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Comment Where there's money to be made... (Score 1) 283

There is a way around anybody's law, regulation, or treaty. IMHO, the only reason the FAA is getting involved in this is to make money in the same way that the only reason the FCC is weighing in on net-neutrality is because they have figured out a way to make money off of it, initially in regulatory fees (which will be passed on to the consumer) or in a few years some sort of national internet sales tax.

Comment It's all about the user experience (Score 1) 458

For those of us old enough to have witnessed the last 40 years of computer evolution, I can tell you with 100% certainty that it's all about the user experience and not about low cost or availability. Apple's successful products are a pleasure to use. Apple's failures weren't. IMHO, nothing that Microsoft makes is a pleasure to use. There was a time when the computer nerd in me enjoyed dinking around in the OS or the hardware but no longer. I have work that I need to get done and anything that impedes my progress or is tedious to use gets tossed out. Sadly, I can't do that for everything I need a computer for (are you listening, Intuit?). I have the same view of the entirety of the web. The whole thing is built like the city of Cairo or the postal system of Costa Rica (pre 2007).

Comment NYT better piss quick (Score -1) 458

Because their pants are on fire. "Most people support" Wrong. Most people they polled support, perhaps. I, for one, have never been polled by the NYT.
Now, there's an article on Gizmodo that attempts to explain where body fat goes when you lose weight. Apparently, the majority of it is expelled as CO2. If that's true, then all gyms and diet companies and the people who patronize them are contributing to greenhouse gasses and should be taxed accordingly.

Comment Income equality == myth (Score 1) 339

There will never ever be income equality so there's no point in even discussing it. But "regulation" is a problem and actually, it isn't so much the regulations as it is the millions of people whose only functions are to a) make more regulations, b) enforce the regulations, and c) hire more people to do both a and b. There are fewer and fewer people who actually make some tangible product let alone a quality one. Meanwhile, there is an ever increasing number of leaches...I mean people who feed off the people making things. Have you noticed how many fees you pay for services every month whether or not you use the service? Have you noticed how often they try to sneak something into that laundry list of fees that's totally bullsh*t? Have you noticed that you're less likely to own something and more likely to be renting it? Have you noticed how many things you have to pay for every month that you didn't have to 20 years ago? I'd be willing to bet that people like Edison or the Wright Brothers would never have been able to accomplish what they did if they had a regulatory system like we do now. And don't get me started on the trial bar who is the epitome of society's leeches. The world is rapidly becoming a place where the people making the most money do so by force of law and not by persuasion.

Comment Re:What are the Saudi's up to here? (Score 2) 441

Way back in the 80s, the Saudis knew that Iraq was going to invade Kuwait long before it ever happened. As a result, they spent a lot of money on arms. Over the past couple of years, they have been spending a lot of money on military training. So has the UAE and Jordan. Now the Saudis are building a 600-mile long border "fence" on the Iraqi border and buying even more arms. These guys know FAR more about what's going on with their neighbors than we in the West do or more likely care to admit. By tanking the price of oil, they put a lot more economic pressure on belligerent nations such as Iran who are heavily dependent on high oil prices. It's entirely possible that they're using this strategy as a preemptive strike and feel comfortable with it knowing that the U.S. has enough domestic production to prevent a 1970's-type of crisis. That crisis was started by the Iranians and piled on by the Saudis both of whom are key OPEC nations until the U.S came along and said, "You know, our naval fleet runs on oil-based fuel so we won't be able to afford to defend you unless you open the spigots again." They still need our military support.

Comment Taking lessons from Intuit, I see (Score 2) 329

A few years ago, Inuit released an online update to Quickbooks for Mac that effed your entire partition. I happened to be away on a business trip when this happened and I had to have my backup drive FedExed to me. Did Intuit offer to pay for that? Hell no. Did anyone file a class action suit? Who knows, but even if they did, I'd have gotten discounts for coupons for cellphone cases or something equally useless.

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