Comment Re:Time to shut down the WTO (Score 4, Informative) 327
The difficulty, of course, is that the US signed a treaty saying it would abide by this sort of ruling. So now what?
Comment Re:They should give people 1mo free HBO to make up (Score 1) 202
I used to have a housemate who had a constant problem with the handset Optus (Australian Telco) sold to her. She was on Pre-Paid (Pay As You Go) so she paid for the handset outright. Every month she'd ring up and complain, every month they'd offer her $10 credit to get her off the phone and every month I'd ask "but did they fix your problem". She didn't get it and continued to get constant call disconnections.
Companies offer free shit because it's easier than fixing the problem. When you take the free shit, you give them a free pass not to fix the problem.
The other side of the coin is that there are plenty of people who call to complain, but don't really want the "issue" fixed, because they don't actually consider it to be all that serious of a problem. They'd rather just use it as leverage to get free shit.
Comment Re:Price fixing by camera makers push me there. (Score 2) 280
Also, in Germany, 20% tax is included in the price. In the US, tax is added to the price.
So a $1,200 computer in Germany is actually the same price as a $1,000 computer in the USA, before tax.
Since there's no place in the US that charges anywhere near 20% sales tax, that's small comfort. The price you pay at the register is still going to be less in the US as a result.
Comment Re:He doesn't get it (Score 1) 198
He made his money by being smart, and he's done good with it now that he's got it.
Buffett has made a fair chunk of change by investing in some fairly shady outfits. The perpetual motion ripoff machine known as Kirby Vacuums is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, for one example.
Comment Re:Let patients test themselves. (Score 1) 392
You should be able to walk into a lab and receive a test, any test, just as long as you pay for it. To deny patients this ability is to deliberately increase both risk and cost.
What should be and what is are very different things. I was getting a blood test in a lab, and realized I didn't know my blood type. So I walked up to the counter, plunked down my credit card, and said I wanted my blood type tested. Sorry, no can do, you need a prescription.
Go donate blood at your local Red Cross. It's free, you're doing a good deed, and you'll get a cool donor card that has your blood type printed right on it
BTW, I agree with everything else you said.
Submission + - US judge rules against German Microsoft injunction (techworld.com.au)
angry tapir writes: "In an unusual case, a U.S. judge has ruled that Motorola cannot enforce an injunction that would prevent Microsoft from selling Windows products in Germany, should a German court issue such an injunction next week. Microsoft asked the judge for the ruling in anticipation of an injunction that a German court is expected to issue related to a patent infringement suit that Motorola filed against Microsoft in Germany. The suit centers primarily on Motorola licenses that have been declared essential to the H.264 video standard. The German injunction is expected on April 17."
Comment Re:Indeed (Score 1) 173
Chickety-china, the chinese chicken.
I'm fairly certain that people in the computer/IT world eventually go insane once they hit a critical age. Every once in a while you see bat-shit crazy posts. They usually come from ACs or users with really low UIDs. Someone should do a study on this; with government funding of course.
Comment Re:wow, you have no idea about GLBT issues (Score 5, Insightful) 671
For that matter, India's views on just about every social issue are extremely hostile. They make the US look like a bastion of liberal tolerance.
Comparatively speaking, given the state of most countries, the US is a bastion of liberal tolerance.
Comment Re:"Smart" TVs? (Score 1) 381
but ALL cableTV and ALL satellite TV is 720P heavy compressed. I dont care what your settings on the receiver are, the signal is 720p and will stay that way for a very long time.
Umm, no it's not. I don't know of any provider that doesn't pass the channels along in the same format the broadcaster sends it. HBO and CBS are very much displayed in 1080i on my system. They may be recompressed and muxed, but that's not at all the same thing as downconverting from one format to another.
Comment Re:I think we should ban cosmetics completely (Score 5, Insightful) 383
Yeah, the trouble is, the people who want to walk around naked are generally the ones you'd least like to see undressed...
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
Right, Voice Search on my Samsung does the same thing, but Siri/Iris is touted as being more than that, so I wanted to see how it would handle a reasonable natural language query. Not well, it turns out, but perhaps improvements are in store.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
Good point. I cleared the history and asked it the same question, with no other questions. That time, I ended up asking twice:
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Nearest what?
(Then I asked again)
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: In Europe.
So I dunno. Maybe it's a problem with how it's parsing the question, rather than the lookup method for the answer.
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Nearest what?
(Then I asked again)
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: In Europe.
So I dunno. Maybe it's a problem with how it's parsing the question, rather than the lookup method for the answer.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
But it wasn't the right answer - yesterday's high was 61F, which I should also have posted, so it was way off. I don't know where it got the data, but it looks like a forecast that would have been accurate about two months ago, not yesterday.
Comment Re:Very much a work in progress (Score 1) 402
You do realize that range of temperatures is from the low point at night to the high point during the day, right? I see nothing "impressive" about the range of temps. It looks like a perfectly normal forecast. Perhaps you're just not acquainted with how weather is predicted and reported?
I should perhaps have been clearer about the actual temps at the time - yesterday's high here was 61F, which is far lower than the low end of the range Iris gave me, never mind the high end.
Comment Very much a work in progress (Score 4, Funny) 402
Some sample queries I fed Iris:
Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.
Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.
(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)
Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
(I live on the east coast.)
Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.
Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).
Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
Q: Where can I get a cheeseburger?
A: The bank.
Q: What's the weather like in (my town) tomorrow?
A: Now in (my town) the temperature varies between low points of 26C and highs of 36C (79F and 97F). The conditions are light rain showers during the day. The day after that the temperature will vary between 26C and 37C (79F and 99F) and the conditions will be sunny weather.
(It didn't rain today, and despite the impressive range of temps - way to cover your bases, Iris - it still muffed the highs for today and tomorrow.)
Q: What time is it in Hong Kong?
A: October 23rd 2011, 8:24:52 HKST
Q: Where is the nearest Wal Mart?
A: Probably Washington. It's a state border.
(I live on the east coast.)
Q: What's the population of Canada?
A: The population of Canada is approximately 33,100,000.
Q: How far is it from Chicago to New York?
A: 1,145.16 kilometers (711.57 miles).
Q: Where can I get a recipe for cheesecake?
A: En la esquina, con minifalda.
(Yes, it really said that in Spanish.)
So, yeah - a work in progress. It had no trouble recognizing every single question, it just fell down on many of the answers.
