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sami36

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I disagree in part with the comment above, but why is this opinion being downvoted, wherever you stand on the issue ? Regardless of whether you take issue with the soundness of his argument, a dissenting voice should have a right to be heard. I'm sometimes amazed at the swiftness with which a different perspective is swept under the rug...in the same forums and TOPIC, nothing less, where inclusiveness, Capital I, is being discussed.

What's anachronistic about it ? it's STILL a haven for tax evaders. What's changing these days is rich people are renouncing en masse their US citizenship to escape the long arm of the IRS. I find it disgraceful & immoral that people elect to abandon their responsibilities as citzien to save a few pennies. Switzerland buckled under US pressure, but what applies to the US doesn't apply to other -smaller- countries around the world , where funds of dubious origins continue to originate from & the money-laundering , let's call it what is is, business keeps on trucking as usual.

The article specifically notes that the spikes happened when the new iPhones are released, not just announced. So, new Iphone envy is less of a reasonable explanation..than the release date usually coinciding with new versions of iOS being deployed.

In my case I work with people which are located in different areas of Germany and I have to meet them face to face quite often.

No, you don't. unless you're a handyman whose physical presence is absolutely required, both you & your client are simply indulging in such an idiotic wasteful behavior because it makes you both feel good. 1- Your client is holding up to some anachronistic notion that having an employee physically present informs them about your competence or diligence. 2-you like traveling 400 km & being at the office at 9:30, it makes you seem important, which you may well be. just not enough to justify this ridiculously expensive card & all the environmental impact its ownership entails.

For years, I used to fly coast to coast every week, consulting for a major IT company in the US. It was completely idiotic even then. A knowledge worker's physical presence is not really required in this day and age, it's all part of some old heritage of employer-employee relationship we can't quite let go of.

Germany being Germany, rigid & set in its customs & ways of doing business, if given no other choice & out of fear for my income, I would relunctantly agree to such an arrangement. I just wouldn't go boasting around about how great of a deal this card is.

It also costs close to 5000 euros per year. That's a little more than you'd lose to depreciation if you owned a luxury car. If you have to travel that much inside Germany to make that card worthwhile for you, then you have a problem. Either you need to relocate or inject some telecommuting into your existing work habits. I'm going to go out on a limb here & suggest that many people travel for travel's sake as a way to give themselves an inflated sense of their own importance...or just find some glamour in being on the road all the time.

Square Cash 13 years ago

Free. I bite, What's the catch ? I presume recruit users to use the Wallet app ?

I never understood why in-app purchases have been branded as "evil" in the first place. As long as Apple doesn't offer developers a way to do trials, it's the closest way a customer can get a taste of an app's features, esthetics before deciding whether to pay or not for an app.

EX : I wouldn't have paid 10$ for flighttrack pro without the in app purchase option. I would go as far as theorize that the main reason why the average price for an app has remained stuck at 1$ is exactly that fear of paying for something worthless without much of a recourse.

in-app purchases all the way.

-- "Verizon wanted an iPhone Killer"

-- "How on earth did AT&T allow this ?" exclaimed an exasperated Lazaridis about the iPhone including a network challenging REAL browser

-- "Fortune 500 CIOs gathered...."

The one long running thread along all of this article is how clueless BBRY was as to who their REAL customers were. It was anybody but the people holding their handsets in the palms. The end users never mattered.

"I'm from Waterloo and I can tell you that the general impression from the town and the people working there is very positive"

If your definition of positive is the same condition that afflicts the posters & commenters on Crackberry.com, I think a more appropriate word would be "delusional." They've been positive & upbeat all along during BBRY's spiraling death march.

With all due respect, I've yet to read ONE story out of Canada about Blackberry that was not plagued by misplaced sentimentalism, or economic nationalism. Just a couple days ago, I was mesmerized to watch a very somber Peter Mansbridge interrogate his panel of journalists aboutwhat RIM's demise meant for Canadian identity....crazy stuff.

the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject being discussed here. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like. I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.

No kidding, That's about the 6th time I've read about it these last two years. WHY doesn't NASA begin by establishing WHAT is it exactly that makes a solar system official "boundary" before producing press releases every time they find something interesting in the readings sent to them by Voyager.

ADDENDUM : Ahem, Thanks for the downvotes, but the inner workings of space discovery are not the subject of my comment. As an engineer, I'm more than mindful of the back & forth & general messiness of discovery, peer-reviews, control groups, & the like. I'm talking about press releases & headlines targeted towards the GENERAL PUBLIC. A public that has a lot less of an appetite, patience or time to follow NASA's inner deliberations or the intricacies of the scientific method. The fact that this is the 5th or sixth time that they've heard that "Voyager has left the solar system" might leave them a little bit confused.

What kind of society we live in where corporations, whatever their political leaning or agenda is, decide how we can spend our money.. or not.

A few years ago, I've gone completely "plastic" & banished cash from my wallet. In light of developments such as this, I'm starting to reconsider my decision. Today Visa, tomorrow Square..

Morell was passed over for promotion after the Petraeus debacle. He might have just come to the realization there are no more ladders to climb in government, it's time to sell your rolodex & skills to the highest bidder in the private sector.

I beg to disagree. It barely did. The jump from iOS 5 to 6 was the most egregious in terms of not delivering much besides cosmetics. Sure I like iCloud, notifications & multitasking. But when you look at how far Android & Windows phone have come since they first came out, it's no contest. The pace of innovation is relative, & on the mobile OS front -that Apple spearheaded with their once nothing short of mind-blowing iPhone OS- they're now a laggard.

My take as an iPhone 5 owner ( & every other iPhone before it.) iOS 6 is such a dud. I don't care about a larger screen or NFC or wireless charging as much as I am disappointed by the fact that iOS has barely evolved since it was first launched. unless Apple cleans up its act & gets moving again, My next (everyday driver) phone is probably going to be a Nexus.

All new planes have their issues. They'll take a few weeks (or hopefully days) to figure out what's ailing it & it'll be back to its beloved skies in no time. I hope Boeing has enough financial reserves to weather the storm of revenues-lost liabilities sure to hit them...& life goes on. I would fly that plane tomorrow if I could. I'm sure the FAA is being extra-careful.