One of the main reasons nuclear power plants in the United States cost so much money to build is that each one of them is independently designed and built.
Want to see a shining example of cost control (and an ironic one at that)? Look to the US Navy where plants are designed once and used multiple times.

This is the way nuclear power plants in the US should be built.
Wit ha standardized design that is both modular and updateable within the basic design for future discoveries.
Instead, each is a hodgepodge of known ideas that are decided upon and implemented without thought to cost control.

except that it wont look as good, and since this is about aesthetics in the first place, apple will certainly play up to their customer how much better the new design looks and that only their design looks good with the players/phones, and that will mean that aftermarket suppliers will need to make something with the "good looking" plug to sell to the apple customers.
so yes, it is, in part, about the possible licensing fees.

It's not just San Francisco.

I'd propose its ALL politicians.

Actually if you ask ANY DNR field agent in ANY state, you'll find there are literally dozens of invasive species that have been introduced into the local water population that are not only taking over but are actually killing off local water fauna.

Snakeheads are a great example as are grass carp.

The lack of acknowledgment of this problem by the moron referenced in the quote merely shows the total lack of knowledge and irrational reaction that politicians typically utilize.

except MS does not yet own it.

keep trying neckbeard

that may be true where you live.
but when i lived in florida and sold motorcycles, we were expected to collect taxes based upon the HOME city of the purchaser, which did in fact mean we had to know what the exact sales tax was for each and every county AND city since in many cases, cities would have local option sales taxes added on top of the state tax and county tax.

at least where i live now, all they do is base it on the base state sales tax and tell the counties/cities to piss off when it comes to vehicle purchases. And why do they do this? Because vehicle purchases are one of the main purchases that are routinely purchased outside of a home locality. Especially in states like Iowa where i live when you have a ton of small towns that are within an hour or two driving distance of a larger city that has substantially lower prices.

The reason people are purchasing these "appliances" from Apple is actually quite simple.
They work within their ecosystem and offer the ability to get what people want.
Now, having said that, there are many more people rocking an iPod than there are ones rocking a complete Apple ecosystem because it's easy to use, easy to get what you want, can be used on the major OS's quite easily (other than iTunes being a crappy manager), and despite other manufacturers attempts, it really is one of the better. more easily purchased devices for mom and pop to buy for little Johnny.

Apple is selling an experience.
Their devices work together quite well. This also means that they don't work all that well with others, so if you've spent hundreds or thousands of dollars over the history of iTunes purchasing songs, do you really want to repurchase them as DRM free, or go the route of burning and re-ripping them so you can have them DRM free?
No, you don't. So you keep using their system.

That's why people purchase these products.
That and they look shiny of course (/sarcasm)

leave teh GIMP alone!!!!!

how many apps running on your phone have access to that file?

oh that's right, it isn't kept on your phone if the cell companies have it.

now think about how many apps could be checking against this unencrypted file on your phone for imfromation and sending it to a third party without you even knowing.....

yeah, paying for MLB.com was my idea too.
until i actually tried it.
I live in Iowa, where there are no professional major league teams within 4 hours of me.
yet amazingly, I'm in the "local market" for all of the following teams:
Minnesota Twins
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Milwaukee Brewers
St Louis Cardinals
Kansas City Royals
Colorado Rockies

so if any of those teams are playing home games, and they aren't sold out, they get blacked out for me.
that's correct. 7 of the 30 MLB teams are Home market, subject to blackout teams for me.

Hell, about half the time, they are blacked out on ESPN if they are any night but Sunday which isn't subject to blackout.

so needless to say, i got tired of watching teams from the east and west coast that i cared nothing about as my only options.

I'll stick with my satellite service and watch the games i want to watch.

that's ok.
they still have everything you ever put up there on their end.

no, the claim was not implied.
it was inferred in your case.

having one product FISMA certified does not immediately make other products "utilizing the same platform" fall under the same certification.
The certification process explicitly states which exact products are certified when it is given.
This is why Google has asked that the certification be updated to include the Google Apps for Government.

Thus, the Google Apps for Government is not, currently, FISMA certified, although it appears to be in the process of obtaining such certification.

it's ok.
it's not the size that matters.

i much prefer to HAVE a remote to control my HTPC and not need the keyboard or mouse to do so.
for the 2% of the time i need a keyboard, i can grab the wireless low profile one with integrated trackball i keep stashed under the end table next to my recliner.

and i much prefer my Dell ZinoHD form factor over this thing to have sitting in my a/v component shelves.