Seeing that a reasonable amount of your rant was about the Israel-bans-thin-models story:

Note the Israeli law on thin models ONLY applies to females.

According to abc new, the law "targets adults in general, [but] it is clearly aimed at female models."

(I think that law btw, while possibly well-intentioned is not thought through & impossible to enforce.)

GP: Let's count up all the female player characters that exist in video games that aren't sex objects

You: Lara Croft (in 9 games)

You seriously think Lara Croft isn't a sex object? .

You can't be serious? That is fucking hysterical. You're the epitome of the OP's ""Apple fanboys are delusional" stereotype."

Seriously. Thank you, that comment has made my day.

You mean like CCW permit holders?

No, entirely unlike CCW permit holders, because you misquoted me, specifically leaving off the end of the line you quote. Here it is bolded for your benefit.

trained, licensed, regulated guys with guns, who can only carry on duty, don't take their firearm home, etc.

Are CCW permit holders only allowed to carry on duty (whatever that might mean in the context of a private citizen) and (more importantly) not allowed to take their firearm home?

So what they're saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. Gee where have I heard that recently....

Well, they may be saying is the only way they can stop bad guys with guns is trained, licensed, regulated guys with guns, who can only carry on duty, don't take their firearm home, etc. Just like most of the civilized world do.

I can't see anyone tolerating that level of discomfort without a really really good reason.

Says "CockMonster"

I can't really tell amongst all the double talk, but I am pretty sure that you backtracked & now agree with me that Apple use netBSD of linux because of political & not technical reasons.

Really, which LCD displays do they supply to Apple?

Apple tried to diversify their supply chain away from Samsung. Sharp are amongst those who made the retina displays for the iPhone 5 (and the mini Ipad)

This would be a really good time for Samsung to put the boot in. Interesting to see if they do anything.

Apple uses NetBSD, probably the best OS for embedded network applications.

*rolls eyes*.

Is that why Cisco uses freely-avaiable netBSD? Why virtually every router manufacturer on the world relies on netBSD OSS code?

netBSD is a great OS, but it's known for portability, not performance. Apple uses it over linux because of publicity & fear-of-theGPL.

Apple & Samsung can sell us non-modifiable devices with locked-down hardware apparently this is supposed to make Linux take over

The vast majority of Samsung ARM devices are modifiable & do not have locked-down hardware. Apple on the other hand does, but I have no idea why you think Apple's locked down devices are going to help Linux take over (wtf have you been smoking?).

People aren't jogging any more?

Of course people are jogging & all the other things that a very small / light media player is good for. But the market for small / light players is vanishing because the number of joggers etc willing to get a dedicated player as well as a smartphone is shrinking.

Of course the iPod Touch is part of the iPod line. And it allows people access to the iOS App Store for much less money than an iPhone.

Yes, as I said in another post, one of the biggest competitors to the iPod is the iPhone. For those who are cost-conscious, android beckons.

Do you mean the competition between the various Apple players?

The biggest competitor to iPods produced by Apple is not another iPod, but the iPhone. Nearly everyone carries a phone, why carry two devices?

More importantly from Apple's POV is the competition from low end android phones. They're the same price as even the cheapest iPods, and offer a whole fuck-ton more functionality to boot.

eh? in media players? what competition?

The competition is not from other dedicated PMPs, but from Android phones. Why buy an ipod when you can get one of the cheap-ass androids for the same price.

(I know, I know, joggers etc like a small light PMP, but its a vanishing market)

IIRC it was something along the lines of 50-100ms

My link said 12ms. Do you have a source for your 50-100?

yeah. just like how so-called "agave nectar" is made in almost exactly the same way as evil, evil corn syrup.

Care to elaborate on that? I thought heat / filtration was used for agave syrup production, but a far more complex series of Enzyme conversions were needed for HFCS production.

Disclaimer: I live in a country where cheap sugar & honey are abundant, so I have no pony in this race.