Middle class canadians. At least they have healthcare when they get laid off.

and this one time.. at band camp...

gotta love the anecdotes in this thread; superlatively delicious.

People play Diablo 3?

Commie!

Kidding of course, but taking a drive with Dad in the new car is as American as apple pie.

Manipulating obsolescence has been around as long as consumerism. People always want the latest and greatest.. cars, video cards, televisions, digital cameras, Barbie dolls, clothes, PCs, even things like washing machines.

Just look at how much hoopla and money goes into events like CES and the Detroit Auto Show.

Having "The New XYZ" is an American status symbol. It goes back many many decades. "My Dad has the new Caddy, not last years crusty model like your Dad!"

Americans don't want rugby. Rugby is there for the watching and we choose not to watch it. Why turn something into something else that has been rejected? Where's the logic? Football looks good on TV; it is a big reason it is such a part of American culture.

What Chris said... I meant it in more of colloquial / photography sense. i.e. lens diameter, not volume. A 1.4 or 2.8 for a given format will always give you not only more options in terms of aperture and depth of field, but delivers more information to the medium. When your camera is set to auto, as most digitals tend to be, all these decisions are made and sacrifices degrade the image. In terms of lens imperfections, that is true, but you can minimalize this aspect by choosing a good manufacturer. Look at the lenses pros use. That's all I can really say. No one shoots with an Elph. When shopping for a new lens, you want as much aperture as you can afford; zooms included.

Resolution doesn't make up for the small lenses in any small camera. Ask any photographer. More Glass = Better Picture. It gives you better aperture and more light. No chips can make up for the lack of light in uber small lenses, point&shoots included. Therefore no smartphone will ever have the quality of a pro camera. Resolution sure, but those pixels will be garbage.

I worked for a major online brokerage, and we got hit by these bastards. A private equity firm bought a group of patents relating to the "control of online charts with HTML form elements". They were from the early days, maybe 97/98 and super broad. They threatened 17 companies with infringement and of course were willing to settle out of court. They got about 500K from us, and who knows how much else from the others. They buy them from dying startups that are trying to cover their debts. And how they ever become patents is beyond me. They were stupidly general. Like patenting "the wheel". It is a very smarmy business. IMO patents shouldn't be able to be sold. They can follow the product, but thats where I draw the line. It is an exploit of our legal system and the regulation of capitalism.

I feel that you are bending the semantics a bit. You can't declare all beliefs religion. 2 Atheists, on separate planets in separate galaxies are not part of the same religion. I get your point, but I think you are using wordplay.

Do you realize how long 25 years is? Do you know what technology was like 25 years ago? As someone who works in the finance industry in nyc, I can honestly say I rarely see anything over 10 years old. And if it is that old, it deserves to fail. I know of 1 mainframe, and it isn't mission critical because of all the downtime it requires.

Ha. Any retired Cobol developer will most likely be dead by 2038; well into their 70s. What were we coding on 25 years ago? Oh yea, 386's if you were lucky. ooo 40mb hard drive!!! Geeks piss and moan so much. It makes them feel wanted. My point is technological evolution will solve 99.99999% of any of this. People will recall 32bits like putting your 286 into turbo 8mhz mode.

Oh yea, that whole financial industry that was supposed to collapse at Y2K. In this context, if active applications encounter issues like these, they will be fixed well before any critical moment. Joe schmo can't manage his tbills 2032... oh noes it's going to take us 6 years to fix that! Developers like to whine so much. I have been coding long enough to know exactly how long 25 years is. 32bits will be but a fart in the wind.

Except that it wont happen for 25 years... FEAR, UNCERTAINTY, CHANGE... RUN!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!! (in 25 years)... With the acceleration of development that has been occurring over even the last 10 years, I hardly doubt there will be much to worry about 25 years from now.