> They're comparing it because people are starting to use mobile devices as replacements for PCs
Sure, if you spent all your time on Twitter and Facebook and you like 4" keyboards it's great.
The only interesting comparison here would be between tablet and notebook sales, because they are the only 2 markets that somewhat overlap.
How many people do you know who own an iPhone and don't have a computer as well? Saying that people buy new computers less often because they spend some of that money on smartphones could make sense, but saying smartphones are taking over sounds kinda silly.
> The comments to this post were entertaining but not very valuable, especially since almost all of them made complaints about things that weren't actually said. So I've closed comments.
Yeah, might want to close the article for similar reasons.
> There are many very legitimate reasons for a developer, especially one well-versed in many languages, to not want to use PHP.
Like what? I feel there are many reasons why it is a dangerous language for a novice, but if you can be productive with C/Java/Python/Go/YouNameIt, you can probably write nice, maintainable and reliable PHP.
If you're talking about technical difficulties or elegance or whatever, sure. I'll just go with the Facebook argument. I've bootstrapped many projects for companies who aren't made of über hackers, and going PHP guarantees them they can very easily find people who can pick-up the code later on. Also, any * hosting will run your code.
I think nowadays, ideally, I'd just use Go for everything. But in reality, productivity > idealism.
Huh, I'm from the few who never even created a Facebook account.
Whenever something is up, everyone knows I won't get the memo, and they give me a mail/text/call. Usually more than one person.
And you can't compare that to email vs phone. Phone is costly, time consuming, single threaded. Sending a message on Facebook or an email doesn't make any difference.
Yes it does, it means every "frame" (yay video games terms) of your life, including the complete state of your mind, is a cause of the previous "frame".
Every decision is a product of your experience and state of mind, that are the product of you previous decisions, that are the product of your previous experience.. something, something!
Well, take a rice plantation. You need people to cultivate, maintenance, supplies, management. What would those people make on average in the US? 20k?
20k buys you 40t of rice a year on the current marker. How many people do you need on an exploitation to produce 40t/year? 3? 5? 10?
There's your number. With a year's work (doing the exact same thing), you can buy several people's yearly production. The reason for that are currencies.
Without them things would equalize over time (it's happening in EU right now, though only internally). It's a long and bumpy process, but eventually it removes the ability from a country to drain another for next to nothing.
Edit: deleted post said there was evidence a uniform supply pricing was actually bad for poor countries
In the end most of those books have a huge build-up, but if you truly understand them, you can sum them up in one sentence. "If you got hurt you will hurt others". "Everything you do is egoistical". "Everything is choice". "There is no choice".
But then again, you don't need books for that. If you have the luxury (or curse) of being rational, you're 10 (5 maybe) and you're already having fatalist/whateverist thoughts. Then the next day you think about it, and realize it doesn't change anything in your life, and you move on. Then 10 years later you finally get to study the concept (or read it on a blog) and, well, it still doesn't solve or introduce any problem in your reality.
People who think/act irrationally aren't sensitive and don't find revelation when they read or hear about those principles, only confirmation where they can. There are things that happen in life that can shake you up and change you, but from a piece of text you'll only assimilate what's aligned with your views, IMHO.
They aren't perfectly secured. They seem secure for two reasons:
Try to hack a bank, or exploit credit cards, or even break in a vault, and you'll see what kind of external measures governments and private agencies put into protecting the system (hint: you'll get locked forever, or shot, or worse)
Now imagine you succeed, and somehow don't leave any exploitable trail, do you think a story will pop somewhere? I don't.
Centralized money systems are the reason today, what you make in a month working 16 hours a day in some country will buy you a drink in another. This allows rich countries to straight up buyout any poor country's production, and for trivial amounts. It leaves them in a state where people are starving, even though they produce enough to feed 10x their population.
Imagine a world where a bag of rice costs the same in every country. Yeah, currencies are awesome.
Edit: just to be clear, I'm not saying rich countries are evil(er), because this would not work without the cooperation of poor countries leadership.
I'm not a PayPal fan but reading how he supposedly obtained the digits, I immediately thought it was bullshit.
An insider seems likely, and it doesn't even have to be at PayPal. Most companies where you use your credit card either have your email, or could figure it out using your name / address.
I understand the supply limitations, but we have the same problem, because we have a ton of traction towards higher-up professionals. The big difference lies within the political system. The housing/real estate market is completely free (and cutthroat) here too, but our more socialist oriented government interacts with it to help people in need.
Examples of that are "sponsored" apartments, that cities rent to their owners for regular price, and subside to people but with an adaptive price (much lower for lower income people, and a little higher for people who make more than average)
In more urgent cases, social services cooperate with people who own unused buildings, hotels during low season, etc, and pay a big price to keep people under a roof.
There's also a lot of work from associations to communicate with landlords and agencies, trying to help giving a fair chance and renting affordable places to people with regular income, students, etc, as many wealthy people are interested in cheap places too.
I feel like the people who control most of the market have a lot of political power, and they don't want a bunch of buildings popping out and lowering market pressure, making prices and their revenue drop. Money is not a definitive solution, but in the right hands it can help a lot. In turn it creates a nicer social climate, and things work out better for everyone.
A nicer social climate isn't in everyone's interest though, and a lot of people work very hard to make sure there is tension, because they profit from it, a lot.
There is a legion of people making six figures, who together have a lot of power if they were to try to do something. I know disruption or even violence won't help at first, but it raises awareness. Maybe then people can start talking about intelligent measures to help those who need it.
I know if I was making 200k I'd be glad to be taxed an extra %, if that money was going towards help for people who've seen the place they lived their whole life slowly push them out, even though they're still needed there.
That's an important point. The big fishes need the small ones to survive, so there's demand, demand for people to do lesser paid activities and being in a constant struggle.
Then again I'm Swiss, and we have a history of voting ourselves tax raises, most of which goes to to the lower classes in some way. We live in a pretty happy and safe society though, infrastructures are great and affordable (mostly free if you don't make much). Seems to me like a good tradeoff for passing on a new TV or some designer clothes once a year.