beowulfschmidt

carnegie said:

rob53 said:

Didn’t realize the guilty party gets to set the fine. Only in America.

Do the crime, pay the fine!!

They generally don’t.

But accusers and accusees are generally free to negotiate settlements which are agreeable to both parties. That would, if the reporting is correct, seem to be what’s going on here.

Correct.  Because with an arbitrary or imposed fine, FB still has the option to go to court to appeal and challenge it.  A negotiated fine generally includes the proviso that no further appeals or challenges will be allowed.

jeremyzimm said:

As others have noted, for myself and others I know, the extension of upgrade cycles boils down to:
1. Cost of the phones increasing (especially families of iPhone users, this gets to be absurd expense). 
2: Cost of iPhones increasing makes little sense to most people with diminishing returns (upgraded specs, with increased cost, when older models work fine, is not perceived as value for the money over older models)

It's less accurate to say that I have reasons to not upgrade than it is to say that there is a dearth or reasons for me to upgrade.  My 7 is working just fine, and while some of the features of the X series would be nice to have, none of them are compelling enough to make me want to spend $750+ (even at only $40 per month) on a new phone.  I have little use for Face ID.  I get that it's easy to use and "more accurate" than Touch ID, but Touch ID works just fine for me, considering that I only use it to unlock apps and use Apple Pay, never to unlock my phone.  I can't help but think it would do nothing at all to improve my experience with those use cases.  The better camera is moot, since my DSLR is even better.  Since I don't play games or do photographic processing on my phone, the screen improvements are not enough to sway me.  The better speed would be nice, but again, not enough to make me pay.  The other features are similar, basically a collective "meh".

jeremyzimm said:

My 7 still works well and is built to allow for an occasional drop. I wouldn’t feel safe dropping an X.

Well, if you're not hiding that beautifully designed phone in a sturdy, not nearly as beautifully designed case, you must not care about your phone and shouldn't own one anyway. /s

The cynic in me suspects the VA will shortly be in a position of "be careful what you ask for" with regard to medical records.  It might reveal some things they'd rather not be known about the standard of care in VA hospitals across the country.

On the other hand, if it improves the quality of care veterans are receiving, I'm all for it.

Disclaimer: I am a veteran who eschews the VA in favor of my employer's health care, which, even though it costs more, is miles and miles better than the VA.

Mike Wuerthele said:

gennaromac said:

If my memory is not lying the last time I remember an Apple software running a non Apple device was on a Motorola phone and the experience was ... terribile. I think that what distinguish Apple from other companies in the consumer market is the capacity to give a consistent experience through different devices and this unique features comes from the fact that Apple at the really end is the only that product both hardware and software. I don't know, but my feeling is not positive about this movement.

iTunes on PC.

Unfortunately, that doesn't invalidate his point.  iTunes on Windows is a somewhat less than mind-blowingly positive experience...

Especially since they took away app management.  Frankly, Windows explorer is a better content manager than iTunes on Windows.

tbornot said:

My main problem with the Mac is that it can’t run the huge library of viruses available on the PC, nor can it keep most of the processors busy running virus scanners or my internet connection saturated downloading emergency patches.  I mean, what can a Mac do anyway?

I've never had a virus on my Win 10 box, nor did I when it had Win 7 on it.  Windows XP was the same way.  And I only ever ran the built in Microsoft scanner.  I periodically checked it with something else, like MalwareBytes, Spybot, Kapersky, or one of many others, but I never actually ran any of those full time on my box.