It would have helped if you provided some argument in favor of your theory that it would discourage more people from starting new businesses. Why exactly would people feel discouraged by ACA from starting new businesses?
As a self employed individual, I am trying hard to find the negatives with ACA for individuals in my category. The estimates I have received in my state (Oregon) are already lower than what I pay for insurance today. And they have fewer strings attached. Why the hell would I not sign up for Obamacare? Please do tell me.
> He was promised he could keep his insurance if he liked it.
This may come as shocking news to you, but the health insurance rates have been going up for about 20 years or more. And we all know that it is because of Obamacare. It was having a negative impact, decades before it existed.
Eh? You mean Darl McBride and not Daryl McBride? I usually do not nitpick on small stuff like this but this pig vomit should be remembered by his correct name. We don't want to assign blame for what he did to some other innocent person.
> Moderation is hard to achieve if you're a young child.
Oh look, little Johnny wont give up his ipad. Let's "all" of us restrict ourselves to 1986, for everything, including coffee makers. That is the only way!
> I see what they're doing as entirely reasonable.
I don't think there is anything left for us to discuss.
Its interesting to see some of these people flip out completely instead of taking a moderate approach. Many modern technologies are very useful. When my kids at home ask me a question that I don't know the answer to, most of the time I can look it up on Wikipedia or another site. If my wife is going to the grocery store and I forget to tell her about something I need, I'll just text her and she'll pick it up. When I am picking up a friend or family member from the airport, it is a lot quicker to call them to coordinate the pick up time and stop than doing it the old way. The old way requires that you coordinate everything well in advance and nothing unexpected should happen to thwart your well conceived plans. And the list goes on.
If you don't want your kids using your tablets or phones, don't let them. I have no trouble letting my kids use the tablets and the phones. At the same time I don't let them play on them all day long. If they finish their homework and chores, they get some play time. And if they want to play a game on the tablet during their play time, well what is so wrong with that?
I am also curious about the switch you are talking about? If you are talking about their no server policy, can you provide a link to where they said servers were OK at some point and then later went back on their word?
> It should be obvious that the money didn't come from Microsoft. It came from the NSA. > They wanted to wiretap all Skype conversations. They got Microsoft to buy it for that end.
Why would NSA pay Microsoft, a US company $8.5billions to buy Skype from eBay, another US company?
> You'd be nuts in the post Snowdon world to assume anything else.
Tell me about it. NSA has cameras in every corner of my house. Outside in the trees. In my toilet. Many of my kids' toys need batteries, not just for moving the motors in the toys but they have cameras and mics in them too. I do my best to get rid of this stuff. When I threw my wife's DSLR and cell phone in the garbage along with all the kids' toys, she first gave me the blank stare and then started screaming at me. Small price to pay, if you ask me.
Some people say that I am overreacting. But they don't know much of what I have read on the Internet. Only if they had read some of the same forum posts that I have.
I have been using Windows 8 on a few of my machines. I have been trying and failing to understand why Metro exists on desktops. I can understand tablets, but desktops? What does it do for an advanced user that cannot be done in standard desktop? From many examples I have seen so far, it appears that Microsoft ships two different ways of accomplishing various system related tasks (e.g. Windows update). If you use the old way in desktop, you are provided more options and given more information. The Metro version is made grandma friendly. You see nothing, you can change nothing.
Additionally some things just take longer to do in Metro.
These sort of thing keeps me from wanting to use Metro. But it keeps getting shoved in my face. I am really truly baffled. Maybe there is a benefit to this and I cannot see forest for the trees. Somebody enlighten me.
"Master's degree in information systems and 17 years of experience" does not tell us that she was more qualified than the Bangladeshi hired. I have interviewed too many people who look good on paper only.
I know you are having a moment here, but it turns out that guy was using a work computer and his ex-employer called the cops on him after they noticed a search for “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
Google or govt. snooping was not in play here. That is not to say that that does not happen. However it appears to not have happened here.
Photography is a hobby for me. So when I saw the new Nokia Lumia 1020 with an awesome camera, I immediately wanted one. The idea of a great camera that is always with me, in my pocket, is very exciting. But I am unwilling to make the switch to Windows from Android, for a variety of reasons.
I feel pretty confident in saying that Nokia would be selling a tonne more of this phone if it had Android on it. Maybe 5-10x. Is there anybody here that thinks that a Windows Lumia 1020 will sell more than an Android Lumia 1020? Anybody?
At some point they should seriously reconsider their Windows-only decision. Maybe they could support two OSes. I would suggest that they port Android to 1020 and see if it does well. If it poops on their Windows 1020 sales figures, and I am inclined to think that it would, then that might help them make up their minds.
Nobody is forcing you to use a smartphone. If you prefer dumb phones, there are a plenty of those still available. Many of us prefer smartphones because of the conveniences they offer. For example I use my Android phone for:
1. Maps and navigation. I don't want to carry a second device for this. And I prefer the automatic updates, latitude (find out where my family members are) etc. etc. 2. Email. I use it a lot. Personal and work. 3. Web. Check if my flight is on time. Get quick answers on Wikipedia etc. etc. 4. Good camera. Dumb phones don't have these. And again I don't always have a regular camera on me. 5. Google drive. Many of my important documents are always with me. 6. Decent games. I don't play games very often. But when I do, I appreciate something more sophisticated than snake. 7. Video playback on large screen. Sometimes when I am travelling, I'll let my kids watch a movie on it. Its very serviceable.
I could go on and on... Could I live without all of it. I sure could. But I could also live without a cell phone. I did in the early 90s.
If you are trying to be a luddite, then look around. There are too many things you do not need. Stop complaining and go live with the Amish.
We have not seen the phone. We have only learned of a few small details. It is too early to start making assumptions about things we don't know and start complaining.
Your assumption that they are using the CPU to always listen and process wake up commands and hence use much battery power, is incorrect. Google is using special low power DSP for this that does not wake up the system until it hears the magic wake up command.
Some people have more success with voice input on Android than others. My wife and I both have Samsung Galaxy S4 phones. She uses voice input most of the time. It works well for her. I use the keyboard. It works reasonably well for me too, but the few times it does not, it annoys me.
Do not chalk it up as a failure when it does not work well for people like you and I. There are too many others who like it and use it daily.
S3 and other phones do not have this feature. The S3 does not listen for commands when the screen is turned off. And to the best of my knowledge no other phones at this time do this.
I work as a contractor for a very large technology business. I have been working from home for the past few years. Recently the VPN started giving me trouble so I went in the office to work. They now have this fancy Starbucks coffee machine in the break room that serves fresh hot coffee 24/7. They've had free coffee before, but it usually was cold, stale and bad-tasting. You only drank it if you were desperate. But this new machine (Starbucks Interactive Cup Brewer) kicks ass.
I have lately been going in the office, mostly for good free coffee and while I am there I do work and I am quite productive with a good cup of coffee in my hand. I even find myself going in there during the weekends for good coffe (I live very close) and while I am there doing good work. I think the company is getting really good return on their investment.
Sure, the trick may not work for everybody, but my guess is that there are a lot of people like me who are more productive after a "good" cup of coffee.
When my customer comes to me and asks me to provide an estimate for a job, if I give them a conservative estimate, some of them may think that I am milking them with the extra hours. Specially if they get a competing estimate from an overly aggressive Indian company who is eager to sign the contract but has no clue on how to deliver.
I usually do not fret too much about customer feelings in a case like this. But during slow times I have little choice. Bottom line is, most of us would love to provide conservative estimates, but often times it is not as simple as that.
Pledge to keep all their services running forever?
Are you insane? Does any company make that pledge? Google or anybody else has every right to cancel a service or experiment they deem unnecessary. Anybody who expects anything else from a business is a fool.
This is a bold step for T-Mobile and I hope that they succeed. However I am somewhat concerned as I have already seen too many people complain that they'd have to foot the bill for the full cost of the phone. The math would may prove to be difficult for people who are not good at it.
Many people here are pooh-poohing the new service for various reasons. I just wanted to provide a counter point.
I tried evernote. I did not like it. I generally like the services Google provides and in the manner they do. I understand that nothing is guaranteed. And that one day this service may too disappear and I am OK with that. This is a price I am willing to pay.
Slashdot Mirror
It would have helped if you provided some argument in favor of your theory that it would discourage more people from starting new businesses. Why exactly would people feel discouraged by ACA from starting new businesses?
As a self employed individual, I am trying hard to find the negatives with ACA for individuals in my category. The estimates I have received in my state (Oregon) are already lower than what I pay for insurance today. And they have fewer strings attached. Why the hell would I not sign up for Obamacare? Please do tell me.
> He was promised he could keep his insurance if he liked it.
This may come as shocking news to you, but the health insurance rates have been going up for about 20 years or more. And we all know that it is because of Obamacare. It was having a negative impact, decades before it existed.
Eh? You mean Darl McBride and not Daryl McBride? I usually do not nitpick on small stuff like this but this pig vomit should be remembered by his correct name. We don't want to assign blame for what he did to some other innocent person.
> Moderation is hard to achieve if you're a young child.
Oh look, little Johnny wont give up his ipad. Let's "all" of us restrict ourselves to 1986, for everything, including coffee makers. That is the only way!
> I see what they're doing as entirely reasonable.
I don't think there is anything left for us to discuss.
Its interesting to see some of these people flip out completely instead of taking a moderate approach. Many modern technologies are very useful. When my kids at home ask me a question that I don't know the answer to, most of the time I can look it up on Wikipedia or another site. If my wife is going to the grocery store and I forget to tell her about something I need, I'll just text her and she'll pick it up. When I am picking up a friend or family member from the airport, it is a lot quicker to call them to coordinate the pick up time and stop than doing it the old way. The old way requires that you coordinate everything well in advance and nothing unexpected should happen to thwart your well conceived plans. And the list goes on.
If you don't want your kids using your tablets or phones, don't let them. I have no trouble letting my kids use the tablets and the phones. At the same time I don't let them play on them all day long. If they finish their homework and chores, they get some play time. And if they want to play a game on the tablet during their play time, well what is so wrong with that?
Can you provide an example to back up your claim?
I am also curious about the switch you are talking about? If you are talking about their no server policy, can you provide a link to where they said servers were OK at some point and then later went back on their word?
> It should be obvious that the money didn't come from Microsoft. It came from the NSA.
> They wanted to wiretap all Skype conversations. They got Microsoft to buy it for that end.
Why would NSA pay Microsoft, a US company $8.5billions to buy Skype from eBay, another US company?
> You'd be nuts in the post Snowdon world to assume anything else.
Tell me about it. NSA has cameras in every corner of my house. Outside in the trees. In my toilet. Many of my kids' toys need batteries, not just for moving the motors in the toys but they have cameras and mics in them too. I do my best to get rid of this stuff. When I threw my wife's DSLR and cell phone in the garbage along with all the kids' toys, she first gave me the blank stare and then started screaming at me. Small price to pay, if you ask me.
Some people say that I am overreacting. But they don't know much of what I have read on the Internet. Only if they had read some of the same forum posts that I have.
If you knew who Florian Mueller was, you would never quote him on anything.
I have been using Windows 8 on a few of my machines. I have been trying and failing to understand why Metro exists on desktops. I can understand tablets, but desktops? What does it do for an advanced user that cannot be done in standard desktop? From many examples I have seen so far, it appears that Microsoft ships two different ways of accomplishing various system related tasks (e.g. Windows update). If you use the old way in desktop, you are provided more options and given more information. The Metro version is made grandma friendly. You see nothing, you can change nothing.
Additionally some things just take longer to do in Metro.
These sort of thing keeps me from wanting to use Metro. But it keeps getting shoved in my face. I am really truly baffled. Maybe there is a benefit to this and I cannot see forest for the trees. Somebody enlighten me.
"Master's degree in information systems and 17 years of experience" does not tell us that she was more qualified than the Bangladeshi hired. I have interviewed too many people who look good on paper only.
I know you are having a moment here, but it turns out that guy was using a work computer and his ex-employer called the cops on him after they noticed a search for “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
Google or govt. snooping was not in play here. That is not to say that that does not happen. However it appears to not have happened here.
Photography is a hobby for me. So when I saw the new Nokia Lumia 1020 with an awesome camera, I immediately wanted one. The idea of a great camera that is always with me, in my pocket, is very exciting. But I am unwilling to make the switch to Windows from Android, for a variety of reasons.
I feel pretty confident in saying that Nokia would be selling a tonne more of this phone if it had Android on it. Maybe 5-10x. Is there anybody here that thinks that a Windows Lumia 1020 will sell more than an Android Lumia 1020? Anybody?
At some point they should seriously reconsider their Windows-only decision. Maybe they could support two OSes. I would suggest that they port Android to 1020 and see if it does well. If it poops on their Windows 1020 sales figures, and I am inclined to think that it would, then that might help them make up their minds.
Nobody is forcing you to use a smartphone. If you prefer dumb phones, there are a plenty of those still available. Many of us prefer smartphones because of the conveniences they offer. For example I use my Android phone for:
1. Maps and navigation. I don't want to carry a second device for this. And I prefer the automatic updates, latitude (find out where my family members are) etc. etc.
2. Email. I use it a lot. Personal and work.
3. Web. Check if my flight is on time. Get quick answers on Wikipedia etc. etc.
4. Good camera. Dumb phones don't have these. And again I don't always have a regular camera on me.
5. Google drive. Many of my important documents are always with me.
6. Decent games. I don't play games very often. But when I do, I appreciate something more sophisticated than snake.
7. Video playback on large screen. Sometimes when I am travelling, I'll let my kids watch a movie on it. Its very serviceable.
I could go on and on... Could I live without all of it. I sure could. But I could also live without a cell phone. I did in the early 90s.
If you are trying to be a luddite, then look around. There are too many things you do not need. Stop complaining and go live with the Amish.
We have not seen the phone. We have only learned of a few small details. It is too early to start making assumptions about things we don't know and start complaining.
Your assumption that they are using the CPU to always listen and process wake up commands and hence use much battery power, is incorrect. Google is using special low power DSP for this that does not wake up the system until it hears the magic wake up command.
Some people have more success with voice input on Android than others. My wife and I both have Samsung Galaxy S4 phones. She uses voice input most of the time. It works well for her. I use the keyboard. It works reasonably well for me too, but the few times it does not, it annoys me.
Do not chalk it up as a failure when it does not work well for people like you and I. There are too many others who like it and use it daily.
S3 and other phones do not have this feature. The S3 does not listen for commands when the screen is turned off. And to the best of my knowledge no other phones at this time do this.
Thank you for citing many examples of presidential overreach that is exclusive to Obama.
I work as a contractor for a very large technology business. I have been working from home for the past few years. Recently the VPN started giving me trouble so I went in the office to work. They now have this fancy Starbucks coffee machine in the break room that serves fresh hot coffee 24/7. They've had free coffee before, but it usually was cold, stale and bad-tasting. You only drank it if you were desperate. But this new machine (Starbucks Interactive Cup Brewer) kicks ass.
I have lately been going in the office, mostly for good free coffee and while I am there I do work and I am quite productive with a good cup of coffee in my hand. I even find myself going in there during the weekends for good coffe (I live very close) and while I am there doing good work. I think the company is getting really good return on their investment.
Sure, the trick may not work for everybody, but my guess is that there are a lot of people like me who are more productive after a "good" cup of coffee.
When my customer comes to me and asks me to provide an estimate for a job, if I give them a conservative estimate, some of them may think that I am milking them with the extra hours. Specially if they get a competing estimate from an overly aggressive Indian company who is eager to sign the contract but has no clue on how to deliver.
I usually do not fret too much about customer feelings in a case like this. But during slow times I have little choice. Bottom line is, most of us would love to provide conservative estimates, but often times it is not as simple as that.
Pledge to keep all their services running forever?
Are you insane? Does any company make that pledge? Google or anybody else has every right to cancel a service or experiment they deem unnecessary. Anybody who expects anything else from a business is a fool.
"You'd think they'd offer some kind of optional secondary loan plan where you pay off a little bit every month"
Oh man. You deserve every bit of ridicule that comes your way.
This is a bold step for T-Mobile and I hope that they succeed. However I am somewhat concerned as I have already seen too many people complain that they'd have to foot the bill for the full cost of the phone. The math would may prove to be difficult for people who are not good at it.
It is supposed to be 500MB. You don't usually "upgrade" from 500GB to 2.5GB of data for $10 a month.
Many people here are pooh-poohing the new service for various reasons. I just wanted to provide a counter point.
I tried evernote. I did not like it. I generally like the services Google provides and in the manner they do. I understand that nothing is guaranteed. And that one day this service may too disappear and I am OK with that. This is a price I am willing to pay.