AAC files downloaded from iTunes work fine on all Sony gear (including the PlayStation). And quite a lot of other audio gear.

And of course, you can run iTunes on a Linux box if you really want to - it's not like a few extra steps are a problem for a Linux user.

And iTunes is available on Windows also - just sayin'

I guess it must be, let the Wookie win.

Thank you for the response with the exact level of pedanticness I would have gone for personally. You saved me some time.

This is just he exception that proves the rule.

It's when you find TWO exceptions, that you should start to worry about the rule itself...

How does Apple "monetize" its userbase information right now?

It doesn't, because it doesn't need to (see: Stock Price, cash on hand).

Why does Apple feel the compulsion to plow money into an inferior map service?

Apple maps are superior to Google Maps at this point. They are more readable for one thing (true from the outset) but also I have noticed more errors lately in Google Maps than Apple Maps (and Google Maps always had errors to begin with).

The reason Apple continues forward is because that way they do not have to worry about how users are monetized by other map providers... which you are if you use Google Maps.

Originally said:
Stock valuations are based not only on actual assets, but future growth and earnings potential.

You replied:

They're comparing the stock valuation to what the company would sell for if purchased. When you sell a company, you're also selling the "good will" and other value inertia things like brand familiarity

Goodwill is ALSO something that can increase in the future, just like monetary assets - you buy stock with the idea that the entire company value (including goodwill) will grow. So the original point is still a sound one.

Which one hurts more when dropped on you: a pound of iron, or a pound of feathers?

In their defense, it is because eEconomics perfectly follows t his Douglas Adams quote:

As soon as an algorithm is created that can accurately predict the market, investors will start using it, thus altering the market so the algorithm no longer works.

This kind of economic theory is really attaching a name and a measurement system to a phenomena that is already understood. To say the Q-value predicts bubbles is a bit backwards since the Q-value is defined in terms of bubbles. So it really isn't a predictor of anything, any more than a ruler is a predictor of the length of an object or a scale is a predictor of the weight of an object.

Clinton did not selectively keep emails she thought were state-department related - she came up with a small list of keywords she thought would match state-departmnent matters and deleted ANYTHING THAT DID NOT MATCH.

So basically her keeping state department related emails is only as true as her ability to come up with keywords that matched everything she did over years of service...

Not to worry though, the Chinese and many other foreign governments have a full backup, which they have pinky-sweared not to use as leverage should Clinton be elected president.

Please see my original post:

They're not going to work as cops ever again.

And they're not going to get hired as security guards in the U.S., either. Would you hire someone that you already knew, 100%, had violated someone's civil liberties so egregiously? Of course not: your shareholders would can you for hiring them. If you hire people you know are a discipline problem, you're just begging for a lawsuit when they fuck up again while working for you.

If you think the people who hire cops don't bother to check with previous employers and do Google searches on new applicants, you need your head examined. These two are done. They're not going to work as cops ever again.

I totally agree that ad-blockers are immoral. Realistically how can you support denying a web site ad revenue which is the only reason it can continue to exist?

However, just as immoral are the way ads are tending to be presented now. Full screen ads as noted, or un-avoidable popovers are to my mind a betrayal from the other direction - a web site needs revenue to survive, but that should not come at the expense of the sanity of the reader.

My solution is to simply sop using a site if I find the ads grow too obnoxious. But I also really can't see anything morally wrong with blocking ads from a web site that has gone too far in embracing abusive ads, almost as a form of punishment...

At one point we needed the government just to reach space.

That time has passed. What we need now is not one gatekeeper to bring us into space, but the gates to be flung open. NASA still has uses but the majority of space travel and research going forward should be done by the people outside the government, the people who from time immemorial have been always able to do something hard and dangerous and expensive and make it better and faster a cheaper and more accessible to everyone.

Do you want to visit space? I do. I know that would never happen just having NASA around, just as I know it will be feasible giving some of NASA's money to SpaceX and its ilk to refine and commoditize space travel.

So Snowden is going to be pardoned by Obama now, right?

If by "pardoned", you mean "Drone Strike", then yes, Snowden will be "pardoned".