azulum

EDIT: there are a lot of interesting people on HN, but there are a lot of humorless people too. enjoy your spectrum disorder.

so it was the royal 'we' this whole time?

and a question for HN—what is this fascination with techcrunch? if there is a story out on the interwebs and techcrunch has covered it, it's usually at the top. is it because they do venture capital pieces? is it because green is (was) the color of money? is it because michael arrington held some sort of strange fascination by tech culture at large that has remained now that he's been ousted?

i humbly await the downvotes and replies.

thanks

hacker n00b

as for the rumors, i think that they are real devices—i actually expected a 3G ipod touch with a bigger screen—but maybe it is a possible design for the iphone 5. because we don't see the lead times from apple like we see from other electronics companies doesn't mean they aren't there. the retina display ipad 2, the iphone 5, these things surely exist in some capacity as they figure out not just how to make them, but how to make enough of them to meet demand. i think apple is finding it much more difficult to keep new devices secret and because of the short time between announcement and delivery with increased production ramp-ups and internal lead times, apple seems to be experiencing and anti-osbourne effect—the rumors of the device after the next device surfacing and disappointing all of those who have come to expect so much from apple.

awesome, so it only costs about a quarter for a gigabyte. so i use about 20 GB a month. can i just pay 5 bucks a month? yeah, i didn't think so. i'm pure gravy for them, and what does comcast charge me for 4 to 10 Mbps? $70

and don't get me started about the fixed cost versus the variable cost—the variable cost is certainly not more than a few cents per GB but the fixed costs can be enormous.

i wish the internet was just a utility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd97us27eSg

have you ever seen flash run well on ARM? are you really comparing casual flash games that you have to pay for to casual obj-C sold through the appstore, a store that basically pays for itself and doesn't make much money?

and i love how you can just quash anything that demonstrates how HTML5, a nascent technology, is moving toward par with flash while not sending fans into overdrive and draining my battery. all to keep an ailing steve jobs happy.

so tell me, what's the point your post?

get over your uppity, unimpressed self.

apple has its reasons for not changing the design and they are sound as ever—evolutionary, not revolutionary. and it makes so much sense for the 2-year upgrade cycle. considering too that apple is trying to make as many devices as possible, the same old design really helps them to that end. i am disappointed. but the product is by no means a disappointment.

(i really wanted an ipod touch 3g with upgraded internals that could go month by month like the ipad and do facetime/skype over wifi/3g)

apple products are in my experience built to work until they break and the cost of fixing them is more than a replacement. this happens much sooner in tech than in other spaces because it changes so quickly. the CPI has stayed relatively flat† because advances in technology have allowed more purchasing power (though for lower cost goods). the iphone is a technological marvel that was priceless ten years ago because it couldn't exist.

† year by year table of CPI since 1913 ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt

or maybe he has evolved to the point that our invisible alien overlords saw fit to promote him.

be well, mark, wherever you may be.

that said, maybe it will be amazon's bing, but bing buys microsoft insurance that may be much less costly to them than the risk of a google owned future.

my take with the fire is that amazon wants people to move from physical goods to electronic goods—they know that not everyone who owns a fire will consume their goods, but they also know that the more accessible the means to consume those goods, the more business for their core business—the one that makes them money, even if just for 20 days.

† http://www.usablemarkets.com/2009/06/18/amazons-float/

a purist, on the other hand, may be completely open to new ideas within the framework of bebop or within the framework of "real instruments"—even if it ends up sounding bad. a purist with taste i think would be able to marry nostalgia with the new that is good, a purist without taste probably just wants to be safe, or can't be bothered to listen closely enough to the music to find out if it is any good.

the fact is, the streams of missives from the guy may have been because he was a purist or it may have actually been pretty bad and his derision was from the angle of a purist.

even if everything about a man is known, his intentions are forever foreign to us. it's the problem with subjectivity.

but there is a flip side, while you found it cold and lacking intimacy, the people who rave based on reputation alone actually got something out of it—even if just the equivalent to a cheap trinket—they saw someone famous play with other famous people, and thus may have enjoyed it based on reputation alone.

it takes all sorts to make a world.

i had a second hand 12" powerbook G4 with applecare that gave me a lot of problems—i think it was seven screens of death—bad joojoo. anyway, it had finally gotten that usual suspects replaced all at once, and it worked fine, until the week applecare expired and the devil came to take back it's own. so the guys at the mac experience gave me a number to call and the conversation went something like this:

so, i love the idea of this computer, but it doesn't seem to love me, any chance i could get fair market value for it or something?

_well let me take a look at its history_

and after two minutes or so

_well you're out of warranty…_

PAUSE (oh shit, i'll have to sell it for parts on ebay)

_…but that's a lot of fixes and we're gonna go ahead and settle with you. since we no longer make a 12" powerbook, what would you like a 13" macbook or a 15" macbook pro_

let's just say that that was the last thing i expected.

GPU integrated into display USB 3.0 backwards compatibility with displayPort non-apple computing (if that matters to you)

what's there:

great but glossy display another tBolt port, gigE, 3 USB 2.0, middling speakers

a recipe for the future:

take 3 parts iMac and 3 parts macbook air and expandability of 1 mac pro, sift into a large bowl. take 4 parts iPad and 2 parts motorola atrix and mix together in a separate bowl. fold contents of separate bowl into large bowl until the consistency of cookie dough. DO NOT ADD WATER. apply to pan and bake at 375° until aluminum is matte. let sit and cut into bars when cool. enjoy.

on the flipside, i would be certain that certainty is a particular kind of hell, if having such knowledge didn't condemn me to it. excuse me while i proceed to consume my tail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros

is it really crazier than nothing being able to travel faster than light? it sure as hell isn't crazier than particles flitting into and out of existence at the subatomic level all the time. the fact is, that most things science has uncovered, particularly in the last 100 years, have been nothing short of hysterical. and for this, dear researchers, i thank you.

The core essence of the HP Way consists of five fundamental precepts.

1) The Hewlett-Packard company exists to make a technical contribution, and should only pursue opportunities consistent with this purpose;

2) The Hewlett-Packard company demands of itself and its people superior performance—profitable growth is both a means and a measure of enduring success;

3) The Hewlett-Packard company believes the best results come when you get the right people, trust them, give them freedom to find the best path to achieve objectives, and let them share in the rewards their work makes possible;

4) The Hewlett-Packard company has a responsibility to contribute directly to the well-being of the communities in which its operates;

5) Integrity, period.

here's an idea for the hp bod—go read something called the hp way http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Hp-Way-How-Bill-Hewlett-and... it's only a few bucks. need a primer on what it's about? read this: http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/the-hp-way... it's very enlightening. it seems very coincidental that it too has the letters hp in it. it might be helpful

EDIT: the save 94% on half.com makes me laugh. FIRE SALE!

In other words, you would replace the IRS with the PRS (pre-revenue service)?

no, i would abolish the IRS and repeal the whole damned tax code and start over. if PRS is what you would call it, i am partial to http://www.prsguitars.com/

And Main Street with the Back Alley, where you pay no taxes at all?

used goods would not be taxed since they were already taxed. and back alley deals will always be there—so what. better to keep however many million companies in line than 300 million people plus however many million companies. it lowers the tax burden, which is more efficient, which swamps any extra back alley deals that may take place under a consumption tax than the current labyrinthine code.

And incentivize export businesses over domestic businesses (b/c exported goods are never taxed)?

you do understand that we are a net importer of goods (though far and away a net exporter of ideas)—this means that we consume more goods at home that are not made here than we make and send abroad. i'm no rabid proponent of balanced trade, especially since our ideas are worth far more than a million trinkets from emerging markets, but making our goods more competitive in a global market can foster actual manufacturing jobs (remember those?), especially when the cost of labor in the east starts to be less of an advantage for those countries.

nevermind that we have an economy that relies mostly on non-exportable services and manufacturing has by and large left our shores, on to the highly flawed rhetorical question to which i must respond: a hypothetical export company has to pay taxes on equipment and supplies to do business, and has to employ people who purchase goods and thus pay taxes, only those items which are non-finished goods are not taxed if exported. most primary and many secondary goods are non-finished goods (think rubber for primary and tires for secondary—the tires on the new vehicle are taxed as part of the whole vehicle, the tires you by at tirerack are taxed when you buy them).

now imagine a global brand that still has manufacturing in the US as well as in other places around the world wants to build a new factory that serves north america. it might build in mexico, where the lower cost of labor offsets the higher cost of shipping and dealing with another imperfect government, then all of the goods it sells to the US (it's biggest customer) will pay taxes to the US and all the goods it sells in mexico and to canada pay NO taxes to the US. now imagine the scenario that the company decides to build here in the US—it pays higher labor costs but can keep a closer eye on manufacturing that makes it worth it. it employs several thousand people, pumping a quarter of a million dollars into the pockets of americans that end up supporting many other ventures that have no relationship to that company. and guess what, it pays NO taxes to the stuff it sells in mexico and canada. which would you prefer? oh, that's right, option 3 where said company never bothers to consider the US because it would pay tons of taxes on those goods sold elsewhere, all the while lobbying to congress for a tax break.

And over-incentivize capital investment even more grotesquely than it is now with a mild capital gains preference?

first, why should anyone ever be taxed for investing in the future?

second, do you understand that in this model, the investment would fund the purchase of goods and services which would employ people and pay taxes—around the world, not just in the US? do you understand that the benefit to the world of more investment is greater than houses of cards sometimes built with that investment? do you know that the fruits of investment has raised the standard of living such that i can type something of a didactic diatribe via a high quality laptop to some stranger that doesn't understand economics.

third, the capital gains is a clusterfuck, like everything else dealing with taxes.

There's a reason the Fair Tax was DOA

tell that to the people who are still supporting it. and if it does eventually become DOA, it'll be because of the beloved lobbyists and special interest groups

It's an over-engineered solution that's worse than what we have right now.

to which i can only respond: http://www.fourmilab.ch/uscode/26usc/www/contents.html remember, that's just the table of contents.