>> their respective app stores feature hundreds of thousands of apps, sometimes it seems as if most of those apps are crude imitations of other apps

Is the poster new to computers? This clutter has been the case with software since it first reached the consumer. (e.g., RPG games in the 1980s, etc.)

This is why:
1) It's good to be the PLATFORM (you get paid no matter what apps sell).
2) It's good to be a CONSUMER (you get zillions of choices).
3) Being a DEVELOPER is hard, and making a living trying to sell apps to consumers is ever harder (see #1 and #2).

At the moment, just about every major distribution except Slackware and Gentoo not only supports systemd, but ships with it on by default.

So...what "battle" are we talking about? (Or did this post just fall forward five years from the past?)

Having worked in this "file sharing" industry, this result is no surprise to me. The platformers, especially those with heavy investments in content suites (Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop/PDF, Google Docs, etc.) are tired of letting the middlemen make money off of cloud storage and collaboration. Furthermore, they understand the danger of allowing their customers to congregate around "platform independent" technologies too long. Worse, companies with just a dozen or two people can crank out everything Box, etc. can do in less than a year and sell it as either an on-premise or cloud solution. (There are dozens of clones now.) The result is that companies like DropBox aren't worth anything for their technology anymore - instead, it's a race to see if they can "run out the clock" and sell their customer base to one of the platformers before they dwindle down to nothing.

I've been at a couple of companies now where there were cell reimbursement plans, but I never used them with my personal devices.

1) Hassle. I pay like $30/month for 3 hours of voice (which I never use) and nearly unlimited data. Dealing with accountants to get what's basically lunch money out of the company each month isn't worth it.
2) Line item sharing. I talk to a lot of interesting people on my cell phone, including friends working for competitors, previous employers and places that might want to hire me next. I don't really want to file a paper trail on my communications with the company from whom I'm currently drawing my paycheck.
3) Leashing. I don't put company email on my personal phone - period. Nor do I subscribe to a company-generated phone wipe. If someone really needs me, they can track me down through SMS or (shudder) voice, which is still easy because I put my cell phone number on every email I send, every ticket I file, etc.

Not that too many people use "beta", but I noticed today that I had to switch back to the "Classic" site we know and love to skim TFtranscript.

TL;DR version of the transcript for anyone who cares:
"Back when people used to buy computer books our company was the s***, and I was fascinated by all the Tetris-like screens clerks used to use in stores like Borders. (Remember that place?) And government IT sure is f***ed up, ain't it?"

>> don't need embellished intros

Hmmm..."godfather"..."powerful force"..."as much of an effect on the nature of information transmission" - sounds like a little embellishment to me. ;)

So, how do you write an intro that gets more than 8 comments (as of 24 hours) when you're stuck with a full hour of video of some old guy talking at a webcam (yawn). Do what any good journalist would do: scan the transcripts and pull out the 2-3 most provocative things he said, then build a teaser around it. Finally, write a headline like "O'Reilly (Yes, THAT O'Reilly) Says [Some S*** You Wouldn't Believe]".

As things are, I can't even tell from the summary what he's about to cover (some upcoming OSCON event? dunno) or why anyone would care.

>> people like cars

Mostly because they don't smell like other people, or what they ate/drank last night. Figure out how to let me have my own personal compartment that I can maintain to my standard of hygiene and i'll happily give up driving.

>> it's like your elevator, only horizontal

Except it's not, because of scale. If your elevator sucks, you can just move to the next building over. If your city's transportation monopoly sucks (or if its workers just want to shut down the system to complain about whatever), you might have to move to a different city for relief.

>> Wikipedia says (whatever.) And so he is.
>> That alone makes Tim O'Reilly worth listening to for nearly an hour, total.

You just can't make this kind of crappy intro up - are the interns running things over there for the summer?

10 DO NOTWANT
20 REM What inspires you, inspires Slashdot.
30 GOTO 10

I bought my Lenovo Mix (8" tablet) with full Windows 8.1, 4GB RAM and Office 2013 Home for just $200. I added a nice bluetooth keyboard and case for another $60 and now it's my primary "walking around the company campus attending meetings" device (replacing a laptop). $260 was already in the ballpark of my son's Nexus 7 table.

I hope Microsoft (and HP and all the interchangeable PC providers) keep this up - if Apple's not going to drop price it helps consumers to have another company with deep pockets engaged in the tablet price war.

>> CEO Tim Cook, he's unhappy with Apple's diversity numbers and says Apple is working to improve them

(Voice of Steve Jobs): Tim. Boobie. The secret of Apple is 50% product and 50% marketing, with minimal bullshit. Please don't fuck it up.

>> we're committed to being as innovative in advancing diversity as we are in developing our products.

(Voice of Steve Jobs): Ah shit. You fucked it up.

>> "Self-signed cert = At least the NSA cant sniff the traffic so easily"

I hope you're joking, but in case you're not, reread the part about the published "private RSA encryption key." That means that ANYONE who watches an SSL/TLS session get established with that key could decode the session's traffic. And more bad things...

Golly gee, with a name like the "USA Freedom Act," it must be good!

I wonder if anyone's every thought of writing up a "Patriot Act" - that would be doubleplus awesome!

>> The first feature that popped out to me: you can see I spend most mornings at a cafe.

Get a job, get a girlfriend or get a family and this "problem" will be solved for you.