money (and the dealer won't do it, someone else would have to).
People need to STFU about MS support as it is actually very good. Their OS support is 10 years from date of initial release. So when an OS comes out you are guaranteed security fixes for at least 10 years from the release date. Sometimes they'll extend that, but you get at least 10 years. That is split in to 5 years of general support, meaning it tends to get service packs and often new features, and 5 years of extended support meaning it tends to get only security updates.
That's not a bad lifecycle. Even the LTS very of Ubutnu is only 5 years, OS-X is two version behind the current, which translates to like 3-4 years. At 10 years of support, with no subscription or anything, MS is not bad.
It isn't like this XP thing is sneaking up on people, it has been known for a long time, some people are just choosing not to deal with it.
Also, realistically, if you get the most current Windows on your computer when you buy it, it'll last for the life of the computer. Even if it is a couple years in to support, the computer is likely to be very old and slow, and probably breaking down, by the time it goes out. For example if you bought a system with Windows 8 on it today, it would go out of support in January of 2023. My guess is that 9.5 years from now, whatever you bought will be showing its age pretty badly, if it even still runs, and be due for a replacement. Heck even a system with 7 goes out of support in January of 2020. So over 6 years until you'd need to upgrade, and again, might be new system time at that point.
Ya the county range I shoot at his little buckets at each station for brass. If you don't reload (I don't, since I don't shoot enough to wish to spend the time on it) you scoop your casings in there before you leave. They then sell it and use the money to help pay for the range. There are trash cans too for trash, but no brass in the trash. It is valuable, either take it or put it in the buckets.
The thing is you can't bring in an H1-B visa person just because you want them, or feel like they are a "better fit" or any of that. You can only do it if you cannot find a qualified US candidate (citizen, permanent resident, etc). If you get an applicant that is qualified and wants the job, you have to take them over getting someone on a visa. You can't argue that they are overqualified, because you have to take them if they are qualified.
That's the whole deal with the H1-B visa program: It is supposed to be for jobs you can't fill locally, either because there is too much demand for that kind of worker, the skill set isn't around, whatever. You can't find a qualified candidate, so you get one on a visa.
Police and private citizens have different rules. So if the police break in your house, without a warrant, and find evidence of a crime, well sorry that evidence, and anything resulting from it, can't be used. They didn't follow the law. Likewise if the police pay (or force, or ask, or whatever) someone to break in to your house and that person finds evidence of a crime, it again can't be used. While the person wasn't a cop, he acted as their agent.
However, if someone breaks in to their house all on their own and finds evidence of a crime and turns it over to the police, that they can use. The person still broke the law and can and should go to jail for breaking in to your house, but because they were acting of their own accord, it doesn't taint the evidence for use in a case against you.
That's the problem here. Geeks seem to think there is such a thing as perfect security, they delude themselves in to thinking that if people just weren't so lazy, so stupid, so whatever that we could have perfect security. Now with computers that is at least a theoretical possibility. It can't happen really, but in theory one could make a perfectly secure computer system.
Well that can't happen in reality. There is -no- perfect security in the physical world. It is just about trying to make shit happen less, about trying to make your security good enough that it can ward off the best attack you are likely to face. No matter how much you spend, what you do, there is always a way around it.
That is something geeks just can't seem to handle. They just can't deal with the idea that physical security is imperfect, and so they hate on the solutions as being not good enough, as though they could magically be perfect if only they tried hard enough.
How do you develop apps on computers? Those seem to be the ultimate of non-standard display sizes. You can find displays of anything from about 1024x768 up to about 2560x1600 on most modern systems, with anything in between. Lots of aspect ratios too, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10, 21:9. Yet somehow lots, and lots and lots of developers seem to be able to make their stuff work. It can deal with the concept of repositioning elements, scaling UI (games in particular are often quite good at this) and relative positioning.
It is just on mobile devices that devs seem to want to assume everything should be one size, and they can just make everything in an absolute fashion.
See here's the deal: Just because one person discovers something, it doesn't magically mean that everyone else can figure it out right away. It might be the person who discovered it is pretty clever, and has done a lot of work in that field. So it may well take others quite some time to find it out. If you want to see some examples, look at various military technologies, in particular stealth technology. You might note that that US had working stealth systems long before anyone else.
Now as this relates to security, what it means is that disclosing right away may not be that useful. Perhaps if you give some time for a fix to be implemented, or at least a mitigation, then things could be a little better. Remember with cars it isn't like one can just post a bug fix on a website. All other things aside in terms of what has to be changed, there is pretty extensive testing and certification.
So one can well argue if you've found a flaw in a car you need to notify the manufacturers and give them time to fix it or mitigate it, which may be a good deal of time, rather than running out and telling the world so people know how clever you are.
Like say I discovered that if I pushed on a particular spot in your house, the whole thing would come crashing down on your head. Turns out, said spot is not easy to fix, you can't just go and spend $5 and an hour to do it. It will take a good bit of time and money to fix the problem. Would you like me to let you know, quietly, or would you like me to stick up a poster letting anyone who sees it know, and how that nobody does anything?
They could post whiny comments on Slashdot trying to make false equivalences to steer any and all discussions to the US rather than talking about the fact at hand!
Seriously, quit with this shit. One of the most annoying things about Slashdot these days are the folks like you that just can't deal with any discussion that isn't about the US, in particular how bad the US is. It is a sort of arrogance that if the discussion isn't about something you know and care about, you can't deal with it and thus have to steer it back around.
Stop it. Discuss the article in question. Stop twisting everything back around to your pet topic.
Supposedly, the cops got a tip from their former employer that they'd found these searches and then went to investigate. If that is the case, well then it is pretty much a non-story. Some employers regularly do look at what is done on their computers because they are paranoid employees are wasting time, stealing, whatever.
You prepare for things you don't imagine could actually happen, particularly when you are talking the government of a country. You want to have contingency plans in place, even for disasters you say "There's no way that is going to happen."
I can see taking exception to the pay. It is valid to have the position that we should be more socialist, that people in lower skill jobs should make more. Not everyone will agree, of course, but it is a valid position to have and to argue. However this concept that there is something bad about having to stand and move all day for work, or that it won't be in a climate controlled office. Oh give me a break.
It is just part of this bias that Mike Rowe calls a "war on work" as though only jobs sitting at a desk are real jobs. That if you are out doing any sort of physical work, then your job sucks and you should aspire to something better. No, actually, it is perfectly valid to work like that and you can be quite happy. One thing I'll say for sure is it helps keep you in better shape when you are active like that. I was a surveyor's assistant for a while, which meant working outside doing physical things. Man was I in good shape. I felt good too, had more energy than I do now where I sit at a desk all day. This is not to say I hate my desk job, I love doing computer support, but I am realistic about the benefits I got from being active all day.
So ya, I don't see what is wrong with these Amazon warehouse jobs, other than perhaps the pay. Trying to make it seem bad because people are standing and moving just smacks of laziness. "Oh those poor people, they have to actually use their bodies, which is actually healthier! Whatever will they do!"
If Amazon treats them well and their workplace is safe, then what is to complain about, environment wise?
I guess it depends on how you define "middle class". The traditional definition would more or less be people who are not rich, nor poor. That is how it came about in the first place. Back in the day, you were one or the other and the difference was stark. The rich had everything, the poor had nothing, the rich needed to do nothing, the poor had to do everything, etc, etc. The poor had at least one, and usually more than one, basic need un or under fulfilled. The poor generally belonged to the rich, literally, they were slaves or indentured to the land.
Well as time went on a "middle" class came about and grew. They weren't rich, they had to work for a living, but they weren't poor either. They had their needs met, they had some measure of independence and self determination, and so on.
By that standard, the vast majority of America is middle class. We have some actual poor, and some actual rich, but most people would be in a wide band that is the middle. There's great variance in that band, but the general statements of the original middle class are true.
Now some people believe that definition is (or should be) changed. That you divide it down further. A frequent term you see for people who are not poor, but are only a bit above it is "working class". Middle class is then something higher up above that.
The big problem is most people don't actually think as to how they define it. Online, people seem to define "middle class" as some nebulous kind of good lifestyle that they can't really define what it entails or what it takes to have, but that they think they should have and are mad they don't.
At any rate, it depends on how you wish to define things. There is no international standard or anything so really, you need to decide for yourself what terms and levels you think make sense. But yes, $24k/year can be "middle class" by some definitions, at least in cheaper areas of the country.
Consumers demand it. People love "unlimited". Even when they don't need it, even if you can give them proof positive a metered plan will save money, they don't want that. Consumers want a flat rate to pay, period.
If you want high speed net access, and don't want to pay a lot, you have to play nice with others and share. You can be offered 100mbit or gig to your home, with backhaul to more or less support it, for not too much money. However you can't be offered dedicated bandwidth in that amount unless you want to pay a bunch more. Just how it works. When you start talking dedicated bandwidth, the backhaul goes up massively in requirements and thus cost.
Well that means users have to keep their usage reasonable and that means no servers that gobble up bandwidth. If everyone plays nice and uses their net as home users normally do, links can be heavily oversubscribed and thus the price can be low. However if users start hammering things, it'll either mean poor service for everyone else or a need for a large increase in cost.
You can't get everything for nothing. Fast shared networks work only when people share.
When something is truly tasty, it is generally good plain. That doesn't mean you only eat it plain, that seasoning isn't awesome, but that it isn't needed to be good.
I love a good steak with no sauce at all. Raw salmon is great as is (though I do like it with soy sauce better). Chicken is a little bland when cooked with nothing, but no problem and actually needs very little (bit of oil and garlic) to make it quite good. Etc.
Same deal with fruits and veggies. Carrots, tomatoes, apples, peaches, bananas, etc, etc all great just as they are. Peel, if applicable, and eat. There are some other great ways to use and prepare them, but they are all tasty just as they are.
When someone tells you that something is really great, but then it needs to be masked with something pretty strong, well that should give you pause. It probably isn't in fact that tasty, and they are just trying to cover it up. It is rather disingenuous.
3-4% total. The money goes to their cash reserves, to pay their debt (they have some $14 billion in debt), to employees that have profit sharing (not sure if any do), and to stock holders as a dividend.
While Apple makes a fuckton of profit, retail is normally very low margin. For example Target's profit margin is about 3.8%, and 3-4% is normally where it is around. That means that after you account all costs, the products, loss to theft, the stores, employees, taxes, etc, etc, etc there's 3-4% left over. That's fairly thin. Same deal with Safeway, about 1.2% currently. That means in those cases they actually can't increase operating costs much more before they'd slip in to unprofitability.
That is not to try and give companies a pass at being bad to employees but let's be a little realistic here. Retail is, in nearly all cases, a very thin profit margin. It isn't like they can just afford to massively increase costs, and not raise prices, because there is just not the extra to do that.
Back in the day I had a roommate that worked at a Baskin Robins that was breaking all kinds of employment rules. For example they were paid minimum wage but if the cash in the drawer didn't match up to what he thought it should, he'd take it out of their pay. Well employment law was the only thing he was breaking, I called the corporate office and it turned out that they had a rule that you had to pay more than minimum wage anyhow. You find that with chains sometimes, they have internal wage rules higher than the legal minimum.
However he got away with it forever because none of his employees (including my roommate) would turn him in. I tried to convince her to, to let the corporate office and the state attorney know, but she wouldn't.
The EVE fans are some of the worst I've seen
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They seem to have a very self-superior attitude as though they are just better because they play a Bettar Game(tm) and if you aren't good enough to hang with them then screw you, you suck! However on the other hand they hate the other MMOs because they take players away. The wish there was no WoW, no Rift, etc so that people HAD to play EVE.
Basically, what they really want is a large quantity of people who are not good at the game that they can pick on and hate on. They want to be the ruling class that has a lower class to shit on. They are bullies, more or less.
He's mad at you because you tried the game and left, rather than stuck around to give him another potential target to beat up.
Seriously people, take a little time to hop on over to the US Treasury site and learn a little about US debt instruments. It isn't hard, they'll explain it all, and even sell them to you directly if you want some.
So, this is not a loan shark situation, where the US goes to China and says "Please give us some money!" and China says "Ok you can have money, and at some point, you don't know when, I'll come and collect and you don't know how much for." Rather the US auctions off securities, bonds, notes, etc, and China chooses to buy some. They are sold to the highest bidder, which in this case means the entity that bids the interest rate down the lowest.
Now some things to note about them:
1) They pay out in US dollars. They are not denoted on foreign currency, they are in US dollars, meaning they have value only if the dollar does, and their value is dependant on the dollar.
2) They pay out only after a given period. There is no provision to call in the money early. They have a defined cycle depending on what you buy. Some t-bills have a maturity date as short as a couple weeks, some bonds a maturity date as long as 30 years. They pay out the principal only when they mature, not before (bonds pay out interest every 6 months). The only way to get money early is to sell them to someone else who wants them, for a price that group is willing to pay.
3) They aren't physical things you have, they are just entries in a computer at the treasury. They are completely under the control of the US government and if you did something that allowed them to seize your assets, there is fuck all you could do to stop it.
So no, China can't come "through the courts with a small army of debt collectors." Their case would be dismissed in summary judgement and they'd be charged court costs. You can't sue the government to try and get them to pay out their treasury securities early as it is EXPLICITLY stated that they pay out only at a given time. You can't demand they pay you in another currency, as they are sold in US dollars. You can't act as though they took your money without you knowing as you had to go and bid on them.
Seriously, none of this is a big secret or complex. Go look it up. Go participate in it, if you like. Treasurydirect is the government's site for individuals to buy securities. You can participate in the auctions and buy government debt for yourself, if you wish. Just don't think you can then run down to the court house and demand the government pay you. The terms of your payment are explicit up front. If you don't like it, don't buy.
Have a look at your board some day. It is pretty easy to identify all the chips, and their origin. There also aren't all that many. Chips cost money. So ya, there are other chips like the audio chip (made by Realtek, of Taiwan), NIC (Realtek, Broadcom or Intel), sometimes extra USB chips (NEC) etc. All these are on there because the company the board was made for spec'd them and they know what they do and who they are from.
So you would be claiming that China would be making chips that duplicated the functionality and form factor of these chips, but also had extra evil functions, and then had Foxconn secretly stick them on boards. And that nobody ever noticed. Ummm, ya. That is entering in to truther territory in terms of believability.
I think part of the problem is people have this false idea that "everything is made in China". No, not really. A lot of stuff is made in China as in put together there, but it turns out the rest of the world makes a lot of products, many of which are components that go in to the things made in China. The US is second only to China in terms of manufactured goods. That right there should tell you something about the belief that the US "doesn't make anything".
You ruined his perfectly good "hate on the US" session! After all, clearly the US is the bad guy if they are doing this. The other countries must have good reasons and/or are just US puppets, it is the US that is evil!
It is amusing how two posters in this thread so far have tried to spin this in to an anti-US rant, when it is rather something happening in a number of nations. On Slashdot, it seems to continue to be trendy to hate on the US, for any or no reason at all.
I wasn't aware the US had annexed Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK....or are you just trying to spin something as anti-US when really it is a collection of nations?
The motherboard may be made in China but the components are not. The chips are largely American in manufacture (most of them are Intel). Now I suppose the company making the motherboards could add a chip, but, well, that would kinda be noticed during the QA process by the company that ordered them. It isn't like you get parts from a Chinese manufacturer and just slap them in a unit sight-unseen. Not because of worries about spying but because quality control with Chinese companies can be... problematic. You have to test the parts and send back the failed ones (1%ish usually, sometimes more).
In terms of BIOS/UEFI? That's all Phoenix Technologies and American Megatrends. They are in California and Georgia respectively.
Slashdot Mirror
It is at a heavy cost. A car receives support anywhere close to as we think of it in the software world for only a few years or a certain mileage limit. During that time, if there are problems, they fix it. However after that, it is your dollar. Also it is only repairs, no updates.
I have a 1996 car and the dealer will still work on it, you can get parts, but the charge quite a bit for both the parts and labour. There are no updates to it, no improvements. Subsequent models got a more powerful, turbocharged, engine but I don't get to have that retrofitted unless I want to spend serious money (and the dealer won't do it, someone else would have to).
People need to STFU about MS support as it is actually very good. Their OS support is 10 years from date of initial release. So when an OS comes out you are guaranteed security fixes for at least 10 years from the release date. Sometimes they'll extend that, but you get at least 10 years. That is split in to 5 years of general support, meaning it tends to get service packs and often new features, and 5 years of extended support meaning it tends to get only security updates.
That's not a bad lifecycle. Even the LTS very of Ubutnu is only 5 years, OS-X is two version behind the current, which translates to like 3-4 years. At 10 years of support, with no subscription or anything, MS is not bad.
It isn't like this XP thing is sneaking up on people, it has been known for a long time, some people are just choosing not to deal with it.
Also, realistically, if you get the most current Windows on your computer when you buy it, it'll last for the life of the computer. Even if it is a couple years in to support, the computer is likely to be very old and slow, and probably breaking down, by the time it goes out. For example if you bought a system with Windows 8 on it today, it would go out of support in January of 2023. My guess is that 9.5 years from now, whatever you bought will be showing its age pretty badly, if it even still runs, and be due for a replacement. Heck even a system with 7 goes out of support in January of 2020. So over 6 years until you'd need to upgrade, and again, might be new system time at that point.
"In the U.S., 16.4% of all personal computers ran Windows XP in July."
I mean seriously, it isn't like you even had to click on the article.
Ya the county range I shoot at his little buckets at each station for brass. If you don't reload (I don't, since I don't shoot enough to wish to spend the time on it) you scoop your casings in there before you leave. They then sell it and use the money to help pay for the range. There are trash cans too for trash, but no brass in the trash. It is valuable, either take it or put it in the buckets.
The thing is you can't bring in an H1-B visa person just because you want them, or feel like they are a "better fit" or any of that. You can only do it if you cannot find a qualified US candidate (citizen, permanent resident, etc). If you get an applicant that is qualified and wants the job, you have to take them over getting someone on a visa. You can't argue that they are overqualified, because you have to take them if they are qualified.
That's the whole deal with the H1-B visa program: It is supposed to be for jobs you can't fill locally, either because there is too much demand for that kind of worker, the skill set isn't around, whatever. You can't find a qualified candidate, so you get one on a visa.
Police and private citizens have different rules. So if the police break in your house, without a warrant, and find evidence of a crime, well sorry that evidence, and anything resulting from it, can't be used. They didn't follow the law. Likewise if the police pay (or force, or ask, or whatever) someone to break in to your house and that person finds evidence of a crime, it again can't be used. While the person wasn't a cop, he acted as their agent.
However, if someone breaks in to their house all on their own and finds evidence of a crime and turns it over to the police, that they can use. The person still broke the law and can and should go to jail for breaking in to your house, but because they were acting of their own accord, it doesn't taint the evidence for use in a case against you.
"Nothing is perfect"
That's the problem here. Geeks seem to think there is such a thing as perfect security, they delude themselves in to thinking that if people just weren't so lazy, so stupid, so whatever that we could have perfect security. Now with computers that is at least a theoretical possibility. It can't happen really, but in theory one could make a perfectly secure computer system.
Well that can't happen in reality. There is -no- perfect security in the physical world. It is just about trying to make shit happen less, about trying to make your security good enough that it can ward off the best attack you are likely to face. No matter how much you spend, what you do, there is always a way around it.
That is something geeks just can't seem to handle. They just can't deal with the idea that physical security is imperfect, and so they hate on the solutions as being not good enough, as though they could magically be perfect if only they tried hard enough.
How do you develop apps on computers? Those seem to be the ultimate of non-standard display sizes. You can find displays of anything from about 1024x768 up to about 2560x1600 on most modern systems, with anything in between. Lots of aspect ratios too, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10, 21:9. Yet somehow lots, and lots and lots of developers seem to be able to make their stuff work. It can deal with the concept of repositioning elements, scaling UI (games in particular are often quite good at this) and relative positioning.
It is just on mobile devices that devs seem to want to assume everything should be one size, and they can just make everything in an absolute fashion.
See here's the deal: Just because one person discovers something, it doesn't magically mean that everyone else can figure it out right away. It might be the person who discovered it is pretty clever, and has done a lot of work in that field. So it may well take others quite some time to find it out. If you want to see some examples, look at various military technologies, in particular stealth technology. You might note that that US had working stealth systems long before anyone else.
Now as this relates to security, what it means is that disclosing right away may not be that useful. Perhaps if you give some time for a fix to be implemented, or at least a mitigation, then things could be a little better. Remember with cars it isn't like one can just post a bug fix on a website. All other things aside in terms of what has to be changed, there is pretty extensive testing and certification.
So one can well argue if you've found a flaw in a car you need to notify the manufacturers and give them time to fix it or mitigate it, which may be a good deal of time, rather than running out and telling the world so people know how clever you are.
Like say I discovered that if I pushed on a particular spot in your house, the whole thing would come crashing down on your head. Turns out, said spot is not easy to fix, you can't just go and spend $5 and an hour to do it. It will take a good bit of time and money to fix the problem. Would you like me to let you know, quietly, or would you like me to stick up a poster letting anyone who sees it know, and how that nobody does anything?
They could post whiny comments on Slashdot trying to make false equivalences to steer any and all discussions to the US rather than talking about the fact at hand!
Seriously, quit with this shit. One of the most annoying things about Slashdot these days are the folks like you that just can't deal with any discussion that isn't about the US, in particular how bad the US is. It is a sort of arrogance that if the discussion isn't about something you know and care about, you can't deal with it and thus have to steer it back around.
Stop it. Discuss the article in question. Stop twisting everything back around to your pet topic.
So it looks like this all may be an over-blown non-story.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/
Supposedly, the cops got a tip from their former employer that they'd found these searches and then went to investigate. If that is the case, well then it is pretty much a non-story. Some employers regularly do look at what is done on their computers because they are paranoid employees are wasting time, stealing, whatever.
You prepare for things you don't imagine could actually happen, particularly when you are talking the government of a country. You want to have contingency plans in place, even for disasters you say "There's no way that is going to happen."
I can see taking exception to the pay. It is valid to have the position that we should be more socialist, that people in lower skill jobs should make more. Not everyone will agree, of course, but it is a valid position to have and to argue. However this concept that there is something bad about having to stand and move all day for work, or that it won't be in a climate controlled office. Oh give me a break.
It is just part of this bias that Mike Rowe calls a "war on work" as though only jobs sitting at a desk are real jobs. That if you are out doing any sort of physical work, then your job sucks and you should aspire to something better. No, actually, it is perfectly valid to work like that and you can be quite happy. One thing I'll say for sure is it helps keep you in better shape when you are active like that. I was a surveyor's assistant for a while, which meant working outside doing physical things. Man was I in good shape. I felt good too, had more energy than I do now where I sit at a desk all day. This is not to say I hate my desk job, I love doing computer support, but I am realistic about the benefits I got from being active all day.
So ya, I don't see what is wrong with these Amazon warehouse jobs, other than perhaps the pay. Trying to make it seem bad because people are standing and moving just smacks of laziness. "Oh those poor people, they have to actually use their bodies, which is actually healthier! Whatever will they do!"
If Amazon treats them well and their workplace is safe, then what is to complain about, environment wise?
I guess it depends on how you define "middle class". The traditional definition would more or less be people who are not rich, nor poor. That is how it came about in the first place. Back in the day, you were one or the other and the difference was stark. The rich had everything, the poor had nothing, the rich needed to do nothing, the poor had to do everything, etc, etc. The poor had at least one, and usually more than one, basic need un or under fulfilled. The poor generally belonged to the rich, literally, they were slaves or indentured to the land.
Well as time went on a "middle" class came about and grew. They weren't rich, they had to work for a living, but they weren't poor either. They had their needs met, they had some measure of independence and self determination, and so on.
By that standard, the vast majority of America is middle class. We have some actual poor, and some actual rich, but most people would be in a wide band that is the middle. There's great variance in that band, but the general statements of the original middle class are true.
Now some people believe that definition is (or should be) changed. That you divide it down further. A frequent term you see for people who are not poor, but are only a bit above it is "working class". Middle class is then something higher up above that.
The big problem is most people don't actually think as to how they define it. Online, people seem to define "middle class" as some nebulous kind of good lifestyle that they can't really define what it entails or what it takes to have, but that they think they should have and are mad they don't.
At any rate, it depends on how you wish to define things. There is no international standard or anything so really, you need to decide for yourself what terms and levels you think make sense. But yes, $24k/year can be "middle class" by some definitions, at least in cheaper areas of the country.
Consumers demand it. People love "unlimited". Even when they don't need it, even if you can give them proof positive a metered plan will save money, they don't want that. Consumers want a flat rate to pay, period.
If you want high speed net access, and don't want to pay a lot, you have to play nice with others and share. You can be offered 100mbit or gig to your home, with backhaul to more or less support it, for not too much money. However you can't be offered dedicated bandwidth in that amount unless you want to pay a bunch more. Just how it works. When you start talking dedicated bandwidth, the backhaul goes up massively in requirements and thus cost.
Well that means users have to keep their usage reasonable and that means no servers that gobble up bandwidth. If everyone plays nice and uses their net as home users normally do, links can be heavily oversubscribed and thus the price can be low. However if users start hammering things, it'll either mean poor service for everyone else or a need for a large increase in cost.
You can't get everything for nothing. Fast shared networks work only when people share.
When something is truly tasty, it is generally good plain. That doesn't mean you only eat it plain, that seasoning isn't awesome, but that it isn't needed to be good.
I love a good steak with no sauce at all. Raw salmon is great as is (though I do like it with soy sauce better). Chicken is a little bland when cooked with nothing, but no problem and actually needs very little (bit of oil and garlic) to make it quite good. Etc.
Same deal with fruits and veggies. Carrots, tomatoes, apples, peaches, bananas, etc, etc all great just as they are. Peel, if applicable, and eat. There are some other great ways to use and prepare them, but they are all tasty just as they are.
When someone tells you that something is really great, but then it needs to be masked with something pretty strong, well that should give you pause. It probably isn't in fact that tasty, and they are just trying to cover it up. It is rather disingenuous.
3-4% total. The money goes to their cash reserves, to pay their debt (they have some $14 billion in debt), to employees that have profit sharing (not sure if any do), and to stock holders as a dividend.
While Apple makes a fuckton of profit, retail is normally very low margin. For example Target's profit margin is about 3.8%, and 3-4% is normally where it is around. That means that after you account all costs, the products, loss to theft, the stores, employees, taxes, etc, etc, etc there's 3-4% left over. That's fairly thin. Same deal with Safeway, about 1.2% currently. That means in those cases they actually can't increase operating costs much more before they'd slip in to unprofitability.
That is not to try and give companies a pass at being bad to employees but let's be a little realistic here. Retail is, in nearly all cases, a very thin profit margin. It isn't like they can just afford to massively increase costs, and not raise prices, because there is just not the extra to do that.
Back in the day I had a roommate that worked at a Baskin Robins that was breaking all kinds of employment rules. For example they were paid minimum wage but if the cash in the drawer didn't match up to what he thought it should, he'd take it out of their pay. Well employment law was the only thing he was breaking, I called the corporate office and it turned out that they had a rule that you had to pay more than minimum wage anyhow. You find that with chains sometimes, they have internal wage rules higher than the legal minimum.
However he got away with it forever because none of his employees (including my roommate) would turn him in. I tried to convince her to, to let the corporate office and the state attorney know, but she wouldn't.
They seem to have a very self-superior attitude as though they are just better because they play a Bettar Game(tm) and if you aren't good enough to hang with them then screw you, you suck! However on the other hand they hate the other MMOs because they take players away. The wish there was no WoW, no Rift, etc so that people HAD to play EVE.
Basically, what they really want is a large quantity of people who are not good at the game that they can pick on and hate on. They want to be the ruling class that has a lower class to shit on. They are bullies, more or less.
He's mad at you because you tried the game and left, rather than stuck around to give him another potential target to beat up.
Seriously people, take a little time to hop on over to the US Treasury site and learn a little about US debt instruments. It isn't hard, they'll explain it all, and even sell them to you directly if you want some.
So, this is not a loan shark situation, where the US goes to China and says "Please give us some money!" and China says "Ok you can have money, and at some point, you don't know when, I'll come and collect and you don't know how much for." Rather the US auctions off securities, bonds, notes, etc, and China chooses to buy some. They are sold to the highest bidder, which in this case means the entity that bids the interest rate down the lowest.
Now some things to note about them:
1) They pay out in US dollars. They are not denoted on foreign currency, they are in US dollars, meaning they have value only if the dollar does, and their value is dependant on the dollar.
2) They pay out only after a given period. There is no provision to call in the money early. They have a defined cycle depending on what you buy. Some t-bills have a maturity date as short as a couple weeks, some bonds a maturity date as long as 30 years. They pay out the principal only when they mature, not before (bonds pay out interest every 6 months). The only way to get money early is to sell them to someone else who wants them, for a price that group is willing to pay.
3) They aren't physical things you have, they are just entries in a computer at the treasury. They are completely under the control of the US government and if you did something that allowed them to seize your assets, there is fuck all you could do to stop it.
So no, China can't come "through the courts with a small army of debt collectors." Their case would be dismissed in summary judgement and they'd be charged court costs. You can't sue the government to try and get them to pay out their treasury securities early as it is EXPLICITLY stated that they pay out only at a given time. You can't demand they pay you in another currency, as they are sold in US dollars. You can't act as though they took your money without you knowing as you had to go and bid on them.
Seriously, none of this is a big secret or complex. Go look it up. Go participate in it, if you like. Treasurydirect is the government's site for individuals to buy securities. You can participate in the auctions and buy government debt for yourself, if you wish. Just don't think you can then run down to the court house and demand the government pay you. The terms of your payment are explicit up front. If you don't like it, don't buy.
Have a look at your board some day. It is pretty easy to identify all the chips, and their origin. There also aren't all that many. Chips cost money. So ya, there are other chips like the audio chip (made by Realtek, of Taiwan), NIC (Realtek, Broadcom or Intel), sometimes extra USB chips (NEC) etc. All these are on there because the company the board was made for spec'd them and they know what they do and who they are from.
So you would be claiming that China would be making chips that duplicated the functionality and form factor of these chips, but also had extra evil functions, and then had Foxconn secretly stick them on boards. And that nobody ever noticed. Ummm, ya. That is entering in to truther territory in terms of believability.
I think part of the problem is people have this false idea that "everything is made in China". No, not really. A lot of stuff is made in China as in put together there, but it turns out the rest of the world makes a lot of products, many of which are components that go in to the things made in China. The US is second only to China in terms of manufactured goods. That right there should tell you something about the belief that the US "doesn't make anything".
You ruined his perfectly good "hate on the US" session! After all, clearly the US is the bad guy if they are doing this. The other countries must have good reasons and/or are just US puppets, it is the US that is evil!
It is amusing how two posters in this thread so far have tried to spin this in to an anti-US rant, when it is rather something happening in a number of nations. On Slashdot, it seems to continue to be trendy to hate on the US, for any or no reason at all.
I wasn't aware the US had annexed Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. ...or are you just trying to spin something as anti-US when really it is a collection of nations?
The motherboard may be made in China but the components are not. The chips are largely American in manufacture (most of them are Intel). Now I suppose the company making the motherboards could add a chip, but, well, that would kinda be noticed during the QA process by the company that ordered them. It isn't like you get parts from a Chinese manufacturer and just slap them in a unit sight-unseen. Not because of worries about spying but because quality control with Chinese companies can be... problematic. You have to test the parts and send back the failed ones (1%ish usually, sometimes more).
In terms of BIOS/UEFI? That's all Phoenix Technologies and American Megatrends. They are in California and Georgia respectively.