Well yeah, American textbooks are overpriced, we all know that. It works because American universities (and lecturers) rely on these textbooks. In many countries lecturers will do their best to provide good and affordable literature, even if that means compiling or writing their own scripts and selling them at cost (that's what professors tend to do in my country). That's why you have American and international versions ("not to be sold in the US") of many popular textbooks; non-American professors simply wouldn't use overpriced textbooks. (Incidentally, I recently had to buy a textbook which, while about half the price of the American version, is still comparatively expensive. The professor suggested that we buy the Chinese version on eBay which is identical except for the price.)
Do you attack e-mail for reducing profits of snail mail/fax sales (and it did by a very large margin)?
Considering how little Americans pay for sending snail mail (compared to some European countries whose postal services are being "privatized" and are trying to turn a profit), I don't think that the USPS ever made huge profits. In fact, it's subsidized by your tax dollars. So why should anyone complain?
Lumpy, don't forget that when non-US countries state their fuel economy they are using non-US gallons.
Huh? Actually, the rest of the world uses those newfangled things called "liter" and "kilometer." In many countries fuel economy is stated in liters per 100 kilometers, which is exactly what you're suggesting.
Oh, okay. Prove it. Go ahead and drink some scalding water at 96 degrees Celcius for all I care, genius.
Okay, I just got my water boiler and boiled some water (actually, roaringly boiling) and poured the boiling water into a cup. About three seconds later I started drinking from that cup. And here I'm sitting, sipping water that's well over 90C. And nothing's scalded here.
Believe it or not, in many parts of the world hot beverages are supposed to be that hot. Just because you don't know how to sip hot liquids doesn't mean it's impossible.
how does one prove that one made a purchase at a store?
One doesn't and isn't required to. You don't have to prove that you didn't break the law; if somebody thinks you did they have to prove it.
are you telling me a store doesn't have a right to stop shoplifters?
How dense are you? If they see you take something and fail to pay for it they have every right to detain you until the police arrive. How a store manages loss prevention is their problem, not mine and breaking laws isn't the way to do it.
Whilst I'm not 100% sure what EU laws guarantee (*), it's almost certain that anything under a year would be thrown out of court
Don't know about Britain specifically but generally in the EU there is an automatic two-year warranty for most products. The vendor (or manufacturer) doesn't have to offer any kind of warranty specifically, it's all automatic. During the first year any defects are assumed to be manufacturing faults and the vendor has to prove otherwise, after that you have to prove that the product was in fact faulty when you bought it (which is, of course, almost impossible most of the time).
The vendor or manufacturer can offer additional warranties, up to 20 years where I live (so-called "life-long" warranties have been deemed unrealistic by the courts and now default to 20 years).
Well, if you like meat I can see how cooking can take up a lot of your time. I don't and I find that I can make most dishes I like in less than a half hour (including cooking (dried) pasta, since you asked).
I'm still waiting for you to substantiate your claims that "the middle class is abort[ing] all females and having nothing by boys" in China and that "[by] age 5, the ratio in china is something like 60-40." There's some truth to what you wrote but you're hopelessly exaggerating and coming to ridiculous conclusions.
Please prove me wrong and provide sources for your numbers. Thank you.
Do you have sources that support any one of the claims that you made? Your comment consists of nothing but outright falsehoods, incredible exaggerations and cheap propaganda. Here's a page that refutes just about everything you wrote about China.
...which is why every institution that's involved in healthcare (including the government) does its best to convince people to go to all kinds of doctors and have themselves checked regularly (for "free") in this small European country with universal (and mandatory) healthcare because it's ultimately cheaper for the system to have fewer sick people. Seems to work, we pay much less for healthcare than Americans and live much longer.
But if you're so blinded by your love of socialized medicine that you can't see the good aspects of our system, you really have no business saying who is or isn't capable of critical thought.
Why do you guys insist on taking Canada as an example of universal healthcare? Look at the WHO healthcare ranking. My country happens to be in the top 10 according to that list. I've never even heard of waiting times of more than one week. (That doesn't include emergencies or cases when you're in pain obviously. Then you just go to the hospital and will be treated immediately. Or you just choose a different doctor who isn't as busy.) Our healthcare system pays for itself (doesn't run a deficit) by comparatively low federally-mandated contributions that you pay according to your income.
Don't aspire to do as well as Canada. Try to do as well as the best (that's mostly evil "socialist" Western Europe for you -- most of which has conservative goverments of course).
While that's true in absolute terms it's absolutely irrelevant in this context. There are a couple of countries that have a higher GDP per capita than the US. Most of which are in Europe and have universal healthcare I might add.
Apple has a history of doing what it takes. If "negotiations broke down", it probably means Verizon wanted them to compromise on something that would prevent the iPhone from being the iPhone.
You got it backwards. Apple demands a share of the revenue that's generated by iPhone users. That's why so many carriers (especially outside the US) are upset about the way Apple negotiates and don't plan to offer the iPhone to their customers.
I've had printers whose cartridges had chips that just counted pages so you couldn't even refill them. After a certain number of pages the printer just wouldn't print anymore until the (very expensive) cartridge was replaced.
You really tried that around the world, or just a claim?
Yes, I have actually been to dozens of countries an all continents with phones that are virtually unknown in other countries and guess what, it just worked. I have also been to countries whose (monopolistic) telcos don't have roaming agreements with other (international) carriers and guess what, once I popped in a locally-bought prepaid SIM card is just worked(TM).
So, would you please be kind enough to provide authoritative sources for your statement that telcos "won't let any other mobile from manufacturers without deals with them"? Thanks in advance.
In Europe, you never had to pay for incoming calls but the caller has to pay outrageous rates to call your mobile.
"Outrageous" being anything from 1 to 10 Eurocents/minute for domestic calls depending on your plan but usually less than 5 cents/minute in my (European) country.
You mixed up customer-level locking and mobile-level locking. The latter is done by manufacturers to register a unique identifier of a particular model of mobile phone with major mobile carriers.
There are too many local discount cell phone producers that make phones that work all over the world for that to be even remotely true. Please provide sources.
That's right. The US is the only country I've been to where I've been asked for my passport by police while travelling inside the country. Repeatedly. And I've been to dozens of countries on every continent, even a to a couple of supposedly 'evil' communist countries.
So, how about a seat tax on every airliner that passes over?
Why not, just about every country has something like that. Typically per plane and not per seat, though. (Okay, technically you pay for air traffic control but you can't really fly over a country without that, can you?)
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Well yeah, American textbooks are overpriced, we all know that. It works because American universities (and lecturers) rely on these textbooks. In many countries lecturers will do their best to provide good and affordable literature, even if that means compiling or writing their own scripts and selling them at cost (that's what professors tend to do in my country). That's why you have American and international versions ("not to be sold in the US") of many popular textbooks; non-American professors simply wouldn't use overpriced textbooks. (Incidentally, I recently had to buy a textbook which, while about half the price of the American version, is still comparatively expensive. The professor suggested that we buy the Chinese version on eBay which is identical except for the price.)
Considering how little Americans pay for sending snail mail (compared to some European countries whose postal services are being "privatized" and are trying to turn a profit), I don't think that the USPS ever made huge profits. In fact, it's subsidized by your tax dollars. So why should anyone complain?
Sorry, I was obviously talking about an electric kettle, in case anyone is confused.
Believe it or not, in many parts of the world hot beverages are supposed to be that hot. Just because you don't know how to sip hot liquids doesn't mean it's impossible.
How dense are you? If they see you take something and fail to pay for it they have every right to detain you until the police arrive. How a store manages loss prevention is their problem, not mine and breaking laws isn't the way to do it.
The vendor or manufacturer can offer additional warranties, up to 20 years where I live (so-called "life-long" warranties have been deemed unrealistic by the courts and now default to 20 years).
...in the US. Don't generalize. There are lots of places where students are an expense, not a source of revenue.
Well, if you like meat I can see how cooking can take up a lot of your time. I don't and I find that I can make most dishes I like in less than a half hour (including cooking (dried) pasta, since you asked).
Opera. Everything (really) can be done on the keyboard, no extensions needed. And it's faster than using the mouse too.
I'm still waiting for you to substantiate your claims that "the middle class is abort[ing] all females and having nothing by boys" in China and that "[by] age 5, the ratio in china is something like 60-40." There's some truth to what you wrote but you're hopelessly exaggerating and coming to ridiculous conclusions.
Please prove me wrong and provide sources for your numbers. Thank you.
Do you have sources that support any one of the claims that you made? Your comment consists of nothing but outright falsehoods, incredible exaggerations and cheap propaganda. Here's a page that refutes just about everything you wrote about China.
...which is why every institution that's involved in healthcare (including the government) does its best to convince people to go to all kinds of doctors and have themselves checked regularly (for "free") in this small European country with universal (and mandatory) healthcare because it's ultimately cheaper for the system to have fewer sick people. Seems to work, we pay much less for healthcare than Americans and live much longer.
Don't aspire to do as well as Canada. Try to do as well as the best (that's mostly evil "socialist" Western Europe for you -- most of which has conservative goverments of course).
I've had printers whose cartridges had chips that just counted pages so you couldn't even refill them. After a certain number of pages the printer just wouldn't print anymore until the (very expensive) cartridge was replaced.
IRS employess get thousands of dollars a day?
Pig fat? In muslim countries? I'd think they would choose something that's a little easier to come by.
So, would you please be kind enough to provide authoritative sources for your statement that telcos "won't let any other mobile from manufacturers without deals with them"? Thanks in advance.
I predict that you will be right because that's exactly what Jobs said.
That's right. The US is the only country I've been to where I've been asked for my passport by police while travelling inside the country. Repeatedly. And I've been to dozens of countries on every continent, even a to a couple of supposedly 'evil' communist countries.