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Comment Re:What value added? (Score 2) 89

The insurance part would be the value-added layer. My girlfriend started a dog-caring business for an extra allowance. When you look closely at the subject there are a few complicated scenarios that you need to consider and most of them include the dog biting you or someone else. And you also have medical emergencies that the dog-walker may have to deal with, including having to put the dog down and getting sued by the owner for doing so. Having a rulebook to go by and insurance coverage for all these crazy situations is worth money. But it turns out that dog-walking is a market that is mostly taken care of by the neigbor's kids for some pocket-money and what is really asked for is dog-sitting. But to go in that direction you need to be a little bit more serious about it and therefore you will sit down and write your own terms-of-service and you'll get your own insurance. So, no need for Wag!

Comment Re:What's with the productivity fetish? (Score 1) 146

Because other people that *do* strive to achieve things, -cough - Chinese - cough- will eat their lunch (or should I say "lunsj"?). Achievement is not the peak of morality, but striving for improvement has been an important part of human nature for thousands of years. Otherwise we would still live in caves.

Comment Re:FORTRAN (Score 1) 111

I know a SW shop where they write new Ada code. I don't know Ada, but interestingly, it's software with real-time capabilities and although I don't know if that company has military projects, they sure as hell could have because the associated hardware is dual-use. Ada is niche, absolutely, but still around and kicking, it seems.

Comment Re:well... (Score 1) 45

Wherever there is a bell curve, there are fringes. This applies to matters of taste, and *some* user's tastes actually *are* crappier than the default. Luxury companies will at some point limit options because they don't want their products out in the wild looking crappy. You can't pick *any* color for your new car. If you really want it iceberg lettuce green you'll need to get it done in the after-market. When it comes to accessibility, the market is small enough for luxury companies to ignore (unless some cancelling happens) and the lower-tier brands can cater to customers with accessibility problems.

Comment Re: How to say you don't read the news ... (Score 1) 136

The second derivative has been the way to go for a long time now. News articles try to create an impression by saying something like "company XY is not doing so well because their growth stopped growing", conveniently overlooking the fact that the company is still growing, just not at the previous rate. So, now you get the same serving for creating positive news because the rate of increase of our emissions is slowing! Awesome, right?!

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