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Comment: Re:Ultimately we're tired of over paying for AP cr (Score 1) 188

by PCM2 (#40125469) Attached to: Free News Unsustainable, Says Warren Buffett

Well... it gets complicated, but a newspaper that is 100 percent ads is not a newspaper, it's a catalog.

The only control the law really has over that (because this is, after all, a free country with freedom of speech), is over postal rates. Newspapers and other media enjoy special rates for mass postage, provided they maintain a certain ratio of advertising to editorial pages. If they exceed the ratio, they can lose the favored shipping rates, which can incur significant costs.

If you don't ship your publication through the mail, though, or you don't care what you pay for postage, you can put whatever you want in it.

Comment: It's a Lenovo Thinkpad/Apple decision. (Score 4, Insightful) 394

by sethstorm (#40124057) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Shop For a Laptop?

Select between Lenovo(Thinkpad) and Apple refurbished, then drill down to whatever models fit the criteria. Then do a favor for them and get them to have the longest warranty obtainable. For Lenovo, this would be 5-year(?, maximum may be 4) onsite service. For Apple, whatever Applecare does is going to have to do.

Either company has some thin and stylish laptops in that price range. Lenovo just happens to make them more maintenance friendly.

Comment: Re:Google is invincible (Score 2) 207

by ackthpt (#40115327) Attached to: Dark Days Ahead For Facebook and Google?

A shift in usage from desktops to mobile will not take down Google; if anyone were in a position to embrace this sort of change, Google would be a top contender. As for Facebook, I would venture to say that it is reaching the end of its life-cycle.

Google is like a Road Map, which collects a little bit from any gas station, restaurant or hotel you ask about along the way. They are a starting point and make money on referal.

facebook is a destination. You go there to share pictures, natter a bit or nose around your connections connections connections. If you want to research anything to buy you go back to Google.

Comment: Re:Facebook is just the new MySpace (Score 1) 207

by PCM2 (#40115319) Attached to: Dark Days Ahead For Facebook and Google?

I dunno. I know it's not popular around here to like anything that smells like "social," but I find I like using Facebook far more than I ever liked using MySpace. Even if you assume they're both serving the same market with all of the exact same features (which isn't really true), one piece of software is not identical to everything else in its category. It may be that Facebook succeeds simply because it's better.

Comment: Re:Ultimately we're tired of over paying for AP cr (Score 1) 188

by PCM2 (#40114571) Attached to: Free News Unsustainable, Says Warren Buffett

Companies especially local businesses are DESPERATE for relevant advertising options. Absolutely desperate. Radio, newspapers, park benches... anything.

True to an extent, but if you have a cute local restaurant you're not going to want to put an ad for it right next to a write-up of a recent child murder. Around here, that kind of advertising goes into the weekly papers, along with the live music listings and the coupons for discount spa treatments. None of that stuff is underwriting the actual news reporting.

Comment: What's wrong with Warren Buffett? (Score 5, Informative) 188

by PCM2 (#40114379) Attached to: Free News Unsustainable, Says Warren Buffett

What's wrong with Warren Buffett? He's made a lot of money for himself, true, but he's made a lot of money for other people besides. And as for his own wealth, he's in the process of donating it all to charity, to the tune of billions going toward important causes that governments are too broke or shortsighted to fund. He was instrumental in convincing Bill Gates to do the same. If you're going to demonize some successful, wealthy American, I can think of a lot of better targets.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves. -- Sophocles

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