davgreg

Tim wants to be your banker and is in bed with the biggest bankster of all- Goldman Sachs. If one remembers, Goldman sold CDOs and synthetic CDOs to the market and then bet against them as they knew they were toxic- this NYT article details it. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/24trading.html

"But Goldman and other firms eventually used the C.D.O.’s to place unusually large negative bets that were not mainly for hedging purposes, and investors and industry experts say that put the firms at odds with their own clients’ interests."

Would you ever trust one red cent to anyone connected to Goldman?

I work in a licensed Medical profession and am burdened with Epic for our medical charting system. It is awful, a dumpster fire during a zombie apocalypse.
Navigation is an inconsistent, jumbled up mess and the interface redefines busy and cluttered. Phonetic search is the worst thing I have ever seen- ask any Physician trying to order exams in an ER- it makes Siri look like a genius. Search for ”ankle” will not consistently get you all of the various series options for Radiology exams for an ankle, nor will ”XR ankle” or ”CT ankle” or ”MR ankle” - search is all over the place.

Epic got big selling their product to an audience taking the least objectionable option- not something best in class. One of the many parts of the PPACA (Obamacare) was a mandate for EMR (charting) software and that drove the adoption of this awful product.

Cramer may have a TV show, but he also was pushing people to buy into the market during the meltdown of 2007-8. Jon Stewart did a famous takedown of his stock picking show over this very thing.

Apple under Steve Jobs could have done a better system, buy not so sure about Tim Cook’s Apple. If they cannot fix iTunes, I doubt they could fix Epic.

What I want to see Apple target is online payment of utilities. Many use a service called Bill Matrix which charges outrageous fees for you to be able to use your Check Card/ Debit Card. I paid Entergy (my electric utility) yesterday and Bill Matrix charged $2.95 just to process the transaction. CenterPoint Energy (my gas company) does the same.

In 2019 it should not cost that kind of fee to process a debit card. Since these are utilities you really do not have a choice for online payment unless you want to enter your checking account and give them automatic draft permission.

MacQc said:

There is nothing new that numerous commentators hate the "garden wall style" of Apple and embrace the "openness" of Microsoft. They'll take any opportunity to take a shot at Apple. Haters will hate.

For most of it’s history Apple used proprietary technology to lock in customers. The Apple Display Connector is a prime example. The walled garden was ostensibly only for security but also functioned as a form of lock in. Apple has attached DRM to their books despite it being based upon the ePub format. That forces customers to use Apple devices and their reader to use content that without drm would be easily accessible on any digital device.

Not an Apple ‘hater’ - I am a customer since before the Mac who never had to switch to Apple because I stuck it out. Been a shareholder since the time of the OS X Public Beta- when I saw the new OS I knew Apple had a bright future and started investing in stock. I am typing this on an iPad Pro with a series 4 Watch on my wrist and an iPhone X S on the table next to my chair. There is a Mac Pro and a new Mac mini at home along with the 4K Apple TV. I don’t think I qualify as an Apple hater but I think they are far from perfect, benign or as consumer friendly as they once were.

As to Microsoft, that company is now more valuable than Apple, as they should be, and is better run. Windows 10 Pro is by far the best version they have ever made- that is not true of the current mac OS. The Surface is a far better mobile device than the iPad Pro if you need a serious computing device and the variety of hardware available to run Windows is far superior to what Apple offers currently. 

It is truly sad what has happened to Klipsch- it is just a brand slapped on stuff made by others.

For the uninitiated, Klipsch was a mom and pop company based in Hope, Arkansas that produced a line of loudspeakers that featured horns instead of the traditional paper cone transducers. The Klipschorn used a folded horn in a corner mount to produce amazing tight bass and crystalline highs on a small fraction of the amplifier power needed by other speakers. I met Paul Klipsch in Germany on a promotional tour where he was making an appearance- he was really something and his speakers were awesome.

I first heard a set of Klipsch speakers in college taking a music appreciation course. He had donated a set to the university to install in the classrooms used for music appreciation and they certainly lived up to their reputation and his claims.

After his death the company changed hands and is mostly a marketing brand although they still produce a limited number of his speakers in Hope while the HQ has been moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. What was once a uniquely American brand of high end audio equipment respected around the world is now mostly just another brand of stuff probably made in China. The speakers Paul Klipsch made were objects of great skill and high quality with lots of hand finishing and furniture grade cabinets of high quality wood.

I doubt he would let an earbud have his name on it.