nht

avon b7 said:

seanj said:

avon b7 said:

lkrupp said:

iCave said:

I'm not sure which country you are from, but looking at high quality health care and affordable education provided in most of the European Union, it bears evidence that high taxes, when used the right way, do pay social dividends.

Complete baloney. The ONLY reason the EU has the social programs it has is because the EU members have NO military budgets to speak of. Instead the EU relies on the United States to protect it from the Russian Bear, the Middle East Islamic radicals. If the U.S. pulled out militarily from the EU and NATO those countries would have no choice but to dramatically increase their military budgets and those social programs would suffer big time. For over 70 years now the U.S. has spent its treasure to keep the peace in Europe.

Now that is baloney. The absence of conflict in Europe is precisely because of the EU. 

As for external threats and U.S 'protection', simply pull out of NATO if it costs too much!

That won't happen because the U.S wants to keep its military bases in Europe. It wants to continue selling arms. It needs NATO allies. Without them (however 'small' their financial contribution) the Gulf wars would not have been possible and with so much debt, the U.S is rapidly approaching a point where it might have hardware to parade around but no be able to use in actual conflict. Wars are expensive.

I'll take a balanced welfare state over any of that.


https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nato-budget-is-funded-2018-7

You're believing the spin from the Eurocrats I'm afraid, the EU has done NOTHING to prevent conflict in Europe.
When Yugoslavia split and war broke out, including ethnic cleansing, it wasn't the EU that stopped it, it was NATO with the USA and UK at the forefront.
As for the current ongoing war in the Ukraine, that's solely due to the EU courting the Ukraine to get them to join as part of their ongoing aggressive expansionist policy. Every observer pointed out that Russia would never allow Ukraine to join, but the EU persisted.
Meanwhile there is civil unrest across Europe - weekly riots in France for months - and the rise of extremists on both left and right due to the EU's disasterous Euro policy. Economists warned back in the 90's that allowing countries with divergent economies to use a common currency would result in economic collapse, so rules were put in place to stop it. But when Eurocrats realised that Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France would fail the test and be excluded from the Euro, they decided to ignore their own rules. As a result they set in train the sovereign debt crisis that erupted in 2009 and is still ongoing. The reason they did this was simple to trap these countries in the EU, leaving after having adopted the Euro would be nearly impossible.

The USA and Canda should consider a mutual defence pact with a smaller set of countries - the UK and France account for nearly 50% of ALL of europe's military capability. In the long term, the like of Macron in France and the Eurocrats in Brussels want to undermine NATO and rely more on an EU Army. The hilarious thing is they don't want to fund it properly, for example, Germany's armed forces reduced to a token force with most ships, aircraft, and submarines unsable due to repairs being required.

You are mixing different things up.

Yugoslavia was not the EU and its problems were rooted in a completely non-EU world.

...

Ukraine?

Ukraine wants to be rid of Russia as a threat. The only way that is going to happen is by joining the EU. We know the people of Ukraine are willing to give their lives to achieve their goals but first they must get their house in order and tackle corruption. The EU has a strategic interest in Ukraine and a pressing need to reduce its dependence on Russian energy. That is already in progress.

It's not 'euro spin' it's happening and people are supporting it in spite of populist movements peddling nationalistic manifests in most countries.

MplsP said:

9secondkox2 said:

Honestly... EVERYONE should be doing USB-C now. 

Sure, manufacturers should PROVIDE adapters for about two years and then go full throttle. 

Its a great standard and does EVERYTHING. 

There is no drawback beyond “well... my old compooter on the farm don’t got that newfangled shape!”

thats what adapters are for. Only the luddites use them (as it should be. They have a different gadget for everything). NOT the ones using one port to save them all in order to clean it up and unify things. 

I wish Apple went full bore USB C only. 

It would make a lot a lot of things so much simpler. We use all Apple where I work. Having to get different types of cables for iMacs and MacBook pros is annoying. 

Why? What advantage is there to me getting a USB C keyboard? How about swapping out my car stereo (nope - I was just shopping for a new car stereo on Crutchfield and none of them are USB C) What about the old external hard drive I have? It’s USB 3, so plenty fast enough for all I need. Should I trash it and spend a bunch of money on a new one just because some technophile as decided that “USB C is the future and I want it NOW so everyone should have to change what they do to suit my views?” Many people said FireWire was the future, but that just stumbled along before dying with a whimper.

 Soli said:

jdw said:

Manufacturers aren't stupid.  What they do reflects what the consumer demand.  It's a fact that even now in July 2019 most computers and devices used worldwide still have USB-A.  It's a fact that cannot be denied.  And until the average consumer has ditched all those legacy USB-A devices, nothing will change.

You just said that manufacturers won't support USB-C until customers support USB-C which you claim won't happen until manufactures support USB-C. Do you not see a problem with your statement? Do you not see how all technologies have become a common standard?

Regardless of your disdain for USB-C the adoption and use grows every year.

Actually, what you said is exactly right. When USB (A) came along, it was clearly superior and easier and more flexible than the interfaces it was replacing. It took some time, but there was a natural driving force for its adoption. USB C doesn’t have that driving force. Sure, you can charge with it, but for charging, the MagSafe cable on my old MBA actually worked better. Yeah, I can use it for video, but my MBA had a thunderbolt port that worked for video, and I either get a thunderbolt capable USB C cable with an adapter for my non-thunderbolt monitor, or I use a thunderbolt cable - what’s the difference?

The lack of a real need or benefit of USB C for the majority of users is exactly what is going to slow the adoption. People won’t demand something they don’t need and manufacturers won’t respond to demand that isn’t there. (On the contrary, I know of many people who have specifically looked for devices with USB A ports because all their devices and cables are USB A)

MplsP said:

GeorgeBMac said:

MplsP said:

The iPhone 6 is an old model - first released in 2014 and sales stopped in 2016, so the phone is almost 3 years old at a minimum. The article doesn’t say exactly how old the phone was, but from the description, I would suspect that it was a hand-me-down device the kids were using to play games and watch videos. If this is the case, the battery was likely pretty old and may have been ‘abused’ somewhat. I’ve seen plenty of devices for which the battery is dead and kids just leave them plugged in constantly.

iPhone fires are quite unusual so it makes me wonder if there was other damage and/or a defective charger being used - both of these could lead to the battery overheating. GIven the age, it’s also possible that it had a defective replacement battery installed. Even considering this, though, you never want to have a device explode like this.

NONE of that is any excuse for a fire.   NONE.   ZERO.

How is a damaged battery not a reasonable explanation for a fire?

majorsl said:

macxpress said:

majorsl said:

Soli said:

majorsl said:

macxpress said:

SpamSandwich said:

canukstorm said:

SpamSandwich said:

The “Pro” designation no longer applies to the MacBook line. They’re all student computers now.

If you'r talking about the entry-level 13" MBP with the 1.4Ghz processors, I would tend to agree.  Not so with the rest of the MBP lineup.

The design and engineering reversal (for the better) that Apple made with the Mac Pro needs to happen throughout the MacBook Pro line. More connections, more expandability.

The current MacBook Pro has more connections than any other Mac laptop ever released. And, nobody really cares about upgrading their Mac except the .00001%. 

Care to back up that number with a source or did you pull it out of thin air in a vein attempt to make a point?

The MBP has 4 FOUR Thunderbolt 3 ports. Since TB3 means that's it's not limited to a VGA, DVI, or other video-limited port it means there are 4 ports that can do video. It also means there are 4 ports that can do power, 4 ports that can do data, and on and on. If you really don't know what Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C are capable of you really should read up on it. We're living in the future it's quite glorious compared to lamenting about the days of data types never having to share. I certainly don't miss the days of ADC and parallel. These notebooks are the most versatile Mac notebooks Apple has ever created, not to mention having the fastest I/O, both internally and externally.

No, I meant the silly claim "nobody really cares about upgrading their Mac except the .00001%."  Saying it as a statement of fact doesn't make it so and I learned a long time ago that people who pump out random percentage numbers are only trying to backup a claim they are unsure of or just trying to sound smart.

But, yes to you.  I'm well aware of the ports & I/O on the MBP - I'm typing on a high-spec'd 15" right now.

Jesus Christ....of course it's an exaggeration but if you think for even the slightest moment the bulk of Mac users (or computer users in general) want to fuck around with the internals of a computer than you're completely off your rocker. Stop being stupid! You know god damn well what I meant and just wanted to make an argument out of nothing. 

Again, no proof to backup your claim.  You were called on it and now the insults fly.  This seems to happen whenever anyone walks in this forum and wants an upgradable Mac.  "No one wants that".  "You're crazy."  Funny how it keeps happening for such a minuscule number.

MplsP said:

Right - because carrying around and external hard drive (and having it drain the battery) is exactly why people buy a laptop.