Honestly, I think it's worth it to maintain the farming infrastructure and expertise. If something ever disrupted global supply chains, it's nice to know that we could replace the food we currently import from other countries with stuff we grow ourselves.

I see it more as a civil defense thing than anything else.

And all of these would be a sound argument if the gender gap was 55-45 or maybe even 60-40.

But at Google the gender gap in tech roles is 80-20, according to their own self-reporting. There's something more systemic going on than the subtle psychological differences between men and women.

If anything proved Balmer's screed of "Developers, Developers, Developers!" it's Windows phone.

I had two Windows 8 phones and they were both (subjectively) amazing. A great user interface with live tiles, fluid animations, very low latency response times. Live tiles were a lot of fun too. Cortana three years ago had all the features that Google Assistant is finally rolling out today. The People app is to this day the best phone based contacts app I've ever seen.

BUT! Third party development was non existent. When I would show this phone off to friends they would love it, but when they realized it didn't have Snapchat, that was a deal breaker. Windows Phone was to the iPhone what MacOS was to Windows. Superior OS, but lack of applications killed it.

It's too bad really. I have an LG G6 now and it's a nice phone, but I still miss my Nokia 928. Now I know how people must have felt when WebOS folded.

I may be alone in this, but I get enough value out of Twitter that I'd pay $5 a month for it.

Twitter has basically replaced RSS feeds for me. I follow my favorite journalists, some non-profits I support and the feeds of some hobby websites. Not only do you see all their new posts (just like an RSS feed) you can communicate back to whomever is posting.

Being able to interact with local journalists is great! I'm on a non-profit board and it's enabled us to get interviewed on local radio shows and gotten articles written in the local paper. When those same journalists write about other organizations in the region, we've used Twitter to reach out to those organizations and form a more traditional line of communication.

I don't know what it is about Facebook, but it's just not as good a solution as Twitter. Facebook comments to news articles are even worse than Twitter comments imho. Plus there's tons of quality stuff that gets posted that Facebook simply doesn't seem to put in my feed. At least with Twitter you end up seeing everything.

I hope Twitter finds a way forward. I think it really is a good resource, all things considered.

This could be used against Apple though

I'd be real skeptical that they're being treated unfairly when they have billions upon billions of dollars in the bank. If it's that unfair how are they able to operate one of the most successful businesses in the history of the Earth?

Yeesh, how can you trust someone to prioritize multiple projects on the job when they don't even know to prioritize family over work?

For $9.99 I can listen to almost all the music in the world... or I can read a single eBook

Not any eBook either. Most current bestsellers are $12.99.

There are some all-you-can-eat services like Oyster or Scribd, but a lot of major publisher's don't participate. Once the major publishers throw their hats into the ring, they'd probably start to see revenue from people who are currently pirating.

Isn't developing and using tools like this kind of their job?

I mean they should never use this stuff against American citizens or without a warrant and due process, etc, etc.... But complaining we have the tools necessary to turn some warlord's cellphone into a microphone is like complaining about how the army has drones that can fly a grenade through his car window.

I mean if anything maybe these tools will be kind of useful. "Hey, before we bomb that large group of people over there, turn on their cell phone cameras and make sure it's not a sweet sixteen party.

The IRS really can't though. If you have a low income they can't garnish your wages. If your income is low enough that you can't afford rent and service debt on a student loan, then odds are you can default on the student loan and not risk garnishment.

Just make sure when you do finally land that good paying job you start paying the loans back again.

You can't get student loans discharged in a bankruptcy, but you can still default on them.

What's the point of preserving a credit score to get a nice apartment if you can't afford to move out regardless? What's the point of preserving a credit score to buy a nice car if you can only afford a used beat up car to begin with?

Garnishment isn't an issue if you have low wages either. Wages can't be garnished if you make under a certain amount of money.

Living with poor credit is a challenge, but it's not insurmountable. Tens of millions of people do it in this country every day. Young people with college educations won't be making minimum wage for the next fifty years. Eventually opportunities will come. When they do, people can start paying the loans, exit default, repair their credit and get on with their life.

I think people in a bad spot should really ask themselves, "What value does a high credit score really have right now?" If you don't have a high enough income to access credit, then a high credit score is worthless. I think there's a strong argument to be made that people can have a higher quality of life at low incomes by strategically defaulting on their student loans.

I never got mine discharged. I just defaulted on them until I had the income to pay them off.

I mean, college educated people in their twenties aren't going to be making minimum wage for the next fifty years. Eventually they will have higher incomes. When their income goes up, start paying the loans, get out of default and go on with your life.