Y2HH

http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/ Full text: "To our customers, At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better. We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up. There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you. While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app. Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard." Tim Cook Apple’s CEO

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 08:47 AM) I don't believe that there would be a significant portion that would "go Galt," so to speak. These doctors and surgeons have a nice income, but they usually couple that with a nice lifestyle. Would you be willing to give up $300k/year for the next decade or two because you're pissed that it won't be $500k a year? I wouldn't. Plus there are other concerns tied in there. People who go into the field because they're dedicated to helping others wouldn't be likely to give up the career they spent a good portion of their life training for. And there's always the ego aspect of it; surgeons can get treated quite literally like rock stars. This is an interesting question. My initial reaction is "that's probably not 100% the case" but also "people tend to be able to change legitimately democratic governments without having to overthrow them; that's the point of democracy." We don't have a legitimate democracy. We have a two party bastardization of a democracy. The illusion is we have choice. I understand it's just my opinion, but when it comes to choice...we don't have any.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 08:24 AM) "Get off my lawn!!!" I guess a lot changes in four years. I can't remember anyone at U of I in the dorms not having a PC/laptop and cellphone. I'm sure there were some that didn't, but that would have been few and far between. I'm 37...but I remember the pre-internet BBS days like they were yesterday... In high school, and this is back in 1989-1993 -- I used to take the bus to UIC and sneak into their computer labs (they were always left open) -- and I did this because they had an Internet connection -- which was basically usenet and ftp...http (web) back then was nothing but text and mostly useless. I used FTP to download games/demos/music for my Amiga computers (and other computers)...and then upload them to various BBS's. I remember people being amazed that I was able to get stuff that was released in Europe the same day and none of them knew how I was doing it. The amazing part of that was, here I am, this high school kid hanging around in college computer labs and nobody ever said a word. This was back in the day nobody thought about security, so everyone would login and just forget to logoff...so after they'd leave their computer, you just sat on it and did what you needed to do...

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 08:19 AM) You're right that it would be very, very difficult to achieve in this country politically. Would those doctors take those massive pay cuts? If the industry was truly nationalized, would they have any other choice? Med school costs would have to be addressed for that to be practical, though. The problem from that comes in where most of them are rich enough to just quit...so the pool of exceptional surgeons/doctors would probably be cut in half, only to be replaced by those of lesser skill. And we have our fair share of "bad" doctors, believe me...I'm sure you've even had a run-in with a few in your life. The aftermath of a change that drastic is incomprehensible...who knows what the fallout would be. I think the only way that ever happens in this country is if this country falls and our government is overthrown. The problem with that, if I'm not mistaken, is that every single time in history a democratic government has been overthrown, it's replaced by a dictatorship. Do we want that?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 06:23 AM) Insurance companies are a separate problem from the actual bottom line medical costs, but they are still an enormous problem and, in my view, serve no real social purpose. But I'd be fine with nationalizing the entire system. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way exonerating the insurance companies...anyone that's dealt with them, be it for health, dental, automobile, or home understands that what they do is grey area illegal. The recent law fixed quite a few of the most glaring problems with health insurance companies, which is a good thing, but it stopped short of anything else...the costs are still rising because it was never the insurance companies making them go up in the first place. Were they part of the equation? Yes...were they the majority of the equation? Nope. I have my reservations about nationalizing a system that drives most of the worlds innovation in that area...but if it could be done while preserving that innovation, I'd be all for it. Also, so much would have to change it might be next to impossible to do it...most of these doctors/surgeons making 500k a year would have to take massive pay cuts...would they?

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 07:44 AM) Hmm...imagine if we had a system in which no one profited from our poor health Yes, imagine the innovation we would be seeing.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 06:49 PM) I still don't get why this is all insurance's fault? Why can't a group of docs just take care of his treatment for no cost, or for whatever he can pay? Your anger is at the insurance company not wanting to lose tons of money in this deal. I see none at doctors making tons of money in this deal, or drug companies making tons of money in this deal, or even the mom for putting him in that situation to begin with. She cares, but not enough to forgo the education a while longer so he can keep the affordable treatments. In short, why, to you, are the insurance companies savages, and not every one else who isn't willing to give up stuff for this kid? if the mom won't give up grad school, why should the insurance company give up profits? I CAN get mad at the mom. Ooooh, she made some calls. How about a real sacrifice and keep your job with benefits. No, she wants some other company to just pick up the slack for what SHE doesn't want to cover any more. I just think thanks to the politics of it, the insurance company gets made out to be the bad guy, and nobody else, even though there are other places where people/companies can give up stuff as well to help, but they don't. This is the same thing I've been saying for years, but nobody pays attention. They're busy looking at the big green face in the smoke instead of the little man behind the curtains. The insurance companies aren't the ones sending the bills...your f***ing doctor is. For example, in the past 2 months, my wife had 3 "5 minute" doctor visits...the 5 minute part is NOT an exaggeration. Billed at over 600$ EACH. That's MORE than 1800$ in bills sent to insurance. For 15 minutes of work. Let me repeat that. For 15 minutes of "work". Do the math. You know what, let me do the math for you. That's MORE THAN 7200$ an hour. And the bill?! Who knows what it is they wrote down on it...but apparently in that 5 minutes they did 13 different things to the tune of over 600$ each visit. That damned insurance company#$!#@!%!@#$

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6334/iphone-...een-performance * "Wrapping up, the iPhone 5 display is a quantum leap better than the display on the iPhone 4. Contrast levels and light output have both been increased, and color performance is astonishing. The full sRGB gamut is present here, and color errors are remarkably low even for a high end desktop display." * "To put this in perspective, in the past few years I've reviewed probably 30-40 different displays, from PC monitors to TVs to projectors. Not a single one, out of the box, can put up the Gretag Macbeth dE numbers that the iPhone can, and perhaps one projector (which listed for $20,000) can approach the grayscale and color accuracy out of the box." * "I do know that if TV and PC Monitor vendors were able to provide displays that looked like this out of the box, professional calibrators would lose a good amount of business. The new panel in the iPhone 5 is simply remarkable in quality and if it were a PC monitor, I'd give it a Gold Award on the basis of its performance."

In that case, I apologize if I came across like a 'dick' as he previously stated...it wasn't my intent. But it also gives me insight as to why all these college grads are in debt beyond their tuitions...it's no wonder. These sorts of requirements are out of hand, and I would have told teachers I couldn't afford it, but I wouldn't have put myself into further debt in order to take a class simply because they wanted me too. I would have sooner inconvenienced myself and went to the lab. But this is absurd. These schools need to go f*** themselves.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 04:04 PM) Hmm, thats crazy, I guess thats the world we live in now. Not even every kid in my dorm hallway had a computer, I was the only one with a cell phone. If that's the way it is today, I get what he was saying...but I still have a hard time believing they aren't made aware of that before hand. And if they are, then it's on them as far as I'm concerned...had my school told me that if I enrolled, I'd have to buy specific stuff to the tune of 1500$, I'd have found a different school...because back then, there's no way I could have come up with that kind of money to buy a new computer and I wouldn't have borrowed it, either...and back then, computers cost even more than they do now.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:59 PM) The school my sister went to required her to buy a mac laptop and mac screen for her courses. The price was just added to the tuition, so it definitely happens. It's fine if it happens BEFORE you enroll. The way he made it sound is that he took a class, and was forced to drop 1500$ in order to do so...seemingly out of nowhere.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:52 PM) Y2HH, I wasn't being a smartass, but you're being a dick. I already had a PC so I could have dropped $300 on video software and been done with it. But because everything is done on Macs they word it into saying you need to buy one. So jump off if Apple's jock for a moment becaude I'm being fairly genuine in my argument that took you 100 to posts to understand. First, I'm not on "Apple's jock", so stick it...I wasn't asking my previous questions to 'be a dick', I was asking them because I don't know how your school works...I just refuse to believe you were taken by surprise that you'd have to buy a mac BEFORE you enrolled. Second, why wouldn't they let you just drop the 300$ on video software for a PC? Did you even ask? Or were you well aware of this BEFORE you even took the class?

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:35 PM) The alternative is probably to use the computers in the lab, which we all know is complete bulls***. Apple does give pretty good deals/financing to students though. Apple gives pretty good deals to everyone, all you have to do is say your a student.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:34 PM) We aren't forced to buy one here because we have enough labs and editing studios with Final Cut Pro on them that it's not a big deal to find something to use, but all our teachers assume we all have Macs, teach us using Macs, give directions for Macs, and having us drop assignments to folders that we have to be on a Mac to do. Maybe at his school they don't have Final Cut Pro available as easily, or maybe he didn't want to have to deal with going on to campus to edit something. I don't know. All I know is that it has been an inconvenience not having a Mac, but it's nothing I haven't been able to work around. So then I'd have to ask...if you go to a school that uses Macs, in a profession dominated by teachers that teach with them and students that use them, for companies that distribute them, shouldn't you kind of expect to have to use them, too? This is probably where I had a problem with that entire 1500$ thing... If you don't want to race American branded cars, you probably shouldn't go into Nascar.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:16 PM) How do you know he didn't previously have a Windows laptop? Maybe he was planning to use that laptop, until he found out he had to have Final Cut Pro, so he was forced to buy an additional laptop JUST for the purposes of having Final Cut. I don't see why he has to be telling us all this JUST to be a smartass. Not everyone has to have an agenda. This is where the story bothers me...I've simply never heard of a class that forces you to buy 1500$ worth of computers/software in order to take a single class, without allowing for alternatives, such as using your current PC and perhaps a PC equilivant of software. IF that's the case, I understand what he's saying...but something is preventing me from believing this. If this is the kind of s*** schools do to students today, no wonder why people graduating from college are in that much debt.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:20 PM) I have no Premier experience, just Sony Vegas. So far everyone has been b****ing about Avid. I think the version we have is 9 years old or something. Either way, I don't have time for a learning curve, unfortunately. What I should do is spend time in the editing studios to teach myself how to use it, but I'm far too lazy. Avid is what most hollywood studios use. So it's pretty advanced.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:16 PM) How do you know he didn't previously have a Windows laptop? Maybe he was planning to use that laptop, until he found out he had to have Final Cut Pro, so he was forced to buy an additional laptop JUST for the purposes of having Final Cut. I don't see why he has to be telling us all this JUST to be a smartass. Not everyone has to have an agenda. I get that...and as soon as he's done with that class, he can resell his Mac for practically what he paid for it...so he's going to be fine. Try that with a PC. ...and I have to ask, what school/class FORCES you to buy a 1500$ laptop in the first place? I've never heard of this in my life.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:14 PM) Not necessarily. He said he is in Journalism school, as am I. We are forced to take a broad range of classes, including classes where we have to edit video. And since our campus is a Mac campus, all our computers use Final Cut Pro, so that's what they teach us and make us use. However, I've been able to get away with never using it because I have Vegas on my laptop, so I just edit it on my own time, and turn it in as a .MOV file, and they never know the difference. Maybe in Quin's case, he can't get away with using an alternative program, so he HAD to purchase Final Cut. All that being said, it's entirely possible he isn't going in to the field of video editing/producing, he just merely has to take classes for it. Speaking of which, I have to go help produce our campus TV show in a couple hours, and I will have to edit video with Avid, which I've never used. So that's going to be a real pain in the ass tonight. I'm not looking forward to this. :/ That industry is flooded with Macs...so get used to knowing them. It's not just video production, journalism is very Mac centric these days, too. You're going to like Avid, it's better than Final Cut, Adobe Premier, etc...IMO, it's pretty much the best editing software there is...but it has a learning curve, like they all do. With your Premiere experience, you should be all right.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 01:31 PM) My roommate bought a Mac thinking he could do kernel-related programming on it (i.e. modules, he's not implementing new system calls here). Nope. He always complained how "this is not Linux". Different people with different needs in different situations. Linux is a complete b**** to work with at times, I will say. But the freedom is glorious. ...that's because it's not Linux, it's BSD.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:10 PM) No, I am pretty sure he was just saying he needed to have Final Cut Pro, and the only way to use it is to have to buy an overpriced Mac. Maybe he isn't fimilar with Adobe Premiere, or maybe he has to use FCP in his classes (like I am "supposed" to). So it's entirely possible he is saying the only reason he bought a Mac was because he had to have Final Cut Pro, so essentially, he paid $1500 just to be able to use that software. As I said, he was being a smartass, just like you're being. He still paid 1500$ for a computer + software, regardless of what retarded justification you -- or he -- comes up with. Edit: And if he's not familiar with Premier, again...wrong field.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 02:39 PM) The amount of explaining needed after his original post is just mind boggling. Are you suffering from a concussion right now? I'm not seeing the hard part. What he was actually doing was trying to be a smartass, equating his 1500$ macbook w/necessary software to having paid 1500$ for JUST the software. Oh my, he's so creative! Reality is he paid 1500$ for a great computer with the software he needs...and that's that. Had he been able to buy a PC of similar spec, let's say it cost 800$...and then the Adobe software to go with it would cost another 200$ (probably much more)...so that's about 1000$ on a conservative estimate, because a similarly specced laptop wasn't going to cost him 500$, regardless of what he claims. At BEST he would have saved a few hundred dollars if he got a PC that's remotely as good. IE, he didn't spend 1500$ on software...thats just f***ing retarded. And more to the point, based on the fact he needed Final Cut X/Pro, which is video editing software...that tells me he's going into film production/editing, if he doesn't want to use Macs, he's going into the wrong field.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 02:40 PM) This photo ID business really bothers me. I don't mind that you have to prove who you are, but there are other ways in which you can do that. This is a problem for a very specific group of people and reeks of our past history of suppressing the vote of the poor and minorities. We still love suppressing the rights of anyone that isn't perfect. Can't afford a photo ID? f*** you, no vote Gay? f*** you, no marriage If you can't afford an ID, it's free, in every state.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 09:23 AM) Didn't he recently give a speech at the UN and some big international conference Clinton was putting on? Also why is this in the OBAMACARE (thanks y2hh!) thread? You suck.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 12:55 PM) No, I'm saying that I could have bought a $600 PC that would have satisfied every single need I have for school other then using Final Cut. I don't understand why this is so difficult. It's not difficult when you explain it in a proper way...but you didn't do that. According to you, you spent 1500$ on software, because you had to puchase a Macbook...in reality, you would have had to spend 600+$ on a similarly specced laptop (which wouldn't have been similarly specced) + hundreds more on Adobe suites.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 12:51 PM) FinalCut and GarageBand together cost me $100. Ok? They are the only two programs I use that I couldn't use a PC for. Right? FinalCut being the only one required for class. GarageBand was included on the Mac. But the price I paid for a MacBook was about $1500 more then I needed for a PC that would have been just as fine. So I spent $1500 on FinalCut basically. Get what I'm saying now? No, I still don't have a clue what you're saying. Are you saying you could have gotten a similarly specced pc for 100$? You aren't making much sense here.