As a liberal I fully understand that work is often essential to the person doing the work. The part that conservatives fail to understand is that people still need to have shelter and food even when there is no work available. A UBI allows people to work without worrying about it having to produce an income sufficient to support their need for shelter and food.

A UBI and Universal Health Care will allow eliminate the need for a minimum wage and people will be able to hire workers for relatively little. Thus there will be more productive work producing marginal goods that will sell for a low enough price that others will be happy to pay for the service or good being provided.

There will be more people being able to follow their passion and producing art or entertainment or even fresh vegetables or artisan breads that they cannot produce in sufficient quantities to support their full living costs.

This puts the whole issue in a simple to understand perspective that even troglodytes can understand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

These comments are silly. History shows that in times of extreme peril humans pull together and cooperate. There is no utility in being armed in a catastrophe unless you think there will be a need to hunt.

No, actually it is never OK to get angry at people if you work customer support. That is the business you have chosen,and I am truly sorry about that because even doing support in a small office can be frustrating. Asking technical questions, or teaching computer usage to non-technical people who do not know technology and see no reason to learn is hard.

Customer service is under appreciated and definitely under paid. As long as corporate America only sees it as a cost center or sales opportunity that isn't going to change. What we are all waiting for is natural language capable systems that can deal with people patiently and careful and so far the best we have is unhappy, under paid, under appreciated people stuck in a tiny cube farm, with limited autonomy and limited skills. This is a breeding ground for internalized rage and depression.

Whenever I am forced to talk to customer service individuals I try and personalizes the conversation, treat them as respected individuals and try an empathize with their plight. I never have a bad encounter and I hope that I have improved their day.

This entire thread consists of people spewing about how someone they don't like could never be successful. A few voices point out that there is a background in Kucher's life that might indicate hidden talents.

But No, a comedian and television star could never do as well as those of us whom no one has heard of or knows the posters insist. He's not a "good fit with the culture."

maybe that is why the "culture" is doing such a piss poor job of producing laptops that people actually want or are willing to buy.

Since I doubt that the management of Levono are the complete idiots that some posters here have suggested I would propose that we wait and see how Kutcher does.

I doubt he could do much worse than Levono has been doing lately.

This entire thread is a beautiful example of missing the point. We went through metal detectors and had our baggage searched before 9/11. Why? because people carried guns onto planes and planted bombs in luggage. The airlines were responsible for screening and did an ineffective job of it.

After 9/11 the TSA was created and assume that responsibility. Why? because people took box cutters on planes and plated bombs in the luggage.

The people you need to be angry at are the people who scheme to hijack planes and/or blow them up.

This entire thread is a perfect example of the disconnect between IT and the user base.

The users have work to do and they need their tools to work without interruption so that the users can get their *JOB* done.

It doesn't matter to them if Open Office is better because it is not Microsoft. It doesn't matter to them if it is cheaper, they don't have pay for it. They only want to get through their work day with a minimum of hassle and disruption and focus on their responsibility which is serving their constituents.

They don't like problem solving on computers. They don't want to learn new ways of doing things. They just want to be able to do their job.

It is genuinely scary how many bright people (I assume most people who post on /. are bright.) are willing to believe the propaganda about Unions that have been spread by right wing billionaires over the last thirty or more years. Almost every comment denigrating Unions is either an exaggeration or a flat out lie. There are many Unions that support staggered pay scales for the same job description. They simply require metrics that are impartial rather than the opinion of the supervisor.

Developers as a group are extremely susceptible to feelings of superiority and self aggrandizement. They are sure that they will be held down by having to share their glory with others.

In fact, anyone who joins a Union immediately earns more money and receives better benefits. That is why companies fight so hard to prevent unions from being formed. Only collective negotiating can force companies and corporations to share their increased income from improvement in productivity with the work force.

Exhibit one: where do you fall on this graph?

Right! Force individuals to negotiate one by one with large employers. Why do you think there has been a thirty year propaganda campaign against unions in this country? Why are employment situations in the EU so much better? (Hint, the answer is powerful unions)

Before everyone gets carried away do we remember when one square mile of Tokyo rel estate was worth more than the entire state of California?

No matter what the stock price a company that sells computers and gadgets will never be the world's most valuable company.

Regards,
Chris

Reading from a tablet is like reading with someone shining a flashlight into your eyes. Particularly at night a tablet, with its backlight, keeps you awake. An eink reader does not have that problem.

In general they are lighter as well making them easier to hold.

For people who want to consume from the web a tablet is the right choice. For those of us who want to read the eink readers are the right choice.

Regards,
Chris