The EU annual budget is roughly €150 billion.
That comes from a handful of countries who are net contributors, (the UK is the third biggest contributor).
Fining US corporations is a fairly painless way to boost the budget.
The EU has been pretty broad in the past in terms of how they interpret anti-competitive behaviour.
This certainly seems like the kind of thing they could go with. It's one thing for Apple to demand a cut when they manage the payment;
But denying apps from using any other payment method (or even linking to a web page that offers payment functionality) may be a step too far...
And the EU can fine up to 10% of annual turnover, ~$25 Billion
That's hardly fair; For example; GPL is open source, but explicitly designed so that people who use it are under certain circumstances required to contribute back to it.
The way the GPL is written; Cloud providers like Amazon don't have to contribute back to the project - but that's probably not what people wanted when they came up with the GPL.
e.g. it's probably a legal bug, not a legal feature
there are a bunch of different licences, I'm just using GPL as an example here.
No doubt that stores help to sell cars. Equally, it seems likely that a 6% discount will help to sell cars.
So the question is which will sell more:
Car @ $40k - no store, but free return
Car @ $42.5 - you get to sit in a car and (presumably) do a test drive
(picking the $40k option as a representative middle ground)
as to the cost of doing returns, If we guess that 10% are returned, and those are then re-sold at a 15% discount, that's a cost of ~ $600/sale
(ignoring the cost of delivery/collection)
USB-C does not prevent that. There is no reason USB-C headphones cannot be the universal interface you desire. Bear in mind that 3.5mm jacks aren't universal either and they are FAR more limited in capabilities. And you can adapt back to 3.5mm jacks if you are so inclined.
the USB standard has already failed here. The fact is that there are already USB-C headphones that work on some devices and not on others.
There are USB-C dongles that work for some phones and not others.
this isn't because they're not following the standard (at least that's not the only reason) - it's because the standard setters didn't start with the goal 'Every USB C Headphone will handle audio reliably in every device that outputs audio'
that's really not how incentives work.
pick one of the following:
1) Degree A - leading to job earning $10million over next 10 years. (college cost $1million)
2) Degree B - leading to job earning $10thousand over next 10 years. (college cost $1thousand)
Degree B is clearly lower cost - but you are still incentivised towards Degree A.
The point is that this approach aligns the incentives of the provider and the consumer. The university no longer benefits from crappy courses that lead to low incomes. They benefit massively if they can train people such that the people end up earning well.
how does pushing https everywhere eliminate anonymous publishing?
If you can publish on http, then with minimal extra work you can publish on the same domain with https using lets encrypt. No additional identification is needed.
Sadly this is the key thing that the government forbids in the smart-meter rollout.
We're really missing an opportunity to have some price signalling and load levelling; Instead pushing a 'smart' rollout where there is little more than minor monitoring and automatic meter-reading.
Key facts in this case - He had to work 5 days a week for a minimum of 40 hours - He had to wear the company uniform and drive a company-logo van - He couldn't send someone else to do the work (substitution) (although under limited circumstances a different pimlico employee could do work) - There were significant limitations on his ability to work for other people or competitors
the courts basically looked at this and said; Yup - he looks an awful lot like an employee rather than an independent self-employed person.
More generally, the way the contract was written shows that Pimlico were trying to present to customers that the plumbers were employees, whilst making the plumbers not employees so that they could limit tax and avoid certain obligations. The UK courts are getting increasingly vociferous in saying that this is not ok.
It's not that the UK is unwilling to send him to trial. It is just that the UK is unwilling to send him to trial in a system which our courts deem inadequate. (Both in terms of medical attention, and the excessive potential sentencing). If somewhere 'more reasonable' like Holland were to make the same extradition request - it would be much more likely to go through.
In the same way you might feel squeamish about sending someone to rot in a [Insert some unpleasant jurisdiction] prison - we feel squeamish about sending people to the care of the US justice system.
(as an aside - I tried looking online to find a good example of the worst place to send someone - there are a bunch of articles describing the worst prisons in the world, and they all seem to feature US prisons heavily in their lists)
There is also the issue of the forum bar which states that when a criminal act happens in multiple jurisdictions which substantially include the UK - there can be an argument that it should be prosecuted in the UK. http://www.nortonrosefulbright...
Note - we do extradite people to the US; Just not this chap in this case.
For me, that's the best place for a fingerprint sensor. I massively perfer the Nexus 5x back sensor to the various iPhone front sensors I have used.
I think this comes down to personal usage style. My friend uses his phone on the desk/table. He prefers the front sensor. I use my phone in my hand - the back sensor is much more comfortable for me.
So what happens with Disney come in with a legal takedown notice (possibly just a DCMA notice) ?
Court : It's a legal DMCA notice - take down that video LBRY: We deliberately designed our system so that we can't do that Court: Are you serious? You knowingly and pre-meditatedly designed a system to frustrate the most common copyright enforcement mechanism LBRY: Yup - so you're ok with that and we can get on with our business right? Court: *sarcasm* Sure you can *sarcasm*
Insurance doesn't generally reduce the cost of things. It shares a variable cost among a group.
If you have a 10% chance of losing one, then you might get insurance for around 10% (plus cost/profit) of the replacement. If you're inevitably going to lose it multiple times, then the variability is low and the insurance has to be multiple times the cost of the original.
IF you are pissed at your options, make this proposal to your City council next time the Franchise Agreements come up for renewal. MAKE them work for you, they are your Public Servants (or should be)
I think the broader point here is that it surprises us in most of the rest of the world that competition is a rare phenomenon that you would have to campaign for through your city council.
America is seen as the land of the free market and competitive industry, so it surprises us to see a default of frequently-abusive local monopolies.
I only really know the setup in the UK, but here there is just no option for a city council to say 'we're not going to have competition in this area'.
Competition isn't perfect by any means. The universal service obligation of BT (in phone lines) leads to something of a natural monopoly. Our regulator ensures that their infrastructure can be shared by competitors at defined rates. The infrastructure part of BT is currently managed as a separate company (OpenReach) and there is serious talk about forcing them to split from BT if they don't invest more.
The end result isn't perfect - but it certainly seems to be much better than the frequently-abusive local monopolies in the USA.
dear ac; you don't have to turn every issue into a pissing match.
yes - ISPs are required to offer porn filtering here. Some implement that as opt-in, some as opt-out. This is probably not a good thing.
We also had a lying prime minister who led us to war on false information.
So, while the UK certainly isn't perfect - I'm not sure how either of these are relevant to a discussion on how ISPs get to price-gouge their customers.
If Uber can convince them that coming to work between 7pm&9pm on a given Tuesday evening will result in them having back to back fares - even at non-surge pricing, then that may well be enough to convince them to come to work.
it looks like the yellow cab bankruptcy may have been triggered by an $8m compensation claim. They're still trading - just using bankruptcy to restructure (abandon?) their debts.
I don't know where this idea of unlimited investment opportunities comes from.
Apple is fundamentally limited by the number of good people they can hire, manage and put on good business ideas. You seem to be suggesting that if they accept there is a limit to this - then they are failing.
I'd interpret it as them managing sensibly. They have a ridiculous amount of cash. They can do everything they want to, and much more. Rather than sitting on the excess cash - they're giving some of it back to the people who own the company.
This seems much smarter than sitting hoarding cash in a corner muttering about unlimited future opportunities.
It looks like the developer program is aiming to help deprecate the Hero 3. The one app currently listed has support for the Hero4 only (it doesn't even support the session). I'm guessing this means the sdk only supports the Hero4. Without applying and paying $99, I can't be sure...
It seems odd for GoPro to expect to charge for access to their SDK.
I have an app which could certainly benefit from GoPro integration, I imagine I'd be making a positive contribution to their ecosystem as well. I'm not going to pay $99 for the privilege though - particularly when there is an unofficial SDK already available on Github.
Slashdot Mirror
The EU annual budget is roughly €150 billion. That comes from a handful of countries who are net contributors, (the UK is the third biggest contributor). Fining US corporations is a fairly painless way to boost the budget.
The EU has been pretty broad in the past in terms of how they interpret anti-competitive behaviour.
This certainly seems like the kind of thing they could go with. It's one thing for Apple to demand a cut when they manage the payment; But denying apps from using any other payment method (or even linking to a web page that offers payment functionality) may be a step too far...
And the EU can fine up to 10% of annual turnover, ~$25 Billion
Failing games streaming company teams up with network offering uninspiring phone technology. They both say the combination will be AMAZING!
Exactly.
And arguably, that's a 'bug' in the GPLv2
That's hardly fair; For example; GPL is open source, but explicitly designed so that people who use it are under certain circumstances required to contribute back to it.
The way the GPL is written; Cloud providers like Amazon don't have to contribute back to the project - but that's probably not what people wanted when they came up with the GPL.
e.g. it's probably a legal bug, not a legal feature
there are a bunch of different licences, I'm just using GPL as an example here.
No doubt that stores help to sell cars. Equally, it seems likely that a 6% discount will help to sell cars.
So the question is which will sell more:
Car @ $40k - no store, but free return
Car @ $42.5 - you get to sit in a car and (presumably) do a test drive
(picking the $40k option as a representative middle ground)
as to the cost of doing returns, If we guess that 10% are returned, and those are then re-sold at a 15% discount, that's a cost of ~ $600/sale (ignoring the cost of delivery/collection)
USB-C does not prevent that. There is no reason USB-C headphones cannot be the universal interface you desire. Bear in mind that 3.5mm jacks aren't universal either and they are FAR more limited in capabilities. And you can adapt back to 3.5mm jacks if you are so inclined.
the USB standard has already failed here. The fact is that there are already USB-C headphones that work on some devices and not on others. There are USB-C dongles that work for some phones and not others.
this isn't because they're not following the standard (at least that's not the only reason) - it's because the standard setters didn't start with the goal 'Every USB C Headphone will handle audio reliably in every device that outputs audio'
that's really not how incentives work. pick one of the following: 1) Degree A - leading to job earning $10million over next 10 years. (college cost $1million) 2) Degree B - leading to job earning $10thousand over next 10 years. (college cost $1thousand) Degree B is clearly lower cost - but you are still incentivised towards Degree A. The point is that this approach aligns the incentives of the provider and the consumer. The university no longer benefits from crappy courses that lead to low incomes. They benefit massively if they can train people such that the people end up earning well.
how does pushing https everywhere eliminate anonymous publishing? If you can publish on http, then with minimal extra work you can publish on the same domain with https using lets encrypt. No additional identification is needed.
Sadly this is the key thing that the government forbids in the smart-meter rollout.
We're really missing an opportunity to have some price signalling and load levelling; Instead pushing a 'smart' rollout where there is little more than minor monitoring and automatic meter-reading.
Key facts in this case
- He had to work 5 days a week for a minimum of 40 hours
- He had to wear the company uniform and drive a company-logo van
- He couldn't send someone else to do the work (substitution) (although under limited circumstances a different pimlico employee could do work)
- There were significant limitations on his ability to work for other people or competitors
the courts basically looked at this and said; Yup - he looks an awful lot like an employee rather than an independent self-employed person.
More generally, the way the contract was written shows that Pimlico were trying to present to customers that the plumbers were employees, whilst making the plumbers not employees so that they could limit tax and avoid certain obligations. The UK courts are getting increasingly vociferous in saying that this is not ok.
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases...
It's not that the UK is unwilling to send him to trial. It is just that the UK is unwilling to send him to trial in a system which our courts deem inadequate. (Both in terms of medical attention, and the excessive potential sentencing).
If somewhere 'more reasonable' like Holland were to make the same extradition request - it would be much more likely to go through.
In the same way you might feel squeamish about sending someone to rot in a [Insert some unpleasant jurisdiction] prison - we feel squeamish about sending people to the care of the US justice system.
(as an aside - I tried looking online to find a good example of the worst place to send someone - there are a bunch of articles describing the worst prisons in the world, and they all seem to feature US prisons heavily in their lists)
There is also the issue of the forum bar which states that when a criminal act happens in multiple jurisdictions which substantially include the UK - there can be an argument that it should be prosecuted in the UK.
http://www.nortonrosefulbright...
Note - we do extradite people to the US; Just not this chap in this case.
> Fingerprint sensor on the damn back.
For me, that's the best place for a fingerprint sensor. I massively perfer the Nexus 5x back sensor to the various iPhone front sensors I have used.
I think this comes down to personal usage style. My friend uses his phone on the desk/table. He prefers the front sensor. I use my phone in my hand - the back sensor is much more comfortable for me.
It's unlikely that Mr Banks is going to be writing books faster. (He's dead Jim)
So what happens with Disney come in with a legal takedown notice (possibly just a DCMA notice) ?
Court : It's a legal DMCA notice - take down that video
LBRY: We deliberately designed our system so that we can't do that
Court: Are you serious? You knowingly and pre-meditatedly designed a system to frustrate the most common copyright enforcement mechanism
LBRY: Yup - so you're ok with that and we can get on with our business right?
Court: *sarcasm* Sure you can *sarcasm*
Insurance doesn't generally reduce the cost of things. It shares a variable cost among a group.
If you have a 10% chance of losing one, then you might get insurance for around 10% (plus cost/profit) of the replacement.
If you're inevitably going to lose it multiple times, then the variability is low and the insurance has to be multiple times the cost of the original.
So story, Much Journalism.
IF you are pissed at your options, make this proposal to your City council next time the Franchise Agreements come up for renewal. MAKE them work for you, they are your Public Servants (or should be)
I think the broader point here is that it surprises us in most of the rest of the world that competition is a rare phenomenon that you would have to campaign for through your city council.
America is seen as the land of the free market and competitive industry, so it surprises us to see a default of frequently-abusive local monopolies.
I only really know the setup in the UK, but here there is just no option for a city council to say 'we're not going to have competition in this area'.
Competition isn't perfect by any means. The universal service obligation of BT (in phone lines) leads to something of a natural monopoly. Our regulator ensures that their infrastructure can be shared by competitors at defined rates. The infrastructure part of BT is currently managed as a separate company (OpenReach) and there is serious talk about forcing them to split from BT if they don't invest more.
The end result isn't perfect - but it certainly seems to be much better than the frequently-abusive local monopolies in the USA.
dear ac;
you don't have to turn every issue into a pissing match.
yes - ISPs are required to offer porn filtering here. Some implement that as opt-in, some as opt-out.
This is probably not a good thing.
We also had a lying prime minister who led us to war on false information.
So, while the UK certainly isn't perfect - I'm not sure how either of these are relevant to a discussion on how ISPs get to price-gouge their customers.
Uber drivers care about $/hour.
If Uber can convince them that coming to work between 7pm&9pm on a given Tuesday evening will result in them having back to back fares - even at non-surge pricing, then that may well be enough to convince them to come to work.
it looks like the yellow cab bankruptcy may have been triggered by an $8m compensation claim.
They're still trading - just using bankruptcy to restructure (abandon?) their debts.
I don't know where this idea of unlimited investment opportunities comes from.
Apple is fundamentally limited by the number of good people they can hire, manage and put on good business ideas.
You seem to be suggesting that if they accept there is a limit to this - then they are failing.
I'd interpret it as them managing sensibly. They have a ridiculous amount of cash. They can do everything they want to, and much more.
Rather than sitting on the excess cash - they're giving some of it back to the people who own the company.
This seems much smarter than sitting hoarding cash in a corner muttering about unlimited future opportunities.
It looks like the developer program is aiming to help deprecate the Hero 3.
The one app currently listed has support for the Hero4 only (it doesn't even support the session). I'm guessing this means the sdk only supports the Hero4. Without applying and paying $99, I can't be sure...
It seems odd for GoPro to expect to charge for access to their SDK.
I have an app which could certainly benefit from GoPro integration, I imagine I'd be making a positive contribution to their ecosystem as well.
I'm not going to pay $99 for the privilege though - particularly when there is an unofficial SDK already available on Github.
Hardly a massive insight.
If Tesla sell more cars, then they'll have to recall more cars in any future recall.
Yup.
Why is this news?