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User: JoeMerchant

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  1. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    This was our personal device, and we have better things to do with our time...

    Lots of schools did get iPad ones when they came out, I imagine Apple made them "good deals" on new mini replacements. After our 2nd mini bit the dust, an Apple rep comped us a new one - as if we had paid the AppleCare, though we hadn't.

  2. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Agreed, but if I wanted to play like that, I'd buy Kindle Fires for 1/3 the price and jailbreak them...

  3. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Good for you. Our iPad one was used by our elementary school children. Updates to the OS and apps made things as simple as "Brain Pop" stop functioning.

    You can blame the app authors for abandoning iPad one support - they were out there supporting it in 2010 and 2011 - but, without Apple driving the "ecosystem" ever forward, the app authors could have left their apps as they were, functioning wonderfully, until about 2013. After that, virtually everything we used crawled to a useless halt - including Safari.

    So, if you use your iPad one for something that wasn't impacted, great for you. Ours ended up as a black mirror.

  4. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    The updates it did receive were enough to make the iPad one virtually useless.

  5. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 2

    The problem with the iPad ecosystem is that the apps (that we cared about) are "cloud connected" so you have to upgrade them to the latest versions to continue to access the cloud content. The content hasn't changed, but the "upgraded" OS required to run the "updated" apps (which, themselves often do little more than deliver a video from a website), bogged the iPad One down to unusability.

    To clarify, this is the original iPad released in 2010, the nice big heavy one with the screen that never cracked, the built-in 3G radio that worked great for non-video content, the long life battery, and the bulletproof back case.

    We got a mini when they came out, and it lasted pretty well, but was not as durable as the iPad one, not by a longshot. Then, when the first mini died, we replaced it with another mini and that one self-destructed within less than a year - same kids using it, more gentle with it than they ever were with the iPad one, but the new minis are made like tissue paper in comparison to the original iPad.

  6. Re:Apple's Response on Apple Taken To Court For Refusing To Fix Devices (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    What they really need to be taken to court over is what they did to the iPad one - obsoleting it within just a couple of years, long before the hardware was "worn out" or even outdated. The OS "upgrades" and mandatory update of all the apps turned the iPad one into a virtual paperweight. A $700 paperweight, less than 3 years after purchase.

  7. That's some sad truth about Android... maybe it will mature into something as developer friendly as Linux someday, but for now I'd say it's a bigger PITA to develop for than Linux was even 20 years ago.

  8. I suppose I should check out WSL - but the last time I delved into the world of VMs, et. al. I came out screaming and went back to trusty GRUB dual boot.

  9. It cuts both ways, but I think if you analyze modern society, you'll find women taking more childbirth and care oriented leave - on average.

  10. I'm less concerned with what's "underneath" a computer desktop and more concerned with how it looks and performs "on the glass."

    I'm feeling a "polishing a turd" analogy coming on, something about rub too hard on the old desktop apps and they'll get messy - especially the integrated ones where changes will smear around on everything. Gnome 3 has been baking in the sun for 6 years now, KDE 4 for 9 years, they are what they are... which is pretty damn good for the most part, but they both have tremendous room for improvement, and aren't keeping up with the shiny new hardware as well as Windows (because Redmond has conned the shiny new hardware vendors into writing drivers for them...)

  11. I would tend to agree, but then "geek" with the 4 digit user ID above seems to be claiming, with a straight face, "SUPERIOR" as an objective measure.

    I thought: "works on my new laptop as-default-installed" was an objective measure, one that Unity was winning a couple of years ago. Not that I'm lamenting Unity's departure, but to give credit where due, the Unity group were the first to make 4K screens work well, so at the time when they had it nailed and everybody else was fumbling around with configuration customizations that didn't really solve even half the problems (I'm looking at you KDE, but GNOME was there too), I'd say Unity was objectively superior.

    Today? Who knows, I've got a 15.10 install that works pretty well and haven't had time to play around with it much. I hear bad things about 16.04 - whatever - I'll deal with those warts when I have to, maybe they'll be improved by then.

  12. Phablets, mini notebooks - there are converged devices, just not many users for these devices.

    My Nexus 5x has higher screen resolution than the "desktop" monitor I'm typing this on, and can interface to bluetooth keyboard and mouse, if I cared to.

    I do wish that Jolla would have gotten some traction with their Linux based tablet/phones...

  13. The GNOMEs moaned the loudest when Unity was forced upon the world.

    The whiny wheel often does get its way.

  14. Re:Wonderful? on Canonical Killing Unity For Ubuntu Linux, Will Switch To the Superior GNOME (betanews.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Adjectives like "SUPERIOR" in the title and "wonderful" in the description tell you a lot about the author's objectivity.

    I'm no Unity fan, but it did handle 4K screens well at a time when nothing else would. I do wish KDE would get its 5 together (maybe it has, I honestly haven't cared enough to check in over a year). The worst thing about GNOME is reading how AWESOME it is, and then having to use its outdated, fragmented, counterintuitive crap because it got default-installed on you. Anybody who thinks that the "resource hog" arguments of >10 years ago have any relevance to today's desktop machines (RPi excepted) kindly see yourself out.

    I'll be dual-desktop installing all the apps I can't stand the GNOME variants of, and that's O.K. - what I lament is that nobody is taking the time to polish a distro where everything KDE and GNOME "just works" as installed from apt-get.

  15. Did the analysis take into account time off for childbirth and care?

    If they say they did, did they do it correctly?

  16. Re:Good idea, except on Canadian Town Picks Uber For Public Transit (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Cost (to the town) for developing that app probably is higher than 10 years of Uber's 20% fees. Cost of maintaining the app could conceivably be higher than the ongoing 20% fee.

    Unless the town has a resident programmer who gives his time away for free, like Uber drivers with their cars.

  17. Re:Good short term, bad long term on Canadian Town Picks Uber For Public Transit (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    With a "guaranteed source" of ridership, this should be good for the Uber drivers.

    Next, they need to unionize to ensure that they are making a living wage after the cost of operating their vehicles.

    As it stands, many Uber drivers are giving away the cost of operating their vehicle for free - which is how their cars are so nice compared to typical taxis.

  18. Re:CA$3 to CA$5 per ride? on Canadian Town Picks Uber For Public Transit (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    That's the fare charged to the riders, what's the service costing the taxpayers? Especially in smaller towns, buses can be shockingly expensive to operate.

  19. Re:CA$3 to CA$5 per ride? on Canadian Town Picks Uber For Public Transit (cnet.com) · · Score: 1

    Bus rides cost whatever the city decides they cost. Usually, bus fare is subsidized and the system runs at a loss.

  20. Re:yes but.... on Graphene-Based Sieve Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water (bbc.com) · · Score: 1

    Nah, just make flamingo nesting grounds with it. Environmentally friendly, if you're a flamingo.

  21. Re: Anyone else remember when the Internet on Bidding Website Rentberry May Be the Startup of Your Nightmares (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    These things vary by locality, usually by city and county, there are many parts of Florida where you can rent short term without these taxes.

    Greater Houston, nonesuch tax, but heavy on the unified front of professional agents "making their own laws" by cornering the market.

  22. Re: Anyone else remember when the Internet on Bidding Website Rentberry May Be the Startup of Your Nightmares (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Family of 3 with #4 on the way in 60 days, moving into a new town for a new job - renting was virtually essential to close in time to have stable shelter for the new baby. We bought a house within 6 months, and moved into it after 3 more, as most people do in that market, which is a big part of why the real-estate agents all advise their landlords to NEVER rent for less than a 12 month term - it's collusion and price fixing, and as Lucius Malfoy says: "Why don't you Prove it?" A landlord who would have given me a contract with an early out clause would have been easily worth a 10% per month premium on the rent, but... not an option, more profitable to hold out for all 12 months of rent and work the market to get new tenants in as quickly as possible after the lease is up.

  23. Re:Apartments being too expensive is signal to bui on Bidding Website Rentberry May Be the Startup of Your Nightmares (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    Protest, get the other neighbors to protest, usually all it takes is one resident to stand up and say "no" and the elected representatives will stand up for the residents that elected them.

    Now, if your precinct is stupid enough to vote in a bought and paid for candidate, then I suppose you're getting what you deserve when his owners come and destroy your park.

  24. Re:Anyone else remember when the Internet on Bidding Website Rentberry May Be the Startup of Your Nightmares (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    So.... this already goes on, Landlords "fish" their properties on the market when tenants move out early, trying to look for higher bidders. If a service like Rentberry was widely adopted, the landlords could also be persuaded to take lower rent bids and rent more often instead of holding out for higher prices. The real win here is for landlords who don't need the "management services" of real-estate companies, so they can get market exposure without giving a big slice to agents.

    Freedom of information is good, the guy running Rentberry may be a sensationalist jerk, but the essential concept of an open marketplace for rental price negotiation should serve both sides of the rental agreement. When I rented in Houston, I would have paid an extra 10% to a landlord who would give me a "tenant friendly lease," but there simply were nonesuch on the market, they were all locked up in these super-landlord slanted agreements perpetuated by the real-estate companies. An open marketplace could have made that more available.

  25. Re:Oh the huge manatee on Manatee No Longer An Endangered Species (miamiherald.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If DT can effectively end fire ants, I will personally kiss the ring.