The same number of iPhones get sold whether Apple sells them or a bunch of carriers sell them. The carriers make you pay a monthly fee for "service" and you get a steep discount on a new phone every couple of years. The GP is pointing out that Apple has just introduced a similar leasing program, except they're being very upfront about it, not obscuring the actual transaction in packages and other tricks. That's a good thing. So by your logic, because Apple is doing it, it's a really good thing.
Leasing isn't necessarily only for people who are bad at math or who want things they can't afford, even if you live in a place where they somehow manage to charge double taxes. Leasing can make sense if you're using the leased vehicle to generate income or if you can claim the leasing cost as a tax write-off. In the first case the lease is essentially a loan to make an investment. In the latter it's getting the taxpayers to pay for your new toy.
It hasn't suddenly become a thing. People have been leasing cars forever. This is the same thing. I know people who get a new car every two years. They like having new cars, and lease programs are designed for them. There are some people who want the latest shiny at all times. If you're one of them, this phone lease program will make it a bit cheaper for you to do that. If you don't replace your phone every year then this isn't for you.
The insidious thing is the cell provider model of obscuring the fact that you're leasing a phone by bundling it with the connectivity itself. Kind of like if the only price a car dealer would ever advertise was the downpayment, and your actual lease payment was bundled with the cost of gas.
Yes, you can get low end phones at low end prices. Phone companies currently advertise those as "free."
No marketer in his right mind is going to give up "get a basic phone for free or upgrade to an Android Whatever or iPhone Whatsamacallit for $300!" for "pay $80 for the bare minimum, or $700 for the phone all your friends have."
No phone provider is ever going to advertise the true price of their phones unless required to do so. They're too ridiculously expensive, no matter what brand they are.
We do in lots of places. Python has a database API specification, with implementations for lots of popular databases. Want to write and test with sqlite then move to MySQL, Postress or Oracle? Go ahead. Medical images are stored in PACS systems: databases with software wrapped around them to do network and API access. Any scanner can talk to any big hospital system, or the open source PACS server running on your notebook.
This stuff already exists, and we already use it where it makes sense.
Code is designed to be turned into hardware. It's essentially what your compiler and assembler do, except they stop one step short of burning it onto silicon and use a simulator (a CPU) instead.
Turning a designer's handwaving into code is another thing.
The GP suggested a perl script. You don't code in perl, you just hit random keys until it does what you want. I expect a distributed peer-to-peer global supply chain of designers could handle that just fine.
No, this is a brilliant idea. It's so brilliant that people thought of it decades ago and invented the library. Actually, first they invented the command line tool, then the library.
Education, particularly of women. There's a good talk (TED, I think) about how Bangladesh had tried all kinds of ways to reduce it's world-leading birth rate. None of them really worked. Then there was an unconnected program to send girls to school, and the birth rate fell through the floor.
By the way, the population growth rate of India has been declining since the 80s (and is currently less than the US in the 90s), and China's is currently less than the US. The world population growth rate is also in decline, and is currently less than the US in the 90s.
That's too simplistic an analysis. Contraception exists in the natural world, including as a built-in mechanism in many animals. There can be very good survival benefits to not getting pregnant at the wrong time. IIRC, lionesses, for example, can reduce their fertility during famines.
Prototypes often work perfectly well. In fact, if you've got any sense you make sure you've got a prototype that works before you start making non-prototypes.
In this case, they're calling it a prototype because it's a little can that doesn't do much except serve as a docking target.
The distinction between whether god faxed a copy or used telepathy seems pretty minor in this context. If a copy of the gospel of Mark was found that predated Mark, that would bear a similar relation to the claim that god made Mark write it as a koran predating Mohammad has to the claim that Mohammad stumbled over the divinely teleported original while taking his evening constitutional.
The Christian faith claims that the bible is the word of god (lots of bibles actually say that on the front), transcribed by particular men upon holy revelation. The church does indeed claim that the bible was merely transcribed, although they do admit that it was transcribed in chunks.
The successful solution implemented by several cities has been to have real live people in a central traffic command centre monitor and adjust lights. It still requires the sensors and lights to be networked, it just doesn't use software to automatically adjust them (at least not during peak times).
Why are people still talking about stupid things? Because people who think you should give them money for their "ideas" have to come up with those ideas somewhere. It's different this time. Really.
That's sad. Assembler was a required course for my CS degree. If you wanted to mix in any significant computer engineering you took the optional second course that covered Motorola assembler as well.
That's a start, but there is also value in having this traffic light know that up the street there's a backup so it might as well let the cross traffic go despite what the sensor is telling it. Or conversely, that light up the street might want to turn green for the group of cars that just went though this one.
Internet connected appliances are dumb. That was tried during the last bubble.
It depends on what it is. Cab companies are finding out that having your cabs (or their drivers) connected to the Internet is very important. We already discovered that hooking refrigerators up to the Internet was kind of stupid.
In terms of "smart" cities, traffic sensors at important intersections and central control can really improve traffic flow. Parking meters you can pay by app are very convenient (provided the fee is reasonable). Busses with GPS on board and an app to show when they're coming seems like it should be a no brainer. But a lot of the other stuff companies are trying to push is just stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
The same number of iPhones get sold whether Apple sells them or a bunch of carriers sell them. The carriers make you pay a monthly fee for "service" and you get a steep discount on a new phone every couple of years. The GP is pointing out that Apple has just introduced a similar leasing program, except they're being very upfront about it, not obscuring the actual transaction in packages and other tricks. That's a good thing. So by your logic, because Apple is doing it, it's a really good thing.
Leasing isn't necessarily only for people who are bad at math or who want things they can't afford, even if you live in a place where they somehow manage to charge double taxes. Leasing can make sense if you're using the leased vehicle to generate income or if you can claim the leasing cost as a tax write-off. In the first case the lease is essentially a loan to make an investment. In the latter it's getting the taxpayers to pay for your new toy.
It hasn't suddenly become a thing. People have been leasing cars forever. This is the same thing. I know people who get a new car every two years. They like having new cars, and lease programs are designed for them. There are some people who want the latest shiny at all times. If you're one of them, this phone lease program will make it a bit cheaper for you to do that. If you don't replace your phone every year then this isn't for you.
The insidious thing is the cell provider model of obscuring the fact that you're leasing a phone by bundling it with the connectivity itself. Kind of like if the only price a car dealer would ever advertise was the downpayment, and your actual lease payment was bundled with the cost of gas.
Yes, you can get low end phones at low end prices. Phone companies currently advertise those as "free."
No marketer in his right mind is going to give up "get a basic phone for free or upgrade to an Android Whatever or iPhone Whatsamacallit for $300!" for "pay $80 for the bare minimum, or $700 for the phone all your friends have."
There do appear to be versions of those that cheap. On the other hand:
http://www.amazon.ca/Streaming...
http://www.amazon.ca/Amazon-Fi...
So I suspect there's some variation in capability.
Lots of regular people are happy to pay $100-$150 for a Netflix box that works well. Google and Amazon have similar products at similar price points.
No phone provider is ever going to advertise the true price of their phones unless required to do so. They're too ridiculously expensive, no matter what brand they are.
We do in lots of places. Python has a database API specification, with implementations for lots of popular databases. Want to write and test with sqlite then move to MySQL, Postress or Oracle? Go ahead. Medical images are stored in PACS systems: databases with software wrapped around them to do network and API access. Any scanner can talk to any big hospital system, or the open source PACS server running on your notebook.
This stuff already exists, and we already use it where it makes sense.
Code is designed to be turned into hardware. It's essentially what your compiler and assembler do, except they stop one step short of burning it onto silicon and use a simulator (a CPU) instead.
Turning a designer's handwaving into code is another thing.
The GP suggested a perl script. You don't code in perl, you just hit random keys until it does what you want. I expect a distributed peer-to-peer global supply chain of designers could handle that just fine.
It's not. But these guys would like you to think it is so you'll buy whatever they're selling.
Other way around:
1) Use essentially nothing but libraries someone else wrote
2) Slap a cutesy GUI on it
3) Profit!
Notice there's no ??? step. This is the current business model, and it's currently raking in the cash.
No, this is a brilliant idea. It's so brilliant that people thought of it decades ago and invented the library. Actually, first they invented the command line tool, then the library.
Just like it did to Christianity a hundred years ago.
Education, particularly of women. There's a good talk (TED, I think) about how Bangladesh had tried all kinds of ways to reduce it's world-leading birth rate. None of them really worked. Then there was an unconnected program to send girls to school, and the birth rate fell through the floor.
By the way, the population growth rate of India has been declining since the 80s (and is currently less than the US in the 90s), and China's is currently less than the US. The world population growth rate is also in decline, and is currently less than the US in the 90s.
That's too simplistic an analysis. Contraception exists in the natural world, including as a built-in mechanism in many animals. There can be very good survival benefits to not getting pregnant at the wrong time. IIRC, lionesses, for example, can reduce their fertility during famines.
Violence makes the meat taste better.
Prototypes often work perfectly well. In fact, if you've got any sense you make sure you've got a prototype that works before you start making non-prototypes.
In this case, they're calling it a prototype because it's a little can that doesn't do much except serve as a docking target.
The distinction between whether god faxed a copy or used telepathy seems pretty minor in this context. If a copy of the gospel of Mark was found that predated Mark, that would bear a similar relation to the claim that god made Mark write it as a koran predating Mohammad has to the claim that Mohammad stumbled over the divinely teleported original while taking his evening constitutional.
The Christian faith claims that the bible is the word of god (lots of bibles actually say that on the front), transcribed by particular men upon holy revelation. The church does indeed claim that the bible was merely transcribed, although they do admit that it was transcribed in chunks.
The successful solution implemented by several cities has been to have real live people in a central traffic command centre monitor and adjust lights. It still requires the sensors and lights to be networked, it just doesn't use software to automatically adjust them (at least not during peak times).
Why are people still talking about stupid things? Because people who think you should give them money for their "ideas" have to come up with those ideas somewhere. It's different this time. Really.
That's sad. Assembler was a required course for my CS degree. If you wanted to mix in any significant computer engineering you took the optional second course that covered Motorola assembler as well.
That's a start, but there is also value in having this traffic light know that up the street there's a backup so it might as well let the cross traffic go despite what the sensor is telling it. Or conversely, that light up the street might want to turn green for the group of cars that just went though this one.
Internet connected appliances are dumb. That was tried during the last bubble.
It depends on what it is. Cab companies are finding out that having your cabs (or their drivers) connected to the Internet is very important. We already discovered that hooking refrigerators up to the Internet was kind of stupid.
In terms of "smart" cities, traffic sensors at important intersections and central control can really improve traffic flow. Parking meters you can pay by app are very convenient (provided the fee is reasonable). Busses with GPS on board and an app to show when they're coming seems like it should be a no brainer. But a lot of the other stuff companies are trying to push is just stupid.
Except that Apple's similarly priced Airport Extreme has three times as many ports. Their single-port option costs half as much.