Is that so? In my medical practice, 99% of our prints are B&W. Prescriptions, referral letters, test requests and so forth. 3 years ago we switched from Samsung ML-4050 laser printers to Epson WF-7520 inkjets in 3 consultation rooms, simply because we could not source the Samsungs any more and needed printers same day.
Guess what - prints much faster (because most of our prints are 1-2 pages only, hence "finished first page" is what counts, and after using up the cartridges that came with the printers we only have been using generic cartridges that cost about 15% of an original Epson one we pay a fraction per page of what be paid with the Laser. So far no failures - just works and works and works. Quality is just fine. A lot less power consumption - when our power fails, the inkjet runs happily of the UPS. A lot less particle dust in the office. Would be happy to pay more for just the printer.

They sold it to criminals? Is that like to other phone companies or especially ISPs? Or merely to the NSA?

Australia too charges income tax from money I earn abroad - namely the difference between the obscenely high Australian taxes and the much lesser taxes I pay in most other countries, even if I earned the money while working and living in those other countries

Please, somebody tell the Chinese that this is not a feature users want, even if all the bog vendors have implemented it!

That offer is only valid for those who have a USA address for either google play or itunes,
Good concept, but useless for the vast majority of us who don't happen to have an address in the USA.

that there really might be somebody out there who is actually using BING. Never met any such creature in real life though

If parents have to rely on censorship, they have already failed in their education. Three of our four already grew up to become happy productive and thriving adults, and we never ever censored them. Right from when they started to walk they were granted their private sphere, and once they were able to read they had unrestricted and unmonitored internet access.

And no, we are not some bogans living in a trailer park. I am a medical doctor and owner of a group practice and one of my "uncensored growing up" offspring will soon be too. The kids already were exposed to viewing a female breast right form birth on anyway, so what point in hiding anything from them?

It is usually not what the children see elsewhere that makes or breaks their future, but what they experience (or fail to experience) within their own family.

... and they have been paying for the imported goods with worthless paper they just keep printing, hoping that nobody will call their bluff and eventually ask for the value this worthless paper called the dollar is supposed to represent.

Given that Japan, Korea and China are creating their own meta-currency and Europe is realigning its trade with Asia the day could soon come where nations will be prepared to simply write off a huge amount in order to finally get rid of the biggest bully

Even better - he already receives a pre-subjugated american people too!

Horst

> Our government is a bit like a sociopath. We are nobody's friend.

I think the rest of the world is intelligent enough to realize that there is a difference between the US government (which indeed appears to everybody else as a sociopathic rabid bully and war mongerer) and the people living in the USA, which are mostly just the same as everybody else on the globe, wanting to make a living, fall in love, raise their children and have a good time.

Yes, I feel threatened by the US government - same as I feel threatened by North Korea and similar totalitarian war mongerers. But no, I do not resent the vast majority of peaceful people in the USA and would like to welcome them as my friends as long as they reciprocate. I guess most educated and thinking people around the world will think similarly.

out....side....? That mythical place said to exist beyond one's room door? You gotta be kidding. There's nothing out there. If there was, people wouldn't sit in front of their screens all day and night long playing WoW, would they? OTOH, there must be something there where the pizzas and cokes come from, Maybe worth exploring. Somebody should write a game about that so we can play it! Because, you know, if one REALLY would go out there, .. it's a bit scary ...

Traveling faster than light does not necessarily violate causality.
If I could travel instantly from place A to place B which is 1 light year away, I would arrive at B long before the light arrives. However, the "absolute" time at place B is exactly the same as at place A, the fact that an observer depending on optical information via photons lazily traveling at the speed of light from B to A would only be able to see me arriving there a year later has nothing to do with causality. If I instantly travel back to A, I am still not arriving any earlier than I departed, and hence have not moved in time, only in space - and once again I cannot violate causality.

In a nutshell - their new "flagship" is failing to catch up with the innovation shown in Samsung's and HTC's new models. Comparing specs, the iPhone 5 looks like a yesteryear product. Looks like Apple is following Microsoft on a downwards spiral soon - as soon as the current generation of uncritical gullible fanboys dies out.

It is changing. In our clinic we were in the process of transitioning towards an "all Apple" environment (iphones, ipads, Macbooks, imacs and mac minis). However, witnessing with great concern Apple's customer hostile approach worsening rapidly over the last couple of years we decided to reverse the process. In phones it was easy - the Galaxy S3 is a vastly better device. In laptops it is not easy, we still find Macbooks unrivaled in build quality and features, and there is nothing on the market we could find that would come close to the desirable specs of a mac mini.

As a result, we are now transitioning to a mix of generic PC hardware and Mac hardware mostly running Linux (some desktops still running OSX), and Galaxy S3 phones and soon the new Galaxy note tablet too. While it is a slow transition, I can see many like minded people in my area making a similar transition - the walled garden walls have become far too high for many, the sun is not coming through any more.

Only two years ago I probably would have still praised the advantages of the OSX ecosystem. Nowadays, they have become as disgusting as Microsoft had 10 years ago - and that was the last time I used any Microsoft products. The writing is on the wall for Apple too - instead of keeping innovating they merely try to maximize their profit through litigating any competition and locking their existing customers completely in. When corporates become intolerably arrogant it is only a matter of time before people turn their back.

This seems to be a common issue permeating across most developed countries. Decent people just wanting to live in peace, raise their kids, and have some fun - and rabidly mad governments out of control brutalizing their citizens on behalf of the multinational corporations and a couple of hegemonial superpowers without any accountability. The lame excuse for "democracy" in those countries is a mere detractor from the fact that they have long become entrenched oligarchies who will destroy any real competition prior to election time.

Last time the establishment was changed in living history was ... when?