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Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

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Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#451
post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Microsoft do a lot of interesting research. Waymo is a good example. I'm not sure what Apple does. My issue with big tech is not lack of innovation or research, but rather that it's all private. We're driving people out orgs that share their research with the world and into ones that lock it away.

I think Apples research is seeing what happens when you sit on a quarter of a trillion dollars. Without veering far off topic. I don't think apple really has a culture of innovation anymore. Each rectangle looks the same. Remember when nokia had all their crazy feature phones. Taking a 30% cut on apps isn't that.

It seems Apple isn't on the bleeding edge anymore, but rather they take what is already out there and make the best possible version of it and knock it out of the park.

Take Airpods or FaceID, Apple was not the first to innovate in the headphone space or in the face unlock space. But when they did eventually come out with their own version, that version is miles ahead of the competition.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could of I am not a grammar nazi. I am not even a fucking native English speaker, but what the fuck??? Why is this mistake so prevalent these days?

Since we're being pedantic, "Nazi" is always capitalized.

Regarding the capitalization of "N/nazi" People seem to disagree with you: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/73948/grammar-na...

Regarding being pedantic: well, I'm not sure what to say. I think confusing "could of" with "could have" is a fundamental, terrible mistake. I guess one person's permissiveness is another's idiocracy?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#453
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give me a break. “Kids these days” have their eyes wide open. Just a few decades ago you used to have access to an affordable college education with good jobs on graduation. With a modest level of saving you’d have enough for the deposit on a house within a few years. None of that is true now. It’s drilled into high school kids that they must take on a punishingly expensive college education or they’ll never amount t…

> “Kids these days” have their eyes wide open. Just a few decades ago you used to have access to an affordable college education with good jobs on graduation. With a modest level of saving you’d have enough for the deposit on a house within a few years. Except if those kids would get degrees in the right areas (like the thread is complaining they aren't), they would absolutely be able to get excellent jobs upon gradu…

Not everyone can be an engineer (IQ aside, there literally isn't enough jobs like that), but everyone needs a house. How do you square that circle?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After WW2/Korea (I forget the exact time frame) IBM was making money just fine and refused to take a risk on then modern transistor computing machines. The US Government spent the money and effectively donated trillions in profits to the rich elites of today. I find it hilarious how ignorant we are of the last 50-70 years of details of our history. Basically the lifetime of Bezos, Gates... their parents changed the r…

> The US Government spent the money and effectively donated trillions in profits to the rich elites of today. Those rich elites being everybody who uses a computer. Basic scientific research is the paradigmatic case of where the government should be spending money. The rich don’t get better iPhones, they barely get better computers considering how fast the state of the art advances. There may be fields where somethin…

>There may be fields where something resembling your argument has some truth to it

The argument that the tech companies back ridiculously high profits off the back of groundbreaking research?

What part of that is untrue? The US tech sector did come out of military research.

The fact that the rest of the world gets to share in the wealth doesn't change the fact that it's disproportionately made a few very wealthy.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US Government spent the money and effectively donated trillions in profits to the rich elites of today. Those rich elites being everybody who uses a computer. Basic scientific research is the paradigmatic case of where the government should be spending money. The rich don’t get better iPhones, they barely get better computers considering how fast the state of the art advances. There may be fields where somethin…

The biological shortcomings inherent to the species are inherent in scientists and engineers. Your argument to the contrary is reductionist to the point of absurdity. Emotionally minimizing their set of privileges to “their iPhones are the same!” Insanity. Great we all get the same iPhone. I’d rather have their healthcare. But let them push us into multimedia gadgetry production, not hospital building, by shaping the…

Is there an alternative system you’re a fan of?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could of I am not a grammar nazi. I am not even a fucking native English speaker, but what the fuck??? Why is this mistake so prevalent these days?

Many people contract "could have" to be "could've" which when spoken can very easily turn to "could of"

Yes, but this means that you don't understand the meaning of simple words. Doesn't that bother you?

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apples research is seeing what happens when you sit on a quarter of a trillion dollars. Without veering far off topic. I don't think apple really has a culture of innovation anymore. Each rectangle looks the same. Remember when nokia had all their crazy feature phones. Taking a 30% cut on apps isn't that.

It seems Apple isn't on the bleeding edge anymore, but rather they take what is already out there and make the best possible version of it and knock it out of the park. Take Airpods or FaceID, Apple was not the first to innovate in the headphone space or in the face unlock space. But when they did eventually come out with their own version, that version is miles ahead of the competition.

Apple makes money by selling to the masses. They let others waste cycles on the bleeding edge and learn from their mistakes.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like your points and agree on your conclusion. Further, I would like to add a few ideas: - innovation in Europe can only scale if we achieve a higher degree of unity in Europe, including one common language, one common jurisdiction and law framework. Localization is just too expensive in Europe and hinders scaling. - a certain degree of protectionism is good. I am a big fan of how China made it. They have a really…

innovation in Europe can only scale if we achieve a higher degree of unity in Europe, including one common language, one common jurisdiction and law framework. Localization is just too expensive in Europe and hinders scaling. Obviously we already have English, nearly universally spoken as a second or third language in the EU. So I assume you mean English, or some other language as the first language. Which I think me…

If English becomes national language, you could forget about innovation. A big reason why China and SK are successful is language barrier. It effectively stops brain drain and thus, increase innovation. All countries with either main language or secondary language as English has already lost tech market.

Just look at foreign competitors of Amazon, Google, Facebook etc. Even Russia like country have major tech companies while being poorer than western European countries.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#459
post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bad. I’m looking at their plans. https://fi.google.com/about/plans/ They look worse than T-mobile. https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans Unlimited 3G hot spot and $20/month for tablets with unlimited data can’t be beat.

> Unlimited 3G hot spot and $20/month for tablets with unlimited data can’t be beat. It can if you spend a lot of time travelling - Google's data packages (on 4G!) are good in most of the world at no additional cost. There's also a service aspect - Fi was often better where I am (downtown in a major US city) than T-Mobile (which my work phone is on). That said, T-Mobile seems to be more customer-centric than AT&T - w…

T-mobile’s standard plans include 3G roaming for data and calls(?) in Canada and Mexico and 2G data roaming in most other countries. You can also get a $5 “day pass” for 3G data and calls in most countries.

As an aside, their rate plans are all inclusive no extra taxes or fees.

Re: Ex-Google boss Eric Schmidt: US 'dropped the ball' on innovation

#460
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proto-indo-european would be a better unity option so as to not show favor to Romance-speaking countries.

PIE lacks the vocabulary for certain modern things like writing.

That's the best part!

Modern languages already have words for things like a mouse, a screen or the Big Bang, but it's all stupid stuff like an analogy to how a computer mouse looks like an animal because of its long cord-tail, a reference to the white screen a projector casts it's projection on, or a vulgar put-down of a theory being like God's orgasm.

If we take a dead language and start adding in vocabulary, we can quietly sweep that all under a rug before we encounter any alien species we have to explain ourselves to.

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