++ Would read again.

I've got a porter and an ale bubbling away at home, as we speak. Bonus: Don't throw away the spent grains! Make bread instead!

Yes, and?

How my users react to it. I demoed 8 to my users, and got a resounding "HELL NO", due entirely to the start screen. They weren't buying it, and I don't blame them.

Given the leaks so far, I expect my users will be onboard with the new version ( possibly with some grumbling about the "look" ). But I won't really know until I get it in front of them for some feedback.

hahahahaha

No, what we're seeing is one of two things:

1) They've already figured out how to milk this suggestion for every dime ( and given enough time, they'll figure out how to milk even MORE out of it )

2) They see which way the wind is (hopefully) blowing, and realize a compromise NOW might let them salvage some of the situation.

In either case, telling them to go "pound sand" is still the correct response. AT&T and their ilk have screwed over customers for years. There is no reason to suddenly adopt an attitude of cooperation with them, knowing full fucking well the only reason they're doing so is to find a place to stick the knife.

And for heaven’s sake, don’t consent to a search if you are carrying a big roll of legitimate cash.

You never consent to a search. Make them get a warrant or conduct an illegal search. You may have just bought the car. It may have absolutely NOTHING personal in it. You still don't consent to a search.

Period.

Well, cost and interest. As we both touched on, the tech just isn't that interesting. That plus the cost pretty much covers this story.

If companies really want the smart watch to take off, they'll have to drop the cost and increase it's interest factor.

Can you really have a "war" when you no one shows up?

Don't get me wrong, some of these smart watches rate as "neat", but not for several hundred dollars. I could see dropping 100 bucks, maybe, on something that tracks health telemetry, but honestly? It'd probably have to be a gift before I got it.

This is kind of like saying 3D TV companies were in a war with each other. While that may have been true, consumers didn't notice because the tech just wasn't that interesting to them.

Seriously, having been stuck with rackspace email for as long as I have been, I can only expect things to get better. They could hardly get worse.

One of the beneficial side effects of places like Kaiser ( all in one insurance/provider ) is that they can communicate and enforce such policies as "No antibiotics for viral infections", often in spite of well meaning but ultimately clueless parents.

Smaller practices may still prescribe antibiotics for everything from a sniffle to a stubbed toe, but the bigger places are finally getting it. It's one of the few benefits of consolidating our health care as we are.

Seriously; in light of all the violations of our "privacy" by the government, what "rights" can we humans be said to retain?

Viewed in that light, however, the answer is probably a depressing "Yes".

So they *shouldn't* aggressively pursue profits?

Strange.

Side note: How fast do you suppose Verizon wireless makes 7.4 million? 3 hours? 4?

Thank you; yes, you are describing exactly what we saw, and continue to see. The business name is an amalgam of the owners, but one of the owners is never out at one of our remote locations, and never has been. Never the less, we have multiple bad reviews bad mouthing that provider, talking about treatment that we don't handle at any of our locations.

It's a shady operation, pure and simple. The more people that I can make aware of that, the better.

I support a business who has been targeted by yelp, and it's not pleasant. I can't prove anything, but shortly after turning the abusive sales troll down, we started getting negative reviews. Look up the users making the reviews, and it seems they have a history of making negative reviews. What's more, most reviews were factually and demonstrably inaccurate. We couldn't find any of these users in our system, so we knew they weren't customers.

Now sure, they could have been normal trolls out to do what trolls do, but it just seemed too coincidental that they started popping up after we turned down a business relationship with yelp. Meanwhile, our customers' positive reviews would often never show up on yelp due to their algorithm.

The obvious solution to this entire headache is to dissuade family and friends from using yelp, spread the word far and wide that they are dishonest in their policies and that companies can pay for reviews. As "family IT", we have far more authority than yelp could ever hope for.

I can't tell you how comfortable I would be feeling, right this instant, were Palin vice president.

Obama didn't win; the GOP lost, both in 2008 and 2012. If you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at the GOP for giving us shit choices.