That is true for the most part and going out on a limb here, the most obnoxiously judgemental computer users I meet are usualy Linux geeks. I have met very, very few OS X or Windows users who go out of their way to heap scorn on Linux users the way some Linux do about Windows and Mac users.

Which is why boasting that Android is outselling iPhones is a bit like pointing out that the entire rest of the car industry is outselling BMW and therefore BMW must suck.

Ditto, iPhone 4S, iPad 3 no issues so far and only the usual gripe: This is iOS 8 and they still haven't put a collapsable menu in the little 'add bookmark' wizard in Safari.

Yeah, but I think he figured the punishment for denying the cops access was preferable to what he would have had to suffer if the cops had gotten at the content of that hard drive and they couldn't lock him up indefinitely for refusing to decrypt his hard drive. At least not in a modern European democracy.

You can put a complex password on your iPhone:

1) Settings->Passcode, enter your 4 digit passcode.
2) Flip the "Simple Passcode" switch.
3) Set your new arbitrary length complex password.
4) Enable the "Erase Data" setting which wipes the device after 10 incorrect password inputs.
5) Enjoy entering your complex password every time you want to access the phone.

The encryption on these iDevices and the Macs is non trivial to crack. Combine this encryption with a properly strong password and that wipe feature and even the Police would be shit out of luck. I know of a case where a guy resolutely refused to provide police with the password and crypto-key for his MacBook. The cops shipped the laptop to Cupertino who sent it back after a few weeks having failed to crack the drive encryption. The cracking would take longer than the expected lifespan of the universe. Your only hope of getting into a properly password protected and encrypted device be it an iDevice, an Android device or a Windows phone is if there happens to be some software vulnerability that enables you to bypass the login screen.

I agree with you completely except for the notion that it is physically possible for Apple to be discussed in a balanced way by a bunch of Android using Linux geeks on Slashdot.

...and it is amazing how hard it is for some people to understand the difference between losing market share in a saturated market and your market share growing slower than a still expanding market. In percentages your market share may be declining even though your sales are still growing. Apple's iPhone line has been uninspiring since the iPhone 5 came out so sales growth was also less than what it might have been. I for one skipped the iPhone 5 because I felt it didn't represent a sufficient upgrade over my iPhone 4S but the iPhone 6/6+ is a whole different story. I'm not going to write Apple stock off as an investment option because the pontifications of a few angry Android users on slashdot or some tech analyst's totally unrealistic predictions of Apple achieving world domination on the smartphone market haven't come true.

Don't knock it, the "I have no opinion" principle has gotten millions of men through their marriages with a minimum of trouble. Mind you some things you have to have an opinion on, like for example "Does my ass look big in these jeans", your little brain is saying "Yesssss, acres an acres of ass and it's all mine... I love it!", your rational brain prompted by your survival instinct modifies that to "No, dear!"

You mean like Boeing bid for the KC-X deal, lost to EADS/Northrop-Grumman, then successfully lobbied for a restart of the bidding process and submitted a bid that secured them the contract leading to EADS deciding not to pursue the deal any further because they thought Boeing's winning bid was so low that Boeing would probably lose money on it? But fret not, I'm sure Uncle Sam will see to it that any losses suffered by Boeing will be made good through some form of kickback and I'm sure that John and Jane Q, Taxpayer will be only too happy to foot the bill. What is interesting about this story is that even US companies are now suffering the same fate as EADS did and falling victim to the Boeing lobby. I sincerely hope that Space X humiliates Boeing and their Washington cronies by somehow outdoing them in cost effectiveness with their private ventures. If there is any single player in the US Aerospace industry that seriously needs to be taught a lesson it's Boeing.

Putting the condescension aside that is positively dripping off of the GP post, why should there have to be a compromise? Where the hell do car dealers get off whining about this? As far as I can tell Tesla went for these Tesla stores because the good hard working folks of the car dealing industry put very little effort into selling their cars so it's the car dealers own bloody fault Tesla went for this solution in the first place and as far as I can tell Tesla is well within it's rights to do so. I don't see anybody legislating against Apple for selling their stuff directly in Apple stores owned by Apple, and the same goes for Sony and their Sony centers, I distinctly remember reading that Microsoft has Microsoft stores and now Samsung is starting to set up Samsung centers in Europe where this manufacturer owned or franchised retail store model is just as well known as in the US. You don't see electronics retailers whining about Apple, Sony and Samsung having their own retail stores, perhaps because they, unlike US car dealers, don't have any hangups about selling Apple, Sony and Samsung products with as much vigor as the rest of their inventory. Why can't there be a chain of Tesla centers without every car dealer in the USA whining about it like petulant child? We all know what the answer is, the car dealers are hopelessly corrupt and are into the bargain in the pockets of certain companies who feel threatened by Tesla.

Why did you leave Israel out of that list?

My friend does it as a party trick, he checks where the fingerprints or slide marks are and surprisingly often he manages to guess the the pin or symbol on Android phones.

Yes, longer battery life would be nice but it's the bigger screen size and the fingerprint sensor that are motivating me to trade my iPhone 4S in for an iPhone 6+, I've decided that I want a phablet. It takes more effort to crack the fingerprint sensor than it takes to just sitting in your couch and punching in four digit pin-codes until you unlock the phone. I could put a password on my phone but punching in a password every time I get an e-mail is way too bothersome and I can't read Google maps in landscape mode on my iPhone 4S anymore because the display is just too small. As long as the device has adequate processing power to run the latest apps and games for the next 5 years and gets OS updates (which previous experience with Apple devices tells me it will) I don't really care that much about whether it has benchmarks and a processing speed that trumps those of the latest offering from Samsung, LG, HTC et al. In fact the majority of the features that I really value the most are software features ranging from the 'Continuity' OS X integration, 'HealthKit', App services and Universal Touch ID authorization for all apps to the little stuff you almost don't notice like, the revamped keyboard, built in phone calls over wifi, an overview over which app is using the most power, reply notification for especially important messages, ... the list goes on. Now if they'd only get around to putting a folding bookmarks menu in the little wizard you use when you add a bookmark in Mobile Safari... this is iOS version 8 for Christ's sake and Apple still hasn't gotten around to fixing it.

That is a much repeated statistic and in the short term ... yes, that is true. What is less often pointed out, probably because it does not serve the propaganda purpose of the fossil fuel industry as well as the previous fact, is that their long term goal is 80% renewables by 2050.

I keep hearing people say this and never backing it up with facts. I know renewables have their own environmental issues but why should they be a show stopper? .... soooo: [Citation needed]

Yes, the thread was about Tesla using renewables for it's new factory.