But the story with browsers is completely different. They are not marketing Firefox OS to consumers to load on to their existing phones - they are marketing it towards phones which come pre-loaded with the OS, more akin to Macintosh on the PC side - though at the far low end. Maybe Chromebook is a better example, and that is doing nicely at the moment.
That is true, but refining is also very expensive and has some serious non-dollar external effects, like air pollution. Certainly all that revenue creates a few hundred high-paying jobs, and maybe that is reason enough to keep it here - but it is not without cost.
Yeah, I agree that if you are measuring total money extracted from the pension, you are doing better by living longer. However, since payments usually aren't adjusted for inflation, reality will give you a big slap in the face if you don't have a savings to supplement your pension. That half-salary that seemed good enough at 55 might not look so good in 2054. In fact, a teacher that retired today with a $50,000/year pension would probably pull in more from Social Security than from the pension by the time they hit their mid or late 80s. Inflation is not a good thing for pensioners, and it is sobering even for us 401(k) types. If I want to have "a million bucks in the bank" for retirement, I really need to target more like 4 million. That is a much harder goal!
I'd add that while it is harder to find than mainstream music, it is easier to find good music than ever in the history of mankind. YouTube alone can keep you exploring music for hours at a time.
I honestly don't know how it compares to other areas. Philly is a rich part of the country, and unions are strong here - so I fully expect that teachers would be better off than they are elsewhere. But I think you hit the nail on the head - salaries have come up. Entry level teachers still make a meager salary (though not at all bad), but stick with it and the pay is quite good. I personally think they should flatten the structure a bit - I'm of the opinion that "paying your dues" is a bit old-fashioned.
As for my "annualizing", I'm just trying to be fair. Just as your father might have trouble finding work in the summer, I would have a hard time finding an engineering job that gives me the whole summer off. My sister-in-law bartends. Until my brother ascended into "the administration", he spent the summers running the local rec department. Somehow you have to account for the fewer hours worked when comparing jobs, and I just went with the annualized route.
Here in PA, an entry level teacher at my district makes a fairly low salary, but the 15-year rate is fantastic. Starting elementary teachers make around $42,000. If you annualize for the 2 months off in summer that is $50,400. The 15-year rate is about $76,000 - annualized that is $91,200. I'm sorry, but that is a pretty decent salary - it puts you in the top 95% of all single wage earners. At retirement, which is IIRC 25 years, you get half pay. At that point - probably in your early 50s - you can get another job and effectively get two salaries.
Not only that, but if he's been teaching for a while, he's already "paid his dues" and is into the part where the money starts to get pretty good. At this point, wait until you are 45 (or 50), retire with full benefits, and then take on a second career if it still interests you. Until then, enjoy those summers off.
What I can't understand is why other companies have followed their lead. Mathworks copied the ribbion for MATLAB, which makes me seriously wonder whether they are sane. MATLAB is almost by definition for power users and it costs a fortune.
you can't write more than four lines of Fortran without painting some Star Trek action figure
I like that. I'm going to use that.
And GOTO is over-villified. In BASIC it is the only sane way to do error handling. In other languages, I frequently use the "continue" operation, which is just a limited goto with a different name.
So in what way is the Kindle Fire lower end than an iPad mini (other than price)?
Assuming you mean the HDX, it's only price. I don't think Amazon makes much profit on the hardware. My whole thesis is based on price - I'm not considering hardware at all.
Everyone needs a hobby:) That's a very cool idea, but the last thing my kitchen needs is another machine. And I have to face the fact that I'm never going to make the time to roast coffee beans - just like I'm not going to brew beer or follow that pot roast recipe that takes me several hours to prepare. All would undoubtedly result in a better product, but you need to have an interest in it (or be exceedingly picky).
They may not be super-low-end, why did I buy this piece of crap tablets - but buying a Kindle will save you over $50 compared to the cheapest iPad. And Kindles reach down almost into the super-low-end for the older models. The other brands that you mentioned are as cheap or cheaper. I have two Kindles - the kids play Minecraft on them and my wife plays Candy Crush. On the newer Kindle, I watch Netflix/Prime on it. We bought Kindles instead of iPads because we are on a self-imposed but tightly enforced budget... we are cheap and we have a system! We aren't good app customers, I'm afraid.
I don't think it is the quality of the apps that drives people not to purchase the Android version - I think it is the nature of the buyer. Most of these Android tablets are low-end... people saving perhaps $50. Cost conscious people are not going to be the best customers for an app store. Yes, I know there are high-end Android devices. I'd wager that people who buy those end up making just as many app purchases as iPad buyers. I'd also wager that the number of high-end Android devices sold is not a terribly significant part of the market, yet probably accounts for all of the profit.
While I'm sure I'd appreciate your coffee, it's beyond what I need. It just needs to be decent. That said, I don't have a Keurig, and most of what I've sampled is too weak for me. We do have a "Flavia" machine at work, and it produces some decent enough coffee - or at least much better than the slop they were brewing before in the industrial drip machine. I also have a Nespresso machine at home, and I'm happy with the espresso it makes. It makes no sense for me to buy coffee beans, since I only make coffee on weekends... they'd go stale before I used them. The little hermetically sealed pods last longer and the machine is ridiculously simple to use. Most espresso machines are more sensitive to how you use it, and cost a lot more.
Maybe my knowledge is out of date, but I read that studies showed boiled coffee raised cholesterol and drip coffee did not. Perhaps the paper absorption bit is speculation, but there's no question that French press coffee contains more cafestol than drip.
I'm not sure I can agree. Smartphones were very contested, they all just kind of sucked for internet browsing. Windows phone had been around for, what? 10 years? Blackberries were ubiquitous among management. And then there were the Palm and Symbian offerings... lots of competition. And it is telling that the low-cost competitor most-similar to Apple's offering, Android, is the current marketshare leader. Microsoft practically fell all over themselves trying to make an iPhone clone (and an iPod clone before that, and a Mac clone before that, and now an iPad clone).
I think I can make a similar case for tablets and mp3 players.
Yes, I end up putting MS Office on pretty much first thing - but also OpenOffice/LibreOffice because that's where I have my billing set up. I'd do without MS Office if I didn't have to work with others.
My other must-haves are MATLAB (not my first choice, but it's what my company uses), Pyzo (a scientific-oriented Python distro), jEdit (cross platform editor), Putty (Windows has no ssh), Firefox (I'm addicted to Tree-Style Tabs), IrfanView (on PC only), Inkscape, GIMP, an RPN calculator (XCALC on Windows, RPN Calc widget on Mac), VLC, Dropbox, CrashPlan (cross-platform backup), TeamViewer (cross-platform remote control replacing LogMeIn), Skype, Tortoise Git (on Windows), and finally WizMouse (on Windows, which has odd scroll wheel behavior without it IMHO).
Their usual first-mover advantage? Has Apple ever been a first-mover? Maybe the Lisa 30 years ago, and that sold horribly. Apple's last 3 successes have been taking something that mostly sucked with a tiny market and blowing it up by making something that sucked a lot less and thus expanding the market.
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But the story with browsers is completely different. They are not marketing Firefox OS to consumers to load on to their existing phones - they are marketing it towards phones which come pre-loaded with the OS, more akin to Macintosh on the PC side - though at the far low end. Maybe Chromebook is a better example, and that is doing nicely at the moment.
It's not ever done, but corporate charters can be revoked at the whim of government.
That is true, but refining is also very expensive and has some serious non-dollar external effects, like air pollution. Certainly all that revenue creates a few hundred high-paying jobs, and maybe that is reason enough to keep it here - but it is not without cost.
Yeah, I agree that if you are measuring total money extracted from the pension, you are doing better by living longer. However, since payments usually aren't adjusted for inflation, reality will give you a big slap in the face if you don't have a savings to supplement your pension. That half-salary that seemed good enough at 55 might not look so good in 2054. In fact, a teacher that retired today with a $50,000/year pension would probably pull in more from Social Security than from the pension by the time they hit their mid or late 80s. Inflation is not a good thing for pensioners, and it is sobering even for us 401(k) types. If I want to have "a million bucks in the bank" for retirement, I really need to target more like 4 million. That is a much harder goal!
I'd add that while it is harder to find than mainstream music, it is easier to find good music than ever in the history of mankind. YouTube alone can keep you exploring music for hours at a time.
I honestly don't know how it compares to other areas. Philly is a rich part of the country, and unions are strong here - so I fully expect that teachers would be better off than they are elsewhere. But I think you hit the nail on the head - salaries have come up. Entry level teachers still make a meager salary (though not at all bad), but stick with it and the pay is quite good. I personally think they should flatten the structure a bit - I'm of the opinion that "paying your dues" is a bit old-fashioned.
As for my "annualizing", I'm just trying to be fair. Just as your father might have trouble finding work in the summer, I would have a hard time finding an engineering job that gives me the whole summer off. My sister-in-law bartends. Until my brother ascended into "the administration", he spent the summers running the local rec department. Somehow you have to account for the fewer hours worked when comparing jobs, and I just went with the annualized route.
Last time I talked about it with my brother and his wife, they were planning on a 55 retirement. They are both teachers, and they have no kids.
The only bad part of their plan is that their pensions do not increase, so if they live 40 years that half-salary is going to look pretty paltry.
Here in PA, an entry level teacher at my district makes a fairly low salary, but the 15-year rate is fantastic. Starting elementary teachers make around $42,000. If you annualize for the 2 months off in summer that is $50,400. The 15-year rate is about $76,000 - annualized that is $91,200. I'm sorry, but that is a pretty decent salary - it puts you in the top 95% of all single wage earners. At retirement, which is IIRC 25 years, you get half pay. At that point - probably in your early 50s - you can get another job and effectively get two salaries.
Not only that, but if he's been teaching for a while, he's already "paid his dues" and is into the part where the money starts to get pretty good. At this point, wait until you are 45 (or 50), retire with full benefits, and then take on a second career if it still interests you. Until then, enjoy those summers off.
That's like $5! Outrage!
What I can't understand is why other companies have followed their lead. Mathworks copied the ribbion for MATLAB, which makes me seriously wonder whether they are sane. MATLAB is almost by definition for power users and it costs a fortune.
I'll go a step further - I prefer Office 2003 to 2010. I've been using the "ribbon" for a few years now, and it still sucks.
you can't write more than four lines of Fortran without painting some Star Trek action figure
I like that. I'm going to use that.
And GOTO is over-villified. In BASIC it is the only sane way to do error handling. In other languages, I frequently use the "continue" operation, which is just a limited goto with a different name.
Well, I'd wager that Vertu phone buyers would not really blink at paying for apps. I don't think I can comment on the quality.
So in what way is the Kindle Fire lower end than an iPad mini (other than price)?
Assuming you mean the HDX, it's only price. I don't think Amazon makes much profit on the hardware. My whole thesis is based on price - I'm not considering hardware at all.
Everyone needs a hobby :) That's a very cool idea, but the last thing my kitchen needs is another machine. And I have to face the fact that I'm never going to make the time to roast coffee beans - just like I'm not going to brew beer or follow that pot roast recipe that takes me several hours to prepare. All would undoubtedly result in a better product, but you need to have an interest in it (or be exceedingly picky).
They may not be super-low-end, why did I buy this piece of crap tablets - but buying a Kindle will save you over $50 compared to the cheapest iPad. And Kindles reach down almost into the super-low-end for the older models. The other brands that you mentioned are as cheap or cheaper. I have two Kindles - the kids play Minecraft on them and my wife plays Candy Crush. On the newer Kindle, I watch Netflix/Prime on it. We bought Kindles instead of iPads because we are on a self-imposed but tightly enforced budget... we are cheap and we have a system! We aren't good app customers, I'm afraid.
I don't think it is the quality of the apps that drives people not to purchase the Android version - I think it is the nature of the buyer. Most of these Android tablets are low-end... people saving perhaps $50. Cost conscious people are not going to be the best customers for an app store. Yes, I know there are high-end Android devices. I'd wager that people who buy those end up making just as many app purchases as iPad buyers. I'd also wager that the number of high-end Android devices sold is not a terribly significant part of the market, yet probably accounts for all of the profit.
While I'm sure I'd appreciate your coffee, it's beyond what I need. It just needs to be decent. That said, I don't have a Keurig, and most of what I've sampled is too weak for me. We do have a "Flavia" machine at work, and it produces some decent enough coffee - or at least much better than the slop they were brewing before in the industrial drip machine. I also have a Nespresso machine at home, and I'm happy with the espresso it makes. It makes no sense for me to buy coffee beans, since I only make coffee on weekends... they'd go stale before I used them. The little hermetically sealed pods last longer and the machine is ridiculously simple to use. Most espresso machines are more sensitive to how you use it, and cost a lot more.
Maybe my knowledge is out of date, but I read that studies showed boiled coffee raised cholesterol and drip coffee did not. Perhaps the paper absorption bit is speculation, but there's no question that French press coffee contains more cafestol than drip.
I'm not sure I can agree. Smartphones were very contested, they all just kind of sucked for internet browsing. Windows phone had been around for, what? 10 years? Blackberries were ubiquitous among management. And then there were the Palm and Symbian offerings... lots of competition. And it is telling that the low-cost competitor most-similar to Apple's offering, Android, is the current marketshare leader. Microsoft practically fell all over themselves trying to make an iPhone clone (and an iPod clone before that, and a Mac clone before that, and now an iPad clone).
I think I can make a similar case for tablets and mp3 players.
Yes, I end up putting MS Office on pretty much first thing - but also OpenOffice/LibreOffice because that's where I have my billing set up. I'd do without MS Office if I didn't have to work with others.
My other must-haves are MATLAB (not my first choice, but it's what my company uses), Pyzo (a scientific-oriented Python distro), jEdit (cross platform editor), Putty (Windows has no ssh), Firefox (I'm addicted to Tree-Style Tabs), IrfanView (on PC only), Inkscape, GIMP, an RPN calculator (XCALC on Windows, RPN Calc widget on Mac), VLC, Dropbox, CrashPlan (cross-platform backup), TeamViewer (cross-platform remote control replacing LogMeIn), Skype, Tortoise Git (on Windows), and finally WizMouse (on Windows, which has odd scroll wheel behavior without it IMHO).
I completely agree that Korn is more pleasant to script in. But... for some reason I prefer tcsh at the command line.
It's for Atlanta snowstorm drivers.
Their usual first-mover advantage? Has Apple ever been a first-mover? Maybe the Lisa 30 years ago, and that sold horribly. Apple's last 3 successes have been taking something that mostly sucked with a tiny market and blowing it up by making something that sucked a lot less and thus expanding the market.