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Comment: Re:oh darn... /s (Score 1) 248

by poity (#43716563) Attached to: US Government Monitoring Associated Press Phone Records

Do you feel the same way about Bradley Manning? Would he, too, be deemed a hypocrite by you were he to complain about the Army's investigation of him? Does the power imbalance between the press and government or between a soldier and the army not matter? Are you saying the government should be a press-watchdog as equally as the press should be a government-watchdog? I wonder how many of the people who modded you up are Manning supporters.

Comment: Re:guessing it's more complex than that (Score 1) 668

by poity (#43712519) Attached to: How Colleges Are Pushing Out the Poor To Court the Rich

I didn't mean to dismiss your or anyone else's personal hardships. I spoke generally as most Americans live in and around metropolitan areas and their access to opportunity isn't as hard as some make it out to be. The part about joining another school being illegal is interesting, I wonder if it has to do with school districting. In any case, my brother went to a public school but that club was part of a private school in the area. A lot of times, just being the first to ask can impress people enough to bend the rules for you.

Comment: Re:"UN Says: Why Not Eat More Insects?" (Score 2) 624

by poity (#43710711) Attached to: UN Says: Why Not Eat More Insects?

Somehow I doubt they really feel a visceral disgust on the same level as people do with insects. I mean, Jews/Muslims shun pork, but eat other things like chicken/lamb/beef that are very similar in experience; Hindus shun beef, but eat chicken/pork/lamb that are very similar in experience. Oysters I can understand, since not every country has access to the sea. It would seem to me that disgust for a particular item WITHIN a category of food would not be quite as strong as disgust for an ENTIRE category of food.

Any Muslims/Hindus/Jews like to add to this?

Comment: Re:guessing it's more complex than that (Score 0) 668

by poity (#43705663) Attached to: How Colleges Are Pushing Out the Poor To Court the Rich

You make it sound as if high school is 4 years of doors being slammed on helpless waifs. Did any of you take a risk to run for student office despite being a soft-spoken nerd? Did any of you practice music every day at home in order to make the All-state band/orchestra? Did any of you have the imagination or drive start a club and convince a teach to sponsor it at your school? Did any of you call the neighboring school that had a robotics club and ask if you could join? Did any of you try all of these things again the following year after not making it or being told "no"? Did any of you consistently go to bed near midnight in order to finish papers/projects worthy of recognition? Did any of you take on a weekend job for extra cash? Did any of you ever say "No mom, I can pay for it with my own money"?

My brother did. He's currently at Harvard on full financial aid.
None of the things I listed took much money or time from our parents.
Most people think admission to top tier schools is impossible because they themselves didn't get in. What they don't realize is that 70% of Harvard students are on financial aid. They also don't realize that they overestimate their own "hard work" in high school.

Comment: Re:High end phones have always been $650 (Score 1) 329

by poity (#43694525) Attached to: The Days of Cheap, Subsidized Phones May Be Numbered

Be careful with those. There are unscrupulous vendors who modify the OS to display false hardware info (480p as 720p, dual core as quad core, and other attributes that are impossible to tell without close inspection). For domestic name brands like Huawei or ZTE, you're safe, but for any no-name phone you should always run benchmark software before doing anything else.

Comment: Popularity & prestige (Score 1) 210

by poity (#43689575) Attached to: Why Is Science Behind a Paywall?

FTA:

However, current scientific culture makes it hard to switch.
A history of publication in prestigious journals is a prerequisite to every step on the career ladder of a scientist. Every paper submitted to a new, unproven OA journal is one that could have been published in heavyweights like Science or Nature. And even if a tenured or idealistic professor is willing to sacrifice in the name of science, what about their PhD students and co-authors for whom publication in a prestigious journal could mean everything?

No one wants to be published by a no-name, and no one wants to let down their team mates by not trying for the most prestigious publishers. The big publishers have established a level of recognition, and since even scientists can be lazy and pass judgement on brand recognition alone, the fear of possibly being ignored because you didn't put 100% into self-promotion takes over.

Comment: Re:This is called dumping (Score 1) 121

by poity (#43667393) Attached to: China's Allwinner Outsold Intel, Qualcomm In Tablet Processors In 2012

I'm not sure this would qualify as dumping as Allwinner devices aren't competing for the same consumers as Intel or Samsung devices. In solar and rare earths, branding hasn't mattered -- panels are panels, rocks are rocks, they're commodities and no matter where they're from they compete for the same buyers -- so selling them at below market price can have a great impact on the other players in the market. Allwinner chips, however, mostly go in sub $100 tablets that compete only in their own segment -- they play in the low end where Intel and Samsung refuse to play. Surviving in the long tail means you need to compensate with quantity, but it doesn't necessarily mean you negatively affect others.

Comment: Re:This is called dumping (Score 2) 121

by poity (#43667255) Attached to: China's Allwinner Outsold Intel, Qualcomm In Tablet Processors In 2012

That's not entirely comparable as the Xbox division is one of MS's most profitable in terms of revenue/expenses. If Xbox division were operating at a net loss then you'd have an argument. Of course, we'd also need data on these Allwinner supplied manufacturers before we can say whether or not they are dumping. I'm not sure it's that clear cut this time compared to what was done previously in the solar industry.

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