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Comment Re:Anyone who... (Score 1) 137

I see plenty of people at my job who are always thrilled because they got the latest and greatest and tell me that it's only $25 a month. For a couple of years. With some ridiculous plan from the big carriers. They can't afford to pay attention but they are always going on and on about their latest acquisition. I still have my Samsung S5 (bought brand new for well under $300 when the S7 was introduced) running Marshmallow, that I take to Best Buy every now and then to have the Samsung guys install the latest security patches. I have Cricket (AT&T) and pay a flat rate with great service. I have no desire to get the latest and greatest every couple of months.

Comment Re:I replaced my kid's Toshiba laptop (Score 1) 127

Just bought a new HP desktop in July and the first thing I did when I took it out of the box was install an SSD followed by a fresh Win10 Pro install and nuked the original 2TB drive to make it a data drive. Has been working flawlessly since day 1, I never bother to see what garbage they are throwing in from the factory any more.

Comment Re:discrimination (Score 1) 358

highly-specific minority groups are so awesome

This is why. Most of those "nearly impossible" job "openings" are posted only because they are required to post them because they want to sponsor an employee for his greencard, and this required proof that they could not find a local to fill the position. So to avoid having to interview a lot of applicants, they make the job requirements so specific that only a few people would be a perfect match. Their immigrant employee being the best fit of course.

I saw this firsthand when I was a contractor at a large company in the 90s. The IT director already had a team of programmers and network guys in the Mexico branch that he wanted to bring over. For the sake of legality he placed ads looking for someone to fill these positions and, suffice to say, no one was qualified so he brought his own people over.

Comment Re:He is lucky (Score 1) 326

There's also a small risk this could backfire on Apple. Apple's fans and customers could feel bad about what happened, and punish Apple for it. Apple is acting just like you say, smug and self-righteous, and that too could become part of this issue which comes back to haunt them. I doubt this though. Their customers probably will never notice, and that's a shame.

I doubt it as well. In the ultimate case of irony, Apple fans are no different than the people under Big Brother's rule in the 1984 Macintosh commercial. They will buy and worship anything Apple regardless of what they do. They will be lining up like sheep to buy the latest iPhone, price be damned, because Apple had the courage to include an innovative new feature that Samsung introduced on their phones a year of two before. And a lot of the Apple users I know look down their noses at anything that doesn't have their precious logo on it. I have nothing against Apple products, still have a G5 somewhere in my house and owned an iPad and iPhone for a couple of years. It's the brainwashed users that get on my nerves.

Comment Re:Convenience and Brand Allegiance (Score 1) 487

I paid less than $300 for my Samsung S5 brand new just over 2 years ago, when the S6 was getting all the attention. It's a great phone, currently runs Marshmallow and does everything I need it to do. I'll continue using it until the S8 drops to that price point in a couple of years. Even my wife's LG Aristo from MetroPCS does just about everything you could possibly need or want for around $100. The sad truth is that I know a lot of people that will buy the latest and greatest gadget for close to $1000 because they can "finance" it through the carrier. About half of these people are living paycheck to paycheck too.

Comment Re:Gen X here (Score 1) 240

I've given up on terrestrial radio in south Florida. It seems like every station only owns 10 or 12 CDs at most, and continually play anywhere from 1 to 3 songs from those CDs on constant rotation. I also have not willingly listened to the radio in well over a decade. Between satellite radio (which can be repetitive as well but I can skip the usual 80:20 commercial:actual music programming ratio) and my own collection of MP3s, I have not gone anywhere near FM.

Comment Re:I almost always lease... (Score 1) 311

I paid cash (around $300) for my phone over 2 years ago (brand new Samsung S5) and although it may not be the latest and greatest, I upgraded it to Marshmallow and it has been working just fine. I will continue using it until it dies and in the end will have paid a fraction of what leasing one would have cost. Do I have the latest and greatest toy? No, but my S5 works just fine and I have no plans of changing it any time soon.

Comment Re:First use (Score 1) 96

The HID lights on my BMW adjust their level as soon as I start the car. The HID lights on my old Acura TL did not. When I had the Acura I constantly got hit with the high beams from oncoming drivers if I had even one person sitting in back. In over 10 years it has not happened once with my BMW.

Comment Re:Comcast: In 2014, voted worst company in Americ (Score 1) 97

Their telephone support is still abysmal at best. However, one of their customer service centers opened about 3 miles from my house and the experience is radically different - I've actually gotten pretty good service and support by going in person. AT&T ran fiber all over my neighborhood about 2 months ago. If their offer is much better than my current Comcast plan then I might consider switching to them (their customer service makes Comcast look like heaven).

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