Have you ever actually read anything about the Kin?
The end result was a fantastic little phone and its cloud integration was way ahead of its time.
It would have been a killer "dumb" phone had it not been priced like a smart phone.
Granted, the pricing likely had more to do with development decisions inside Microsoft than anything else, but it doesn't change the fact it was (so very briefly) the best (and most expensive ) dumb phone on the market.
I'll try to dig up a Kin post mortem for you. I guarantee you'll be impressed.
Less competition means fatter, more sluggish Apple. Keep them on their toes, which is when they perform best!
Point well Taken! Has to be another company to keep Apple being so sharp. Without competition Apple wouldn't be doing half as well and the consumer would be at a loss also
I should have viewed your profile earlier. You are so full of shit. Growing up poor in Costa Rica with no electricity. What a load of shit. Your profile says your native language is English and you are a Patent Attorney. Why I wasted so much effort reasoning with a complete asshole makes me ashamed. Good night.
Wrong. Both are to blame. The best growers provide housing, healthcare and school for all their workers and children. If you are interested in rewarding the growers and the modern coffee retailers who support this philosophy I can provide a list of them for you by PM.
Good for those employers that provide the best working conditions. In any given market, there will be a whole range of employers. The best employers are to be commended. I'll concede that the employers should have a duty to provide a certain level of decency in a workplace. However, I'm not sure it would include electricity. In my view, the issue should be health and safety, not comforts.
The consumers of coffee beans aren't at fault. The market would be way too inefficient if we expected consumers to determine the behaviors of the suppliers of their retailers. Think about the advertising spent to associate a product with a seller. You think we should associate a supplier with a manufacturer and a product and determine whether the supplier is ethical? That's unrealistic and not going to happen.
No need to provide the list. As you can tell from my posts, I've spent a fair amount of time benefiting third world countries. However, I prefer to do it myself. Most of the "programs" out there are a complete scam. The loopholes these companies find to fleece the market of "charity dollars" is nothing short of astounding. Besides, there are much better causes than the conditions of coffee bean pickers.
The phrase 'turn a blind eye' seems apropos. A very large percentage of their coffee comes from Costa Rica where an extremely large percentage of the coffee is produced by illegal immigrant Nicaraguans who often live in huts without electricity or water. A family consisting of a man, woman and a couple children all pick coffee for 12-14 hours a day and earn together about 10 dollars.
Well, you certainly aren't turning a blind eye to this, are you?
I mean, what are you doing to improve the economic conditions in Nicaragua so these people don't have to sneak across the border into Costa Rica?
Have you ever actually read anything about the Kin?
The end result was a fantastic little phone and its cloud integration was way ahead of its time.
It would have been a killer "dumb" phone had it not been priced like a smart phone.
Granted, the pricing likely had more to do with development decisions inside Microsoft than anything else, but it doesn't change the fact it was (so very briefly) the best (and most expensive ) dumb phone on the market.
I'll try to dig up a Kin post mortem for you. I guarantee you'll be impressed.
I should have viewed your profile earlier. You are so full of shit. Growing up poor in Costa Rica with no electricity. What a load of shit. Your profile says your native language is English and you are a Patent Attorney. Why I wasted so much effort reasoning with a complete asshole makes me ashamed. Good night.
I never said I grew up in Costa Rica. I said I grew up on a farm in the U.S. And yes I was poor, but not Nicaraguan immigrant poor. I never even said I spent a lot of time in Costa Rica. I lived in San Jose for less than a year. I did however live in Mexico for several years amongst some very poor people, only a few of which did not have electricity. I certainly had electricity everywhere I lived (and money to buy a bus pass for the family that didn't have electricity). I'm not sure how that makes me full of shit and my experiences illegitimate. Have you spent YEARS living with people that make less than $1,000 per year. Didn't think so.
So what if I'm a patent attorney. I told you I make more in one month than most Mexicans make in a half decade. You didn't think I made that kind of money picking beans did you.
Well, you certainly aren't turning a blind eye to this, are you?
I mean, what are you doing to improve the economic conditions in Nicaragua so these people don't have to sneak across the border into Costa Rica?
When I was living in Costa Rica I lived in an apartment next to a house that employed a Nicaraguan as a maid. I had some lengthly conversations about her experience during the guerrilla wars. She relayed a story about her and her neighbors gathering in a church for protection. The fighters came through shooting the hell out of everything. She had her head down and all she could her was rounds of ammunition from automatic weapons. When they left there were dead people everywhere; on the streets and in their homes. Half of her village was killed for no good reason. When I talked to her she was working long hours for almost nothing in a house in San Pedro near the University of Costa Rica. She had no desire to see her former home town and was pretty content doing what she was doing. Americans think they need to help the Nicaraguans, but the Nicaraguans think they are helping themselves. If you got to know them, you would realize that they are helping themselves. They just have different priorities and perspectives than ya'll.
The Courier existed. But it was a working prototype. I've seen video of it working. It's on the Internet, likely on YouTube. It was apparently the brainchild of, and I've forgotten his name right now, one of the bigwigs in MS, who presented it to Ballmer, who cut the project, and rolled some of it into the Windows division, as happens with most all products there. The guy resigned, supposedly because of that.
...in part settlement for stealing quicktime code at that...
I know. I came from NeXT over in the merger. At that wasn't it actually. The $150 Million settle was to end a 10 year set of lawsuits by Apple against Microsoft.
Both sides won on the settlement.
By the way, you can thank Steve for making sure QuickTime wasn't sold to Avid. They put a bid for $1.5 Billion and Amelio was pushing for the deal when Fred Anderson and other board members stepped in, got Steve to be iCEO and his first motion was to nix the deal.
2min:45sec in: “Finally, the Courier seems to accomplish every single problem the rumoured Apple table will have. It’s going to be a battle of the titans when these two are released. This doesn’t mean that Apple’s tablet device can’t catch on or that Courier will dominate the market…”
I've had it with your nonsense. You have no toothbrush and no clean water and you have an infected root on a molar that is so painful you can't even stand up and you think that a hard day's work in the coffee fields will take your mind off it. You are saying that access to healthcare is not important. No immunizations against malaria necessary, walk it off, be a man. You could not be more dispassionate or selfish if you have the means to help correct this but choose to ignore it supposedly for the good life lessons of the individual who suffers. You are a sick human being. Although the latter may be giving you more credit than you deserve.
You sure have mastered the art of an argument ad hominem....
This conversation has nothing to do with malaria. It's about whether coffee bean producers are exploiting Nicaraguans. If this conversation is about malaria why would we be talking about huts with no electricity for bean pickers. Since when were bean pickers plagued with malaria? San Jose Costa Rica is at like 4,000 ft elevation. I've never looked into this, but it seems really unlikely there is a malaria problem in the coffee fields.
You can name call all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you don't have a clue what Nicaraguans want or need because you only see the world from your isolated perspective and the propaganda from some scam charity. If you don't get to know the people it is really hard to know what they need. For example, you wouldn't know when someone without electricity really needs a bus pass to visit a relative.
Giving something they need is compassionate. Giving them something you want to give is prideful. You are doing it for you, not them. You need something to make you feel good about yourself. That's ok, I'll have compassion on you. You just keep grinding that axe.
2min:45sec in: ?Finally, the Courier seems to accomplish every single problem the rumoured Apple table will have. It?s going to be a battle of the titans when these two are released. This doesn?t mean that Apple?s tablet device can?t catch on or that Courier will dominate the market??
Heh. Proves the adage: half of winning is just showing up.
No need to provide the list. As you can tell from my posts, I've spent a fair amount of time benefiting third world countries. However, I prefer to do it myself. Most of the "programs" out there are a complete scam. The loopholes these companies find to fleece the market of "charity dollars" is nothing short of astounding. Besides, there are much better causes than the conditions of coffee bean pickers.
You are such a self centered asshole that you think buying someone a $3 bus pass constitutes benefiting third world countries. I didn't ask you to donate to a charity I said I have a list of coffee retailers and growers who support the charitable initiatives. You buy their coffee at no additional charge and by doing so support the ethical and moral treatment of workers. Instead you assume there is some scam. You are a scam which is why you are quick to jump to a false conclusion that everyone else is just as much of a greedy son of bitch as you are.
Every child should have the opportunity for an education, nutrition and healthcare.
Ideally, yes. But there are too many places where that's a dream for the future, not now. While it's nice that you go down there, I guarantee that it's not helping much. It will take a vast amount of money to reform these economies, and a way to end the incredible amount of corruption these governments are partial to. Until then, things will continue the way they are.
We can see a good example of this. east and West germany. west Germany had about 65 million people, and one of the world's largest, and strongest economies. they had more than two thirds of the land. East Germany had about a third of the population, that was educated, but poor. West Germany had an excellent infrastructure, while the East, had an old, falling apart one.
West Germans were wanting a reunification for decades. It finally came. The West wanted to bring the East up to their standards in infrastructure, pay for the people, and general equality of life. To do that, they poured one trillion dollars into East Germany over a period of ten years.
When that period was over, they acknowledged that it was a failure. Even a trillion dollars wasn't enough to even out the two economies, and it still isn't even today.
It will take trillions to make a dent in the economies we're talking about, which is all of Central and South America, and decades, possibly 50 or more years. Until that happens, things will remain much the same as they have been for the past several hundred years.
Your going down there and doing what little you can, while nice, is like giving a beggar a dollar, and thinking you've done something worthy. You haven't. What needs to be done is to make the governments that are part of an oligarchy, understand that it has to stop, and that their people need to have a more equal part in the economic life of their countries. That's far more difficult. When far left wing governments take over, as they have in a few countries down there, things actually get worse.
Meanwhile, families need to put food on the table, and the only way they can feed all their mouths is to make as many of them that can, work. It's sad, but it's still true. And platitudes don't help.
This conversation has nothing to do with malaria. It's about whether coffee bean producers are exploiting Nicaraguans. If this conversation is about malaria why would we be talking about huts with no electricity for bean pickers. Since when were bean pickers plagued with malaria? San Jose Costa Rica is at like 4,000 ft elevation. I've never looked into this, but it seems really unlikely there is a malaria problem in the coffee fields.
Ngobe indians who do a lot of coffee harvesting travel to and from the highlands to their natural habitant in the jungles at sea level. Dude you do not know who you are dealing with. I have more than 18 years working in this field and much of that time was spent on location in Central America.
Now that we have learned that you are a complete impostor you should STFU.
Comments
Wait, what???
You forgot Kin
Have you ever actually read anything about the Kin?
The end result was a fantastic little phone and its cloud integration was way ahead of its time.
It would have been a killer "dumb" phone had it not been priced like a smart phone.
Granted, the pricing likely had more to do with development decisions inside Microsoft than anything else, but it doesn't change the fact it was (so very briefly) the best (and most expensive
I'll try to dig up a Kin post mortem for you. I guarantee you'll be impressed.
EDIT:
Microsoft's KIN: A Eulogy
Less competition means fatter, more sluggish Apple. Keep them on their toes, which is when they perform best!
Point well Taken! Has to be another company to keep Apple being so sharp. Without competition Apple wouldn't be doing half as well and the consumer would be at a loss also
Wrong. Both are to blame. The best growers provide housing, healthcare and school for all their workers and children. If you are interested in rewarding the growers and the modern coffee retailers who support this philosophy I can provide a list of them for you by PM.
Good for those employers that provide the best working conditions. In any given market, there will be a whole range of employers. The best employers are to be commended. I'll concede that the employers should have a duty to provide a certain level of decency in a workplace. However, I'm not sure it would include electricity. In my view, the issue should be health and safety, not comforts.
The consumers of coffee beans aren't at fault. The market would be way too inefficient if we expected consumers to determine the behaviors of the suppliers of their retailers. Think about the advertising spent to associate a product with a seller. You think we should associate a supplier with a manufacturer and a product and determine whether the supplier is ethical? That's unrealistic and not going to happen.
No need to provide the list. As you can tell from my posts, I've spent a fair amount of time benefiting third world countries. However, I prefer to do it myself. Most of the "programs" out there are a complete scam. The loopholes these companies find to fleece the market of "charity dollars" is nothing short of astounding. Besides, there are much better causes than the conditions of coffee bean pickers.
The phrase 'turn a blind eye' seems apropos. A very large percentage of their coffee comes from Costa Rica where an extremely large percentage of the coffee is produced by illegal immigrant Nicaraguans who often live in huts without electricity or water. A family consisting of a man, woman and a couple children all pick coffee for 12-14 hours a day and earn together about 10 dollars.
Well, you certainly aren't turning a blind eye to this, are you?
I mean, what are you doing to improve the economic conditions in Nicaragua so these people don't have to sneak across the border into Costa Rica?
Have you ever actually read anything about the Kin?
The end result was a fantastic little phone and its cloud integration was way ahead of its time.
It would have been a killer "dumb" phone had it not been priced like a smart phone.
Granted, the pricing likely had more to do with development decisions inside Microsoft than anything else, but it doesn't change the fact it was (so very briefly) the best (and most expensive
I'll try to dig up a Kin post mortem for you. I guarantee you'll be impressed.
EDIT:
Microsoft's KIN: A Eulogy
I should have viewed your profile earlier. You are so full of shit. Growing up poor in Costa Rica with no electricity. What a load of shit. Your profile says your native language is English and you are a Patent Attorney. Why I wasted so much effort reasoning with a complete asshole makes me ashamed. Good night.
I never said I grew up in Costa Rica. I said I grew up on a farm in the U.S. And yes I was poor, but not Nicaraguan immigrant poor. I never even said I spent a lot of time in Costa Rica. I lived in San Jose for less than a year. I did however live in Mexico for several years amongst some very poor people, only a few of which did not have electricity. I certainly had electricity everywhere I lived (and money to buy a bus pass for the family that didn't have electricity). I'm not sure how that makes me full of shit and my experiences illegitimate. Have you spent YEARS living with people that make less than $1,000 per year. Didn't think so.
So what if I'm a patent attorney. I told you I make more in one month than most Mexicans make in a half decade. You didn't think I made that kind of money picking beans did you.
Well, you certainly aren't turning a blind eye to this, are you?
I mean, what are you doing to improve the economic conditions in Nicaragua so these people don't have to sneak across the border into Costa Rica?
When I was living in Costa Rica I lived in an apartment next to a house that employed a Nicaraguan as a maid. I had some lengthly conversations about her experience during the guerrilla wars. She relayed a story about her and her neighbors gathering in a church for protection. The fighters came through shooting the hell out of everything. She had her head down and all she could her was rounds of ammunition from automatic weapons. When they left there were dead people everywhere; on the streets and in their homes. Half of her village was killed for no good reason. When I talked to her she was working long hours for almost nothing in a house in San Pedro near the University of Costa Rica. She had no desire to see her former home town and was pretty content doing what she was doing. Americans think they need to help the Nicaraguans, but the Nicaraguans think they are helping themselves. If you got to know them, you would realize that they are helping themselves. They just have different priorities and perspectives than ya'll.
The Courier existed. But it was a working prototype. I've seen video of it working. It's on the Internet, likely on YouTube. It was apparently the brainchild of, and I've forgotten his name right now, one of the bigwigs in MS, who presented it to Ballmer, who cut the project, and rolled some of it into the Windows division, as happens with most all products there. The guy resigned, supposedly because of that.
Do you mean "Codex"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=049_U...e_gdata_player
...in part settlement for stealing quicktime code at that...
I know. I came from NeXT over in the merger. At that wasn't it actually. The $150 Million settle was to end a 10 year set of lawsuits by Apple against Microsoft.
Both sides won on the settlement.
By the way, you can thank Steve for making sure QuickTime wasn't sold to Avid. They put a bid for $1.5 Billion and Amelio was pushing for the deal when Fred Anderson and other board members stepped in, got Steve to be iCEO and his first motion was to nix the deal.
EDIT: Sorry, the video is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WYWGKnVkEw
Yep. Just as Solipsism said, CGI.
Got to thank you for that link though. I would never have found this gem.
"Microsoft Courier Tablet *vs. Apple tablet showdown"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D58fxzRV5HY
Three wonderful minutes of our good friend DaHarder telling us why one vapourware product is better than another.
"Microsoft Courier Tablet *vs. Apple tablet showdown"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D58fxzRV5HY
2min:45sec in: “Finally, the Courier seems to accomplish every single problem the rumoured Apple table will have. It’s going to be a battle of the titans when these two are released. This doesn’t mean that Apple’s tablet device can’t catch on or that Courier will dominate the market…”
I've had it with your nonsense. You have no toothbrush and no clean water and you have an infected root on a molar that is so painful you can't even stand up and you think that a hard day's work in the coffee fields will take your mind off it. You are saying that access to healthcare is not important. No immunizations against malaria necessary, walk it off, be a man. You could not be more dispassionate or selfish if you have the means to help correct this but choose to ignore it supposedly for the good life lessons of the individual who suffers. You are a sick human being. Although the latter may be giving you more credit than you deserve.
You sure have mastered the art of an argument ad hominem....
This conversation has nothing to do with malaria. It's about whether coffee bean producers are exploiting Nicaraguans. If this conversation is about malaria why would we be talking about huts with no electricity for bean pickers. Since when were bean pickers plagued with malaria? San Jose Costa Rica is at like 4,000 ft elevation. I've never looked into this, but it seems really unlikely there is a malaria problem in the coffee fields.
You can name call all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that you don't have a clue what Nicaraguans want or need because you only see the world from your isolated perspective and the propaganda from some scam charity. If you don't get to know the people it is really hard to know what they need. For example, you wouldn't know when someone without electricity really needs a bus pass to visit a relative.
Giving something they need is compassionate. Giving them something you want to give is prideful. You are doing it for you, not them. You need something to make you feel good about yourself. That's ok, I'll have compassion on you. You just keep grinding that axe.
2min:45sec in: ?Finally, the Courier seems to accomplish every single problem the rumoured Apple table will have. It?s going to be a battle of the titans when these two are released. This doesn?t mean that Apple?s tablet device can?t catch on or that Courier will dominate the market??
Heh. Proves the adage: half of winning is just showing up.
Microsoft Courier didn't show up.
Heh. Proves the adage: half of winning is just showing up.
Microsoft Courier didn't show up.
MS Courier: All snark and no byte
No need to provide the list. As you can tell from my posts, I've spent a fair amount of time benefiting third world countries. However, I prefer to do it myself. Most of the "programs" out there are a complete scam. The loopholes these companies find to fleece the market of "charity dollars" is nothing short of astounding. Besides, there are much better causes than the conditions of coffee bean pickers.
You are such a self centered asshole that you think buying someone a $3 bus pass constitutes benefiting third world countries. I didn't ask you to donate to a charity I said I have a list of coffee retailers and growers who support the charitable initiatives. You buy their coffee at no additional charge and by doing so support the ethical and moral treatment of workers. Instead you assume there is some scam. You are a scam which is why you are quick to jump to a false conclusion that everyone else is just as much of a greedy son of bitch as you are.
Hey, they make nice keyboards.
And great mice.
I rue the day I'll not be able to buy a basic two-button wheel mouse from Microsoft for my Mac. Best mouse on the planet.
I still prefer Logitech
Solipcism
"You're spelling it wrong"
.......................................
So well, never thought I'd see the day. Apple beating Microsoft in revenue and profit.
Even Stevens? Not even close.
I'm sure the furnishings around Ballmer nowadays are all like those Hollywood stunt props.
Every child should have the opportunity for an education, nutrition and healthcare.
Ideally, yes. But there are too many places where that's a dream for the future, not now. While it's nice that you go down there, I guarantee that it's not helping much. It will take a vast amount of money to reform these economies, and a way to end the incredible amount of corruption these governments are partial to. Until then, things will continue the way they are.
We can see a good example of this. east and West germany. west Germany had about 65 million people, and one of the world's largest, and strongest economies. they had more than two thirds of the land. East Germany had about a third of the population, that was educated, but poor. West Germany had an excellent infrastructure, while the East, had an old, falling apart one.
West Germans were wanting a reunification for decades. It finally came. The West wanted to bring the East up to their standards in infrastructure, pay for the people, and general equality of life. To do that, they poured one trillion dollars into East Germany over a period of ten years.
When that period was over, they acknowledged that it was a failure. Even a trillion dollars wasn't enough to even out the two economies, and it still isn't even today.
It will take trillions to make a dent in the economies we're talking about, which is all of Central and South America, and decades, possibly 50 or more years. Until that happens, things will remain much the same as they have been for the past several hundred years.
Your going down there and doing what little you can, while nice, is like giving a beggar a dollar, and thinking you've done something worthy. You haven't. What needs to be done is to make the governments that are part of an oligarchy, understand that it has to stop, and that their people need to have a more equal part in the economic life of their countries. That's far more difficult. When far left wing governments take over, as they have in a few countries down there, things actually get worse.
Meanwhile, families need to put food on the table, and the only way they can feed all their mouths is to make as many of them that can, work. It's sad, but it's still true. And platitudes don't help.
This conversation has nothing to do with malaria. It's about whether coffee bean producers are exploiting Nicaraguans. If this conversation is about malaria why would we be talking about huts with no electricity for bean pickers. Since when were bean pickers plagued with malaria? San Jose Costa Rica is at like 4,000 ft elevation. I've never looked into this, but it seems really unlikely there is a malaria problem in the coffee fields.
Ngobe indians who do a lot of coffee harvesting travel to and from the highlands to their natural habitant in the jungles at sea level. Dude you do not know who you are dealing with. I have more than 18 years working in this field and much of that time was spent on location in Central America.
Now that we have learned that you are a complete impostor you should STFU.