Not that I disagree with you, you raise a good point, the most tragic Apple fanboy could not raise the level of hell as an angry life long Liberal/Labor supporter.
In a 2 party system I have to pick which party I hate the least, but in Oz I can at least pick an third party/individual that will occasionally slap the major party and say "dont do that again".
Knowing this government it will cost more than the $37bn they projected.
based on...
Bad media reports of the insulation fiasco. Hate to break it to you mate but those were overblown.
The NBN is slated to cost the government less then 25 Bn (over 13 Bn is from private sources) now that they've got access to Telstra's pits and ducts. That was the real cost of the NBN, not the glass, not the routers but the fact they had to dig up almost every street in the country to get it in there. With the Telstra deal, that is no longer a big issue
What the government fails to realise is that this only becomes a monopoly when privatised. Most government run utilities are in essence a monopoly and as long as the liberal government doesn't in the future turn around and privatise the national broadband network it won't be a monopoly but a utility.
Its been in the NBN plan from the start that NBNco would be privatised a number of years after completion to recoup the costs (pay off the govt bonds being used to build it). It's about the only part of the NBN plan I disagree with.
OP is right, this is a scare campaign run by Abbott and Turnbull (why did Peter quit, I always like the idea of saying that Abbott and Costello ran the country). They know the NBN is popular and have no reasonable alternative.
Transportation was a punishment reserved for lesser crimes. For the most part people that the British transported to it's colonies were petty thieves, people in debt (punishment for being unable to repay debt was imprisonment (see: debt prisons) and transportation) and for many, just being Irish. Simply displaying an Irish flag was considered sedition in the 1700 and 1800's thus transportation was considered an appropriate punishment (real traitors had their balls tied between the hammer and the bell in Big Ben, at a quarter past the hour so they had to wait 45 minutes).
Transportation was seen by the British parliament (as the monarchy had given up absolute rule in the late 1600's, 1666 I think) as a solution to Britain growing population problem as well as a method of getting rid of troublesome people.
The really dangerous criminals, the murderers and rapists were kept in England, in English prisons. The reason for this was simple, there were no real prisons in the colonies and once a prisoner had completed their sentence the colonial government gave the prisoner a parcel of land and they were permitted to work it, transportation was a one way trip.
In a sense, the actual verdict here was somewhat irrelevant, given that both sides were certain to appeal the outcome if they lost.
The High Court does not have to take the case.
It is the onus of the losing party to justify why the High Court should even hear their case, with the 2-1 against ruling the studio's they have some ammunition to go to the High Court but I doubt the Court will give them the time of day with the current ruling.
So it's of to parliament they go, but Conroy also wont give them the time of day and I doubt Turnbull will either. Both are far too concerned about their reputations.
The dodgy ones yes but what happens when people actually start getting kicked off of their Telstra Big Pond accounts?
They'll go to iinet. You'll find that ISP's like iinet, Internode, Adam et al. covet their customer base very jealously. All kinds of excuses will be used for non compliance. The admin costs for this will be astronomical, they'll put VPN's in place by default. In the end all the studios have wrought is another way for them to lose money.
And all that will happen in the Oz ISP industry is the bad ISP's will lose customers.
And just wait until Telstra drops one of their rural customers who cant get on any other ISP. ACA/Today Tonight will be all over that like flies on a dog turd.
They're not solving a problem; they're simply transferring money from one industry to another.
I say that if an ISP has to lose a customer over copyright infringement, then the organization requesting the disconnect needs to pay at least half of the "lost revenue" (the term so loved by the copyright organizations) for the entire duration of the disconnected customer. That way they can split financial responsibilities between them.
Here's the brilliant thing, unlike the film industry the ISP's can actually prove that revenue will be lost.
Alleged Pirate Bob has 14 months left in his 24 month contract. His contract is 59 gold pieces a month. This is a legally enforced contract so Bob cannot cancel it, that money is practically guaranteed. However if the ISP disconnects bob it means the ISP breaks the contract and effectively release Bob from the contract. This leaves a 826 Thaler hole in the ISP's bottom line.
Actual loss of income, you can bet the well trained attack lawyers will be on to the studios for the maximum amount possible (actual cost of contract + admin costs + whatever else they can get away with).
Between this, sex scandals in the navy and 10% of our forces being to pudgy to deploy, I'm losing faith in our Diggers.
I just don't understand how you can seriously evaluate the security of a mainstream COTS OS
Indeed, didn't the CIA or some such American agency develop a specification for this kind of thing. Shouldn't a sensitive comms device be built from the ground up with encryption at the very least rather then just wrapped around the outside.
As Flyerman points out, the 16 year old was posing as a man, and she social engineered a female within the organization. So, no, the girl didn't manipulate a guy via his hormones at all.
Same difference.
Social engineering via flattery or infatuation is about becoming what the other side desires the most, what is the difference between presenting a sex kitten to a man and the perfect gentlemen to a girl?
OP was right, they played on the targets desires. It's one of the simplest social engineering vectors. Probably the second most used vector (after fear).
There is no difference between the two files, definitely not on 99.9999% of commercially available gear.
The last time Apple made changes to file formats on Itunes it changed the pricing structure to make them more expensive. That is what these "talks" are really about, how Apple and the content producers can make a price increase more transparent and less noticed. Audiophiles arguing about bitrates and cables ignore the fact that 99.999% of people don't care and will listen to it on their cheap Ipod audio controller through cheaper Apple earbuds so there will be no difference to audio quality what so ever. It's about hiding a price increase.
Indeed, I have never understood why Slashdot is so keen to bag 'audiophiles', particularly as the majority of readers have probably never heard a high-end hi-fi,
Because most/.ers have heard better.
Rather then listening to a recording through multi thousand dollar stereo with fancy EQ, gold plated doodads and other paraphernalia, I'd rather listen to some guitar, drums and actual vocals produced in real time to the maximum possible range of the instruments for 1/10000th of the cost.
Yes dear audiophiles, I can cheaply replicate what you spend so much effort and money by going down to the local rock pub while at the same time having a good time and even possibly getting a shag. You've got jazz and blues nights, opera's and orchestra's with a greater dynamic range then the most expensive audio equipment could ever produce, although I think you'd be a bit harder pressed to find a temporary partner at the Philharmonic orchestra but stranger things have happened..
Or else how explain the monumental collapse of the Soviet Union after the Party decided to launch a coup d'etat [wikipedia.org] against itself in the early 1990's?
They ran out of money in the 80's.
The fall of the Soviet Union, the coup d'etat, everything revolves around the fact the Soviets were broke. When they couldn't feed their people, what else could they do but reshuffle the government to avoid an all out revolution. All of the Soviets woes can be traced back to how Stalin acted after WW II, he poured money into the military when the west poured it all into rebuilding the economy, as a result the Soviet Union began a very slow decline as their population increased by their infrastructure lagged.
But I do agree that the Chinese are far better at controlling their own people then the Soviets ever were. They understand that bread and circuses are very important, thus put a very great importance on keeping the peasants fed, clothed and entertained (same method as any successful dictatorship).
High schoolers and students are the first people used as foot soldiers for any anti-government actions
1969 is calling, he wants you to know the government is bad man, also have you got any weed. A lot of popular, non violent revoltutions are lead by youth. This is also why the Iranian government is using Arabs (primarily from HAMAS and Hezbollah) as troops instead of Persians, a young Persian will think long and hard about firing on his own people, some of them his friends, a brainwashed Palestinian or Lebanese wont give it a second thought. Why do you think Gaddafi first bought in troops from Chad as opposed to ordering the Libyan army in?
The Iran-Iraq war of the 80's depleted Iran's youth. This is why their population is seriously skewed towards the younger ages, after the war everyone started having babies because there were no kids left. As a result the generation was somewhat spoiled (Persian parents normally spoil their kids, but this was extra). Also the memory of the Iran-Iraq war lingers in the minds of older Persians. Also, literacy is very high in Iran, I can also tell you've never met one, they are not the brainwashed automata you believe them to be, in actual fact young Persians are quite well educated.
But the whole reason why the Theocratic government will eventually fall is because the youth, which is now starting to enter adulthood wants change (war ended in 1988). They are the ones that protested in June 2010. The theocratic government is used to pandering to the needs of the older generations, the younger generations are finding themselves restricted and now that they are a rising force in Iran, they're pushing back. Iran has quite a few youth problems that they dont like advertised, in particular smuggling in of western culture (movies, music) and a rather nasty heroin problem (who do you think is buying all the poppies being grown in Afghanistan). Iran's response to this was to arrest users, shoot dealers and ignore the causes, obviously the problem remains.
This is why any self-respecting government is prepared to face those "protests" and "revolutions", and defeat them.
What do you think they did six months ago.
Also, you said "defeat" not wait them out like western governments but ironically that's exactly what they do, they wait out the protest or use false flag operations to make quashing them a popular move (just like western governments).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932010_Iranian_election_protests
Give that a quick read. They know how to deal with protests, as I said they are not stupid by any measure. Which is why they wont disappear overnight like Mubarak has and Gaddafi will.
"They use the Republican Guard which are primarily non-Iranian Arabs...."
Sorry, my Iranian friend calls them the Republican Guard, their Farsi name is the Basij.
Yes, because the government is devoutly shiite Muslim and Persians were very culturally diverse before 1980 and the Iran-Iraq war wiped out most of the youth the ranks of the Basij swell with non-Iranian Arabs most notably from Lebenon and Palestine, ironically two groups the Iranian govenment support and fund are Hezbollah and Hamas.
Yes, military dictarorships with small middle classes (I.E. a lot of poor people) are falling.
Iran is none of those things. Iran is a theocratic state who's power-base is not in the nations military. Iran has a growing middle class.
Really LOOK at the nations this is happening to. Then really LOOK at Iran, not the western propaganda, the actual nation. They have little in common. For fecks sake, they are different races altogether.
Why else block access to these events if they are sure their own people will stand behind the government?
Uhhh, because they want to keep the religious ideologically pure.
If you bothered to take notice, Iran already had a large anti-government protest, six months ago. This is primarily where I draw my conclusions from, unlike Gaddafi, unlike Mubarak, the Iranian government waited them out, and took out the leaders. They have the ability to do that precisely because they are not backed by the nations military.
If the protesters start using violence, what will happen? What happened in northern ireland when the IRA started bombing? the British gained support. What happened in Thailand when the red shirts bombed a train station? The government was hailed as both victorious and restrained when 42 of the protesters were killed, some by snipers before the actual push to dislodge them began. What happened in Russia with the Chechens, how do the Russian people feel?
Why is this so hard to understand, if a revolutionary starts to use violence to further their cause, they lose popularity as the people not directly involved in a revolution will look to a powerful force to protect them, that more often then not is a government.
So, lets give the Iran cyber army its last few twitches before this guy will be in front of the firing squad for his allegiance to a overthrown regime.
But this wont happen.
Iran will democatise in the next 5-10 years, due entirely to a large young population that Iran's theocratic government hasn't had to deal with for the last 20 years (most of Iran's youth was wiped out in the Iran-Iraq war) but it wont be a revolution.
Iran's government is perfectly designed to weather this kind of thing. First off, the Islamic council aren't dumb, not in the slightest. The protests in mid last year were met mainly with subterfuge and false flag operations (sound familiar). Secondly they've isolated the military and police in this. They use the Republican Guard which are primarily non-Iranian Arabs (Iran is mostly Persian in ethnicity) who are loyal to the government and not attached to the people. Thirdly the power structure is not centred around a single person (president mahmoud whatisname) he's just a puppet, a front man to keep the real rulers (Islamic Council) safe.
Actual change will take time, there is not enough pressure yet for the majority of Persians to feel the need for change. This pressure will build over time however if a violent revolution were to occur today, it would just cause most Persians to rally around the government for security, isolating the youth (making things worse). The Iranian government isn't a brutal dictator like Gadafi or an incompetent embezzling oaf like Mubarak. They are cold and calculating, much like the Soviets.
When Iran does finally democratise it will be very good for us, the western world for two reasons. 1. Persians have westernised quite easily, even in Iran today there is a growing middle class who like the same things we do (nice cars, houses, consumer electronics). 2. There are a metric crapload of Persians who left Iran after the Islamic revolution currently living in the US, Australia and Israel, mostly Baha'i, Zorrostrians and a few Jews. Compared to these religions the Persian Christians have been well treated but they were never a big group to begin with. Iran should be our biggest ally in the ME, but we screwed that one when we deposed the legitimately elected government and put that idiot Reza on the throne.
Groupon seems to me like one of those ideas we'll look back in retrospect and think, "Why was it worth that much? It was so obvious!"
But they have a workable business model. One that has been well tested.
Grouponers were, simply put, cheap
You're wrong here. Groupon customers aren't cheap, they're impulse buyers which are the exact opposite of cheap.
Cheap, frugal or financial astute people will never pay for a discount. I'm not cheap, I'll pay for quality when available but I wont pay for a promise or for something I'm not sure about, so I'd never pay for a coupon. Groupon and similar entities (Scoopon) are deliberately obscure.
Businesses like Groupon operate on the premise that there is a certain percentage of purchased discounts that will never be used, businesses that use Groupon count on this as well as the possibility of continued business from the customer. Mostly they rely on the customer not understanding the deal in the first place, much like the mail order "try it free for one month" deals on TV, what they don't tell you is that your CC will be charged after 1 month if you haven't sent it back. Paying for discounts is a massive sign on your back that says "I'm a sucker, fleece me".
Fortunately for Groupon, there is no shortage of suckers in this world
Slashdot Mirror
Should you choose to accept this E-book.
Government/Opposition supporters.
The original Fan Boy War.
For the record, I voted Green/Independent.
Not that I disagree with you, you raise a good point, the most tragic Apple fanboy could not raise the level of hell as an angry life long Liberal/Labor supporter.
In a 2 party system I have to pick which party I hate the least, but in Oz I can at least pick an third party/individual that will occasionally slap the major party and say "dont do that again".
based on...
Bad media reports of the insulation fiasco. Hate to break it to you mate but those were overblown.
The NBN is slated to cost the government less then 25 Bn (over 13 Bn is from private sources) now that they've got access to Telstra's pits and ducts. That was the real cost of the NBN, not the glass, not the routers but the fact they had to dig up almost every street in the country to get it in there. With the Telstra deal, that is no longer a big issue
What the government fails to realise is that this only becomes a monopoly when privatised. Most government run utilities are in essence a monopoly and as long as the liberal government doesn't in the future turn around and privatise the national broadband network it won't be a monopoly but a utility.
Its been in the NBN plan from the start that NBNco would be privatised a number of years after completion to recoup the costs (pay off the govt bonds being used to build it). It's about the only part of the NBN plan I disagree with.
OP is right, this is a scare campaign run by Abbott and Turnbull (why did Peter quit, I always like the idea of saying that Abbott and Costello ran the country). They know the NBN is popular and have no reasonable alternative.
Transportation was a punishment reserved for lesser crimes. For the most part people that the British transported to it's colonies were petty thieves, people in debt (punishment for being unable to repay debt was imprisonment (see: debt prisons) and transportation) and for many, just being Irish. Simply displaying an Irish flag was considered sedition in the 1700 and 1800's thus transportation was considered an appropriate punishment (real traitors had their balls tied between the hammer and the bell in Big Ben, at a quarter past the hour so they had to wait 45 minutes).
Transportation was seen by the British parliament (as the monarchy had given up absolute rule in the late 1600's, 1666 I think) as a solution to Britain growing population problem as well as a method of getting rid of troublesome people.
The really dangerous criminals, the murderers and rapists were kept in England, in English prisons. The reason for this was simple, there were no real prisons in the colonies and once a prisoner had completed their sentence the colonial government gave the prisoner a parcel of land and they were permitted to work it, transportation was a one way trip.
If the TSA employed more attractive people they wouldn't have to send us away to hospitals for body cavity reports.
Attractive plus controlling?
So you're saying the TSA should hire dominatrix's?
The High Court does not have to take the case.
It is the onus of the losing party to justify why the High Court should even hear their case, with the 2-1 against ruling the studio's they have some ammunition to go to the High Court but I doubt the Court will give them the time of day with the current ruling.
So it's of to parliament they go, but Conroy also wont give them the time of day and I doubt Turnbull will either. Both are far too concerned about their reputations.
Which ISP's would do this?
The dodgy ones yes but what happens when people actually start getting kicked off of their Telstra Big Pond accounts?
They'll go to iinet. You'll find that ISP's like iinet, Internode, Adam et al. covet their customer base very jealously. All kinds of excuses will be used for non compliance. The admin costs for this will be astronomical, they'll put VPN's in place by default. In the end all the studios have wrought is another way for them to lose money.
And all that will happen in the Oz ISP industry is the bad ISP's will lose customers.
And just wait until Telstra drops one of their rural customers who cant get on any other ISP. ACA/Today Tonight will be all over that like flies on a dog turd.
They're not solving a problem; they're simply transferring money from one industry to another.
I say that if an ISP has to lose a customer over copyright infringement, then the organization requesting the disconnect needs to pay at least half of the "lost revenue" (the term so loved by the copyright organizations) for the entire duration of the disconnected customer. That way they can split financial responsibilities between them.
Here's the brilliant thing, unlike the film industry the ISP's can actually prove that revenue will be lost.
Alleged Pirate Bob has 14 months left in his 24 month contract. His contract is 59 gold pieces a month. This is a legally enforced contract so Bob cannot cancel it, that money is practically guaranteed. However if the ISP disconnects bob it means the ISP breaks the contract and effectively release Bob from the contract. This leaves a 826 Thaler hole in the ISP's bottom line.
Actual loss of income, you can bet the well trained attack lawyers will be on to the studios for the maximum amount possible (actual cost of contract + admin costs + whatever else they can get away with).
Regardless, what he acknowledged did was done in Sweden. That means the Swedes have jurisdiction.
Why cant a Saudi citizen living in Australia arrest a girl for not wearing a Hajab? Because he's in Australia and he's under our law.
Indeed, didn't the CIA or some such American agency develop a specification for this kind of thing. Shouldn't a sensitive comms device be built from the ground up with encryption at the very least rather then just wrapped around the outside.
Uh, no sir, it's a tactical beverage dispenser. MK II
Same difference.
Social engineering via flattery or infatuation is about becoming what the other side desires the most, what is the difference between presenting a sex kitten to a man and the perfect gentlemen to a girl?
OP was right, they played on the targets desires. It's one of the simplest social engineering vectors. Probably the second most used vector (after fear).
There is no difference between the two files, definitely not on 99.9999% of commercially available gear.
The last time Apple made changes to file formats on Itunes it changed the pricing structure to make them more expensive. That is what these "talks" are really about, how Apple and the content producers can make a price increase more transparent and less noticed. Audiophiles arguing about bitrates and cables ignore the fact that 99.999% of people don't care and will listen to it on their cheap Ipod audio controller through cheaper Apple earbuds so there will be no difference to audio quality what so ever. It's about hiding a price increase.
Because most /.ers have heard better.
Rather then listening to a recording through multi thousand dollar stereo with fancy EQ, gold plated doodads and other paraphernalia, I'd rather listen to some guitar, drums and actual vocals produced in real time to the maximum possible range of the instruments for 1/10000th of the cost.
Yes dear audiophiles, I can cheaply replicate what you spend so much effort and money by going down to the local rock pub while at the same time having a good time and even possibly getting a shag. You've got jazz and blues nights, opera's and orchestra's with a greater dynamic range then the most expensive audio equipment could ever produce, although I think you'd be a bit harder pressed to find a temporary partner at the Philharmonic orchestra but stranger things have happened..
Anywho, this is why we mock you.
They ran out of money in the 80's.
The fall of the Soviet Union, the coup d'etat, everything revolves around the fact the Soviets were broke. When they couldn't feed their people, what else could they do but reshuffle the government to avoid an all out revolution. All of the Soviets woes can be traced back to how Stalin acted after WW II, he poured money into the military when the west poured it all into rebuilding the economy, as a result the Soviet Union began a very slow decline as their population increased by their infrastructure lagged.
But I do agree that the Chinese are far better at controlling their own people then the Soviets ever were. They understand that bread and circuses are very important, thus put a very great importance on keeping the peasants fed, clothed and entertained (same method as any successful dictatorship).
1969 is calling, he wants you to know the government is bad man, also have you got any weed. A lot of popular, non violent revoltutions are lead by youth. This is also why the Iranian government is using Arabs (primarily from HAMAS and Hezbollah) as troops instead of Persians, a young Persian will think long and hard about firing on his own people, some of them his friends, a brainwashed Palestinian or Lebanese wont give it a second thought. Why do you think Gaddafi first bought in troops from Chad as opposed to ordering the Libyan army in?
The Iran-Iraq war of the 80's depleted Iran's youth. This is why their population is seriously skewed towards the younger ages, after the war everyone started having babies because there were no kids left. As a result the generation was somewhat spoiled (Persian parents normally spoil their kids, but this was extra). Also the memory of the Iran-Iraq war lingers in the minds of older Persians. Also, literacy is very high in Iran, I can also tell you've never met one, they are not the brainwashed automata you believe them to be, in actual fact young Persians are quite well educated.
But the whole reason why the Theocratic government will eventually fall is because the youth, which is now starting to enter adulthood wants change (war ended in 1988). They are the ones that protested in June 2010. The theocratic government is used to pandering to the needs of the older generations, the younger generations are finding themselves restricted and now that they are a rising force in Iran, they're pushing back. Iran has quite a few youth problems that they dont like advertised, in particular smuggling in of western culture (movies, music) and a rather nasty heroin problem (who do you think is buying all the poppies being grown in Afghanistan). Iran's response to this was to arrest users, shoot dealers and ignore the causes, obviously the problem remains.
What do you think they did six months ago.
Also, you said "defeat" not wait them out like western governments but ironically that's exactly what they do, they wait out the protest or use false flag operations to make quashing them a popular move (just like western governments). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932010_Iranian_election_protests Give that a quick read. They know how to deal with protests, as I said they are not stupid by any measure. Which is why they wont disappear overnight like Mubarak has and Gaddafi will.
Sorry, my Iranian friend calls them the Republican Guard, their Farsi name is the Basij.
Yes, because the government is devoutly shiite Muslim and Persians were very culturally diverse before 1980 and the Iran-Iraq war wiped out most of the youth the ranks of the Basij swell with non-Iranian Arabs most notably from Lebenon and Palestine, ironically two groups the Iranian govenment support and fund are Hezbollah and Hamas.
2+2 = ?
But in case that's not enough, give this a read.
Yes, military dictarorships with small middle classes (I.E. a lot of poor people) are falling.
Iran is none of those things. Iran is a theocratic state who's power-base is not in the nations military. Iran has a growing middle class.
Really LOOK at the nations this is happening to. Then really LOOK at Iran, not the western propaganda, the actual nation. They have little in common. For fecks sake, they are different races altogether.
Uhhh, because they want to keep the religious ideologically pure.
If you bothered to take notice, Iran already had a large anti-government protest, six months ago. This is primarily where I draw my conclusions from, unlike Gaddafi, unlike Mubarak, the Iranian government waited them out, and took out the leaders. They have the ability to do that precisely because they are not backed by the nations military.
If the protesters start using violence, what will happen? What happened in northern ireland when the IRA started bombing? the British gained support. What happened in Thailand when the red shirts bombed a train station? The government was hailed as both victorious and restrained when 42 of the protesters were killed, some by snipers before the actual push to dislodge them began. What happened in Russia with the Chechens, how do the Russian people feel?
Why is this so hard to understand, if a revolutionary starts to use violence to further their cause, they lose popularity as the people not directly involved in a revolution will look to a powerful force to protect them, that more often then not is a government.
But this wont happen.
Iran will democatise in the next 5-10 years, due entirely to a large young population that Iran's theocratic government hasn't had to deal with for the last 20 years (most of Iran's youth was wiped out in the Iran-Iraq war) but it wont be a revolution.
Iran's government is perfectly designed to weather this kind of thing. First off, the Islamic council aren't dumb, not in the slightest. The protests in mid last year were met mainly with subterfuge and false flag operations (sound familiar). Secondly they've isolated the military and police in this. They use the Republican Guard which are primarily non-Iranian Arabs (Iran is mostly Persian in ethnicity) who are loyal to the government and not attached to the people. Thirdly the power structure is not centred around a single person (president mahmoud whatisname) he's just a puppet, a front man to keep the real rulers (Islamic Council) safe.
Actual change will take time, there is not enough pressure yet for the majority of Persians to feel the need for change. This pressure will build over time however if a violent revolution were to occur today, it would just cause most Persians to rally around the government for security, isolating the youth (making things worse). The Iranian government isn't a brutal dictator like Gadafi or an incompetent embezzling oaf like Mubarak. They are cold and calculating, much like the Soviets.
When Iran does finally democratise it will be very good for us, the western world for two reasons. 1. Persians have westernised quite easily, even in Iran today there is a growing middle class who like the same things we do (nice cars, houses, consumer electronics). 2. There are a metric crapload of Persians who left Iran after the Islamic revolution currently living in the US, Australia and Israel, mostly Baha'i, Zorrostrians and a few Jews. Compared to these religions the Persian Christians have been well treated but they were never a big group to begin with. Iran should be our biggest ally in the ME, but we screwed that one when we deposed the legitimately elected government and put that idiot Reza on the throne.
But they have a workable business model. One that has been well tested.
You're wrong here. Groupon customers aren't cheap, they're impulse buyers which are the exact opposite of cheap.
Cheap, frugal or financial astute people will never pay for a discount. I'm not cheap, I'll pay for quality when available but I wont pay for a promise or for something I'm not sure about, so I'd never pay for a coupon. Groupon and similar entities (Scoopon) are deliberately obscure.
Businesses like Groupon operate on the premise that there is a certain percentage of purchased discounts that will never be used, businesses that use Groupon count on this as well as the possibility of continued business from the customer. Mostly they rely on the customer not understanding the deal in the first place, much like the mail order "try it free for one month" deals on TV, what they don't tell you is that your CC will be charged after 1 month if you haven't sent it back. Paying for discounts is a massive sign on your back that says "I'm a sucker, fleece me".
Fortunately for Groupon, there is no shortage of suckers in this world
I hope Mr Travel enjoys his spacesuit.
Coming from a nation who has elected a female atheist as our leader, I feel quite proud to fart in the general direction of your backwards society.
yes
I don't beleive that Jobsian bollocks about "he who ships first wins" otherwise we'd all be using WinMo but you do have to ship.
AFAIK there are no Meego phones available.