You're absolutely right. The e-ticket thing for airline travel is a great example. Everyone with a paper ticket just breezes by while those with their tickets on their phones usually have to fiddle around with the size of the image before it can be read.

Let's see.. things that won't be digitized anytime soon:
- drivers license
- gym card
- business card
- all those proximity reader entry cards for everything from zipcar to work
- work ID card
- subway / bus card
- discount / membership cards


Not to mention that my wallet never runs out of power or is otherwise rendered inoperable. Nor is my wallet susceptible to malware. As a bonus I can keep a stash of backup meds in my wallet in a little plastic container. It has a pleasant all-natural leather makeup that wears beautifully with time. And frankly it's a lot more dignified to have your amex clatter onto the bill at a fancy restaurant than it is to pull out your phone and beep-boop-beep up some app. As a side bonus at least some part of my life isn't under the NSA's review when I use cash.

So your argument boils down to "blackberries can be hacked if only anyone cared to." Which speaks nothing to the various government agencies that have given it the highest security certifications (pretty much all heads of state use blackberries) nor the reality that blackberry stakes its reputation on security whereas the other two contenders are "best effort" when it comes to security.

I agree that no systems is perfectly secure but your argument is specious at best.

and weren't a complete waste of taxpayer money these robo calls would never happen. I have for YEARS been getting the same pre-recorded message call to my cell phone promising me to lower my credit card payment. Searching the internet shows hundreds of folks complaining about the same -- down to the very spoofed caller ID number. I've filed numerous complaints online at the FTC and yet fuck all happens.

That's a bad metric.. $20k of that would immediately get eaten by health insurance and other things companies usually provide.

It seems like there are a slew of jobs for people making $80 - $120k with a small sprinkling of jobs between $120 and $140k for very senior and skilled people. But how many true "developers" make more than $140k?

Not true. I'm thankful for Edward Snowden lifting the veil on the NSA's illegal programs. I'd buy the guy a beer if I could.

Nobody's sitting on the phones. The issue affected people putting the phone in their front pocket. As to the million of phones sold, yes, Apple has a lot of lemmings.

"it requires no less than three taps on different install buttons, at least two loading bars, and a fair amount of patience before you can actually use the app you're trying to install."

Heaven forfend.. installing apps is exactly how much time spent on a phone? 0.1%?

Um, you're aware the iPhone6 is getting huge negative press for literally deforming while inside a front pocket? The blackberry passport, by contrast, has a stainless steel frame.

and if you had the common sense to wear a condom, AIDS would be contained "without much trouble."

Because that just means the virus has a longer horizon to hop somewhere else.. like Mumbai.

Or with my BlackBerry I continue to get all new OS releases that by and far have improved battery life, stability, and performance while adding new features left and right.

You don't have to pick the blue or red pill. Oh, and it runs all Android apps.

>My impression is that most of Africa's problems are cultural, like for example the response to Ebola.

That's more education than culture. Heck, it was a tradition for a while in the West to take dead relatives, dress them up, and pose for photos with them.

>> Africans would've been infinitely better off left completely to their own devices. Would they still be living in stone age primitive societies? Yes. Would it be preferable to what they have now? Yes. Cute. You speak for all of Africa. Change your nic to Shakazulu Ghost or something.

Why don't you travel to Africa and advise them to turn their back on all Western things because, y'know, they'll always be incapable of self governance without whitey. Call the movement something catchy.. Boko Haram maybe.