It's difficult to overstate how misguided this is. Engineering types are already seen as the ones who picked the right major, so we're seeing a flood of people heading into those fields.
The result thus far has been that we have more ways than ever before to target advertisements and share stupid pictures of ourselves and offer interpretations of rap lyrics. Has this improved western culture, as far as you're concerned?
A thoughtful explanation of a principled, reasonable decision. I give them two days before they're buried under an avalanche of brainless dorks ranting about "censorship."
What total nonsense - "customers need to help fix the App Store economy?" As a customer, it's not my job to help fix shit - if you want my money, offer me something I want at a price I'm willing to pay.
Why on earth should I conscientiously blow money on apps I've already decided I don't need just to achieve the nebulous goal of making the "app store economy" healthier? Or to avoid what this joker asserts, based on almost nothing, will be a plague of freemium crapware?
I've got no problem whatsoever with developers charging whatever the hell they want for an app, as long as they're not colluding - but to expect customers who already pay frankly ridiculous amounts of money for wireless service to plunk down even more for the sake of this guy's entitled sense of what's valuable is asinine.
"Buy more shit or this will all go away!" Bollocks.
1.) Not everybody thinks Google's products are so all-fired awesome across the board.
2.) Plenty of people find it very annoying to constantly be targeted by marketing everywhere they go. If it's free, you're the product - though that's not to say that simply paying for something protects you from abuse.
3.) Having a dig at someone for complaining about something but still using it is silly. Even if a given Google product is the best in its field, that doesn't necessarily make it the perfect solution.
Plus, there's the economic argument - if you've got to use Google whatever because you can't afford a paid alternative, you're essentially being made to participate in their marketing by not being able to buy your way out.
I'm not saying this is unique to Google, or that this is true across the board, of course, but it's not unreasonable in the slightest to be uncomfortable with the way they do business.
Hmm. The page has ads for something called "sacred geometry explained," astrology and "psychic science." The site at large contains heaps of further pseudo-scientific nonsense, including articles about Kabbalah, occult scholars, and the healing properties of herbs.
An excerpt from one article visible on the front page - "Health is the balance between the physical, Etheric, Astral and Mental bodies. We nourish the Etheric body with food that is enlivened with electro-magnetic energy, clean air, good water, sunlight, positive thoughts and loving feelings."
You'll pardon me for not taking this terribly seriously.