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Comment Re:Confusing summary - here's my version (Score 1) 74

So, it's fine as long as we don't go around breaking it up and dispersing it into the air, and our solution if it ever becomes commonplace will not be to just stop using it in new construction and take extra care when removing old construction, but to actively go in and smash up the walls of old buildings to make sure it gets broken up and dispersed to maximum effect in an occupied building.

Comment Re:You may have been asleep for the past 20 years (Score 1) 115

Android is a linux distribution put together by Google, with Google extensions and optimizations. Not sure with that has to do with the argument that Microsoft is less open source than Apple and was not "banned" from government procurement, therefore the motivation for China's action is probably not open sourc-y-ness.

Comment Re:Punishes fans? (Score 1) 216

Sounds like the obvious answer is "Then don't watch it."

This is not necessarily the same thing as not paying for it, though.

But I can see this article isn't about rationality, but about "I want to watch it" and "I want it to be free" and "I want it available under my terms".

An important question is: who paid for the stadium?

I'm not sure the FCC ought to be involved, but any city paying for a stadium ought to negotiate, as part of the deal, that their residents can watch the games on free TV or on at-cost tickets or something until the city gets back its investment. Also, maybe we should stop electing star-struck fanbois who keep giving away the farm any time someone famous comes to town.

Comment Re:Keep It Ready (Score 1) 208

No, that job is 10% of an IT staffer. It might require 60% of the CEO's time, and that's assuming the CEO even has sufficient knowledge to be that effective.

It might further be the case that the CEO could be using that 60% time more effectively to improve the company than is saved by not having an IT person. Avoiding that opportunity loss would be worth hiring an entire IT person to take care of it, but then you're back in the 90% time wasted position, and while having some slack time is good, that is not going to be a very satisfying job for any professional.

Comment Re: We called out these failures years ago. (Score 1) 114

Anyone that hates the Chromebook has probably not watched "regular people" use one.

(bolding mine)

I picked up a c720 new for $175, put a larger SSD in it to dual boot Linux and Chrome OS and its been worth every dime.

... the fact that I can use a sub $200 device to do most of what I need

I'm not sure that someone who changes the OS and storage is representative of "regular people." Or of a sub $200 device, for that matter. How much did the SSD cost?

Comment Re:Keep It Ready (Score 2) 208

In general outsourcers won't save you money if your IT department is competently run (outsourcers need to make a profit), but for the 90% of other cases your job is in danger.

What if your needs are small enough that having whole person doing it is 90% more people than you need? An outsourcing company could aggregate several businesses in the same situation, resulting in more efficient use of the staff and equipment.

Comment Re:Price effects MY decisions! (Score 1) 192

Price is definitely a big factor in my own reading decisions as well. As a result of price, I typically go on reading "binges" where I will read something, remember how much I like to read things and go through another few things on my list until I notice I'm thinking about buying something for $14 and I just bought three or four other books in the past couple weeks, and do I really need to read this thing right now? Maybe I can wait until it's been out for a little bit and see if my library gets it or the price comes down.

Then my library doesn't have it, and I exhaust all the things on my list that they currently have (or I sign up for a few things and am in a queue that is likely months long...) and stop reading. After a few weeks, I will continue to not read until it occurs to me to check on a book, and maybe that $14 book is down to $9 (still not great, but I haven't read anything in a while (i.e. my budget has recovered), so what the hey)

The middlemen taking a big chunk of the money for distribution made sense when distribution was the difficult and expensive part of the proposition. It hardly makes sense for this to continue when the cost to produce a copy of an ebook is vanishingly small and half of it is the customer's responsibility.

Comment Re:I wanted to write about this place (Score 2) 424

Do they do tipping in France. I'm not sure tipping as a concept really makes sense anyway. Why do I pay the restaurant for the food and separately an essentially independent contractor (can I bring my own, then...) to deliver it, and the contractor's fee is completely at my discretion after the fact?

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