There is no "trust issue" using a service like Uber, at least here in the U.S.

To be honest, I'm far less trusting of the established taxi services.

Let me give you just one example:

Here in the Washington D.C. area, you'll have a really difficult time if you live in Maryland or Virginia and you need to catch a cab back home from D.C. Why? Because cabbies realize they're not allowed to pick up new fares from those adjacent states. If they have to drive you back to MD or VA, then they're stuck driving back to D.C. again before they can make more money. The law says they're not allowed to refuse you once you're in the cab and the vehicle is in motion ... but it presents an awkward situation where those "in the know" are often forced to hail a cab, and then purposely stall when the driver asks "Where to?", until he/she begins moving. Then they spring the news that they need to go back to an address in VA or MD.

With the online competitors, everything is up-front and clear, before you ever have to interact at all with a driver. I know I'd feel much better with an online confirmation that my ride is one the service accepted and the driver won't have any hard feelings about the arrangement once I'm in the vehicle.

Furthermore, I don't see why there's any real reason to believe a cab driver working for the established taxi services will be a more honest, straight-forward guy than someone working for a service like Uber? Many of Uber's drivers come from the industry in the first place. (It's a popular way for limo drivers to earn some extra money in their downtime, for example. With limos, people often pay to be taken someplace where the driver then has to wait HOURS for them to come back out to go to the next place. Why not take an Uber fare or two, nearby, during that time instead?) Cab drivers, by contrast, often feel entitled in a sense.... working for a powerful unionized group. They regularly play games like claiming a credit card machine in the cab is broken, because they'd rather take the cash .....

Each and every time I watch a city get into this "cabs vs. Uber" war, it plays out pretty much the same way. Every single potential user/customer of the services I hear voice an opinion is happy to see the competition and often has something positive to say about Uber, specifically.

Everyone who speaks out against it is some kind of government official or union member of the protected cab cartel.

Oh, you *might* get some talking head on the TV news who claims to take an interest in "public safety", telling you how unsafe it is to get in some stranger's vehicle when he/she isn't a licensed cab driver ... but at the end of the day, I think we all know they're just shills for the establishment.

I've tried Uber myself and frankly, I was amazed at how much more organized the experience was than hailing a cab. Among other benefits, I immediately received an email receipt documenting the trip's total mileage with start and end points, and even how much fuel was used. Regarding safety? Uber's app even showed me a photo of the person who would be picking us up as soon as the ride was ordered, making sure I wasn't getting in the wrong person's vehicle. No cab service I've seen can do that.

A better mousetrap has been built!

Pretty sure Time Warner is great at making "information unavailable or less available".

That's certainly a nerd sort of pedantically correct, but the scope and scale matter a lot. Apple is far, far better about updating old devices. Anyone who tries to argue that they are equivalent to Google on this front is just being an asshole.

Yes, there are a few models that did not get more than two years of OS updates due to hardware limitations (or business reasons if you want to think that) and the iPad you mention is one of those.

If we compare to Android, the majority of all Android devices have *never* seen a software update. A supermajority (if not 90%+) don't get updates a year past their original introduction (meaning people buy them brand new and *never* get a single update).

By contrast, when Apple's famous "goto fail" bug was discovered, they issued a patch for my test device, a four year old iPod Touch 4th generation running the end-of-life iOS 6. The patch was released immediately, at the same time as the patch for the latest hardware.

Tell me... what 4 year old Android devices are getting any OS updates whatsoever?

Honestly... how is this even slightly controversial?

Apple controls their own hardware and software, and they release a limited number of models. Their support burden to release updates for older devices is minimal. They also have the benefit of requiring complete open access from the carriers and have stuck to their guns, forcing carriers to cave in. (I remember the days before Apple, when carriers struck features from devices at their whim, and the only "app" store was the horrible carrier's app store). That's also part of the reason you will never see this on Android - having let the cat out of the bag, they absolutely will not allow anyone else to usurp their control again.

By contrast, Android is developed by one company, has firmware developed by an SoC company, then gets modified for hardware by another, then certified by thousands of individual carriers. If anyone in that chain decides it's too much work, doesn't care, or just drags their feet then you don't get updates.

P.S. Expect carriers (at least in the US) to start injecting boot loader verification into the baseband ROM, then refuse to let your device on the network if it has been rooted. They are fighting tooth and nail to not be a commodity dumb pipe and will try anything. Many of their most profitable customers are iOS users, so they basically can't avoid doing as Apple says (ask NTT DoCoMo or Verizon how resisting Apple's demands worked out). Samsung has no such leverage - one Android phone is, to a rough order of magnitude, as good as another, so when the carriers demand locking and verification you can bet Samsung will comply.

Yes, you're correct .... but I'd maintain that in most (all?) cases, at least in the USA, they've been doing it wrong.

For example, do you know what the salary is for a DC metro subway driver? I had no clue until I saw a job posting on one of the govt. job boards. It's in the 6 figures. I'd sure like to know why a $100,000/yr. plus salary is necessary to get someone to operate a metrorail train!

When you look at what each individual spends to use a personal motor vehicle to commute to/from work each day, it simply doesn't make logical sense that a mass transit system can't beat those operating costs per-person, by sheer volume. And yet, it generally costs me almost the same price to drive from point A to B as to take the metro between those same places. And STILL they say it needs subsidizing with large tax collections?

No ... reality is, mass transit is a big cash cow for a lot of folks on the inside. Every time the system is expanded, contractors are making big bucks on the project.... Unionized maintenance staff probably costs more than is really necessary to keep it all running too. Who knows where else money is being spent inefficiently on the whole thing -- but there sure are plenty of opportunities for it.

I was shocked to read that. I could see some small, poor country just not having the resources to run a decent network and outsourcing it to a big private company. But Germany? Come on.

Nope, you're right.... DC is really *not* that great an area to live in. However, I'm pretty happy with the small town in Maryland we wound up buying a house in. Only about 20 minutes outside Frederick, MD, which is a fairly nice city itself.

The only reason I moved up to the the DC area in the first place is a need to get out from a dead-end I.T. job I was in, in the midwest, working for a steel supplier and fabricator. In general, I.T. careers in the midwest doing server/network administration on hands-on PC support are mainly found in the manufacturing sector. (Exceptions would primarily be hospitals or education -- both of which handle I.T. fairly differently than the typical business.... sort of their own worlds.)

Not just one, but two of my friends who used to live near me and also worked in I.T. wound up moving away and taking jobs with the company that offered me the DC area position. The fact I'd get to work with two of my long-time personal friends (albeit each of us in different offices in different cities) was a major reason I accepted. This was also a company which was actually growing during the recession, while most were downsizing.

Truthfully? I think a lot of folks up here relocated for jobs that were far from "elite" - simply because they were promising-sounding career jobs in a bad economic climate. (I've met several people who moved here from other parts of the country for jobs with MedImmune in Gaithersburg, for example. Probably pays well, but not "defense contractor well" or anything like that.)

Only if your goal is to make electric cars much more expensive. Each Honda Clarity FCX costs about $125,000 to manufacture. I haven't heard about any huge breakthroughs that would make this Toyota significantly less. The manufacturers are willing to take a huge loss on each one for a variety of regulatory and PR reasons. Increasing production from their currently tiny numbers isn't going to decrease the unit cost by that much since lots of exotic materials and components are required.

For recurring costs, hydrogen costs about the same per mile as gasoline. And unless you happen to live right next to one of a few dozen hydrogen refueling stations, you're going to waste a lot of fuel and time driving to and from one. My battery powered car costs a third as much per mile and I car recharge it in my garage.

Bingo! This is definitely a HUGE factor for those of us living and working in the metro D.C. area! (I'm pretty sure Californians working in the Silicon Valley area have the same experience, but I can't speak about it with any direct knowledge.)

My commute is a little over an hour each direction. (Basically, I can take the train in to a station where I have to transfer to the metro and ride it for about 4 stops until I get to my workplace. Alternately, I can drive in but it takes about the exact same amount of time.)

Either way, it's "lose, lose", really. Everyone loves to point out that if you take public transportation, the time is really "your own time" since you don't have to drive. But due to the lack of reliable cellular data connections through much of the trip, it doesn't let me do a lot of productive things I'd like to do with that time (like check email or handle trouble tickets that came in). It's good for reading a book or magazine, but honestly? I'm not too enthused about spending 45 minutes to an hour reading that early in the morning, or right after a long day of work. I like to read on weekends or possibly at night just before bedtime. If I opt to drive, then I'm out the cost of the gas money and wear and tear on my vehicle. I also get stuck paying about $8 a day for parking. (The train and metro fare is over $275 a month though, too.)

But in this part of the country, you don't have any other realistic options to live closer to your job if you have a family with kids. Singles or child-free couples can usually find a reasonably affordable apartment that's nearby, but adding kids to the mix really makes that unworkable unless you're one of the "elite" (such as govt. contractors getting huge paychecks or politicians or their lawyers).

Out here, it used to be, you were directed to one of the "inner D.C. suburbs" like Rockville or Gaithersburg or Silver Spring if you needed to find a 3 or 4 bedroom house at a somewhat normal price. But so many people have relocated up here for the government and military jobs and contracts, those properties were quickly snapped up and priced escalated with the demand. So you have to look further and further out to find something at a sane price point.

You misunderstand. Our opinions are correct, and everyone who disagrees is stupid.

And everyone's concept of value is different.

If enough people want to give EA their money, then they will keep doing what they're doing- and not give a rats ass about what every single person on this site thinks.

If enough people stop giving EA their money, for whatever reason, then their games and sales model will change immediately.

Yeah, you've got me all figured out. Dumbass.

So you don't think Al Qaeda is capable of killing Americans?

There is no secret intelligence here. He posted these things online voluntarily.