franklinjackcon

lkrupp said:

I’m still very skeptical about the prospects of autonomous vehicles becoming widespread any time soon. I’ve been reading a lot on the subject and the biggest hurdle is acceptance by the public. Reports by Waymo show intense resistance to the concept. There have been numerous reports of road rage against self-driving vehicles because of their overly cautious programming. There have been incidents of human drivers intentionally trying to force these vehicles off the road or to cause them to crash. Much like the negative reaction to the Google Glass project the public appears to be of the same mentality when it comes to self-driving cars. While I can see these vehicles in use in industrial parks and corporate campuses (like Apple Park) as employee transportation and supply delivery agents I personally think we won’t see these vehicles on public roads en mass for the foreseeable future.

Other things people have resisted: car phones, snow boards, women in the workplace, electric cars, bikinis, vaccines.

No doubt there will be resistance and some of it with very good reason but if these cars save lives, increase convenience, and eventually get past that early threshold of being an evil novelty, they will become widespread. People on phones walk into traffic, drive off the road, fall off cliffs, annoy the pants of people around them, get divorced, but those things aren't going away too soon. Autonomous vehicles will be the same

maestro64 said:

genovelle said:

So each user is worth $1.88. That does not sound profitable at all. 

Actually $1.92 profits per quarter, so they have recurring revenue of $7.69 per year per user. But they have less than half of their users are paying so they are really making $15.50 per paying subscriber, and like any really socialist society the ones with money pay for the ones without the means. Some of those profits are coming from advertisers so the actual proof per paying subscriber if much less. 

Just goes to show, most people are sheep, i listen to music today and do not pay over and over again, i listen to the radio with some ads which i tune out, or i listen to my private collection which I paid once and can listen to it as many times as I want. But people got suckered into paying to listen and keep shelling out money each month. In this generation subscription models, people will be shelling out $1000's of each year and have nothing to show for it.

I pay less than $100 per year for Spotify and have access to unlimited music, on my PC, phone, in my car, and connected speakers, anywhere I go with a connection. If I keep this up for 20 years, and I don't assume that things will stay the same, I'd have spent $2000. I spent that much in about four years during my peak CD buying days and only had a couple of hundred CDs to show for it. There is nothing sheepish about paying not much money for a tonne of music.

There are a number of Apple-style stores in shopping malls in Prague and there are usually more employees than customers in them. As much as I hate the idea of commercialising the centre any more than it already is, a tourist-friendly spot is probably necessary. Parizska street might be a better choice and upset the locals less.

hexclock said:

DAalseth said:

normang said:

Climate constantly changes, to think we can actually have any impact on significantly altering the climate is the height of arrogance. It's been warmer in the past than today and its been cooler, we know this..... but somehow altering a carbon footprint is going to save us? This is not to say that we should not try and be prudent in the use of resources, but the proposed changes all mandate government control of your life and all that will do is make things worse for people, not better.

Human caused climate change is a fact. I've been following the subject for 40 years and the only constant is we keep underestimating people's impact. I will leave it to you to explain to your grandchildren why you didn't do anything.

Even if the US completely stopped outputting CO2 today,  developing countries like China and India are just getting started. You can fret all you like but nothing is going to change anytime soon. I would love to buy a Tesla model 3 if it didn’t cost 44,000 dollars. Those of us who live in the northeast can’t ride our bikes all year long. Public transportation in my city is pretty limited.
If solar power can be made cheaper I would look into it but for now it’s out of reach, for me at least. 

No-one can do everything to solve climate change but that doesn't mean you can't do something - it doesn't need to be all or nothing. Something you could start today is eat less meat. You don't need to become a vegetarian but go meat free a couple of days a week is a start. Next time you replace a light bulb, get an LED. If you have a bike and you can ride it for a few months a year, do that. Check if there are any electricity providers that use renewables for generation. Put an extra layer on and turn the heating down. Drive a little slower. Next time you buy an appliance, look at its energy rating. Sell some stuff and buy something second hand. These are all things that can save you money too - one day it might help you afford that electric car or solar panels. The more we do to shift to a sustainable economy, the easier it becomes - we're at a point now where solar PV, LEDs, and electric cars are all competitive or better than the old less efficient versions of themselves.

Most of the ads are petty and not particularly funny but the notch haircut is worth a chuckle. We all know that the notch is just a stepping stone - when Apple figures out how to get around it, they will - so there's no need to defend it to the death.