The machines that run only HD3000/HD4000 on the mac side apart from the mini are macbook airs and the 13" MBPs.

On the resolutions those machines run natively (i.e., 1440x900 and lower, apart from the retina), the OS X driver looks to be 25-30% faster...

Have you ever been in a business meeting with people who speak another language? Have you seen them confer amongst themselves, in your presence in said language? I haven't, but my ex has - and they didn't know that one of the english speakers actually knew French. The conversation that they thought was private was quite revealing, to say the least.

Knowledge is power. That very much includes knowing how to communicate.

Remaining wilfully ignorant of the language spoken by those you trade or otherwise conduct business with is pretty fucking foolish, irrespective of whatever "standard" language there may be.

Do you have any idea just how many people are in the Asian region, and how well positioned they are to completely turn the tables on the world economy in the wake of this epic clusterfuck we're currently in?

Knowing the language of those you deal with is a massive advantage for not getting fucked whichever side of the transaction you are on.

I live here and have a bunch of friends who were either taught indonesian or Japanese at least for a couple of classes in school.

It makes sense, as most of our trade is within the Asian region.

I know this may come as a shock to those in the US, but learning a language other than English is pretty common in other English speaking countries, especially in the Eurozone.

Most of the people working in hospitality I dealt with during a 6 week tour of Europe (inc, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, etc.) spoke at least 2-3 languages. One of our swiss tour guides spoke at least 5.

Knowing the native language of those you work with or trade with is useful. You may be very surprised at what may be getting said between others right out in front of you if you don't understand, or the other guys think you don't understand.

This is why you need a revolution. Before you even get to vote on a candidate they have been vetted by the requirements to have MASSIVE campaign funding which is pretty much only obtainable if they make promises to various big lobby groups.

The system is broken. You don't need to vote someone else in, you need to reboot the system.

That most of these methods are not available to you or I. We would not even know about them without the media telling us.

They're available to you or I, you just need to have your own company, which really isn't difficult, even kids are doing it with app development these days.

Whether you know about it or not is your own choosing. You can learn about this sort of thing if you actually have an interest in your finances - you're sitting here with an entire internet worth's of knowledge at your fingertips and spending it on slashdot. So you have the time and the resources available to do so.

Yes. If the law allows you to do that, go for it. You in that instance are not the problem. THE LAW needs to be changed, as it is broken. If the law allows you to legally get away with something like that, you'd be stupid not to take advantage of it.

They already paid what they are legally required to pay. The remainder, that is left over goes into corporate R&D, a war-chest to keep the company afloat (and employing people - including those who work for component suppliers, the retail chain, etc, etc.) during bad times, and potentially into dividends for their shareholders.

If you think the amount is unfair, get the rules changed by lobbying your government.

Bitching about a company minimizing their tax by using every trick within the law at their disposal is like complaining that some guy playing American football used his hands because the rules for soccer (i.e., "football) say that isn't allowed.

Whether or not it is "fair" in a moral sense is irrelevant. However the amount that they need to legally pay is the best measure of "their fare share" available, because your government created the laws regarding who has to legally pay what amount of tax. If you think that amount is unfair, raise the issue with your democratically elected government. Any company doing this legally is merely playing the game by the rules set up by your government.

Read the apple response - 60% of their market (and growing) is outside of the US. So yes.

If it is immoral, then you need to look to your government to sort the law out. They are the ones enabling this, and by extension making it mandatory for any company to do so to remain competitive against the rest who do.

Morals are for people. Not legal investment decisions.

Exactly.

poppy. not puppy. it's a type of flower. so yes, basically same analogy.

The US market isn't the centre of the universe! Who knew! (/sarcasm)

Expect this trend to continue as the chinese market explodes.