first off, i agree with you in principle.

however, i'd like to take issue with the qualification "lazy and incompetent". companies do what the market demands of them. examples of companies that create markets are very rare.

in the world we live in, succeeds the company which sells the most not the company that makes the best.

being the first to market is a major factor of selling the most. and that is _our_ doing. its _us_ who have selected (thank you Darwin!) companies to rush to market plug and play crap.

risk is nothing unusual in the business. all GT would have had to do was either:

- pad the contract enough to account for the risk (they may have, i've not read the contract)

OR

- say "no" to the amendment.

worst case scenario they would have lost a (granted, large) customer. instead they went bankrupt.

the fundamentals _were_ good. namely one side clearly wanted sapphire and had plenty of cash. the other side knew how to make it and had the expertise.

only goes to show that fundamentals alone are not enough to guarantee success.. quite frankly thats why not every geek (yours truly included) can grow a successful business.

last point i'll make is, i wouldn't draw long term conclusions out of this snafu. business deals fall through. shit happens. hopefully both sides learned something.

it was never about "need".

nothing wrong with good old fashion greed..

Apple intimidated a smaller company into an unworkable deal.

The smaller company that supposed to be an expert in the field agreed to sign an unworkable deal.

Both failed to amend the deal in time to fix the debacle. Businesses amend deals all the time. Provided the fundamentals were good, all they had to do was communicate timely.

not enough to declare "invalid" but it *is* absolutely a reason to ratchet up scrutiny if motivation is tainted by self interest of the people pushing this law.

and, its not about "validity" of the cause, (who in their right mind would say that drug abuse is good?!) its about effectiveness of the policy to achieve the ends its setting out to achieve. i don't see any less suffering caused by drugs after decades of the "war on drugs". any success has been achieved by decriminalization, education, and advancing the science of addictive behavior.

same goes for the "right to forget". we, as society, must learn to cope with bullshit about each other that exists on the net. censorship isn't the solution, education is.

meantime some fat cronies playing up fear card to reach deeper into their constituent's pockets.. pure and simple.

setting aside that your statement is certainly debatable (there is a difference between use and abuse) you've entirely missed my point.

my point being, fighting straw man wars is a reliable method for financing comfortable lifestyle to a whole class of individuals in the politics theater.

war on drugs is one. right to be forgotten is another. i'm sure you can name few others.

we have plenty of laws on the books to fight the root cause, which is the monopoly control of resources and markets.

everything else in time will take care of itself.

no better than "war on drugs" or any other method of milking the tax payer..

..i think they will have to keep windows in the hatches. they'll now call the emergency exit rows "observation deck" and charge x2 for them.

thats what i call win-win :)

are you suggesting that quarantine should be selective based on citizenship? talk about logic..

in what way quarantining has anything to do with immigration?

the flu kills plenty of people who are _apparently_ perfectly healthy.

but we're digressing, the original theses i was objecting to was that somehow restricting immigration was going to help to save lives. and that is simply asinine.

thats pretty much how ebola works too, poor hydration is what kills you. whatever caused inadequate hydration can be anything, from poor care to weakened organism.

call it "ebola related death" if that tickles your fancy.

This year 50,000 people will die of the flu in USA.

Ebola so far took 1.

A little perspective?

Next time you're at a hospital being helped by an immigrant nurse or doctor, think about that.

slashdot isn't the only website on the net, it doesnt need to cover _everything_.