Amen, even my Nexus 4 is bigger than I really want. Honestly I might even tolerate the size, but that price is absolutely ridiculous, going from a $300+ phone to a $600+ phone, and they STILL didn't include a damn SD Card slot? Sorry Google, hope this goes well for you but I will not touch this piece of junk. Maybe I'll try the OnePlus One, the FairPhone, or hopefully some other compact and unlocked phone will come out in the future.

Luckily for me, the specs of my Nexus 4 are still more than enough to run anything I've encountered, so maybe I'll make it until this whole phablet craze is over.

I absolutely refuse to use them anymore. I did for a while if I could go quick, but I got stopped at walmart once because it said I needed a cashier approval. I was buying headphones. I stood there for a minute or so trying to get someones attention. She comes over and it was so that she could ask if I wanted the extended warranty. It couldn't put that on the screen?

I decided then that they waste my time, are slower, and take jobs away without passing any benefit on to me, so I quit. I'm also tired of fighting the "place item in the bag" battle. If you can't trust me, don't hire me. I didn't want to work here in the first place!

I'm sure that is true, but some dealers have more desire to negotiate, some feel the number listed is the only number. It's the same reason it's sometimes worth driving a couple hundred miles to buy a new car, even when sales tax is the same. You'd think they'd lose business by never negotiating, but based on the number of people I know that actually paid sticker for their new cars, I guess it works for them.

When I bought my car I had title in hand in my name. It had a lien on the back, but the title had my name on the front.

And there are some other differences, much like in the home market. I own my home, but the bank has a lien on it. I get to decide what colors I paint the walls, any upgrades or additions I want to do, if pets or guests are allowed, etc. The bank doesn't make those decisions like the landlord did for my apartment or rental house.

Similarly, a leased car has many restrictions. Usually something like 15,000 miles per year maximum without penalties. I drive too much for that. Modifications are usually not allowed or heavily restricted. I have radio equipment and auxiliary lighting installed in mine, as well as customized interior shelving in the cargo area (SUV). Trailer towing equipment is often not allowed unless it's a truck with a specific towing package at the time of lease. My loan agreement also specified either 30 or 60 days default for repossession. I don't remember exactly, it's been paid off for years and I have no payments. With a leased car, the payments never end in a situation where you get to keep a car. Sometimes the lease buyout option is more than buying the similar car. I know someone that wanted to keep her leased car, but due to the lease buyout price she ended up giving it back and just going to buy the same used car somewhere else.

GPS is not required. FCC issued a requirement to improve location tracking by 2018, which is still a few years out. GPS is not a requirement, just a possible way to meet that accuracy.

Not everyone can get paid for their passion. I hear some people have hobbies that involve women. Apparently they like to go out to dinner and shows and other things outside of the nice solitude of one''s house/mom's basement. I've seen these people do a lot of things you wouldn't think would be desirable to pursue their passions. . . or pursue passion. . . . or however you want to word it.

Actually this isn't surprising. I had a friend that couldn't get a job as a security guard at the mall after returning from Afghanistan, and he couldn't get a job as armed security anywhere because they wanted people already trained. The military training may help on the resume in some areas, but a lot of places still want the non-military credential.

As far as the medical field, military field medics do all kinds of things that would be asking for a lawsuit on a civilian ambulance. A civilian EMT honestly can't do all that much for you. If you're breathing, your heart is beating, and you're not bleeding out, we can't do much more than give you a ride to the hospital. You're right that field medics take a lot of chances they don't want you to take in the civilian world.

A lot of advancements in trauma care come from things that have been tried and worked on the battlefield, just like a lot of advancements in auto safety come from the race track. Sure, there are programs to help transition. EMT is not even that long of a class to start from scratch. But, his point still remains that you can come back with the training that possibly (likely) even far exceeds the civilian levels, and still be overlooked as 'unqualified'. I'd blame lawyers, but that's just a personal opinion and I have no citation to provide.

I think it's a fair set of questions to put in front of other peoples eyes. Unfortunately, most /. readers are probably not the ones needing this kind of logical thinking. But, if more people thought about questions like these before clicking the links, they'd get scammed less and we'd have less spam, a win-win scenario. Consider it an educational post for anonymous readers.

Well, I will consider myself schooled! Thank you for educating me. That has always been a huge annoyance of mine and many others I know, but I guess it actually does make more sense when considering the origin of the word. I am saddened that one of my huge pet peeves is apparently unjustified, but in time I will adjust.

On the other hand, I still love finding unnecessary quotes in public!

Any article citing statistics is invalid when they don't understand the difference between percent and per cent. Getting 62 things right per US penny is a VERY cost effective system, probably regardless of what information we want to get right.

Unfortunately, all this says is that if we place our population under total surveillance with trackers, we can increase anticipation of crime by 8% (accuracy of 62 to ALMOST 70%). This says nothing about preventing those crimes or what type of crimes it prevents. Actually if you read the article, it only increased accuracy to 68%, so a 6% gain. Way to glorify the stats in the media. They should have said "just over 60% to almost 70%". This would have made this 6% increase look like a 10% increase.

Agreed. I always go straight to the bad reviews. Usually the 2-3 star are the most useful. 1 star is often posted by people that will never be happy and is usually a rant about something insignificant, unless there are lots of them. Even a company with 99% ratings, I'll look at those 2-3 stars to see how they handle things when they DO have problems,

That's the real lesson companies need to learn. Bad reviews are a great chance for good PR. It's ok to screw up. Last time I logged a complaint at Amazon, I almost felt bad about having said anything. THAT is why they're dominating the market. I have paid extra to buy things through them rather than direct from a dealer because the Amazon backing had that much value to me. I didn't know if the dealer would back the product, but I *KNEW* Amazon would.

This summary just built up my hopes and then shattered them. Oh look, another meeting. I can't wait to see more stupid pictures and charts of information that can't possibly be read from a distance greater than 3 feet from the projection screen.

It's like skeet shooting pinatas! This is so going to be so much better than clay pigeons!

Amen! This is one of my biggest pet peeves in modern journalism. It's so common that I actually get excited when I see someone use "percent" correctly!

I've been happy with it - but I would probably agree that ruggedness is not going to match the Surface just due to convertible vs slate form factor. I've had mine since April, but I'm not especially hard on equipment either. They also make the IdeaPad Yoga, which is similar in spec but much cheaper, targeted at consumers. This is the one you'll find at Best Buy and the like. It does not have the wacom digitizer, non HD screen, the keyboard does not lock when folded (though it does still deactivate, it just doesn't leave the firm back), and trades some of the magnesium for plastic.