The answers are mostly truthful, if a little misleading. You'd get the same response if you took your car into a dealership for repairs and asked why the genuine Toyota parts are more expensive than the third-party options. It seems fair, there might be more quality control and fit & finish on the manufacturer-supplied part than a second source. The dealer/Apple repair shop will also stand by the part if there is a problem.

However (mostly) with cars, use of a second-source part does not void the warrenty. For example, Ford can't require Ford-branded oil in your car.

Did anyone else misread "report crashes" as a way to file a bug report? I know mobiles are critical and there are occasional bugs, but it seems like most software reports could probably wait until you're back in cell range.

If the icons are changed out from underneath (by releasing a new .dll) then existing documentation will be slightly broken. All those instructions that say "look for this icon or screen" will now be different.

Not a huge deal, but inconvenient for literal-minded people.

This is just crying out for BCD represenation. If I remember correctly:

  01 STOCKPRICE PIC S9(7)V9(4).

Every Mac sale is an opportunity to sell Office 365 license. I'm not sure that the OEM Windows 10 is worth that much.

And every corporate computer sale -- whether PC or Mac -- is another Azure AD or Windows CAL license

The primary use case I've seen for SalesForce (at the enterprise level) is enabling sales management to "inspect" sales reps' performance. That, and making sure that there is a good audit trail of customers and actions when a sales rep leaves.

SalesForce simplifies sales management by quantifying rep activities which may or may not translate into revenue or profit. It does suffer a little bit for equaliting things like "number of calls" or look ups with productive sales behavior.

Generally, average and poor sales reps tolerate SalesForce. Occasionally, I've seen a best sales rep embrace SalesForce, but that's not why they are top performers.

I think most carriers tack on a $30 or $60 activation fee when you change devices on your account. They may waive it for some accounts. Once you add the required activation fee, the price of a new phone is an additional $30 or more. (Not just true for Apple devices.)

I think the fee is charged if you buy the device in an Apple store or directly from a carrier. Since Apple devices are more tightly controlled, it is more difficult to buy a device and then just swap the SIM as you need to go thru an authorized seller.

This is probably true in the US only.

Isn't this about picking winner and losers? I'm ok with corporate welfare as long as the companies are willing to accept the limits that go along with it.

Some suggestions:
- Top executive pay limited to 20x lowest paid employee
- No stock buybacks/no golden parachutes
- Limited use of contractors/outsourcing
- Commitment to environmental law

Others?

I wonder if this will go down as Microsoft dodging a bullet by not making a deal. People focus on the deals made, but sometimes walking away is the best strategy.

No one writes up the misses... like the company that didn't buy AOL when Time Warner stepped in, or didn't invest in Jet with Walmart dropped a few billion.

I wonder if part of Microsoft strategy was to drive up the price and then let some greater fool walk in.

On the other hand, perhaps Oracle has a lot of infrastructure from their mostly failed cloud strategy that needs to be "reallocated" on the balance sheet to make the loss disappear.

Both are "real programming" in that they involve understanding the user needs and writing code to solve it. The difference is in the scope of the project and whether it's a one- or two-person job or requires a bigger team. One-person jobs are easy in that you don't need any documentation or standards. Once you need a bigger team, the code needs to be understandable and documented.

It's even harder if you expect the team members to change over time as people leave and join the team. Asking the code to work for many years and expected modifications make it much harder.

It's sort of the difference between a handyman who can do simple home repairs and a general contractor who could build a house. And you need a skyscraper built, you'd need a team of specialist -- structural engineers, architech, and specialized trades.

Different skills for different jobs.

I'm confused by the subject: "CRISPR Gene Editing In Human Embryos Wreaks Chromosomal Mayhem". That headline makes me think that the CRISPR is a good thing in that prevents (wreaks) chromosomal mayhem. Or it that CRISPR causes chromosomal mayhem?

Help get me an editor!

It's about industrial policy picking "winners and losers". Where are the "free marketers" when the government is deciding that folks in rural areas need high speed intenet. Shouldn't the free market allocate the resources? Oh wait a minute when the government subsidizes green energy, that's socialism, but when the government hands out money for rural internet that "being fair ".

On the other hand, the rural electrification program and universal telephone access demonstrates that the social policies like this work. But that was back in the days when utilities were mostly run by engineers and delivered what they said they would.

It seems like (no) high speed access should be one of the quality of life trade-offs of living in a rural location. Some of these, but certainly not all, of these people are probably the same ones who complain about our of "our taxes" going to big cities for things like mass transit, housing and schools.

In addition, stock trading and registration is pretty secure. I don't remember hearing of someone "stealing" your stock shares by hacking your account. Like bank accounts, I have pretty high confidence that the stock registrar (someone like a Vanguard or Fidelity) is competent at the task. In addition, almost all are members of FINRA/SPIC which provides some insurance over theft and regulations.

It seems like digital wallets are not very secure. I'm sure it's always user error, but the risk seems higher than a bank or brokerage account.

Could you translate that parsecs for me?

Han Solo claimed that his Millennium Falcon "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs". A parsec is a unit of distance, not time. Solo was not referring directly to his ship's speed when he made this claim.

See: https://www.wired.com/2013/02/...