Frequently, they were shit, as were many of the "Mom and Pop" stores Walmart blew away.

Want customers? Try service!

There is a medium-sized hardware store where I live whose owner WELCOMED the Lowes (huge chain hardware store) across the street and WELCOMED Walmart behind his location.

I've been shopping there since 1985 because the service is superb, the staff are friendly and helpful, and the selection is tailored to what both DIYers and pros actually use.

Wally's Hardware thrives under the bigger footprints of two competitors, not to mention competing with other larger local hardware franchises.

"Exactly. This is the new reality. What we used to call "working class" is being re-defined as "middle class", and the new American Dream is "just getting by." "

That's the pre-WWII American Dream too. That lovely postwar boom and its lovely consequences finally petered out and the rest of the world figured out how to compete.

"People who always assume they lie are much easier to manipulate than those who continually think critically."

The delectability of imagined special insight is what drives uncritical paranoia. It's like religion, where the believer feels "safer" because they don't have to think to believe they know what is happening.

Okay... how about $1500? We need to have an endpoint, how about end of 2015? Terms: If Google is displaying ads on Glass on or before December 31st, 2015, I'll pay you. If not, you'll pay me. In the meantime, we'll have to find some escrow service to hold the money. Any suggestions?

Most of us would be happy if patents were to go away.

What we object to is the US President telling US courts that he's going to ignore the law for Apple, but not for everyone else. Either the law applies to everyone, or it should be repealed, not just ignored by executive fiat.

Good God, man, this isn't just "one US corporation".

This is Apple.

It was better than using their website on your phone. I still think you could make it work, especially since today's phones have more memory so it wouldn't crash as much. I don't know why Javascript doesn't have any way to deallocate memory manually, maybe they don't want you to be able to tell the good developers from the bad?

Hehe. And you actually think that was small.

Absolutely. And artists must starve, else where will they acquire the angst needed to create art?

It's an app. You've got to write apps.

Just like, a few years ago, you had to replace local applications with web pages because everything was going to 'web apps'. Fads come, fads go.

I totally want to work with a 24" monitor flat on my desk or lap and my arms continually moving to touch it.

Exposure!

It may not be the cheapest, but Ebay is very convenient for customers doing comparison shopping between new and used items. The combination of vendors and the wide variety of photos of different and similar items facilitate comparison.

Bingo. When I was growing up, the 'masses' had a Sinclair ZX81 or Spectrum. Apples, or even Commodore 64s, were for the rich kids.

But I guess they must have had a good Reality Distortion Field even in those days.

Just what I was going to say. The summary is conflating massively different time scales. Just because both of them are far longer than our lives doesn't mean they're the same.