"They have your credit card and a contract that says you promised to pay, and the credit card company will simply pay it and bill you."
That isn't how that works. The credit card company will reverse any charge (within a reasonable time) on your simple say so that the charge was unauthorized or the merchandise misrepresented. If you are willing to sign a statement to that effect the credit card company isn't going to upload someone elses contract on their behalf.
Unless by "credit card" you mean a bank debit. The bank will give you more of a hassle but ultimately if you ran the charge as credit rather than debit (aka signed rather than enter your pin) the same is true in the end.
"Do you REALLY think that killing Osama changed anything?"
Hopefully it gave the symbolic "victory" that will cause the bloodthirsty moronic masses to want to pull out of these stupid police actions turned war.
For fuck sake, Hilary said this operation was planned with the intention of killing bin laden. Has anyone considered that we just intentionally executed a man without trial? The most likely reason being that there wasn't any real evidence against bin laden in the first place (unless you want to count the fake video where some guy who wasn't bin laden claimed credit for 9/11).
God forbid people catch on and realize we just murdered thousands of people in two nations over evidence that wouldn't even stand up to scrutiny in the court system that we KNOW convicts the wrong guy 40% of the time.
"Apple is right up there with Exxon for profits and you think the shareholders are upset with the current business model?"
Believe it or not, not all shareholders are day traders. Some people actually care about the companies long term prospects, not just the current quarter. Apple is losing marketshare to Google across the board in their ios based products which is the current flagship and the primary area Woz is undoubtedly referring to.
ios has an edge over android os in almost every area so why are they losing marketshare to android os hand over fist? Because people are willing to invest in a company with a "do no evil" mantra and an open platform. Even if people don't truely understand open they get the benefits. They get third party app availability and not having to buy a new phone just because the provider wants to try to use an OS update as leverage to force them.
Google just burned everyone by refusing to open up the new tablet system so this is a perfect time for Apple to go open.
The last time apple went slightly open it essentially borrowed BSD to turn MacOS into a viable and modern operating system again and that was a big win.
"Yeah; if he's saying "it could afford to be more open" it sounds like he has a little bit of an agenda there which may not be aligned with the current direction Apple is going or its shareholder's best interests."
Or he might be correctly identifying that Apple's current direction isn't in its shareholder's best interests and therefore be the best guy for the job.
It sounds like you might have a personal agenda that makes you equate being open with reduced profitability.
So you don't think anyone other than a doctor has the right to speak out if someone who isn't a licensed physician is about to take over medical operations at the community medical center?
Sorry but there is no requirement that one be well qualified for a position before they are capable of determining that someone else is not. By that standard, nobody who isn't qualified to be president should be allowed to vote in the presidential election!
"Are there flaws in the U.S. educational system? Of course there are. Rather than piss and moan about it, why don't you actually get off your ass and do something about it?"
I think this is a big part of the problem. People tend to equate the educational system with the teachers. The truth is that the teachers didn't design the educational system. The fp had that much right, a horde of drones with education degrees did that and so far I've yet so any evidence that an education degrees equates to increased success in designing educational systems.
I'd expect you are right... but then your average engineering teacher could also be properly referred to as an engineer. The point being, engineering is a highly specialized and advanced field. Unfortunately, teaching, in and of itself is NOT a highly specialized field.
There is also another very significant difference. Engineers as a whole tend to be very good at what they do, be it building bridges, space shuttles, or electronics. I'd have to ask for some strong citations before even accepting a claim that those with educational degrees achieve better results on average than those without. I think you'll find your average shop mechanic teaching a new employee has a higher success rate than your average class environment designed by hordes of individuals with degrees in education.
Not at all. Police officers should just be held to the same laws as everyone else. If it wouldn't be okay for any citizen to use the taser on someone then it shouldn't be okay for a police officer. If an officer harms someone they should be subject to the same consequences as an ordinary citizen in the same circumstance. That includes criminal charges for assault and battery.
"That's the problem. "The news" broadcasts controversial events and propaganda and anecdotal evidence and videos of stupid hippies yelling at cops because they hate cops and unruly college students refusing to comply with peace officer demands"
You've got to be kidding me. At least here in the US the media is highly biased toward law enforcement, establishment, and the entrenched powers at be. Fox is openly biased and openly broadcasts this sort of propaganda and the other stations like CNN pretend to be fair by giving a line to the opposing point but always make sure to leave you with the impression that the police and establishment are good guys.
A Taser is a potentially lethal weapon and should be treated as such. If the officer is not facing a direct physical threat to himself or another that can't be defused via conventional physical take down it is appropriate to use it.
With a baton there is a risk because a confrontation isn't controlled but it is largely mitigated by training on where it is safe to strike. The risks associated with using a taser have more to do with the other guy and aren't generally visible to the naked eye so training isn't going to mitigate the risks. If the taser is being used with proper restraint and caution then it will be necessary despite assuming every target is going to be a worst case scenario.
Someone else provided a link indicating they are planning to keep the open source releases a full version behind from now on which means Honeycomb would be completely obsolete by the time it was released.
Even if they aren't planning something so ridiculous indefinite definitely doesn't have a "month or two" ring to it. If they wait 3 months, after release it will be at least another 3 months before the unsupported upgrade rom is stable enough for realistic use. The realistic technical lifespan of the tablet is what, a year or two? We are talking about 25-50% of the usable lifespan of the device and that is if you bought it today.
Android as a platform has more bugs than ios, it lacks the corporate support of the blackberry, it has fewer apps and those apps are less polished. I invested in android as a platform for all my phones and my tablet precisely because it is an open hacker friendly platform that leaves me at the mercy of an innovative hacker community rather than the mercy of a for profit hardware manufacturer. That means having the option to wait until there is a HARDWARE improvement I care about before buying a new piece of hardware.
If they need to generate more revenue then require codes for $15-20 (or included with hardware that came pre-bundled with 3.0) to access the market or something like that. I'm sure most would be willing to slap down a $20 for a fancy new tablet OS. You could still have the OS be completely open, still hop from one custom rom to the next. Hell, technically, an end user would even still be able to use the system for free if they didn't want to use googles market resources. Maybe add a common drm platform ala netflix requirements to the mix for extra incentive.
Their products are yet another search engine, yet another webmail app, yet another office clone, yet another instant messaging app. Google has decent products but their reputation isn't built on having the best of the best solutions it is built on being an ethical company that builds a strong hacker friendly community around products that are decent and funded in a way that makes them available to the masses.
This effectively closes the android for tablets platform entirely. It violates ethics by burning people who bought 3.0 ready hardware in good faith. No source, no hacker friendly environment, no community involvement. Without their community there is no Google.
They certainly don't have anything I can't live without. I have a brand new android tablet, myself, my wife, and the kids all have top end android based phones. Frankly I find the blackberry provides better compatibility with my work applications and the iPhone provides a better app experience including Netflix streaming. I bought this stuff because the android system WAS an open hacker friendly platform built and backed by a company that has a long standing history of supporting open technologies.
2.3 is a phone OS. That isn't a valid upgrade for a tablet.
Even if it were, you could substitute 2.3 for 2.2 everywhere in my post and the point remains the same. Those who bought pre-3.0 but 3.0 ready tablets in anticipation of the 3.0 release that was supposed to be coming any day now are being burned in a major way.
As for unofficial roms, 2.2 is completely unusable as released. The kindle app doesn't function and there is no market. The unofficial roms are the only option not merely for speed but for stability. I expected them to be only option for a 3.0 upgrade as well since the manufacturer will likely want to sell new hardware bundled with 3.0 rather than upgrading already sold tablets.
That's why this is a bad hit. No open source release means no unofficial roms and no upgrades for 2.2 tablets.
Their business model is built around image as much search algorithms. There are plenty of search engines, do no evil and open source support is a big part of why people use google vs all the other evil monsters.
The 'no evil' image of google is largely (entirely?) built upon a structure of open platforms, codecs, technologies, etc. Locking up Honeycomb to give proprietary vendors a headstart in the market and burning everyone who bought 2.2 tablets capable of running 3.0 in anticipation of this release is evil with a capital "E".
"pre-Honeycomb Android appearing on tablets and giving people a bad impression of the OS in that formfactor... you can hardly blame Google for holding back for the moment."
There are millions of tablets running pre-Honeycomb and seeing a bad impression of the OS in that form factor... yup sounds like a perfect reason to deny them an upgrade to a version of the OS made for that form factor.
This has nothing to do with phones and everything to do with giving google proprietary partners a headstart in sales before the cheap tablets can run 3.0. By the time it is released in open source form it will already be obsolete.
I have an unsupported tablet. The community roms are the only ones that work properly. The problem is manufacturers not shipping working code. The problem is being exacerbated by this because me and everyone else who bought a decent tablet intended to upgrade when 3.0 came out is now fsck'd.
They are doing this to give the xoom a sales boost. There are tons of tablets sold with 2.2 code using hardware that can run Honeycomb (which isn't for your phone and has nothing to do with iPhone). This is about burning everyone who bought one of those to boost the sales of tablets with 3.0. In many cases, for the same company that sold the tablet with 2.2 and wants to now sell the exact same hardware with 3.0 and a new model number.
Slashdot Mirror
"They have your credit card and a contract that says you promised to pay, and the credit card company will simply pay it and bill you."
That isn't how that works. The credit card company will reverse any charge (within a reasonable time) on your simple say so that the charge was unauthorized or the merchandise misrepresented. If you are willing to sign a statement to that effect the credit card company isn't going to upload someone elses contract on their behalf.
Unless by "credit card" you mean a bank debit. The bank will give you more of a hassle but ultimately if you ran the charge as credit rather than debit (aka signed rather than enter your pin) the same is true in the end.
"Do you REALLY think that killing Osama changed anything?"
Hopefully it gave the symbolic "victory" that will cause the bloodthirsty moronic masses to want to pull out of these stupid police actions turned war.
For fuck sake, Hilary said this operation was planned with the intention of killing bin laden. Has anyone considered that we just intentionally executed a man without trial? The most likely reason being that there wasn't any real evidence against bin laden in the first place (unless you want to count the fake video where some guy who wasn't bin laden claimed credit for 9/11).
God forbid people catch on and realize we just murdered thousands of people in two nations over evidence that wouldn't even stand up to scrutiny in the court system that we KNOW convicts the wrong guy 40% of the time.
"Apple is right up there with Exxon for profits and you think the shareholders are upset with the current business model?"
Believe it or not, not all shareholders are day traders. Some people actually care about the companies long term prospects, not just the current quarter. Apple is losing marketshare to Google across the board in their ios based products which is the current flagship and the primary area Woz is undoubtedly referring to.
ios has an edge over android os in almost every area so why are they losing marketshare to android os hand over fist? Because people are willing to invest in a company with a "do no evil" mantra and an open platform. Even if people don't truely understand open they get the benefits. They get third party app availability and not having to buy a new phone just because the provider wants to try to use an OS update as leverage to force them.
Google just burned everyone by refusing to open up the new tablet system so this is a perfect time for Apple to go open.
The last time apple went slightly open it essentially borrowed BSD to turn MacOS into a viable and modern operating system again and that was a big win.
"Yeah; if he's saying "it could afford to be more open" it sounds like he has a little bit of an agenda there which may not be aligned with the current direction Apple is going or its shareholder's best interests."
Or he might be correctly identifying that Apple's current direction isn't in its shareholder's best interests and therefore be the best guy for the job.
It sounds like you might have a personal agenda that makes you equate being open with reduced profitability.
So you don't think anyone other than a doctor has the right to speak out if someone who isn't a licensed physician is about to take over medical operations at the community medical center?
Sorry but there is no requirement that one be well qualified for a position before they are capable of determining that someone else is not. By that standard, nobody who isn't qualified to be president should be allowed to vote in the presidential election!
yeah, his insanely vast wealth is hardly even a factor...
"Are there flaws in the U.S. educational system? Of course there are. Rather than piss and moan about it, why don't you actually get off your ass and do something about it?"
I think this is a big part of the problem. People tend to equate the educational system with the teachers. The truth is that the teachers didn't design the educational system. The fp had that much right, a horde of drones with education degrees did that and so far I've yet so any evidence that an education degrees equates to increased success in designing educational systems.
I'd expect you are right... but then your average engineering teacher could also be properly referred to as an engineer. The point being, engineering is a highly specialized and advanced field. Unfortunately, teaching, in and of itself is NOT a highly specialized field.
There is also another very significant difference. Engineers as a whole tend to be very good at what they do, be it building bridges, space shuttles, or electronics. I'd have to ask for some strong citations before even accepting a claim that those with educational degrees achieve better results on average than those without. I think you'll find your average shop mechanic teaching a new employee has a higher success rate than your average class environment designed by hordes of individuals with degrees in education.
Anyone with that sort of mentality belongs with the inmates but it sounds like you are on the wrong side of the bars.
Way to take a bunch of people and convert them into some less than human subclass of "they"
Not at all. Police officers should just be held to the same laws as everyone else. If it wouldn't be okay for any citizen to use the taser on someone then it shouldn't be okay for a police officer. If an officer harms someone they should be subject to the same consequences as an ordinary citizen in the same circumstance. That includes criminal charges for assault and battery.
"That's the problem. "The news" broadcasts controversial events and propaganda and anecdotal evidence and videos of stupid hippies yelling at cops because they hate cops and unruly college students refusing to comply with peace officer demands"
You've got to be kidding me. At least here in the US the media is highly biased toward law enforcement, establishment, and the entrenched powers at be. Fox is openly biased and openly broadcasts this sort of propaganda and the other stations like CNN pretend to be fair by giving a line to the opposing point but always make sure to leave you with the impression that the police and establishment are good guys.
A Taser is a potentially lethal weapon and should be treated as such. If the officer is not facing a direct physical threat to himself or another that can't be defused via conventional physical take down it is appropriate to use it.
With a baton there is a risk because a confrontation isn't controlled but it is largely mitigated by training on where it is safe to strike. The risks associated with using a taser have more to do with the other guy and aren't generally visible to the naked eye so training isn't going to mitigate the risks. If the taser is being used with proper restraint and caution then it will be necessary despite assuming every target is going to be a worst case scenario.
Linking to a Penn & Teller video as if it were some sort of actual content appropriate for thinking adults is your first hint your views are extreme.
Someone else provided a link indicating they are planning to keep the open source releases a full version behind from now on which means Honeycomb would be completely obsolete by the time it was released.
Even if they aren't planning something so ridiculous indefinite definitely doesn't have a "month or two" ring to it. If they wait 3 months, after release it will be at least another 3 months before the unsupported upgrade rom is stable enough for realistic use. The realistic technical lifespan of the tablet is what, a year or two? We are talking about 25-50% of the usable lifespan of the device and that is if you bought it today.
Android as a platform has more bugs than ios, it lacks the corporate support of the blackberry, it has fewer apps and those apps are less polished. I invested in android as a platform for all my phones and my tablet precisely because it is an open hacker friendly platform that leaves me at the mercy of an innovative hacker community rather than the mercy of a for profit hardware manufacturer. That means having the option to wait until there is a HARDWARE improvement I care about before buying a new piece of hardware.
If they need to generate more revenue then require codes for $15-20 (or included with hardware that came pre-bundled with 3.0) to access the market or something like that. I'm sure most would be willing to slap down a $20 for a fancy new tablet OS. You could still have the OS be completely open, still hop from one custom rom to the next. Hell, technically, an end user would even still be able to use the system for free if they didn't want to use googles market resources. Maybe add a common drm platform ala netflix requirements to the mix for extra incentive.
products != image
Their products are yet another search engine, yet another webmail app, yet another office clone, yet another instant messaging app. Google has decent products but their reputation isn't built on having the best of the best solutions it is built on being an ethical company that builds a strong hacker friendly community around products that are decent and funded in a way that makes them available to the masses.
This effectively closes the android for tablets platform entirely. It violates ethics by burning people who bought 3.0 ready hardware in good faith. No source, no hacker friendly environment, no community involvement. Without their community there is no Google.
They certainly don't have anything I can't live without. I have a brand new android tablet, myself, my wife, and the kids all have top end android based phones. Frankly I find the blackberry provides better compatibility with my work applications and the iPhone provides a better app experience including Netflix streaming. I bought this stuff because the android system WAS an open hacker friendly platform built and backed by a company that has a long standing history of supporting open technologies.
2.3 is a phone OS. That isn't a valid upgrade for a tablet.
Even if it were, you could substitute 2.3 for 2.2 everywhere in my post and the point remains the same. Those who bought pre-3.0 but 3.0 ready tablets in anticipation of the 3.0 release that was supposed to be coming any day now are being burned in a major way.
As for unofficial roms, 2.2 is completely unusable as released. The kindle app doesn't function and there is no market. The unofficial roms are the only option not merely for speed but for stability. I expected them to be only option for a 3.0 upgrade as well since the manufacturer will likely want to sell new hardware bundled with 3.0 rather than upgrading already sold tablets.
That's why this is a bad hit. No open source release means no unofficial roms and no upgrades for 2.2 tablets.
"If you have an older, cheap tablet with an older version of Android"
People say that as if there aren't currently marketed, not cheap, fast tablets being sold with 2.2.
Like this one:
http://www.viewsonic.com/gtablet/spec.htm
Unless by not cheap you mean $500+ for $250+ worth of hardware like an iPad.
Who cares about phones? What about tablets currently running 2.2 that are looking for a proper community 3.0 release?
Their business model is built around image as much search algorithms. There are plenty of search engines, do no evil and open source support is a big part of why people use google vs all the other evil monsters.
The 'no evil' image of google is largely (entirely?) built upon a structure of open platforms, codecs, technologies, etc. Locking up Honeycomb to give proprietary vendors a headstart in the market and burning everyone who bought 2.2 tablets capable of running 3.0 in anticipation of this release is evil with a capital "E".
"pre-Honeycomb Android appearing on tablets and giving people a bad impression of the OS in that formfactor... you can hardly blame Google for holding back for the moment."
There are millions of tablets running pre-Honeycomb and seeing a bad impression of the OS in that form factor... yup sounds like a perfect reason to deny them an upgrade to a version of the OS made for that form factor.
This has nothing to do with phones and everything to do with giving google proprietary partners a headstart in sales before the cheap tablets can run 3.0. By the time it is released in open source form it will already be obsolete.
Some of them were good tablets with shitty broken android 2.2. now they won't have Honeycomb.
This is for one reason only, to give a boost to tablets like xoom that are being sold with 3.0 and to burn 2.2 loaded tablets.
I have an unsupported tablet. The community roms are the only ones that work properly. The problem is manufacturers not shipping working code. The problem is being exacerbated by this because me and everyone else who bought a decent tablet intended to upgrade when 3.0 came out is now fsck'd.
They are doing this to give the xoom a sales boost. There are tons of tablets sold with 2.2 code using hardware that can run Honeycomb (which isn't for your phone and has nothing to do with iPhone). This is about burning everyone who bought one of those to boost the sales of tablets with 3.0. In many cases, for the same company that sold the tablet with 2.2 and wants to now sell the exact same hardware with 3.0 and a new model number.