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Comment Nice feature but goes in the wrong direction (Score 2) 205

I have a Sienna. I'm perfectly capable of yelling at my kids loud enough so everyone in the car can hear. Hearing my soft-spoken daughter in the third row is another story entirely. If the radio is on or a window is open, forget it. I'd like this system in two-way mode so she can talk to the driver and front passenger more easily.

Comment I'm in Israel - I can HEAR the intercepts (Score 5, Informative) 379

I'm in Israel with my family this month. We've had to go to shelters several times over the past week (f- you very much, Hamas). You can hear the difference between successful Iron Dome intercepts vs. the rockets that land (most, presumably, in unpopulated areas). The system is working and saving lives; that's good enough for me.

Comment Ooh, I love nothing more (Score 1) 429

than having an intelligent discussion of the U.S. healthcare system with a bunch of 25 year old single Libertarians who, by and large, have never faced a personal or family health crisis in their lives.

Seriously, the amount of GOP + Cato institute propaganda I see in this thread is mind boggling. WTF people?

Comment Re:Prediction: (Score 1) 149

Watsa may know a lot about investing, and I'm sure he has plans for the company, but I sincerely hope that restoring BlackBerry's former image/reputation/market share are not on his list. It can't be done, and you can quote me on that. Corporations are moving to BYOD on iPhone/Android, and the non-corporate market is completely lost to BlackBerry. How is Watsa going to make a profit on his investment? Selling off the corporate assets piecemeal, or selling the whole thing to a Greater Fool (sure, Ballmer would qualify..) or who knows. It'll be interesting to watch.

Comment Prediction: (Score 3, Interesting) 149

In 2 years time, watch for this news headline:

"Fairfax Financial announces a $4.6 billion writedown on the value of their BlackBerry acquisition. Layoffs are proceeding. Fairfax Financial has announced plans to sell off all corporate assets including BlackBerry's patent portfolio. A buyer has not been identified at this time."

Comment Here is one thing that I do notice (Score 4, Interesting) 289

As the owner of a non-upgradeable Android 2.3 phone (Motorola Defy XT) I find that most apps I care about work fine on the phone... with the exception of all the new Google apps and updates to said apps.

Google Maps
GMail
Google Now
Chrome
all of these apps are either not available, or are only provided in downlevel versions. You have to be running 4.x to get the latest and greatest apps.

Meanwhile, Google produces versions of their apps to run on iOS 6, which is available on every iPhone back to the 3GS from 2009.

Comment Re:Old code (Score 1) 683

Doesn't matter if he can understand his two-year-old code if no one else can. If he quits or gets hit by a bus, what then? I agree with above posters that this is something for his superiors to handle, not you. If it's affecting your work, point it out to them, and if they can't see the problem, perhaps it's time to look for a new job.

Comment Re:Proportional response? (Score 1) 861

Untrue. Wikipedia says:

>By 20 November, Gaza health officials said that 113 Palestinians had been killed since the operation began, of which: 53 were civilians, 49 militants and 1 a policeman

Note that is an estimate from a Palestinian source.

Carpet-bombing, or anything close to it, would have resulted in a far higher number of Palestinian deaths. Any loss of innocent life is tragic but these numbers show a commitment to minimizing civilian casualties on the part of the IDF. Unlike Hamas which intentionally targets civilians with their rocket strikes.

Comment Re:visited to USA recently (Score 1) 813

Might have something to do with the fact that the population of the USA is far less dense overall than places like Western Europe (map). In dense population centers like New York City, utilities are required by law to bury the power lines. Utility companies have a captive market - where else are you going to buy your power, so in the absence of legislation, they don't have an incentive to spend the huge upfront costs of burying power lines in exchange for higher reliability.

Comment Re:Podcasts... (Score 1) 332

Once I started using Downcast, I've ignored Apple's substandard podcast features completely. Only shame is that Downcast can't integrate with the builtin Podcasts category, so when I play via my car head unit, I have to put the head unit into "iPod hands on" mode and manually navigate to the podcast on the iPod touch.

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