I need to re-evaluate my role in the world. I am 25 and try to consider myself young and relatively on top of things cultural... but this... this changes everything. I do not want to be either fuddy or duddy, but man, I think we need to consider ending the human race after this generation. Just, you know, give up.

Prefer sizzle sounds? O.M.G.

Fox makes money off of churning its schedule over. It occasionally finds a long-running winner, something that is so wildly popular that they can milk it even after its popularity has waned a bit.

Here's the thing: Fox makes tons of money off of initial ad sales when its found the "next big thing".

"This will be the next Simpsons", "This will be the next 24", "This will be the next Idol".

Phrases like that are what get the ad dollars because companies want their product tied to something big at the very beginning. Fox gets those shows on the air, gets those ad dollars, and gets eyeballs looking at the time slot. Numbers start to wane, another "next big thing" ad opportunity rolls around, and they yank the show and slide in the new one.

Money, people, money money money. They don't give a rat's ass about satisfaction of a small-but-loyal viewer set, they care only about ad revenue.

That's the point, man, he doesn't know and it's not obvious.

Guys, listen, it is genius and it's why the Republicans have it right:

Tax cuts. More tax cuts and tax rebates and tax credits. It really works, I've seen it.

You get your tax cuts, you take your receipts to that little 4x5 H&R Block kiosk in the middle of Walmart, you walk around while they prepare them, they cut you an advance refund check, and you take it over and buy a new flatscreen Vizio TV to hang on the wood panelling in your trailer. And that stimulates the economy.

Duh.

"My teacher had beef so I gave her a smack" Seriously, and I have worked in schools and am studying to be a teacher... what a gross -disgusting, really- use of power. I respect educators 100% when they make the noble effort, but good-gravy, someone needs to sit that woman down and read her the riot act.

Maybe I've missed the people saying this, but it seems obvious why Steve (yeah, we're on a first name basis) is stepping out of the picture. He's not going to live forever, nor do I imagine that he wants to remain CEO until his death.

It seems like bad business practice (a liability?) for the fate of an entire company to be tied to one man, but there it is: people do not trust Apple to innovate sans Jobs. Rather than wait for the guy to drop dead or decide to quit. They have to start weening the public off of the idea that Steve Jobs sits in a big room, thinking up ideas that later become the products people crave.

The fact of the matter is Jobs has brought an atmosphere and mindset to Apple that they'd been lacking for a long time. And while people are -often legitimately- prone to question how truly innovative Apple's products are, it's hard to argue that the hype is often legitimate, and they at least have designs that contain and lack just the right number of features with the right amount of polish for a majority of users, to the point where they are willing to pay a premium for the product.

Separating the Steve Jobs from the idea that Apple is what has to be done, and it's going to be rough.

Everyone always blames the bridging function...

You make a good point, and I think one of the most rational here. I'd like to add to this, however, that I don't think the population of viruses and OS X malware is going to explode overnight. If it gradually starts creeping in, as I suspect it someday might, I hope that Apple WILL start preaching virus protection to its users, and maybe even take a page from the MS playbook and start offering virus protection with the OS itself (and in a better implementation than the lame thing they tried with .Mac a few years ago...)